Romualdez, Lopez, and Claveria's lasting legacy

The recent detention of Atty. Zuleika Lopez, chief of staff to Vice President Sara Duterte, by the House of Representatives sparked a clash between Duterte and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. Despite sharing the surname "Lopez," Zuleika and Romualdez are unrelated, underscoring the prevalence of shared surnames in the Philippines due to the 1849 Claveria decree, which distributed a standardized list of surnames across the colony.

One such surname, Lopez, rooted in the Latin lupus (wolf), ranks as the 14th most common Filipino surname, borne by over 230,000 individuals nationwide. In today's final write-up about the impact of the Claveria surname decree of 1849, we explore why many Filipinos share similar last names but are not at all related, using "Lopez" as a good illustration for this phenomenon.

The first, found in Metro Manila, is the Honorio Lopez line, and is Ilocano in origin. Honorio Lopez is known as the first Filipino to produce a purely-Tagalog almanac and his descendants include former Manila mayor Gemiliano "Mel" Lopez Jr. and Manila second District Congressman Jaime Lopez. This Lopez line comes from Batac, Ilocos Norte, and simply adopted the surname in 1849.

Then let's go to the Visayas where there are three distinct Lopez lines from the same town of Iloilo and one in Leyte: the Maximo Lopez and the Basilio Lopez lines of Iloilo and the Francisco Lopez line of Leyte. The Maximo Lopez family were mestizo Spanish which began with Don Máximo Lopez, a Spanish mestizo whose descendants include Filipino journalist and founder of the newspaper La Solidaridad, Graciano López Jaena, and Don Roque Lopez, who used his inheritance to finance the revolution and support the families of the revolutionaries. On the other hand, the Basilio Lopez line is popular for its diverse economic and political clout, the family beginning with Don Basilio Lopez who was a Chinese mestizo whose progeny include Fernando Lopez who served two separate terms of vice president of the Philippines; Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr., founder of ABS-CBN and Meralco, among other business interests; Gina Lopez, the former DENR secretary; and Carlos Lopez Katigbak, president and CEO of ABS-CBN.

The fourth Lopez line is the purely Hispanic Francisco Lopez line, descended from Friar Francisco Miguel Lopez Silgado, who came from Ellora, Granada, Spain. He was a pioneering priest who built towns in rural Leyte and his descendants have helped shape Philippine history. Among his descendants are former first lady Imelda Marcos and the rest of the Romualdez clan (including Speaker Martin Romualdez, naturally) and actor Ian Lopez Veneracion.

The final line is the Elias Lopez line of Davao City. Elias Lopez was a Bagobo, one of the indigenous peoples of Davao. Elias Lopez became a mayor of Davao City while his son Roy Elias Lopez served as a congressman. A brother of Elias Lopez was former Regional Trial Court judge Jose B. Lopez, whose daughter is Zuleika T. Lopez, the embattled chief of staff of VP Sara.

There are hundreds of Lopez families in the Philippines, but from these five lines alone it is clear that having the same family name, even among the wealthy and the influential clans, does not always translate to being relatives. So, the next time you meet someone who shares your last name, ask first from which line he or she is to know if you are related or not. Claveria’s surname decree, which was enacted 175 years ago, continues to influence people’s beliefs and still creates confusion among families today.