Claro Mayo Recto Jr. (February 8, 1890 – October 2, 1960) was a Filipino lawyer, jurist, writer, author, columnist, diplomat, and statesman who served as a senator of the Philippines from 1931 until his death in 1960. Recto was the primary author of the 1935 Philippine Constitution, one of the foremost figures in the Philippine Independence from the United States, and is remembered as the "Great Dissenter" and the "Great Academician", as a fierce opponent of U.S. neocolonialism in Asia in his later years, and a staunch Filipino nationalist throughout his career.

He was reelected to the Senate in 1949 and 1955, where he was an outspoken critic of continued American influence in Asia—as well as Presidents Elpidio Quirino and Ramon Magsaysay—for which he was targeted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. though Recto was defeated by the Nacionalista-Colectivista candidate Manuel Roxas, and instead became House Minority Floor Leader until 1925.

Meanwhile, when news of the crisis reached Washington in early 1924, support for Philippine autonomy surged in the 68th United States Congress, and a flood of congressional resolutions and bills ranging from immediate Philippine independence to complete autonomy with an option for freedom were introduced.

Hiatus and return to politics

After his congressional term ended in 1928, Recto temporarily retired from politics and dedicated himself to the teaching and practice of law, joining the Guevara, Francisco, & Recto law firm. In the end, the Philippine Legislature rejected the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act.

Quezon spearheaded another Philippine Independence mission to the US in 1934, securing the passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act. The act formally established the Commonwealth as the transitional government of the Philippines, and specified a framework for the drafting of a Philippine constitution along with several mandatory constitutional provisions, including the approval of both the United States president and the Filipino people. Before independence, the act also allowed the U.S. to maintain military forces in the Philippines and to call all military forces of the Philippine government into U.S. military service. Finally, the act mandated U.S. recognition of the independence of the Philippine Islands as a separate and self-governing nation after a ten-year transition period.

1934 Philippine Constitutional Convention

thumb|Recto as a delegate to the Philippine Constitutional Convention, published by Benipayo Press ()

Recto presided over the 1934 Philippine Constitutional Convention, which that drafted the 1935 Philippine Constitution, from 1934 to 1935, under the stipulations of the Tydings–McDuffie Act. He was the primary author of the constitution, thus becoming known as the "Father of the Philippine Constitution."

Together with Quezon, who was later elected the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Recto personally presented the 1935 Constitution to United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The consensus among many Philippine political scholars of today judges the 1935 Constitution as the best-written Philippine charter ever in terms of prose.

He was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on July 3, 1935, by President Roosevelt, and would be the last Associate Justice appointed by the United States, holding the position until November 1, 1936.

World War II (1939–1945), second term (1941-1946)

During World War II, Recto was arrested by the US colonial government for collaboration charges with the Japanese. Despite this, he ran for senator in the 1941 senatorial elections and reaped 1,084,003 votes, the highest number of votes among the 24 elected senators. However, Imperial Japan invaded on December 8, 1941, preventing the elected senators from taking the oath. Thus, they were not seated until 1945.

By 1943, the Commonwealth established a government-in-exile in Washington, DC; however, many politicians stayed behind and collaborated with the occupying Japanese, among them Recto and then-Minister of Interior José P. Laurel. The Japanese installed Laurel as the President of the Second Philippine Republic on October 14, 1943. Recto was appointed Commissioner of Education in 1942 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1943 to 1944. As Minister, he signed the Philippine-Japanese Treaty of Alliance alongside the Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Sozyo Murata on October 20, 1943.

Post-World War II

After the war, Recto, along with Laurel, Minister of Education Camilo Osías, and Senator Quintín Paredes, was taken into custody and tried for treason, but he defended himself and was acquitted. He wrote a defense and explanation of his position in Three Years of Enemy Occupation (1946), which presented the case of the "patriotic" conduct of the Filipino elite during World War II.

Third term (1949–1955)

On April 9, 1949, Recto attacked the impositions of the U.S. government in the Military Bases Agreement of March 14, 1947, and later in the Mutual Defense Treaty of Aug. 30, 1951, and especially the Tydings Rehabilitation Act, which required the enactment of the controversial parity-rights amendment to the constitution. He debated against U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. on the question of U.S. ownership of military bases in the Philippines.

Recto was reelected to the Senate on November 8, 1949.

Fourth term (1955–1960) and final years

In his later years, Recto denounced the influence and coercion of the Catholic Church on voters' decisions—the Philippines had a 90% Catholic majority at the time. In a 1958 article in "The Lawyer's Journal," Recto suggested a constitutional amendment to make the article on the separation of church and state clearer and more definitive. He also argued against the teaching of religion in public schools.

He was reelected to his fourth and final term in the Senate in 1955.

Recto also foresaw the demands of a fast-moving global economy and the challenges it would pose. In a speech on the eve of the 1957 presidential election, he petitioned all sectors of society and implored Philippine youth:

<blockquote>The first task to participate seriously in the economic development of our country (is to) pursue those professions for which there is a great need during an era of rapid industrialization. Only a nationalistic administration can inspire a new idealism in our youth and, with its valid economic program, make our youth respond to the challenging jobs and tasks demanding full use of their talents and energies.</blockquote>

Recto was a staunch critic of the Magsaysay administration, especially with the Laurel-Langley Agreement. This led to his expulsion from the Nacionalista Party. He would then lose the election to incumbent president Carlos P. Garcia, winning just 8 percent of the vote. Garcia later appointed Recto as Cultural Envoy with the rank of Ambassador on a cultural mission to Europe and Latin America in 1960.

Other activities

Recto was known as an abogado milagroso (lawyer of miracles), a tribute to his many victories in the judicial court.He wrote a three-volume book on civil procedures, which, in the days before World War II was the standard textbook for law students.

His prominence as a lawyer paralleled his fame as a writer. He was known for his logic and lucidity of mind in both undertakings.

Recto took part in many landmark cases. In "Hall v. Piccio" (G.R. No. L-2598), the landmark civil case involving Articles of Incorporation as a requisite to becoming a de facto corporation, Recto lost the case to Ramon Diokno and his son Jose W. "Ka Pepe<nowiki></nowiki> Diokno. Recto and the former later collaborated and won in "Nacionalista Party v. Felix Angelo Bautista", against Felix Angelo Bautista, then the Solicitor-General of the Philippines.

Writing

He was raised and educated in the Spanish language, his mother tongue alongside Tagalog, and he was also fluent in English. He initially gained fame as a poet while a student at the University of Santo Tomás when he published a book Bajo los Cocoteros (Under the Coconut Trees, 1911), a collection of his poems in Spanish. As a staff writer of El Ideal and La Vanguardia, he wrote a daily column, Primeras Cuartillas (First Sheets), under the pen name "Aristeo Hilario." They were prose and numerous poems of satirical pieces. Some of his works still grace classic poetry anthologies of the Hispanic world.

Among the plays he authored were La Ruta de Damasco (The Route to Damascus, 1918), and Solo entre las sombras (Alone among the Shadows, 1917), lauded not only in the Philippines, but also in Spain and Latin America. Both were produced and staged in Manila to critical acclaim in the mid-1950s.

In 1929, his article Monroismo asiático (Asiatic Monroism) validated his repute as a political satirist. In what was claimed as a commendable study in polemics, he proffered his arguments and defenses in a debate with Dean Máximo Kálaw of the University of the Philippines, where Kálaw championed a version of the Monroe Doctrine with its application to the Asian continent, while Recto took the opposing side. The original Monroe Doctrine (1823) was U.S. President James Monroe's foreign policy of keeping the Americas off-limits to the influence of the Old World, and states that the United States, Mexico, and countries in South and Central America were no longer open to European colonization. Recto was passionately against its implementation in Asia, wary of Japan's preeminence and its aggressive stance towards its neighbors.

In his deliberation, he wrote about foreseeing the danger Japan posed to the Philippines and other Asian countries. His words proved prophetic when Japan invaded and colonized the region, including the Philippines from 1942 to 1945.

His eloquence and facility with the Spanish language were recognized throughout the Hispanic world. The Enciclopedia Universal says of him: "Recto, more than a politician and lawyer, is a Spanish writer, and that among those of his race" (although he had Irish and Spanish ancestors), "there is not and there has been no one who has surpassed him in the mastery of the language of his country's former sovereign."

Death

300px|thumb|Gravesite of Claro M. Recto at the [[Manila North Cemetery.]]Recto died of a heart attack in Rome, Italy, on October 2, 1960, while on a cultural mission to Spain, where he was to fulfill a series of speaking engagements. His body was flown back to the Philippines to be buried in Manila North Cemetery.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is suspected of involvement in his death. Recto, who had no known heart disease, met with two mysterious Caucasians in business suits before he died. United States government documents later showed Teodoro M. Locsín of Philippines Free Press, defined Recto's genius:<blockquote>Recto is not a good speaker, no. He will arouse no mob. But heaven help the one whose pretensions he chooses to demolish. His sentences march like ordered battalions against the inmost citadel of the man's arguments and reduce them to rubble; meanwhile, his reservations stand like armed sentries against the most silent approach and every attempt at encirclement by the adversary. The reduction to absurdity of Nacionalista senator Zulueta's conception of sound foreign policy was a shattering experience; the skill that goes into the cutting of a diamond went into the work of demolition. There was no slip of the hand, no flaw in the tool. All was delicately, perfectly done... Recto cannot defend the indefensible, but what can be defended, he will see to it that it will not be taken.

Political editorialist Manuel L. Quezon III, laments:<blockquote>Recto's leadership was the curious kind that only finds fulfillment from being at the periphery of power, and not from being its fulcrum. It was the best occupation suited to the satirist that he was. His success at the polls would be limited, his ability to mold the minds of his contemporaries was only excelled by Rizal's... But he was admired for his intellect and his dogged determination to never let the opposition be bereft of a champion, still, his opposition was flawed. For it was one that never bothered to transform itself into an opposition capable of taking power.

Family

Recto married Ángeles Silos y Jamora on 10 February 1912.

Claro Mayo Recto had seven children in all: four children from his first marriage with Angeles Jamora Silos, (December 29, 1912, Manila - November 16, 1979, Madrid)

  • José Recto Silos