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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/felipe_calderon.webp"  alt="Felipe Calderon" />
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Felipe Calderon in 1900
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<h2>
Early Life and Education
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Calderon grew up in Cavite at a time when liberal and reformist ideas were spreading among ilustrado families under Spanish rule. Showing early academic promise, he obtained a scholarship to study at the <a href="/articles/2987/history-of-ateneo-de-manila-university" class="news_link">Ateneo Municipal de Manila</a>, where he completed his primary and secondary education and graduated with high honors in the Bachelor of Arts program. After Ateneo, he proceeded to the <a href="/articles/3223/a-historical-account-of-the-university-of-santo-tomas-a-chronicle-of-resilience-scholarship-and-national-identity" class="news_link">University of Santo Tomas</a> to study law, finishing his legal studies in the early 1890s and training in the law office of <a href="/kauswagan/articles/970/cayetano-arellano-first-chief-justice-of-the-supreme-court-was-born-on-march-2-1847-in-orion-bataan" class="news_link">Cayetano Arellano</a>, who would later become the first Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court under American administration.
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<h2>
Lawyer, writer, and revolutionary
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Before full-time legal practice, Calderon wrote for several Manila newspapers, sharpening both his prose and his grasp of political and social issues in the late Spanish period. During the Philippine Revolution, he aligned himself with the revolutionary cause seeking independence from Spain and was at one point imprisoned by Spanish colonial authorities for his activities. His blend of legal training, journalism, and nationalist commitment positioned him to play a significant role once Filipinos began building their own institutions of self-government.
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<h2>
Malolos Congress and the First Philippine Republic
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In September 1898, after the return of  <a href="/articles/3325/emilio-aguinaldos-life-and-leadership" class="news_link">Emilio Aguinaldo</a>from exile in Hong Kong, Calderon accepted the appointment as representative of the first district of Paragua (now Palawan) to the Revolutionary Congress convened in Malolos, Bulacan. Within this body he emerged as chief architect of the constitution that would govern the nascent republic, drafting what became known as the Malolos Constitution in preference to rival proposals forwarded by <a href="/kauswagan/articles/1564/july-23-1864-apolinario-mabini-was-born-in-talaga-tanauan-batangas" class="news_link">Apolinario Mabini</a> and <a href="/kauswagan/articles/962/today-in-philippine-history-february-27-1858-pedro-paterno-was-born-in-sta-cruz-manila" class="news_link">Pedro Paterno</a>.
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The Malolos Constitution, promulgated in January 1899, established the Political Constitution of the First Philippine Republic and is widely regarded as the first democratic constitution in Asia. Drawing from models in Europe and the Americas, Calderon's draft emphasized popular sovereignty, civil liberties and due process, the separation of powers among the branches of government, and the separation of Church and State - principles that would echo in later Philippine constitutions.
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April 4, 1868: Felipe Calderon was born in Santa Cruz de Malabon, Cavite