Vicente Encarnacion Singson (1913)
Singson was a business executive, lawyer, and senator from Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Son of Agripino Singson and Benita Encarnacion, Vicente Singson Encarnacion, who advocated the establishment of a Central Bank, was bon in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, on August 5, 1875. He received his A.B. degree at the Ateneo and his LL.B. at Santo Tomas. A year after passing the bar examination in 1901, he served as provincial fiscal of Ilocos Sur up to 1907, when he was elected delegate of Ilocos Sur to the first Philippine Assembly. He was reelected in 1909. From 1913 to 1916, he became a member of the first Philippine Commission, and from 1916 to 1922, served in the newly established Philippine Senate, representing the first senatorial district. During his term, in 1919, he joined the Philippine independence mission to the U.S., and at the end of his term in 1922, went into the insurance, real estate and banking businesses. After a decade, in 1932, he returned to public service. In the Cabinet of Governor Theodore Roosevelt, he served as the Secretary of Agriculture and concurrently acting Finance Secretary. At that time the Philippine monetary system was closely linked to that of the U.S and domestic monetary supply was precariously contingent upon the country''s balance of payments position. The government could only issue currency equal to the amount of the country''s dollar earnings. Singson saw the need to change radically the financial structure by establishing an independent currency system for the Philippines. He proposed the establishment of the Central Bank of the Philippines, realized in 1949, by virtue of R.A. 265. Singson, married to Lucila Diaz Conde, by whom he had 8 children, died in Caloocan, Rizal, on May 27, 1961, at the age of 86.
With prints
Reproduction: Photoengraving
Keywords: 1913; Men and women in politics and government