17 Facts About Pedro Gil

Pedro Gil y Hernandez was a Filipino physician, journalist, and legislator.

Pedro Gil served in different distinguished roles - as a labor leader, as a doctor of medicine, as a crusading newspaperman, as a social worker, and as a conscientious legislator.

Pedro Gil was born in the then-town of Capiz in Capiz on November 13,1889, the youngest of the seven children of a French-born Spaniard Pedro Araguez Gil, a government employee in Capiz, and Petra Hernandez.

Pedro Gil's mother died when he was hardly six months old, and he was brought to Manila and reared in the home of his sisters in Ermita.

Pedro Gil was eight years old when his father died.

Pedro Gil himself did odd jobs for the school's Jesuit priest and so was exempted from paying tuition fees.

Pedro Gil next enrolled at the San Juan de Letran, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree.

Pedro Gil then proceeded to take up medicine at the University of Santo Tomas, supporting himself by teaching at the Instituto de Burgos in the evening.

Dr Pedro Gil started his political career as a rabid oppositionist.

Pedro Gil was an active writer on political subjects and a frequent leader of movements censuring the party then in power for abuses in the government.

Pedro Gil became Minority Floor Leader in the House of Representatives of the Philippines and distinguished himself as a fiscalizer of the abused and the tyranny of those in power.

Pedro Gil was designated member of the 1930 independence mission to the United States and stayed for some time in Washington, DC together with Sergio Osmena, Manuel Roxas, Ruperto Montinola, and Emiliano Tria Tirona.

Pedro Gil was elected to the first National Assembly and became chairman of the committee on the city government and several other important committees.

Pedro Gil himself presented a test case against them with the Public Service Commission.

Pedro Gil stressed that the current rates were too heavy for the poor to shoulder.

Pedro Gil served as envoy to Argentina from 1956 to 1962 and was a recipient of the General San Martin medal, Argentina's highest diplomatic award.

When Consuelo died, Pedro Gil met Virginia Amacio in Capiz and had two daughters, Carmencita and Guia.