| Quintín Paredes | |
| Office: | 5th President of the Senate of the Philippines |
| Term Start: | March 5, 1952 |
| Term End: | April 17, 1952 |
| Predecessor: | Mariano Jesús Cuenco |
| Successor: | Camilo Osías |
| Office2: | 7th Senate President pro tempore of the Philippines |
| Term Start2: | January 31, 1950 |
| Term End2: | March 5, 1952 |
| Predecessor2: | Melecio Arranz |
| Successor2: | Manuel Briones |
| Office3: | Senator of the Philippines |
| Term Start3: | December 30, 1949 |
| Term End3: | December 30, 1961 |
| Term Start4: | 1941 |
| Term End4: | 1945 |
| Office5: | Majority Leader of the National Assembly |
| Term Start5: | January 24, 1939 |
| Term End5: | December 30, 1941 |
| Predecessor5: | José E. Romero |
| Successor5: | Francisco Zulueta |
| Office6: | Resident Commissioner of the Philippines |
| Term Start6: | February 14, 1936 |
| Term End6: | September 29, 1938 |
| Predecessor6: | Pedro Guevara Francisco Afan Delgado |
| Successor6: | Joaquín Miguel Elizalde |
| Term Start7: | July 16, 1934 |
| Term End7: | November 15, 1935 |
| Predecessor7: | Manuel Roxas |
| Successor7: | Gil Montilla |
| Office8: | Member of the Philippines House of Representatives from Abra's at-large district Member of the National Assembly (1935–1941) |
| Term Start8: | 1925 |
| Term End8: | January 9, 1936 |
| Predecessor8: | Adolfo Brillantes |
| Successor8: | Agapito Garduque |
| Term Start9: | December 30, 1938 |
| Term End9: | December 30, 1941 |
| Predecessor9: | Agapito Garduque |
| Successor9: | Position abolished |
| Term Start10: | May 25, 1946 |
| Term End10: | December 30, 1949 |
| Predecessor10: | Jesús Paredes |
| Successor10: | Virgilio Valera |
| Office11: | 7th Secretary of Justice |
| Appointer11: | Francis Burton Harrison Leonard Wood |
| Term Start11: | July 1, 1920 |
| Term End11: | December 15, 1921 |
| Predecessor11: | Victorino Mapa |
| Successor11: | José Abad Santos |
| Office12: | Solicitor-General of the Philippines |
| Term Start12: | March 1, 1917 |
| Term End12: | June 30, 1918 |
| Predecessor12: | Rafael Corpus |
| Office13: | Attorney General of the Philippines |
| Term Start13: | July 1, 1918 |
| Term End13: | June 30, 1920 |
| Predecessor13: | Ramon Avanceña |
| Successor13: | Felecisimo Feria |
| Birth Name: | Quintín Paredes y Babila |
| Birth Date: | September 9, 1884 |
| Birth Place: | Bangued, Abra, Captaincy General of the Philippines |
| Death Place: | Manila, Philippines |
| Party: | Liberal (1946–1973) Nacionalista (1925–1946) |
| Spouse: | Victoria Peralta Gregoria Yujuico |
| Children: | 12 |
Quintín Babila Paredes Sr. (born Quintín Paredes y Babila; September 9, 1884 – January 30, 1973), was a Filipino lawyer, politician, and statesman.
As a member of the House of Representives in the Philippine Commonwealth, he became Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the United States House of Representatives from 1936. Due to increasing anti-Filipino sentiment in U.S. Congress and the denial of U.S. Senate for the credit line in order to stabilize the Philippine's economy, he resigned in 1938.
From 1941 to 1945, he was elected in the Philippine Senate where he was deemed a Japanese collaborator. After being acquitted from his arrest in 1948, he ran for the Philippine Legislature and once again elected senator from 1949 to 1961.
He was born in Bangued, Abra, Philippines on September 9, 1884 to Don Juan Félix Paredes y Pe Benito and Regine Babila, daughter of an Itneg tribal leader.
He obtained his elementary education at the school his father had established, and also studied at the Colegio Seminario de Vigan and at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. He pursued law at the Escuela de Derecho de Manila. Graduating in 1907, Paredes took and passed the bar examinations the same year and started his private practice in Manila.
He was appointed fourth prosecuting attorney on July 9, 1908, first prosecuting attorney on November 1, 1913, and served until March 1, 1917.[1]
He served as Philippine Solicitor General from March 1, 1917 to 1918, as Attorney-General from 1918 to July 1, 1920, and as Secretary of Justice from 1920 to 1921. As Attorney-General, Paredes was a member of the first parliamentary mission to the United States in 1919. He resumed the practice of law in Manila in 1921.
He was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives to represent Abra's lone district in 1925, 1928, 1931, and 1934, serving as Speaker pro tempore of the House of Representatives from 1929 to 1931,[1] and as the Speaker itself from 1934 to 1935. In 1935 he was elected as a member of the Philippine Assembly but he resigned to serve as the Philippines' Resident Commissioner.[2]
Under the Tydings–McDuffie Act that created the Philippine Commonwealth Government, Paredes became its first Resident Commissioner, serving from February 14, 1936, until his resignation on September 29, 1938.
As Resident Commissioner, Paredes focused on two key objectives. First, he aimed to revise the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which he believed would harm the Philippines' economic structure. He hoped to secure changes that would allow the Philippines to adapt to the global economy. Second, he sought to protect a significant line of credit with the U.S. Treasury Department to safeguard the Philippines' financial stability.
The Philippine government had previously invested in U.S. banks, but due to a missed opportunity to convert to gold, they incurred significant losses. To compensate for these losses, the U.S. Congress authorized a $24 million credit line. However, there were attempts to repeal this credit line, and Paredes, as the Resident Commissioner, had to fight to protect it. Despite his limited time in Washington, he presented his case to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee in March 1936. Unfortunately for Paredes, the U.S. Senate committee chose to repeal the measure and stated that the credit line was "misunderstood" by Congress.
During Paredes' time in the House, isolationist sentiments in U.S. Congress grew, with many American lawmakers wanting the U.S. to withdraw from the Pacific. This shift in public opinion, influenced by certain industries, made it harder for Paredes to advocate for the Philippines' interests. He faced accusations of ingratitude and faced growing prejudice against the Philippines. Feeling defeated, he resigned as Resident Commissioner.
Upon his resignation in September 1938, Manuel Quezon, despite their rivalry in politics, complemented Paredes saying:
In 1938, he was again elected a member of the Philippine Assembly, and served as the Majority Floor Leader during this term.[2]
He was also elected as a member of the Philippine Senate from 1941 to 1945 that did not sit in session due to the onset of World War II and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. As a senator under the administration of President Jose P. Laurel, he became commissioner of public works and was chosen as secretary of justice once again.
Under Japanese control, the Philippine government recognized that inadequate irrigation was a major obstacle to agricultural development. To address this, they initiated the Agno River Control Project. Paredes, being the commissioner of public works, made use of the manpower available to the state in order to build dikes along the Agno River. The built dikes were utilized to prevent flooding and harnessing the river's water to irrigate fertile lands in several provinces, including Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Norte, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija.[3]
The U.S. Military arrested Paredes with charges up to 21 counts of treason as a Japanese collaborator. He was acquitted in 1948 by Filipino courts.[4]
After the Second World War, Paredes ran again for his old post representing Abra in the Philippine House of Representatives, and won. He held this post from 1946 to 1949. Despite him being a Japanese collaborator, he was elected to the Philippine Legislature throughout the 1950s.
In the Philippine elections of 1949, Paredes topped the Senatorial race as a candidate of the Liberal Party. He briefly became the President of the Philippine Senate in 1952, and was reelected as a Philippine Senator in 1955, finishing his second term in 1961. Retiring from politics in 1963, Paredes died ten years later in Manila.