Manuel C. Briones
Senator Manuel C. Briones was born in Cebu on January 1, 1893, and after his years of educational training he found work as newspaperman. He rose to become editor of La Tribuna and El Espectador, Cebu papers published in Spanish.
In 1916 he finished law and became a member of the Philippine Bar. Not long after the people of Cebu made him their representative and he served in the House of Representatives for four terms, (1918-1931). He co-authored the country’s first labor law, known today as the Workmen’s Compensation Act. He also served in the House as Majority Floor Leader, and he headed a legislative survey mission to Mindanao, which resulted in the construction of road and highway projects there.
Briones was also member of the Philippine Independence mission to the United States in 1930. From 1931 to 1935, he served as senator. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1934, and he was one of the seven that composed the Committee of Wise Men, which drafted the Philippine Constitution.
The Nacionalista party mad him vice-presidential standard-bearer in 1949, but he lost. In 1951, he was again elected to the Senate and he was subsequently chosen Senate President Pro Tempore up to 1957.
He was a member of international cultural societies, including the Royal Academy of Spanish-American Sciences and Arts, and of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.
He married Celestina Lorenzo of Cebu, they had six children.