Claro Recto was the main author of the 1935 Commonwealth Constitution.

CLARO RECTO

In 1916 Claro Recto became a legal adviser to the first Philippine Senate until 1928. Recto re-entered politics in 1931 when he was elected to the senate. He was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1935. He served as Commissioner of Education (1942-43), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1943-44), and Cultural Envoy with the rank of Ambassador on a cultural mission to Europe and Latin America (1960).

Recto was dubbed by the media as the "Radical Gadfly" and the "Great Dissenter". He was considered the nemesis of President Magsaysay's government, disputing him on a number of fundamental issues and was President Garcia's harshest critic.

Recto co-sponsored the Rizal bill which would require all high schools and colleges to include in their curricula a course in the study of Rizal's literary works, mainly the Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, to provide an in-depth study of nationalism and the shaping of national character invoked in these two novels; the bill was passed and approved in December 1956.

8 February 1890

to 2 October 1960