M.J. Cuenco, the first Cebuano senate president
The road to the senate presidency of the first Cebuano senate president was not easy, it was rocky and resulted in a legal earthquake in the country. The senate presidency was lorded for decades by a politician from Luzon, Manuel L. Quezon, the country's first senate president, from August 29, 1916 since the creation of the Senate up to its abolition by the 1935 Constitution on November 15, 1935. Quezon also became the country's first elected president on September 16, 1935.
When the Senate was reconvened in 1945 after World War II by President Don Sergio Suico Osmeña Sr., Manuel Acuña Roxas became senate president from July 9, 1945 up to May 25, 1946, when he vacated the post upon his election as president.
Technically, the senate presidency was headed by Visayans, Manuel Roxas was from Capiz, and his successor, Jose Avelino, who was from Samar, became senate president on July 5, 1946. Originally, Roxas was a Nacionalista Party member, that is why he won while sitting as senate president the presidency of the republic. Don Sergio was the founder and sitting president of the party. Jose Avelino was also a partymate of Roxas, then of the party he founded after bolting from the Nacionalista Party, the Liberal Party.
Roxas, however died on April 15, 1948, with Elpidio Quirino, his vice president and partymate succeeding him as president. The Liberal Party, the party in power, was in tumult from within. On February 18, 1949 Senator Lorenzo Tañada requested that he be calendared to deliver a privilege speech on February 21, 1949. When the day arrived, senators Tañada and Sanidad filed a resolution for an investigation against their own senate president, Avelino.
Avelino employed delaying tactics to frustrate the delivery of the speech of Senator Tañada. The senate session was in chaos, Avelino and his allies blocked Tañada from delivering his speech. Then Avelino banged the gavel and left the session hall, followed by his loyalist senators, David, Tirona, Francisco, Torres, Magalano, and the Boholano Jose Clarin.
When they left, the group of Tañada declared Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco as the acting senate president, who the following day was recognized by President Elpidio Quirino as the new senate president. M.J. Cuenco sat as senate president up to December 30, 1951. The chaos in the Senate became a landmark case in Political Law imbedded in our legal history as the famous, Avelino versus Cuenco case decided by the Supreme Court on March 4, 1949.
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