Rafael M. Salas

Media

Part of The Cabletow

Title: Rafael M. Salas
Language: English
Year: 1966
Rights
Fulltext: Unblemished Public Official , . . Rafael tft. Salat Executive Secretary, Republic of the Philippines RAFAEL M. SALAS was born on August 7, 1928, in Bago, Negros Oc cidental, the eldest of three children of the late Dr. Ernesto Salas and the former Isabel Montinola, both from well-to-do families of Negros and Iloilo. Young Salas spent his lioyhood and early education in Negros. When the war came, Salas was only twelve years old, but the events that composed this critical period made a lasting impres sion on his mind. The war broke down the traditional barriers of class, a feature of Philippine society most evident in Negros—and made the people close ranks in a common desire to survive. The levelling influence of the war put Salas in direct and earn est contact with all classes, in part icular, the poor, an opportunity, along with his public school education, that made his outlook unalterably egalita rian and socially conscious. These influences were to be exer cised right after the war. During his senior year in high school, as Pres ident of the high school council of 2,000 students, lie led his fellow stu dents to help clean up Bacolod City of some of its post-war debris. He capjied this performance by graduating vale dictorian of the Negros Occidental High School class of 1947. In the same year he enrolled at the University of the Philippines where he again excelled as a student. He finished his Associate in Arts degree in 1950 with high honors. In 1953 he graduated with two academic deg rees, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, and Bachelor of Laws, cum laude. He took the bar examinations the same year and passed. Salas was, true to his nature, active in student affairs. He was pres ident of the U.P. Student Council and simultaneously guided three national student organizations: the Student Councils’ Association of the Philippines (SCAP) of which he was President, the Conference Delegates Association of the Philippines (CONDA), and director of the National Student Movement for Democracy (NASTUM). Under his leadership, all the student organizations in the country were united, an organizational feat unprecedented in the history of the Philippine student movement. He was later chosen National Diretor of the Students’ for Magsaysay for President Movement (SMPM), which helped Magsaysay when the latter ran successfully for President in 1953. In 1954, he became Chairman of the Presidential Consultative Council of Students (CCS) and Assistant to then Executive Secretary Fred Ruiz Cast ro. In 1955, he was apjxiinted, in ad dition to his other positions. Secret ary General of the UNESCO Nation al Commission and Technical Adviser to the Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC). Amidst a busy career in the govern ment, Salas found time to further his studies and to teach. Twice he at tended Harvard University, in 1955 for his Master of Public Administra tion degree (grades with distinction), and in 1958 as an ICA-NEC Fellow on local Government Development Planning. He taught Economics and June, 1966 Political Science in the University of the Philippines, the Far Eastern Uni versity Graduate School, and in the Lyceum of the Philippines. He is at present a professorial lecturer in the College of Law, University of the Philippines. Salas continued to rise in the gov ernment service despite the tragic death in 1957 of Magsaysay. Under then President Carlos P. Garcia, he continued to occupy increasingly res ponsible positions: Head Executive Assistant of the NEC (1957-1958), Executive Officer (with Cabinet rank) of the NEC (1960-1961), Special Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources (1961), Chief of the Local Govern ments Division, Office of the Pres ident, and finally, Executive Direct or of the NEC, a position that enabled him to sit in cabinet meetings in the absence of then NEC Chairman Jose Locsin. The last three positions he held simultaneously. Salas’ role in the NEC was an important one: aside from holding a succession of increas ing!}' high positions, he was. originally responsible for its reorganization and staffing in 1955. After the defeat of President Garcia by Macapagal in 1961, Salas resigned all his positions in the government. But in 1962, Salas was returned to government service as Assistant VicePresident of the University of the Philippines, the leader of a coterie of brilliant young scholars and adminis trators drafted by Dr. Carlos P. Romulo to launch his first year as Pres ident of the State University. This position completed the cycle for Salas vis-a-vis his alma mater: first, he was a student, then a professor, and final ly, administrator. In this new part he did just as well: his ideas and man agerial talent — which must include mastery of organization and the gift of persuasion — fueled the mechanism that set in motion the first crucial and most thrilling year of Romulo’s university administration. After a year in the U.P. Salas be came General Manager of The Manila Chronicle and Assistant to the Pres ident of the Meralco Securities Cor poration. In the middle of 1964, Fer dinand E. Marcos, then seeking the presidential nomination of the Nacionalista party, contacted Salas for the first time. Marcos won the nomina tion in a convention held in November of that year. After his victory, Mar cos drafted Salas to help set up and coordinate his campaign machinery. For this achivement. Salas was the inevitable choice for Executive Secret ary, one of the six capable and pres tigious men who composed the first batch of cabinet appointees of the new administration, namely: Carlos P. Romulo. Jose Yulo, Narciso Ramos. Paulino Garcia, and Jose Aspiras. In the midst of success in a variety of disparate roles — scholar, student leader, professor, administrator — Salas is best known as an administra tor. In 1962, for instance, he won the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) award for Public Adminis tration in recognition of his talent in this field. Romulo, among others, considers Salas "the best administra tor of his generation” — an accolade for the latter’s work at the State University. The Graphic says of Salas “.. a young man with a gen uine talent at managing men of dis parate persuasions and purposes." The Salas style, as anything that is art, eludes precise definition. It is a felicitous blend to diverse person al qualities, each proportioned to the occasion by an acute, gyroscopic senTum to page 90 10 Freemasonry is social in that it fos ters the natural friendliness and a true spirit of brotherly love and affection that should take place in the lives of men assoiated and united for noble purposes. A —Joseph Fort Newton, 1880-1950 RAFAEL M. SALAS (From p.e. 20) sibility — a sensibility strenghtened by a pursoseful mind incessantly in the service of tracking new knowledge and deriving insights from books, from nature, and from people. Editor's Note: It will interest the brethren to know that Mr. Rafael M. Salas, at the time Catalino G. Aurelio Chapter, Order of DeMolay, was or ganized in 1947 in Bacolod City, be came a member of the Order and served the chapter as its Mater Councilor. His father Worshipful and Illusfrious Brother Ernesto Salas, PM 33° and an uncle, WB Angel Salas, PM, were pillars of Kanlaon Lodge No. 64. A IVe arc deeply sorry for tlic unin tentional mistake of not including the name of VWB Guillermo E. Bongolan PDDGM, among those who were honored with the rank and decoration of Knight Commander of the Court of Honor by the Supreme Council on February 13, 1966 (Cabletow, Feb. 1966, p. 28). In an early press release, the list did not in clude his name. In a later release, which we did not get, VWB Bongolan's name appeared. He was elected to receive the honor in Feb. 1965, but due to ill ness, he was not able to receive it then and only came to be honored in Feb. 1966. In the picture caption (Cabletow April 1966, p. 18), the name of WB Prcsa was listed instead of WB Adorador. WB Adorador is Worshipful Mas ter of F.D. Roosevelt Lodge No. 80. A Grand Lodge Committees... (Cont. from pago 14) BOOKS MW William H. Quasha .... ( 80) Chairman WB Federico Piedad ........... ( 64) Member WB Oscar Fung .................. ( 7) Member BUILDING AND PUBLIC SERVICE MW Vicente Y. Orosa ....... (63) Chairman MW Pedro M. Gimcnez ... (57) Member WB Benjamin Gotamco .... ( 93) Member MW Charles Mosebrook .... (32) Member WB Lucio Ildefonso ........... ( 57) Member EDUCATION AND PUBLIC SERVICE MW Luther B. Bewley ....... ( 3) Member RW Macario C. Navia ....... (88) Chairman WB Mariano Sanchez ......... ( 7) Member WB Gregorio Robles ......... ( 73) Member WB Jose T. Enriquez ........ ( 4) Member YOUTH RW Will K. Presti.lge ....... (118) Member VW Mamerto Buenafe ........ ( 4) Member WB Leon Vidallon ............. (18) Chairman WB Hubert Reynolds ........ ( 63) Member WB Nestor Niguidula ........ ( 34) Member WB Homer L. Willess ...... (123) Member REVISION OF CONSTITUTION RW Manuel M. Crudo ....... ( 4) Chairman VW Juan C. Nabong, Jr. ... ( 88) Member WB Nestorio Melocoton .... (29) Member WB Mateo D. Cipriano .... (14) Member WB Isaac Puno .................. ( 88) Member CUSTODIAN OF THE WORK VW Damaso Tria ................ ( 4) Member WB Jose Veto .................... ( 4) Chairman WB Mariano Gonzales ......... (12) Member RESOLUTIONS WB Adceb Ilamra .............. ( 80) Chairman WB Leon C. Santiago ......... (46) Member WB Jose B. Perez, Jr.......... (59) Member NECROLOGY WB Pedro P. Aguda ......... ( 18) Chairman WB Amando K. Gaitos ....... (150) Member WB Luis Barretto ............ (37) Member CREDENTIALS WB Jose F. Ditan .............. (104) Chairman WB Gregorio G. Niduaza ... ( 70) Member WB Vicente P. Flechero .... (57) Member ADMINISTRATION OF LODGES RW Joseph E. Schon ....... ( 91) Chairman WB Augusto P. Santos ....... (30) Member WB Ramon Ponce de Leon .. ( 91) Member ACCOUNTS WB Mateo D. Cipriano .... (14) Chairman WB Alejandrino Eusebio ... ( 7) Member WB Juan Panadero ............. ( 8) Member 30 The Cabletow