Teodoro M. Kalaw was a Filipino scholar, legislator, and historian.
Early life
He was born in Lipa, Batangas on March 31, 1884. He was the third child of police chief Valerio Kalaw and Maria Manguiat. His siblings are Filipino scholar and political scientist Maximo, and two sisters, Rosario and Manuela. He finished his secondary studies at Instituto Rizal in Lipa, Batangas, and finished his bachelor's degree in arts with honors at Liceo de Manila. He took up his law degree at Escuela de Derecho, where he was mentored by Rafael Palma and Juan Sumulong. In 1905, he topped the bar examinations, having obtained "grade of 100 percent in civil law and three other subjects". He served as secretary of then Philippine Assembly Floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon until 1908.
Journalism
While pursuing law, Kalaw became a writer for El Renacimiento, with Rafael Palma and Fernando Ma. Guerrero. In October 1908, Interior Secretary Dean C. Worcester filed a libel suit against the paper for their editorial entitled, “Aves de Rapiña”. The case led to the closure of the paper. On January 1910, the court meted out prison sentences against Kalaw and publisher Martin Ocampo. Both Kalaw and Ocampo were pardoned by Governor General Francis B. Harrison in 1914.
Political career
In 1909, Kalaw was elected the youngest member of the Philippine Assembly at age 25. During his term, he sponsored bills supporting internal migration and agricultural development and maintenance of public schools through municipal taxation. At the end of his term in 1913, he was appointed secretary to the Philippine Assembly. In 1916, he was appointed the first director of the National Library, earning him the moniker "Father of the Philippine Library System". He would serve as its director once more from 1929 to 1939. In 1922, he was appointed Interior Secretary.
Memberships
He became a Mason in 1907, then later became grand master at age 31 in 1928. On June 15, 1932, he was made a 33° Mason in the Scottish Rite of Masonry. He became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines from 1928-1929. Kalaw was a member of the Academy of Political Science, American Social and Political Science; Sociedad Americana de Derecho Internacional; Real Academia Hispano Americano de Ciencias y Artes, of whose Philippine Section he became president in 1925; Associacion Hispano-Filipina, and the Philippine Library Association. He was conferred an honorary fellowship to the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity.
Kalaw was married to Pura Villanueva-Kalaw. His son, Teodoro Kalaw, Jr., became a prominent businessman and was married to Philippine senatorEva Estrada Kalaw.
