Jose Cortes Altavas, Baleten-on Par Excellence

By Al F. Dela Cruz

In 1998, the Sangguniang Bayan of the Municipality of Balete, Aklan approved Resolution No. 98-37 requesting the National Historical Institute (NHI) to set up a historical marker in memory of the late Senator Jose Cortes Altavas. Ten years after, the NHI has yet to act on such request.
The LGU Balete though would not be dithered by the intricacies of the bureaucracy. Somehow, it found the occasion to provide it the opportunity to communicate to its constituency the richness of its history and its contribution to national and local politics. That is why, when it was invited to participate in the Higante Contest and Aklan Festivals Parade 2008 on January 16, 2008 in Kalibo, Aklan, it readily commissioned the fabrication of a higante figure of its imminent son, the late Jose Cortes Altavas.
But many among us would ask, “Who the heck is Senator Altavas?” “Why would the municipal officials of Balete bother to have him remembered by the Baleten-on constituents?”
Mr. Bingo Altavas, the Director of Jose Cortes Altavas Memorial Foundation, Inc., provided the information for us to reconstruct the biography to the Balenten-on Senator. Supplementary information can be culled from the senator’s Mi Diaro,” his 236–volume journal written in perfect Spanish since January of 1905 until the day of his death on August 21, 1952.
Jose Cortes Altavas is best known as a Capizeño. But he was deeply Baleten-on, intensely Akeanon. He was born in Sitio Mapait, Barrio Aranas, Balete, Capiz on September 11, 1877. His father was true blue Hispanic from Val de Algorfa, Turuel City in the region of Aragon, Spain. His mother, Andrea Cortes y Rafoll, was a native of Balete and whose parentage is of Akeanon and Cebuano origin.
All through his life’s journey, Sen. Altavas carried within him vivid memories of his childhood – a plunge into the cool pristine depth of the Jal-o River; a day’s quest for spiders in the wilderness of Mapait; the aroma of sweet smelling Saliyaw atop Star Apple trees, the struggle of his classmates in mastering the cartillas at the Escuela del Rey beside the San Rafael Church…
At the age of 10, the young Jose, having mastered his primary education, left Balete to farther his education at the Colegio de San Jose de Calazans in the capital town of Capiz. In 1894, his road was already well-paved for Manila. He just finished his Bachelor of Arts with honor (sobresaliente) at Colegio del Ateneo Municipal de Manila under the Jesuits. A year after, the Dominicans of the Royal and Pontifical University of Sto. Tomas, Manila honed him further for his law studies.
Jose at 19 was however, forming in his heart a desire for change, not only for himself but more so for the native land and his people. He left his studies and went to the hill. Together with Pedro Advincula and Jose Andrada, Jose took charge of the organization of the resistance in the western part of Capiz (Aklan). With the signing of the Treaty of Paris and the capture of Aguinaldo by the American forces, he gave up the armed struggle and concentrated himself into completing his studies.
Eventually, by 1901 Jose Cortes Altavas was admitted to the Philippine Bar and thereafter put up a law office in Capiz, Capiz. At 26, he married Socorro Barrios Laserna of Calivo (Kalibo). With the conduct of the first municipal elections in 1903, he was elected Municipal Councilor of the town of Capiz. From then on, he devoted his life to Capiz politics and rose to become Provincial Board member, governor, congressman, senator and constitutional delegate.
It is well established that the politics of Jose Cortes Altavas created many advantages for Capiz – Aklan included. Developments rushed into the land he so deeply loved which seen dramatic and greater impact on his people. Jose Cortes Altavas was “the man who made Roxas” for he primarily launched the candidacy for gubernatorial seat of a promising young lawyer, Manuel Acuña Roxas in 1919. He was then the Senator for the 7th District comprising the provinces of Capiz and Iloilo. History will tell us the rest of that story.
As a two-term Governor of Capiz from 1910 and 1916, Jose Cortes Altavas facilitated the construction of the Capiz to Iloilo and Capiz to Kalibo provincial highways thereby improving the transportation, the commerce and the economic situation of both the Capizeños and the Akeanons alike. He was likewise instrumental in the construction of the Panay Railroad System in 1910; labored as a Senator to re-establish Romblon as a province and the separation of Jemino from New Washington as the 32nd municipality of Capiz eventually renaming it as Altavas per executive order by then Governor General Francis Burton Harrison.
As a delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, Jose Cortes Altavas was the chairman of the Committee on Suffrage which sponsored Article V of the 1935 Constitution, and which provision formally recognized the right of Filipino women to vote.
The time of Jose Cortes Altavas was far different from ours. It was a time when there was no dichotomy between Capizeños and Akeanons; it was a time when Aklan was Capiz and Capiz was Aklan. And Jose Cortes Altavas personified this wholeness. He was the androgynous of the Akeanon’s spirit and the Capizeño’s soul. His consciousness was undivided; his memory encompassed his routine of sailing from Panay River into the Sibuyan Sea to Batan Bay and of horseback riding from Batan to Balete or to Kalibo.
Yet it cannot be denied that the western part of Capiz (today’s Second District of Capiz including five municipalities of the present day Aklan, i.e., Altavas, Balete, Banga, Batan and New Washington) had been his political bailiwick. He served as its Congressman when Capiz was divided into three Congressional Districts in time for the First Philippine Assembly of 1907. Although most in his adult life, Jose Altavas resided in the capital town of Capiz, deep in his heart, he is an Akeanon and that the memories of his childhood always bring him home to his little town of Balete.
The gist of the 1998 Sangguniang Bayan Resolution of the Municipality of Balete expressed deeply its collective understanding that it is “proper and necessary to construct a monument of the late Sen. Jose Cortes Altavas at the very place of his birth to remind the people of Balete of the greatness of the human spirit to soar beyond the ordinary to become an epitome of valor and magnanimity.” /MP