Claro M. Recto

Claro Mayo Recto Jr. (February 8, 1890 – October 2, 1960) was a Filipino lawyer, jurist, writer, poet, author, columnist, and statesman who played a key role in drafting the 1935 Philippine Constitution, and served as a senator of the Philippines from 1931 until his death in 1960. Known as one of the primary figures behind the 1935 Philippine Constitution as well as the "Great Dissenter" and "Great Academician" he is remembered as a maverick in early Philippine politics, a key advocate for Philippine independence from the United States, a fierce opponent of U.S. neocolonialism in Asia in his later years, and as a staunch nationalist throughout his career.

Recto began his political career as the representative for the 3rd District of Batangas in 1919 and held the position until 1928, emerging as a prominent member of the Democrata Party. He was elected as a senator to the 10th Philippine Legislature, where he opposed the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, and later became president of the 1934 Philippine Constitutional Convention that drafted the 1935 Constitution. Recto and future president Manuel L. Quezon personally presented the constitution to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also appointed Recto as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines—the last to be appointed by the United States.

At the height of World War II, Recto was detained by the United States on charges of collaboration with the Japanese, but nonetheless was re-elected to the Senate in 1941 with the highest number of votes among the 24 elected senators. He joined the KALIBAPI party during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines and served in President Jose P. Laurel's wartime cabinet. Recto was faced with treason and collaboration charges at the end of the war, but refused the amnesty issued by President Manuel Roxas, choosing to defend himself in court instead, and was ultimately acquitted of all charges.

He was re-elected to the Senate in 1949 and 1955, becoming an outspoken critic of the continued American influence in Asia, and of Presidents Elpidio Quirino and Ramon Magsaysay, the latter of whom he decried as a “banana dictator” and “American puppet". Following Magsaysay's death in 1957, Recto defected from Nacionalista out of discontent with President Carlos P. Garcia; he established the Nationalist Citizens' Party with Lorenzo Tañada later that year and became its candidate in the 1957 presidential election, but lost.

In 1960, he was appointed by Garcia as Cultural Envoy with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. He died of a heart attack on October 2 that same year, in Rome, while on a diplomatic mission to Spain. It is a widely belief that the United States Central Intelligence Agency may have a hand in his death.

He is the father of former Batasang Pambansa assemblyman Rafael Recto and grandfather of Secretary of Finance Ralph Recto.