Joaquin Gonzalez (politician)

Dr. Joaquin Gonzalez

Dr. Joaquin Gonzalez (1856-1900) was a member of the Malolos Congress that wrote the Malolos Constitution, the first Philippine constitution, after the country declared independence from Spain in 1898. He was one of two elected delegates representing the province of Pampanga (the other being Don Jose Rodriguez Infante). Along with Felipe Calderon y Roca, the main author of the constitution, Dr. Gonzalez was part of a committee that took part in the debates that went article by article from October 25 to November 29, 1898.¹

On October 19, 1898, Dr. Gonzalez was designated as the first Rector/President of the Universidad Cientifico-Literaria de Filipinas (the forerunner of the University of the Philippines) by Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo. The university had faculties of civil and criminal laws, as well as medicine and surgery.² He taught legal medicine, toxicology and public hygiene.

Dr. Gonzalez was a Spanish mestizo born out of the union of Fausto Lopez (from Valladolid, Spain) and Maria Amparo de los Angeles Gonzalez (from Baliuag, Bulacan). He was trained as a doctor of Medicine in Spain at the Universidad Central de Madrid (now the Complutense University of Madrid). He later attended the Ophthalmology Institute of Dr. Wecker in Paris, France, to specialize in eye diseases. It is said that Dr. Jose Rizal worked for some time in the same institute though the two Filipinos never met.

He married Florencia Rodriguez Sioco (1860-1925) and had ten sons, namely, Fernando, Jesus, Emilio, Augusto (father of former Secretary of Education Andrew Gonzalez), Octavio, Virgilio, Javier, Bienvenido (6th President of the University of the Philippines), Joaquin and Fausto (former Congressman of Pampanga).

Dr. Gonzalez died of acute appendicitis in Malate, Manila on September 21, 1900. A grand national manifestation of bereavement was declared, and the funeral cortege was attended by the entire Civil Commission headed by its first president and American Governor General, William Howard Taft; American military authorities; illustrious Filipinos and a multitude of people.³

References

1. Kalaw, Maximo M., THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHILIPPINE POLITICS, Oriental Commercial, 1927, p. 127[1]

2. Agoncillo, Teodoro A., ANG PILIPINAS AT MGA PILIPINO, NOON AT NGAYON (The Philippines and the Filipinos, Then and Now), Garotech Publishing, Quezon City, Philippines, 1980.

3. Gonzalez, Gene R., COCINA SULIPENA (Culinary Gems of Old Pampanga), Bookmark, Manila, 1993, p. 29

Persondata
Name	Gonzalez, Joaquin
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Date of birth	1856
Place of birth
Date of death	1900
Place of death