The First Elected Municipal President (Now Mayor) of San Remegio, Perfecto Petinglay: A Biography

Biography of  Perfecto Mistas Petinglay

First elected Municipal President (Mayor) of San Remegio

1925-1931

Original written by Deogracias Petinglay and destroyed during the typhoon Frank in 2008

Retyped by Rosalinda Petinglay for documentation purposes. 2012

Perfecto Mistas Petinglay was born on May 6, 1890 at Cadolonan, San Remegio, Antique, to Vicente Pe Tinglay and Liberata Mistas. He was of Chinese parentage, as his father was a native of China and was popularly known in the community as “Ting Lay”. Ting Lay was one of the band of traders and adventurers from China who came to Panay as early as the last decade of the Spanish government in the Philippines and had been to many parts of the country before settling for good in San Remegio.

Two children were born to this Chinese adventurer (Vicente Petinglay, known in China as Pe Tiao Lai) and his native born wife Liberata Mistas. The older son was named Perfecto and the other was named Tomas. As this period at the time of his childhood was rather full of revolts and plan for independence, Perfecto had little or no formal schooling. He was not able to finish elementary grades but he made up for his lack of formal schooling by devoted self study and training that many wondered later on where he finished a higher education.

He entered the government service while still young and served as sanitary inspector, veterinarian, and Chief of Police of San Remegio.

In all of his offices in which he was employed he showed exceptional

ability in dealing with people and he made many friends. But it was also in the course of his government employment that he showed his courage when as Chief of Police he had the law and ordinance obeyed

by every citizen without exception. He and another municipal official nearly fought when he ordered the stray pig of that official to be caught and put in the municipal pound.

In 1924, he ran for the office of Municipal President of San Remegio,

and although his opponents were recognized leaders of the town, Petinglay won. He had already taken to wife a native of San Remegio and daughter of one of the prominent families of the town. She was Lutgarda Masa, oldest daughter of Anastacio Masa and Veronica Erael.

His political career as Municipal President of the town of San Remegio

is well remembered for the many important and lasting improvements he was able to achieve for San Remegio. Some of them are:

1.     The opening of Barrio Schools

2.     The construction of Municipal and Provincial Roads

3.     The transfer of the site of the Poblacion from the Old Town to the new site at Calag-itan.

4.     The construction of municipal building mainly from limited funds and voluntary labor of the residents.

5.     The winning of boundary disputes between San Remegio and Sibalom.

6.     The activation of coconut planting, abaca, lumbang and fruit trees.

After his three year term as Municipal President he ran again for reelection and the people voted him again for office. As municipal President and head of the town, he was imbued with zeal for the progress and prosperity of his people. He foresaw the eventual opening of the virgin lands of San Remegio, and led a group of officials to explore the undeveloped but fertile regions of San Remegio like Cabladan.

Note: (The next sentences were not photocopied properly)

Before his term expired, the Municipal Offices were transferred to Calag-itan in the New Municipal Building. It was also said that he arranged the purchase of the lot in Nasuli to be used as cemetery. Unfortunately, he died before the cemetery was built.

After his dream of making Calag-itan the best municipality was realized, he did not seek another term as Municipal President. Instead, he ran for Municipal Councilor and was elected.

Many municipal presidents and residents have come and gone some may still be living and could testify to the ability, initiative and resourcefulness of Perfecto Petinglay. During the convention of Municipal Presidents of Antique, he was elected Speaker of that body notwithstanding that he was the municipal president of a poor municipality, because of his intelligence, ability and leadership. He could speak English and Spanish fluently and could debate with anyone on various subjects. He had for his private library the Bible, The Faith of our Fathers by Cardinal Gibbons, the Spanish text of Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. He was an avid reader of the Free Press which had its Spanish Section at that time.

As a father he loved his family and always made it a point to bring something for his children home. But beyond material things he gave

his children the thing he would have wanted most if he had the means and sound education. This though not fully realized at the time of his early death, was later fulfilled and all his children now are employed in the government in different capacities.

He was an optimist and no deep trouble or calamities ever disturbed his mind. When his house at the Old Town was burned including his granary and all the family belongings, he never was seen to be affected. “With God nothing is impossible” was his motto and he lived in it and believed in that to the end of his day.

His early death came in December 13, 1934, after a week long illness of influenza. Fate stepped in, to stop the tireless energy of a man who could sleep late at night working on anything he could lay his hands on and wake up very early in the morning to ____ (There’s a 3 or 4 letter word that is not readable) or plow. He died, as he had lived, fearing nothing and trusting in Divine Providence.

Record of Municipal Presidents/Alcalde Mayor

October 16, 1925 to October 15, 1931 – Perfecto Petinglay

October 16, 1931 to December 31, 1937 – Laureano Tabaque

January 1, 1938 to December 31, 1940 – Leoncio Cabrillos

January 1, 1941 to April 15, 1942 – Agustin Marfil

April 16, 1942 to May 31, 1943 – Mateo Gillegao

June 1, 1943 to December 31, 1945 – Leoncio Cabrillos

January 1, 1946 to June 30, 1946 – Crisanto Emmanuel

July 1, 1946 to December 31, 1947 Nemesio Rubino (Appointed)

January 1, 1948 to December 31, 1951 – Silvestre Udani

January 1, 1952 to September 15, 1967 – Blas Rubino

September 16, 1967 to December 31, 1967 – Isidro Bermudes

January 1, 1968 Gideon Cabigunda

(Note: At the time of this writing, Gideon Cabigunda was still the mayor).