Claro Mayo Recto (redirected from Claro M. Recto)

Recto, Claro Mayo 

Born Feb. 8, 1890, in Tiaong; died Oct. 2, 1960, in Rome. Philippine political figure andjurist.

Recto served as a member of the Philippine House of Representatives from 1919 to 1928 and as a senator from 1931 to 1935. In the 1930’s he became the leading ideologist of the left wing of the nationalist movement. In 1934 and 1935 he was president of the Constitutional Convention and the chief author of the Philippine constitution of 1935. He was a member of the Supreme Court from 1935 to 1941. In 1943 and 1944, Recto served as minister of foreign affairs in the government formed by the Japanese occupation forces; in 1948 a court found him innocent of charges of collaboration. From 1949 to 1960 he again served as a senator. In 1959 he founded the Nacionalista Citizens Party, which had a patriotic program, and headed the Filipino First movement against dependence on the United States in economics, politics, and culture. Recto also spoke out against reactionary clergymen.