Antonio n. de las Alas (Language, 1889 - October 14, Chicago, October 5, 1983) was a Filipino politician and business leader. He was Deputy Minister of public works and finance, on behalf of the province of Batangas and member of the Philippine Senate during the Second World War. He was also member of that delegation of the constitutional conventions in 1934 and 1971 and held top jobs in dozens of Filipino companies and institutions after the war.
Biography[Edit][]
Antonio de las Alas was born on October 14, 1889 in Language in the province of Batangas. He was the son of Cornelio de las Alas and Paula Noble. After the Batangas High school at the age of 15, he moved to theUnited States with a scholarship for studying law. Completed In 1908 De las Alas his bachelor-studies at the University of Indiana and a year later followed his master-degree at Yale University. Back in the Philippines for some time he worked as an accountant on the Executive Office for he was appointed head of the Department in 1913, right after he had passed the entrance examination of the Philippine Office. Then followed an appointment as head of the Executive Office. In addition he gave from 1917 to 1920 taught at the University of the Philippines.
In 1920, De las Alas by the Governor General of the Philippines appointed Minister of State for Home Affairs and he was until 1922 acting Minister at that Department. From 1920 to 1922 he was Minister of Minister of Justice. In 1922, De las Alas on behalf of the 1st constituency elected to the Philippine House of representatives. He was re-elected four times and was a member of the House of representatives in 1933 until he was appointed Minister of public works and communications. As Minister of public works together with Jorge Vargas , he was responsible, among other things, for the construction of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex that opened in 1934.
In 1934, the Tydings-McDuffie Act by both the American and the Philippine Congress approved and signed by the u.s. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The law provided for greater autonomy for the Philippines, which was awarded the status of a Commonwealth country. De las Alas was one of the members of the Constitutional Convention for the new Philippine Constitution, which eventually was adopted in 1935. Former Senate president Manuel Quezon was elected president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and he maintained the las Alas as Minister of public works. In 1936, De las Alas by Quezon appointed Minister of finance.
Shortly before the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in the Second World War he was de las Alas elected to the Philippine Senate. However, before the Senate in the new composition could meet the Philippines were attacked by Japanese troops. During the Japanese occupation and he formed The las Alas along with several other cabinet members a Filipino Executive Commission and he collaborated with the Japanese, to the Philippine interests. After the reconquest of the Philippines by the Americans was he along with others accused of collaboration. He was imprisoned initially in Iwahig Penal Colony and later in Bilibid Prison. Later he came free on bail after his sons-in-law Ambrosio Padilla and Ramon Cojuangco had paid a collateral. In 1946, De las Alas acquitted of collaboration by the Court because he had acted out of patriotism.
In 1949, De las Alas by president Elpidio Quirino appointed a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of the Philippines. For six years he was a member of this highest policy-making and decision competent institution of the Central Bank. From 1951 to 1953 was De las Alas is also Chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he was in the years after the war working in top jobs in dozens of Filipino companies and institutions. In 1971, De las Alas again chosen as delegation of the Constitutional Convention.
Antonio de las Alas died in 1983, shortly before his 94th birthday to the effects of a pneumonia in the American city of Chicago. He married Natividad Lontoc and got together with her twelve children. Their first child, Lourdes was married to senator Ambrosio Padilla. After the death of Lontoc he remarried at the age of 81 with the then 27-year-old Necitas Gueco. The couple had two more sons.