Cipriano Purugganan Primicias Sr. was a Filipino politician, who was best known for his service as a Senator of the Philippines. He was born in 1901 at Alcala, in the northern Philippine province of Pangasinan to Javier Crescini Primicias and Cristeta Purugganan.
Education and early career
He completed his elementary education with highest honors, his high school courses with second-highest honors and passed the government first grade civil service tests when he was still in high school in 1919. He enrolled in the National Law College and at the same time worked as a clerk in the Bureau of Commerce in 1919 where he rose to the rank of Chief, Commercial Section. He finished his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1923 with highest honors and passed the bar examinations in the top five that same year. In 1924, he quit his post at the Bureau of Commerce and began his law practice as an assistant attorney in the law office of then-Senator Alejo R. Mabanag. By 1936 he was the President of the Pangasinan Bar Association, a post he held till 1945.
During his last term in the House, Primicias was one of nine Congressmen and three Senators who opposed the ratification of the United States' Bell Trade Act of 1946 mostly because it required amending the Philippine Constitution to give American citizens and corporations equal access with Filipinos to the Philippines' natural resources. In addition the law also gave U.S. citizens the right to import goods without paying import duties and fixed the value of the Philippine peso to the U.S. dollar. Primicias and other opponents of the Bell Trade Act considered the measure an inexcusable surrender of Philippine sovereignty. Because ratification of the Bell Trade Act required a two-thirds vote of the House and the Senate, Primicias - with the eight other Congressmen and the three Senators - were unseated from the Philippine Congress on spurious charges while the ratification process was underway in order to ensure its passage. Upon appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court all twelve legislators were reinstated, but by that time their temporary ejection had served its purpose and the Bell Trade Act had already been ratified. During his last term in the House, Primicias served as the Minority Floor Leader. From 1946 till 1964 he was the Nacionalista Party Vice-President.
Senator Primicias was also the former Dean of the College of Law in Orient College, President of the Pindangan Agricultural Company and the Lingayen Gulf Fishing Company and was a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Personal life
In 1930, Primicias married Miss Pangasinan Nieves Ocampo Benito, with whom he had nine children: Cipriano Jr. – himself a former Congressman and Governor of Pangasinan; Ma. Corazon ; Ricardo; Juan Augusto; Ramon; Edmundo; Carlos; Perla; and Baby Nieves. An ardent Hispanist, Primicias spoke fluent Spanish and regularly debated on the Senate floor in that language. He also spoke English, Filipino, Ilocano, and Pangansinense with equal facility. He died a week after his 64th birthday in Quezon City, Philippines, on September 20, 1965. .
