FLORES, Kenedy Gundran BA POS – 2 Philippine Political Thought

CLARO MAYO RECTO’s POLITICAL THOUGHTS

Claro M. Recto’s Early Life

“So long as our economic policies remain dependent primarily on foreign “aid” and
investments, and our policy-makers remain habitual yes-men of foreign advisors, this “aid,”
investment and advice, will be directed toward the retention of the economic status quo.”
– Claro M. Recto (1890-1960)

This message was delivered by Recto on the eve of the election of 1957 when he ran as
the presidential candidate of the Lapiang Makabansa (Nationalist-Citizens Party).
His writings and speeches spoke of Recto as a nationalist thinker and leader. This very speech
inflicted so much anger among the Americans and his fellow Filipinos to whom he coined the term
“yes-men” for allowing foreign interference in our political and economic affairs. Recto simply
aimed for the Filipinos and their leaders to make sure that Philippines’ national interests were not
sacrificed and give way to the American dream of how the world should be run. The Americans,
consequently, accused him of being anti-Americans and worst, an atheist.
Claro M. Recto was born in Tiaong, Quezon province on February 8, 1890 to Don Claro
Recto, Sr. of Rosario, Batangas and Doña Micaela Mayo of Lipa. In 1905, he went to Manila to
study at the Ateneo de Manila University where he obtained the most outstanding scholastic
grades. He graduated in 1909 with a Bachelor of Arts, maxima cum laude.
In 1913, he graduated law from the University of Santo Tomas and took the bar examinations
the same year. He obtained his Masters of Laws also in UST. He entered the government service
in 1913, when he was appointed secretary to Vincente Ilustre of the Philippine Commission. He
ran as representative of the third district of Batangas under the party Democratic. He became
minority floor leader and was reelected in 1922 and 1925.
Recto was selected president to draft the Philippine Constitution and personally presented the
Commonwealth Constitution to President Roosevelt for his approval and signature. He also served
the country as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1935-1936). In 1941 he ran for the Senate
and garnered the highest number of votes among the 24 elected senators. He was appointed
Commissioner of Education, Health and Public Welfare (1942-43) and later, Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs (1943-44) in the Laurel War Cabinet. He was charged with treason for
collaboration with the Japanese. He pleaded not guilty and proved that he had connections with
the underground movement. In the course of the preparation of his defense, he published two
books, Three Years of Enemy Occupation and The Law of Belligerent Occupation. Claro M. Recto
did not take advantage of the amnesty issued by Pres. Manuel Roxas to collaborators and instead
worked for and got an acquittal from the People’ Court. He was elected senator and in 1955, ran
as Liberal Party “guest candidate” for senator and won the sixth slot. He bid for presidency in 1957
but lost to Ramon Magsaysay.
On August 24, 1960, he was appointed Cultural Envoy with the rank of an Ambassador
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary on a cultural mission to Europe and Latin America.
But while on this mission he suffered a fatal heart attack in Rome, Italy on October 2, 1960. He
died at San Camillo de Lellis Hospital, his wife by his side to whom he uttered his last words: “It

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is terrible to die in a foreign country”. Paradoxically, Recto died in a foreign land and he’s great
love for his motherland remained in his heart up to his last breath.
The Philippines will never have a man as noble as Claro M. Recto again who has dignity and
sensitivity for his fellowmen. His legacy and contributions to the country will remain to date as
long as the country suffers the stiff of imperialism and our government being run by dishonest
officials who perpetuate the deprivation of public services from the Filipino people.
As Renato Constantino puts it- “Recto’s relevance to the present lies not so much in the
continuing validity of his nationalist premises as in his contribution to the forward march of
history. His courageous attempt to break away from the colonial condition was itself a great single
effort which contributed to today’s relative enlightenment”

Claro M. Recto’s Political Thought

Claro Recto may be considered as the direct intellectual descendant of Mabini. But while
Mabini focused on political philosophy, Recto concentrated on political economy, which is almost
absent from Mabini’s philosophy. The reasons for this shift in field of concentration are the
conditions that shape the minds of the two thinkers: Mabini lived during the time when the country
was in political disarray; Recto lived at the time when the Philippines was in economic turmoil.

On Nationalism
Recto defines nationalism as “devotion to and advocacy of Filipino interests and
Filipino unity and independence, zealous adherence to our own Filipino nation and its
principles, in brief, Filipino patriotism. A more concrete explanation of the term is
contained in his speech on the eve of the elections in 1957 when he ran as presidential
candidate of the Nationalist Citizens’ Party. Recto declared: “Our national salvation lies
first in asserting the nationalistic ideals of our heroes in their fight for emancipation and
second in changing the course of our economic efforts by giving emphasis to nationalist
industrialization.”
Recto considered the advocacy of the national interests as non-negotiable. The
interest of the people should not be sacrificed in any deal with other countries. He defended
his position by saying that “there are litigations of such nature as not to allow a concession
without sacrifice of the fundamental principles and spiritual interests, and that liberty,
supreme aspiration of all peoples and the quintessence of the rights of the Creator, cannot
be subject of transactions, promises and barters.”
Furthermore, in the 1953 and 1955 elections, Recto denounced the influence and
coercion of the Catholic Church on voters' decisions—the Philippines having 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 Separation of Church and State clearer
and more definitive. He also argued against the teaching of religion in public schools.

On Political Economy
The key to the country’s prosperity is industry. Industry, however, has to be placed
in the control of the Filipinos themselves. He said: “As long as foreigners dominate our
production, our manufacture, and our distribution of the essentials of civilized life, we will
remain benighted natives, the dupes of profiteers and carpet baggers. We will remain

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 outcasts in the family of nations, unable to deal with other countries on an equal footing
and our internal policies influenced, if not determined, by powerful interests acting through
their Filipino friends in power and authority.”
For Recto, the economic condition of a nation is determined by those who control
the country’s purse. If the economic machinery is controlled by foreigners, then the
nation’s economic condition will be favorable not to the natives but to the foreigners. Under
such condition, the natives will depend on the benevolence of the economic managers for
their survival. Thus, it is likely that the natives will merely serve as the workers of the
capitalists. And since the foreigners would require the assistance of some Filipinos to
effectively control the economy, few Filipinos will prosper materially in order for them to
extend utmost cooperation in maintaining the status quo. This will then create a situation
that will enable the “foreign vested interests and a small privileged class among our people
to live in ostentation and luxury, while the great masses of Filipinos exist in penury, ill
health and ignorance.
In the final analysis, it is the people themselves who are responsible for the
economic condition of the country. Recto explains: “A nation’s political, economic and
cultural life is of its own people’s making. Of course there are what we call forces of
history, but it is for the people...to channel them toward the realization of national
objectives. We must accept, therefore full responsibility for the backward condition of our
economy, our political immaturity, our predilection for dramatizing minor issues to the
neglect of long-rage basic questions, and for our confusions and indecisions that have
delayed for decades the progress of the nation.”

Further Reading
Framing of the Constitution
In 1924 Recto went to the United States as a member of a parliamentary
independence mission. In the same year he was admitted to the U.S. bar by the Supreme
Court. In 1934 a constitutional convention was held in accordance with the provisions of
the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which required the drafting of a constitution as part of the steps
leading to Philippine independence. Recto was elected president of the convention. It was
due mainly to Recto's sagacity and intellectual acumen that the convention succeeded in
framing and approving on Feb. 8, 1935, a constitution which would truly reflect the
Filipinos' capacity to frame laws and principles that would govern their lives as free,
responsible citizens in a democracy.
In 1931 Recto was elected to the Senate on the platform of the Democrata party.
He acted as minority floor leader for 3 years. In 1934 he became majority floor leader and
president pro tempore of the Senate. He subsequently resigned his Senate seat when
President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him as associate justice of the Supreme Court.
Recto left the Supreme Court in 1941 and was elected anew as senator. In 1949 he was
reelected on the Nacionalista party ticket. In 1957 he ran for president but was defeated.
Apart from his numerous legal treatises and literary works in Spanish, Recto is
noted for his staunch nationalist stand on questions regarding political sovereignty and
economic independence.

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World War II and Rehabilitation
Recto served in the wartime Cabinet of José Laurel during the Japanese occupation
and was subsequently arrested and tried for collaboration. He wrote a defense and
explanation of his position in Three Years of Enemy Occupation (1946), which
convincingly presented the case of the "patriotic" conduct of the Filipino elite during World
War II. Recto fought his legal battle in court and was acquitted.
On April 9, 1949, Recto opened his attack against the unfair impositions of the U.S.
government as expressed 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.
A Radical Gadfly
Recto's wit, irony, and sharp analytic powers exposed the duplicity of the
diplomatic agreements with the United States and revealed the subservience of Filipino
opportunists to the dictates of American policy makers. Recto opposed President Ramon
Magsaysay on a number of fundamental issues, among them the Philippine relations with
the Chiang Kai-shek regime in Taiwan, the Ohno-Garcia reparations deal, the grant of more
bases to the United States, the American claim of ownership over these bases, the question
of expanded parity rights for Americans under the Laurel-Langley Agreement, and the
premature recognition of Ngo Dinh Diem's South Vietnam government. In all those issues,
Recto's consistent stand in favor of Philippine sovereignty and security was proved right
by the turn of events.
In perspective, Recto revived the tradition of the radical dissenter fighting against
feudal backwardness, clericofascist authoritarianism, and neocolonial mentality and
imperialism. He strove to reawaken the consciousness of the Filipinos to the greatness of
their revolutionary heritage and emphasized the need to transform the character of the
national life by reaffirming their solidarity as a sovereign, free people.
Recto was preparing to launch his Filipinist crusade in the tradition of the
Propaganda Movement of the 1880s when he died of a heart ailment in Rome, Italy, on
Oct. 2, 1960.

Conclusions
Claro M. Recto (1890-1960) was a Philippine nationalist leader and president of the 1934
constitutional convention. He was one of the most vocal advocates of Philippine political and
social autonomy. He was a Filipino statesman, jurist, poet and one of the foremost statesmen of
his generation. He is remembered for his nationalism, for "the impact of his patriotic convictions
on modern political thought".
There are some of the Claro Mayo Recto’s factors that serve as a background in
understanding his thoughts:
 Virtual free trade between the United States and the Philippines which was viewed as
“highly prejudicial to the economic interests” of the Filipinos;
 Poor economic performance of the country and the deplorable condition of the country’s
poor population;

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  Control by American citizens and corporations of the country’s economy through the parity
clause of the Trade act;
 His vast and solid experience as a politician and leader of the nationalist movement of the
country, and
 His own education in law and readings of the literature on nationalist industrialization.

References
Bas, R. (10 February 2010). Remembering Claro M. Recto. Retrieved on 7 November 2019 at
https://web.archive.org/web/20070707163850/http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/
feb/10/yehey/opinion/20060210opi5.html
Cajes A. (20 August 2008). The Political Philosophy of Mabini and Recto. Retrieved on 7
November 2019 at http://alsalca.blogspot.com/2008/08/political-philosophy-of-mabini-and.html
Horacio de la Costa, Readings in Philippine History (Philippines: Bookmark, 1965), 215.
Teodoro Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People (Philippines: 1990), 122-126.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/claro-m-
recto
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/life-of-claro-m-recto-a00293-20191002-lfrm

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