Cesar Climaco

Cesar Cortez Climaco (February 28, 1916 – November 14, 1984) was a Filipino politician who served as mayor of Zamboanga City for 11 years over three nonconsecutive terms.

A prominent critic of the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos, he was famed for his toughness in governance and colorful personality.

He was also famous for his refusal to cut his hair until democratic rule was restored in the Philippines.

Climaco earned his law degree in 1941, and was admitted to the Philippine bar later that year after having passed the bar examinations.

Climaco first entered political life when he ran and won a seat in the Zamboanga City council in 1951.

Within two years, at the age of 37, he would be appointed as mayor of Zamboanga City, holding the post until the following year.

In 1954, Climaco joined the Operation Brotherhood, a group sponsored by the Jaycees to help provide for medical and relief needs to refugees in war-torn Vietnam.

As the project manager and field coordinator based in Vietnam, Climaco earned the friendship of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and found his activities covered by Life magazine.

During his campaign for the mayorship, the melody of "O My Darling, Clementine" was used in "Ay si Cesar, Ay si Cesar Climaco" sung in Chavacano.

Climaco first won election as Zamboanga City mayor in 1956, as a candidate of the Liberal Party, and served in such capacity until 1961.

Climaco became a national figure during his first stint as Zamboanga City mayor.

He became known for his personal courage, as shown by his willingness to venture alone out to hotspots and personally confront neighborhood toughs with threats of imprisonment.

He maintained a similarly tough stance towards the city's policemen, once disarming cops he caught asleep at their posts during a surprise inspection.

Climaco also maintained a harmonious relationship with the city's Muslim population, and cracked down on gambling.

As mayor, Climaco ordered the construction of Abong-Abong park in Pasonanca, which was planned to provide space for a camp site, housing projects, and a shantytown to house the city's homeless population.

During this period, Zamboanga City earned the appellation as the cleanest city in the Philippines.

One measure he enacted to earn such a reputation for his city was a directive requiring all horses in horse-drawn carriages to be tied with diapers beneath their tails as they plied their routes.

He struck a friendship with the mayor of Manila, Arsenio Lacson, who had earned a similar reputation for toughness and good governance.

Climaco soon earned the nickname "Arsenio Lacson of the South", to which Lacson remarked that at the rate Climaco was going, the Manila mayor would soon be known as the "Climaco of the North".

In 1961, Climaco gave up his post as mayor for an unsuccessful run for the Senate under the Liberal Party, in which he finished 12th.

After his defeat, he was appointed by President Diosdado Macapagal as Commissioner of Customs.

As Customs Commissioner, he brought in cadets from the Philippine Military Academy, vaunted for their idealism and honesty, to work in a Bureau of Customs which had long been reputedly corrupt.

He again ran and lost for a Senate seat in 1963.

Climaco then was appointed as a Presidential Assistant under Macapagal.

In 1965, Climaco tried for a third time to win election as a senator, but fell around 4,000 votes shy.

In the same election, his political ally, President Macapagal, was defeated for re-election by a law school contemporary and friend of Climaco's, Senate President Ferdinand Marcos.

President Marcos declared martial law in 1972.

Distressed at the development, Climaco left for exile to the United States He vowed never to cut his hair until democratic rule was restored in the country.

He returned to the Philippines in 1976, and two years later, sought election to the Interim Batasang Pambansa as a member from Zamboanga.

He was defeated in this effort.

In 1980, Climaco staged his political comeback when he won re-election as Zamboanga City mayor under the banner of a political party he had organized, the Concerned Citizen's Aggrupation.

By that time, crime and violence, often at the hands of policemen and the military, had become prevalent in the city, and a frustrated Climaco posted a scoreboard in front of city hall listing a running tally of unsolved violent crimes in the city.

He was assassinated by an unknown gunman in 1984.

Climaco was born in Zamboanga City, the son of a customs broker who later became a municipal councilor.

He finished his primary and secondary education in his hometown, then moved to Manila together with his future wife, Julia, to pursue a college education.

He enrolled in a pre-law course at the University of Santo Tomas and worked as a family driver to finance his studies.

He then studied law at the University of the Philippines College of Law, working at the same time as a janitor at the Court of Appeals.

Coincidentally, his older brother Rafael, also a law student at UP, became an associate justice of the Court of Appeals under President Marcos.

It was sung during his funeral in 1984.

Coincidentally, "O my Darling Clementine" was the love song of Cesar Climaco to his wife, Julia Floreta-Climaco.