Ex-Speaker’s house now a museum

SAN CARLOS LANDMARK The house where the late former Speaker Eugenio Perez lived in San Carlos City is being restored to honor his contribution to Philippine politics. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

SAN CARLOS CITY—A two-story wooden house here has been converted into a museum dedicated to its former occupant, Eugenio Perez, the province’s first lawmaker to be elected Speaker.

The city government has asked Perez’s two children for permission to recast the family’s ancestral home into a gallery about Perez as Speaker of the First Congress in 1946.

The First Congress replaced the Second Commonwealth Congress after World War II. Perez was Speaker until 1953. He died on Aug. 4, 1957.

Restoration

Perez’s daughter, lawyer Consuelo Perez, said she had been restoring the portraits of her parents, which would be among the items to be displayed in the museum.

The Perez house on Perez Boulevard, named after the late Speaker, is on a private property but the city government has offered to share in the expenses for its upkeep as a museum, said Mayor Joseres Resuello.

“Perez was a huge part of San Carlos history,” said Resuello, who led the wreath-laying ceremony for Perez’s 122th birth anniversary on Nov. 13, also declared as Speaker Eugenio Perez Day.

Perez, who was born in 1896, first joined politics in 1922 when he was elected councilor here. After his term ended in 1925, Perez moved to Manila and worked in different government offices.

In 1928, he was elected congressman and chaired the House committee on irrigation and waterways before he was elected Speaker.

He finished his elementary and high school education in Lingayen town. He graduated from the College of Law of the University of the Philippines in 1922 and placed eighth in the 1926 bar examination. —Gabriel Cardinoza