Maria Kalaw Katigbak

Early life and education

Kalaw Katigbak was born Maria Villanueva Kalaw on February 14, 1912 to Filipino journalist, politician and former revolutionary Teodoro M. Kalaw of Batangas and Filipino-Spanish Purificación "Pura" García Villanueva of Iloilo in the city of Manila. Her father was a prominent politician who worked under Manuel L. Quezon's administration as executive secretary and later secretary of Interior. Her mother was a civic rights leader and was crowned as the first Manila Carnival Queen in 1908. Maria was the eldest of the four surviving children of the Kalaw.

She studied at the Jefferson Elementary School and St. Scholastica's College Manila for about a year while taking religion courses. In 1928, she graduated high school valedictorian at Philippine Women's University (PWU). In 1932, she finished her degree of philosophy and masters of social work at the University of the Philippines. While in college, she joined the writing staff of the prominent student-newspaper The Philippine Collegian, became a secretary of the UP Student Council, president of UP Women's Club, secretary of the UP Debating Club and a member of the UP Writers Club. Upon graduation, she received the Most Distinguished Senior Student Award.

She was awarded the Barbour Scholarship and finished a master's degree in literature at the University of Michigan in 1933. During her stay, she became active in organizations such as Philippine-Michigan Club and the Cosmopolitan Club for Foreign Students. She later attended the University of Santo Tomas where she received her doctor of philosophy's degree in social sciences, magna cum laude.

In 1931, she was crowned as the Queen of the Orient of the Manila Carnival (equivalent to today's Binibining Pilipinas), 23 years after her mother's coronation. She gathered a lead of about one million votes, which came primarily from different sponsors.

Professional career

Kalaw wrote a column in The Manila Times entitled "Checkpoint". Her essays appeared in the Literary Apprentice: “Far Away” (1954) and were included in Filipino Essays in English: 1910-1954; “An Appeal to Husbands” and “May We Have Our Say?” appeared in the Philippine Review issues of August 1943 and February 1944.

Political career

In 1961, Kalaw Katigbak ran for Senate under the Liberal Party ticket. She landed on the 7th spot garnering 2,546,147 votes. She then became the second female senator of the Philippines, after Geronima Pecson in 1947, and the lone woman in the Fifth Congress. As a senator, Kalaw Katigbak championed the Senate Bill No. 652 restoring the old school calendar to June and excluding the hot summer months which promote sleepiness and thus, may not be conducive for learning, which was changed earlier by Education Secretary Alejandro Roces. She was also the author of the Senate Bill No. 84, now known as Republic Act No. 3765 or the "Truth in Lending Act of 1963", which extends protection to consumer buying goods on an installment plan and enabling credit transactions. She also authored the Senate Bill No. 30 which aimed to amend Republic Act No. 621, or "An Act Creating the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization National Commission of the Philippines". In 1964, she wrote the Republic Act No. 4165, or the law that mandated the creation and appropriation of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

During her term, she handled the Senate committees on education, commerce, and industry. In 1965, she was joined in the Senate by her sister-in-law, Eva Estrada-Kalaw.

From 1962 to 1966, she served as the chairperson of UNESCO General Conference of the Philippines. She unsuccessfully bid for re-election in 1967, ended up being 11th.

Post-political career

In 1974, she published her first book, Few There Were (Like My Father) about her father. In 1983, she wrote a book about her mother Legacy: Pura Villanueva Kalaw, Her Times, Life, and Works, 1886-1954. In 1984, Kalaw Katigbak translated from Spanish to English her father Teodoro's work Aide-de-Camp to Freedom, in which she inserted a chapter about former president Manuel Quezon.

From 1981 to 1986, she headed the Board of Review for Motion Pictures and Television (BRMPT), which would later be MTRCB. The precursor agencies of BRMPT and MTRCB, Philippine Board of Censorship for Motion Pictures was headed first by her father after its creation in 1929.

Other activities

Kalaw Katigbak was the president of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines for many years. She also headed the Municipal Symphony Orchestra, Quezon City Girl Scouts Council, and the Philippine Women’s Writers Association. From 1962 to 1964, she became a member of the UP Board of Regents. She also held several positions at the Catholic Women's League, Catholic Charities of Manila, as the governor of the Philippine Red Cross, the Board of National Education, Board of State Colleges, Philippine Normal College, Philippine College of Commerce, Philippine College of Arts and Trade, Samar Institute of Technology, Mindanao Institute of Technology, Philippine Board of Scholarships for Southeast Asia and the Commission on Appointments. As an educator, she taught both in UP and PWU, and headed the UST Graduate School of Social Work.

She became a member of the Philippine delegation for Afro-Asian Conference of Girl Scouts in Athens, Second World Congress of Lay Apostolate (Rome) in 1957, and the 21st UNESCO General Conference (Paris) in 1982.

Personal life

Kalaw Katigbak was married to Jose Roxas Katigbak, an obstetrician-gynecologist, whom they had four children: Marinela, Josefina, Purisima and Norberto. Her second sibling, Teodoro "Teddy" Kalaw, Jr. was a lawyer. Teddy's wife, Eva Estrada-Kalaw was also a senator from 1965-1972 and was unsuccessful for the vice presidential bid in 1992.

She had three farms Lipa, Batangas, birthplace of her father, where she cultivated black pepper, corn, ipil-ipil, and coffee. She was known to regard kapeng barako to her friends.

Maria Kalaw Katigbak died on December 10, 1992 at the age of 80.

Legacy