In 1902 Cruz helped organize the Union Obrera Democratica Filipinas, the first labor union in the Philippines. He was instrumental in the passage of several labor laws, one of which created the Bureau of Labor. Labor leader Hermenegildo Cruz was born to Hermenegildo Cruz Sr., and Vicenta Castro, a poor couple from Binondo, Manila, on December 31, 1880. After the early death of his parents, he shouldered the responsibility of sending to school an elder sister and his younger brothers while he studied by himself. During the revolution he was a second lieutenant on the staff of General Luna, despite his physical infirmity. He became a press man in the shop which printed the periodical La Independencia but lost this job after he had led a strike in the San Fernando, Pampanga, plant in 1899. He returned to Manila and met Isabelo de los Reyes, another champion of the labor cause. They organized the first labor union in the country, Union Obrera Democratica de Filipinas, and simultaneously formed the printers'' union. On February 2, 1902, he was elected president of the first Labor Congress of the Philippines. Earlier, he was designated chairman of the committee which prepared the draft of the constitution of the proposed federation of labor unions. He was instrumental in the passage of several labor laws, notably that which created the Bureau of Labor, where he later became Assistant Director in 1918 and finally Director from 1924-36.