Delgado, Francisco Afán, 1886-1964

Francisco Afán Delgado (January 25, 1886 - October 27, 1964) was a Filipino lawyer, diplomat, and politician. He notably served as a Resident Commissioner from the Philippine Islands from 1935 to 1936 and Ambassador to the United Nations from the Philippines from 1958 to 1962.

Born in Bulakan, Bulacan Province, he studied at San Juan de Letran and Ateneo de Manila schools for his primary education before attending Colegio Filipino, a law school. As a pensionado (a student sent by the government to study abroad), he attended Los Angeles High School and Compton High School in California for his senior year. Delgado moved to Bloomington, Indiana, and earned a bachelor of laws degree at Indiana University in 1907. He then attended the University of Chicago and Yale, earning a master of laws degree at the latter school in 1908. After graduation, Delgado passed the Indiana state bar and briefly worked in an Indianapolis law firm.

When Delgado returned to the Philippines in 1908, he was employed as a law clerk and later as chief of the legal division of the executive bureau. In 1913 he left government service to start his own law firm, where he worked for the next two decades building a reputation as one of the islands’ top lawyers. During World War I, Delgado served in the Philippine national guard and was a member of the islands’ national council of defense. In June 1931, Delgado won popular election to the Philippine house of representatives, where he represented Bulacan, his home province. He was re-elected to a second term in June 1934. Delgado chaired the committee on external relations, a panel specially created by the legislature to help in the transition from colonial rule to independence. On August 22, 1934, by unanimous resolution, the Philippine house of representatives, with the senate concurring, elected Delgado as Resident Commissioner to the post being vacated by Camilo Osias.

Delgado did not have much time to pursue an agenda in the House: He was among the last Resident Commissioners elected by the territorial legislature. For the previous 30 years, the Philippines had sent Resident Commissioners to Congress in pairs, one elected by the assembly and the other by the commission. The overwhelming bulk of Delgado’s legislative emphasis concerned tariffs, taxes, and quota reductions that adversely affected the Philippines’ primary agricultural exports. On February 14, 1936, when the Philippines inaugurated its commonwealth government, Delgado’s term of service in the House came to an end. President Manuel Quezon appointed Delgado to serve as an appeals court justice in the Philippines, where he remained for about a year.

For much of the next decade, he worked as a private attorney. In 1945 President Harry Truman appointed Delgado to the Philippine War Damage Commission. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Delgado served in that capacity for five years. He also served as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945. Delgado was elected to the Philippine senate and served there from 1951 to 1957. From September 1958 to January 1962, he served as the Philippines’ ambassador to the United Nations. Delgado died in Manila on October 27, 1964.