Delgado, Francisco Afán, 1886-1964

DELGADO, Francisco A., a Resident Commissioner from the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands; born in Bulacan, Bulacan Province, Luzon, Philippine Islands, January 25, 1886; attended Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Manila, P.I.; attended Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, P.I.; attended Colegio Filipino, Manila, P.I.; was a government student (pensionado); attended Los Angeles (Calif.) High School, and Compton (Calif.) Union High School; L.L.B., Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind., 1907; attended University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.; L.L.M., Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 1908; was admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Indianapolis, Ind.; returned to the Philippine Islands in 1908; law clerk, Government of the Philippine Islands; law division chief, executive bureau, Government of the Philippine Islands, c. 1908-1913; lawyer, private practice; Philippine Army National Guard, 1918; member of the Philippines national council of defense, 1918; member of the Philippine house of representatives, 1931-1934; elected as a Nacionalista to the Seventy-fourth Congress and served until a successor was qualified in accordance with the new form of government of the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands (August 22, 1934-February 14, 1936); appointed justice of the Philippine court of appeals 1936-1937; delegate to the International Committee of Jurists at Washington, D.C., and to the United Nations Conference at San Francisco in April 1945; member of the Philippines war damage commission, 1946-1951; member of the Philippine senate, 1951-1957; ambassador to the United Nations, 1958-1962; died on October 27, 1964, in Manila, P.I.; interment at Manila North Cemetery, Manila, P.I.

<p>Francisco Afan Delgado, was a Filipino diplomat who served as a Resident Commissioner from the Philippine Islands.</p>

<p>He was born in Bulacan Province, Philippine Islands on January 25, 1886 to a Spanish-Filipino mestizo family. His parents were Nemesio Delgado and Manuela Afan. He was the cousins of Jose Maria Delgado and his son Antonio C. Delgado, Philippine Ambassadors to The Vatican, and a descendant of General Martin Delgado.</p>

<p>He studied at San Juan de Letran, Ateneo de Manila, Colegio Filipino, Los Angeles (California) High School, and Compton (California) Union High School; Indiana University at Bloomington, LL.B., 1907 and Yale Law School, LL.M., 1909; was admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Indianapolis, Indiana.</p>

<p>Francisco Delgado served little more than a year as the Philippine Islands’ Resident Commissioner, bridging the brief period between passage of the landmark Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934 and the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1936. Delgado spent his time in Washington mostly as a caretaker, protecting Philippine interests by criticizing tariffs and taxes that threatened to restrict economic growth. “There is a fine market in the Philippines for American goods, provided that the buying capacity of the Filipinos is not reduced,” Delgado told a House committee. “But every time that you pass legislation which in any way hampers, or is liable to hamper, the economic situation out there, wages are affected, values go down, and, of course, when the laboring man earns less, he has less money, no matter what you do in the way of tariff legislation, he cannot buy anything but what he can afford, whether he likes it or not.”</p>

<p>Francisco Afan Delgado was born in Bulacan, Bulacan Province, Philippines, on January 25, 1886, to Nemesio and Manuela Afan Delgado. His mother hoped that he would become a priest, but Delgado was drawn toward a career in law after serving as a stenographer for a judge. He studied at San Juan de Letran and Ateneo de Manila schools for his primary education. He also attended Colegio Filipino, a law school. As a pensionado (a student sent by the government to study abroad), he attended Compton High School in Compton, California, for his senior year. He later recalled that his motto as a student was “Industry and Concentration.” He was among the first group of Filipino students to study in the United States and “a member of the brain aristocracy of his times,” according to a later observer.</p>

<p>Delgado moved to Bloomington, Indiana, and earned a bachelor of laws degree at Indiana University in 1907. He then attended the University of Chicago and Yale, earning a master of laws degree at the latter school in 1908. After graduation, Delgado passed the Indiana state bar and briefly worked in an Indianapolis law firm. According to one source, he was the first Filipino to serve as an active member of the American Bar Association. He eventually led the Philippines Bar Association and directed the International Bar Association. Delgado married Rosario Montenegro in 1915, and the couple had three children, Rosario, Concepcion, and Arturo.</p>