Postal office honors Salvador Araneta

The birth centenary of Dr. Salvador Araneta, the ardent nationalist, constitutionalist, economist and educator, will be marked by a series of tributes and celebrations, highlighted by the issuance of a commemorative stamp by the Philippine Postal Corp.

The stamp will be presented and autographed in a ceremony led by Postmaster General Nicasio Rodriguez Jr. at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City on Dr. Araneta’s feast day, Jan. 31.

On the same event, three books containing his writings and speeches, published by Bayanikasan Research Foundation and Sahara Heritage Foundation, chaired by his daughter, Ma. Lina Araneta-Santiago, will be launched.

The books — The Bayanikasan Constitution, Christian Democracy for the Philippines and World Government Charter and Supporting Views — reflect what Mrs. Santiago calls Dr. Araneta’s "lifelong work for a change of heart, ideas, values and institutions, motivated by his dream for peace and progress in the country."

Araneta was a member of the Constitutional Conventions of 1933 and 1971. He was founder and twice president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).

He served as Secretary of Economic Coordination under President Elpidio Quirino and Secretary of Agriculture under President Ramon Magsaysay while serving as member of the National Economic Council.

But his career as a public servant was short-lived as he could not suffer politics, and thus was more effective in his work as a private citizen.

As educator, he founded the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation (named after his father who played a key role in Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary government), the first private agricultural school after the war which he endowed with one-sixth of his personal wealth.

He also founded the Feati University to train engineers and mechanics for Far Eastern Air Transportation Inc., the first airline operating after the war and flying regularly to Hong Kong, Shanghai (China) and San Francisco (USA). He founded the airline together with Eugenio Lopez and several others.