Francisco Tongio Liongson (December 3, 1869 – February 20, 1919) was a Filipino medical doctor and politician.
Motivated by the injustices prevalent in the Philippines, small colonies of native expatriate students in Europe involved themselves in the Propaganda Movement with the purpose of exposing these abuses and in the process began to assume a consciousness articulating reforms of a national interest that was consequently distinct from Spain. Liongson was one of these Filipino students in Madrid.
Early years
Born into a family of sugar planters, Liongson was born in Pampanga's former capital, Villa de Bacolor, to Emigdio Liongson and Eulalia Tongio.Villa de Bacolor Cultural, Literary and Civic Foundation, Inc. Program Notes. Presentation of Posthumous Plaques of Merit to the outstanding sons of Bacolor and Crissot's immortal zarzuela, "Alang Dios". Theater for the Performing Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: May 31, 1975.
After completing his primary education in Bacolor, Liongson studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila and earned his diplomas in Bachiller en Artes (1887), Titulo de Profesor en Segundo Enseñasa (1888) and Titulo de Agrimensor y Perito Tasador de Tierras (1889).Guerrero, Fernando Ma., Villanueva, Rafael (1917). Directorio Oficial del Senado y de la Camara de Representantes, Cuarta Legislatura, Filipina Primer Periodo de Sesiones. Bureau of Printing. Manila. pp. 70–71. UST Alumni Association Inc. University of Santo Tomas Alumni Directory 1611–1971. University of Santo Tomas. Manila: 1972. pp. 24C-27c. He arrived in Spain on August 24, 1889, on board the mail steamer Santo DomingoLa Vanguardia. Notas Locales. August 24, 1889. p. 2. URL: http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1889/08/24/pagina-2/34652812/pdf.html, retrieved on October 12, 2011. to study medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he obtained his Licenciado en Medicina y Cirujia in June 1894Fores-Ganzon, Guadalupe. LA SOLIDARIDAD Quincenario Democratico Vol. VI 1894. Pasig, Metro Manila. Fundacion Santiago: 1996, p. 295 and his Doctorado en Medicina y Cirujia on October 19, 1895.Liongson Tongio, Francisco. La célula ante el microbio: tésis del doctorado en medicina leída y sostenida el día 19 de Octubre de 1895. Madrid. Universidad Central de Madrid: 1895. To broaden his medical knowledge further, he trained in different hospitals in Paris while studying at the Institut Pasteur.
During his sojourn in Spain, Liongson was actively involved with the Filipino colony in Madrid, interacting with fellow paisanos including Jose Rizal. The death of La Solidaridad's Jose Maria Panganiban affected him deeply. In a eulogy to the propagandist, he wrote, "From this tombstone, which safely guards your remains, will spring happy memories for a page in our history."Fores-Ganzon. Vol. II (1996b) p. 445. His love interest in the Spanish capital was centered on Maria Dolores Alonso y Castro, a native of Badajos whom he married in the Madrid parish of San Martin on August 28, 1895.Fernandez Garcia, Matias. Parroquias Madrileñas de San Martín y San Pedro el Real: Algunos Personajes de su Archivo. Caparos Editores. p.252
The Philippine Revolution
He returned to the Philippines with his bride in November 1895. Ten months later, the Philippine Revolution broke out. Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco y Erenas declared 8 Philippine provinces to be under a state of war, and Pampanga was one among them. Liongson joined the Katipunan and offered his medical services to the Philippine Revolutionary Army. He was commissioned Capitan del Cuerpo Sanidad. His Spanish wife died shortly after, leaving a son, Francisco Alonso Liongson.Yglesia de Guillermo de Bacolor. Libro de Bautismos 1888–1897. Entry dated 5 de Agosto 1896. The return of Emilio Aguinaldo from his exile in Hong Kong marked a new phase of the revolution, as did Liongson's marriage to the daughter of Balbino Ventura, Nunilon Ventura y Tison, on May 1, 1898. During the Philippine–American War, he was promoted to Comandante and attached to the brigade of Gen. Tomas Mascardo. He intervened in a dispute between his superior, Mascardo, and his acquaintance from the Filipino colony in Spain, General Antonio Luna, helping to avert an anticipated armed confrontation between them. While in active duty, Liongson also served on the faculty of medicine and surgery of the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas, the precursor of the University of the Philippines, established by President of the First Philippine Republic, Emilio Aguinaldo, on October 19, 1898.Manila Bulletin. Article. Universidad Literaria de Filipinas. October 19, 2007. Source URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/node/39932, retrieved on October 12, 2011.
The surrender of Gen. Mascardo on May 15, 1901, officially ended hostilities in the province. Liongson's work, however, was not over. Pampanga was the scene of many armed conflicts, and the province suffered severe physical and economic hardships. The proliferation of diseases in epidemic proportions became a major concern of the United States military health board. His background as a European-trained Filipino physician was cited as an asset to their efforts to combat disease.Larkin, p. 163. Liongson was subsequently appointed presidente of Pampanga's Provincial Health Board once the transition to civil control was effected.Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 73 No. 10. September 6, 1919, p. 777. Under his leadership, much of the resistance to modern sanitary, quarantine and health practices, attributed largely to superstition and lack of information, was reduced. Pampanga went on to control the cholera epidemic of 1902, to eliminate the incidence of smallpox in the province by 1906, and to eliminate cases of Hansen's disease in the province by 1909.Larkin, pp. 164–165
Aftermath of the Philippine-American War
By 1903, Liongson's parents, Capitan Midiong and Apung Laly, had died, leaving behind agricultural landholdings affected by the war. Faced with the tasks of managing the remnants of his inheritance and supporting the inquilino families under his care, he took on the role of farmer and entrepreneur, and came to view the young nation's economy as in need of restructuring. On August 8, 1905, at a public hearing on the reduction of tariffs on sugar and tobacco, Liongson submitted a paper proposing the establishment of an agricultural mortgage bank and tariff reduction. He argued that the insular government should relieve planters from the depressed condition of agriculture at the time. This was the beginning of his role as one of the sugar industry's spokespersons. Subsequently, the U.S. Congress enacted the Agricultural Bank Act (Public Act No. 243) in 1906, providing for the establishment of the Agricultural Bank of the Philippine Government, the precursor of the Philippine National Bank, which was created to replace the former institution in 1916. Tariffs were gradually phased out beginning with the Payne-Aldrich Act of 1909 until their complete removal in 1913 with the Underwood Tariff Act. This was followed by economic growth, including expansion of sugar crop production and milling capacities.
In January 1918, a group of large-scale sugar planters gathered in San Fernando, Pampanga to organize a central sugar mill financed from native capital. The group included Jose de Leon, Augusto Gonzalez, Francisco Liongson, Honorio Ventura, Tomas Lazatin, Tomas Consunji, Francisco Hizon, Jose P. Henson, and Manuel Urquico.Joven, Felix (1956). Pampanga Sugar Development Co. Inc (Pasudeco). Sugar News XXXII At that time, foreign capital financed the construction of new centrals, and the Pampanga planters considered it risky to mortgage their lands to the Philippine National Bank to finance the mill. Despite the risk, the Pampanga Sugar Development Company (PASUDECO) was incorporated in April 1918 and began its first full milling operations in 1922.Larkin, pp. 287–288 According to one source, "on the first milling season in 1920 the planters paid up not only their crop loan but their original debt to the Bank."Letter from PNB President Rafael Corpus, Manila, to Manuel Quezon, Manila, March 30, 1926, QP
Early political career
Since 1902, the Partido Federalista, a party supported by the American insular government, had dominated provincial and local elections. However, with the lifting of the ban on pro-independence partiesNacionalista Party. History . in preparation for the 1907 Philippine Assembly elections, the provincial elections of 1906 resulted in victories for nationalist candidates espousing independence.Cullinane, Michael. Ilustrado Politics: Filipino elite responses to American rule, 1898–1908. Ateneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City, Philippines: 1989, pp. 170–171. The pro-independence nationalist front was split into several factions holding various positions on independence – from the most urgent, Urgentistas, to the most immediate, Inmediatista. Even the Federalistas changed their name to Partido Nacional Progresista, the Progresistas, to reflect a more nationalistic position.Corpuz. Onofre D. (1989) The Roots of the Filipino Nation, Vol. II Aklahi Foundation, Inc. Quezon City, Philippines, p. 550. The pro-independence nationalist front sought to unite ahead of the coming First Philippine Assembly elections in 1907. By 1906, the various groups were reduced to two main proponents: the Partido Union Nacionalista of Rafael Palma and Felipe Agoncillo and the Partido Independista Inmediatista of Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmeña.
Liongson was a member of the Inmediatista negotiating team, and his acquaintance from the Filipino Colony days in Spain, Galicano Apacible, was a member of the other party's team.Cullinane. (1989) p. 404. After lengthy negotiations, the two parties merged on March 12, 1906, to pursue "immediate, absolute and complete independence." The various pro-independence parties united to form the Partido Nacionalista on April 29, 1907, to contest the seats in the First Philippine Assembly, with Liongson among the founding members. Historian Onofre Corpuz suggested that unification was aided by ties formed among members of the group in Madrid. The newly organized Nacionalistas won 31 seats (plus one seat as Manuel Quezon chose to run as an independent), the Independientes, 20; the Progresistas, 16; Inmediatistas, 7; and other minor political parties, 5, out of 80 seats in the elections held in July 1907.National Historical Commission of the Philippines. The History of the First Philippines Assembly (1907–1916). URL Source: , retrieved on: October 12, 2011
As governor
The Nacionalistas dominated Philippine politics thereafter. In Pampanga, the Progresistas held the gubernatorial post until 1912, when Gov. Macario Arnedo lost to the Nacionalista candidate, Francisco Liongson.Larkin, p. 263. Four years earlier, Liongson had won the election, but the result was later overturned in a legal dispute due to a technicality involving a series of conflicting court decisions.Arnedo vs Hon. Llorente and Liongson. 18 Philippines, G.R. No. L-6313, January 9, 1911. Manuel Quezon described Liongson's 1912 victory as "a vindication and that he was the real governor all along in spite of what the courts have decreed."Speech given by the Hon. Manuel L. Quezon, Resident Commissioner of the Philippines in the United States, at a Banquet Given in His Honor in the Provincial Building of Pampanga, October 18, 1912. QP