Ilustre, a director of the Hong Kong junta from 1899 to 1901, was one of the five Filipino members of the Philippine Commission from 1913 to 1916. In 1916 he ran for senator as an independent and won. Vicente Illustre -- propagandist, lawyer, writer and statesman -- was born in Taal, Batangas on September 8, 1869 to Ramon Ilustre and Ignacia Encarnacion. He took up law at Santo Tomas after attending the Ateneo Municipal, and in 1895, went to Spain to continue his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he obtained his Licentiate and Doctorate in Law. Like other Filipino scholars in Spain, he worked for political reforms in the colony. He was elected vice-president of the Philippine Revolutionary Council in Madrid in 1899 but rejected the position for he had intended to join the Revolutionary Government in the Philippines. On his way home in 1900, he helped in the reorganization of the Central Revolutionary Committee in Hongkong where he served as director of diplomacy. Ilustre was back in the islands in 1903, passed the bar examination and married Rita Villavicencio in 1905; was president of the board for the bar exams in 1909, President of the College of Law of the Philippines in 1910, and appointed member of the Philippine Commission in 1913. As member of the Philippine Commission, he was president of the Committees on Mindanao and Sulu, on Miscellaneous Affairs, and on Justice and Treasury. In 1916, he ran as an independent Senatorial candidate, won and represented the fifth Senatorial district. He retired from the public service after his term in the Senate, and thereafter, practised law. He died of a heart attack in October, 1928.