Norberto Romualdez

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Norberto Romuáldez y López (June 6, 1875 – November 4, 1941), often referred to as Norberto Romuáldez Sr. to distinguish him from his son with the same name, was a Philippine writer, politician, jurist, and statesman. He was the first Lopez-Romuáldez to attain national prominence, and is deemed the "Father of the Law on the National Language".^[1] He was the eldest son of Doña Trinidad López de Romuáldez, the Romuáldez grand matriarch, and uncle of First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Romualdez Marcos, the daughter of his youngest brother Vicente Orestes Lopez Romualdez.

Biography

File:Norberto Romuáldez y López's passport application.jpg

Romuáldez on his U.S. passport application in 1920

Born to the prominent López clan of Leyte (originally from Granada in the Andalusian region of Spain), he is the grandson of Spanish friar and silversmith Don Francisco López. Romuáldez grew up in Leyte, where the López family owned vast coconut and abacá plantations, and first achieved status as a writer in the Waray language. His first Waray zarzuela was An Pagtabang ni San Miguel (The Aid of Saint Michael).

In 1895, the “favorite son of Leyte,” earned his Bachelor of Arts with honors at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. In 1895, he was a secondary school teacher at the University of Santo Tomas. He passed the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1903.

In 1908, Romuáldez wrote Bisayan Grammar and Notes on Bisayan Rhetoric and Poetic and Filipino Dialectology, a treatise on the grammar of the Waray language. The following year (1909) he founded the Sanghiran san Binisaya ha Samar ug Leyte (Academy of the Visayan Language of Samar and Leyte) for the purpose of promoting and intellectualizing Waray. Romuáldez was also fluent in other languages like Spanish, English, and Cebuano.

Romuáldez served as an Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court during the American Period. He was a delegate to 1934-1935 Constitutional convention, being one of the "Seven Wise Men" who drafted the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines for the Philippine Commonwealth.

File:Norberto Romuáldez y López.jpg

Photograph from The Commercial & Industrial Manual of the Philippines, 1941

He was later elected as assemblyman from the 4th district of Leyte through a special election in 1936.^[2] He was re-elected in 1938.

Romuáldez ran for senator in 1941. However, he died of pneumonia in Palapag, Samar (now part of Northern Samar) at the age of 66, a week before the election.^[3] A book written about his niece Imelda Marcos's life notes that he died of a heart attack.^[4]

Commemoration and legacy

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Burauen monument - historical marker

On the eve of his niece Imelda Romualdez Marcos and her husband Ferdinand Marcos's proclamation as President and First Lady of the Philippines, in 1965, his composition, a song, "Plegaria" (A Plea), was sung in the Marcos family home in San Juan, Rizal (now part of Metro Manila).