Former Sen. Eva Estrada Kalaw dies at 96

Former lawmaker Eva Estrada Kalaw. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

(Updated, 9:01 a.m.) Former Sen. Eva Estrada Kalaw, an active leader of the opposition to the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, died at the age of 96 on Thursday, May 25, barely a month before her 97th birthday.

Lawyer Teodoro Kalaw IV, a grandson of the late lawmaker, posted on his Facebook timeline details of her wake, which will be at Heritage Park in Taguig:

• Monday, May 29: 5 p.m. to midnight
• Tuesday, May 30: 2 p.m. to midnight
• Wednesday, May 31: 2 p.m. to midnight
• Thursday, June 1: Senate viewing and memorial service, 5 p.m. to midnight
• Friday, June 2: Requiem Mass at 10 a.m. followed by internment

A niece of the late former senator, Dr. Sylvia Estrada Claudio posted some recollections of her aunt in her Facebook timeline.

Claudio is director of the University of the Philippines Center for Women’s Studies and professor of the Department of Women and Development Studies of the UP College of Social Work.

According to her Senate profile, Evangelina Reynada Estrada was born on June 16, 1920 in Murcia (now Concepcion), Tarlac, to Dr. Salvador Estrada and Demetria Reynada.

In 1940, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Education degree from the University of the Philippines, where she also took of post graduate studies in social work.

She engaged in social work – for which she earned a citation as Outstanding Volunteer Social Worker of the Year. Even with her social work, she still found time to teach at the Far Eastern University, the National Teacher’s College, and Centro Escolar College (now a university). She was once cited as “Outstanding Volunteer Social Worker” for her various endeavors.

She was married Teodoro V. Kalaw, a businessman. They had four children, daughter Chingbee and sons Teodoro, Salvador and Tyrone. They had 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

In 1965, she was elected senator under the Nacionalista Party, the party of then President Ferdinand Marcos. But she would later move to the Liberal Party because of the abuses committed by Marcos and his cronies.

Former Sen. Eva Estrada-Kalaw (Photo from the website of the Philippine Presidential Museum and Library)

On August 21, 1971, during Marcos’s second term as president, the Liberal Party rally at Plaza Miranda was bombed. Kalaw was among those injured, along with Sen. Jovito Salonga, Sen. Eddie Ilarde, Liberal Party president Gerardo Roxas, and Sergio Osmeña Jr. (son of former Commonwealth-era President Sergio Osmeña Sr.).

From then on, she became an active oppositionist even through the Marcos martial law years, during which time she was imprisoned twice.

After the assassination of her cousin Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., she was elected as an assemblywoman representing Manila in the Batasang Pambansa.

In the 1986 snap elections, she ran for vice president but lost.

After the 1986 People Power Revolution, she ran, unsuccessfully, for senator under the Grand Alliance for Democracy.

In 1992, she ran for vice president, as running mate of then Vice President Salvador Laurel. They both lost to Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada, who were elected president and vice president, respectively. atm/IDL