Tomas Cabili

Tomás Cabili
Cabili as an Army Officer
Secretary of National Defense and Communications
In office
February 27, 1945 – July 11, 1945
Appointed bySergio Osmeña
Preceded byBasilio Valdes
Succeeded byAlfredo Montelibano Sr.
Senator of the Philippines
In office
May 25, 1946 – December 30, 1955
Senate Majority Leader
In office
February 21, 1949 – January 25, 1954
PresidentManuel Roxas
Elpidio Quirino
Preceded byVicente Francisco
Succeeded byCipriano Primicias Sr.
Member of the National Assembly from Lanao's Lone District
In office
November 15, 1935 – December 30, 1941
Preceded byPost created
Succeeded byBato Ali
Ciriaco B. Raval
Personal details
Born
Tomás Lluisma Cabili

(1903-03-07)March 7, 1903
Iligan, Misamis, Philippines[a]
DiedMarch 17, 1957(1957-03-17) (aged 54)
Balamban, Cebu, Philippines
Political partyLiberal
Alma materUniversity of the Philippines Cebu (BA)
Philippine College of Law (LLB)
OccupationLawyer, journalist, educator, assemblyman
Military service
Allegiance
  • Philippines
  • United States[b]
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1942-1945
RankColonel
UnitUSAFFE
Battles/warsWorld War II

Tomás Lluisma Cabili (March 7, 1903 – March 17, 1957) was a Filipino lawyer, journalist, educator, and assemblyman from Lanao. He was also known as "Sultan Dimasangkay-ko-Ranao" for Maranaos.

Early life

[edit]

Cabili was born in Iligan, Misamis on March 7, 1903, to Guillermo Cabili and Efifania H. Lluisma.[1]

He studied at Iligan Primary School (1911–1915) and Iligan Elementary School (1915–1918). He enrolled in four different schools to complete his secondary education from 1919 to 1923; the Zamboanga Provincial High School (1919–1920), Cebu High School (1920–1921), Silliman Institute (1921–1922), and Cebu Provincial High School (1922–1923).[1]

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Philippines Cebu in 1925, then pursued a law course at the Visayan Institute, also in Cebu, from 1925 to 1927. He transferred to the Philippine College of Law, where he completed his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1929. After he graduated, he was made an instructor in the College of Law and Liberal Arts of the Visayan Institute from 1929 to 1930.[1]

During his early years of school, he was brilliant as a student, distinguishing himself as an orator when he won the Osmeña Medal in an oratorical contest. He also won the first prize Jocson Medal in an annual debate in the Philippine Law School.[2]

Journalism

[edit]

Cabili was a reporter of The Advertiser[c] and later a member of the staff of Cebu's The Freeman from 1924 to 1926. He was a correspondent of the National News Service between 1930 and 1932, and again from 1933 up to his election to the First National Assembly, and as a Lanao correspondent for the DMIM Papers and The Graphic.[2]

After he passed the bar examinations, he practiced law in his home province.

Political career

[edit]

In 1934, Cabili he was appointed Justice of the Peace of the 17th Municipal District of Lanao and Acting Justice of the Peace of Dansalan, Lanao. In the same year, he became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was the only delegate that did not sign the 1935 Philippine Constitution, which was ratified on February 8, 1935.[1]

In the 1935 general elections, he was elected assemblyman for his district in the First National Assembly. He served on the committees on agriculture, codes, franchises, provincial and municipal government, the national language, public instruction, Mindanao and special provinces, appropriations, civil service, and public lands.[1]

In 1938, he was re-elected to the Second National Assembly. He was later designated to the chairmanship of the Committee on Privileges and a member of the committees on agriculture, appropriations, forest, Mindanao and Special provinces, and national companies.[1]

He was part of the guerrilla resistance movement during the Japanese occupation.

He had a short stint as Secretary of National Defense and Communications from February 27 to July 11, 1945, under Sergio Osmeña. He was later elected to the Senate in 1946 placing on Top 12. He was reelected in 1949 and served until 1955.

Death

[edit]

Cabili died along with President Ramon Magsaysay and 23 others on a plane crash on March 17, 1957, at Mount Manunggal in Balamban, Cebu.

Legacy

[edit]
  • A barangay in Iligan City was renamed from Barangay Tominobo Proper to Barangay Tomas L. Cabili on March 16, 1982.[3]
  • A Philippine Constabulary camp (now Philippine National Police office) in Barangay Tipanoy, Iligan City is named after him.

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The Philippines was a unincorporated territory of the United States known as the Philippine Islands at the time of Cabili's birth.
  2. ^ During the Commonwealth era, the US controlled the Philippines as a protectorate.
  3. ^ The Advertiser is a Cebu-based newspaper established in 1912.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f "Senator's Profile: Tomas Cabili". Senate of the Philippines. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Tomas L. Cabili". Department of National Defense. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  3. ^ "Batas Pambansa Blg. 196". The LawPhil Project. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
House of Representatives of the Philippines
New district Assemblyman from Lanao's Lone District
1935–1941
Succeeded by
Bato Ali
Government offices
Preceded by Secretary of National Defense and Communications
1945
Succeeded byas Secretary of National Defense and the Interior
Senate of the Philippines
Preceded by Majority leader of the Senate of the Philippines
1946–1953
Succeeded by