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(Eva Estrada Kalaw)
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The first woman senator to be reelected, Eva held the distinction for many firsts. The first to be elected straight to the senate without having held any other political position, she was also the first woman to become the president of a political party.


Eva was the first to organize a women's march long before the parliament of the streets became fashionable in the mid 1980s. She was the first woman senator to be jailed by the martial law regime, and she was the first woman leader considered for the position of president of the Philippines.


As a senator from 1966 to 1972, Mrs. Kalaw authored such bills as the conversion of the Social Welfare Administration into the Department of Social Welfare, representation of student regents in the boards of regents of state universities and colleges, creation of barrio high schools at a time when the majority of Filipino children never went past grade six because they lived too far away from their town's or district's only public high school, standardization and increase of the salaries of public school teachers and the creation of the Department of Tourism, although the last was overtaken by the declaration of martial law.



As soon as she entered the University of the Philippines for her college education, Eva became a campus figure. Right in her freshman year, she became a regimental sponsor. In her junior year, she was voted corps sponsor, a distinction usually reserved for a graduating student.


At the University of the Philippines Eva Estrada met Teodoro Kalaw Jr. of the famous family from Batangas. His father, Teodoro Sr., was the nationalistic writer and first director of the National Library, while his mother, Pura, was the leading champion of women's suffrage.


She related in an interview: 

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"I chose shooting for my Physical Education, and I met Teddy Kalaw in the shooting range."


"I could beat all the champion shooters like Olympians Martin Hizon and Otoniel Gonzaga in the rapid fire and caliber 45 categories. But I couldn't beat Teodoro Kalaw Jr. Since the loser had to do something for the one who won, I ended up baking a cake for him all the time."

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Teddy Kalaw courted her but she kept in mind her father Salvador's tough "rule" for the Estrada girls to finish college first before they could have a steady boyfriend. It was only after his Capaz March "stint" that Teddy Kalaw proposed marriage to Eva Estrada. They married during the Japanese time.



Having the formidable Pura Villanueva Kalaw for a mother-in-law made a lot of difference in Eva Kalaw's life. Eva recalled, "Once my mother-in-law saw me darning Teddy's socks. She asked me, ‘Is that what you went to college for?' Darn your husband's socks?'"


Not long after, Eva was thrust into the benevolent world of the Kalaws. She raised funds as a Boys Town volunteer and headed the subcommittee which organized the Miss Philippines Contest. She also organized the Philippine Jaycerettes and became its first president.



Eva was elected senator in 1965. Although a token female candidate of the Nacionalista Party, she landed fifth in the race. As a Nacionalista senator who was expected to toe the party line, she opposed the sending of Filipino troops to Vietnam, much to the disappointment the then President Ferdinand Marcos. It was the first time that someone would stand up to the popular chief executive of the land.


Relations between Kalaw and the ruling Nacionalista Party were uneasy under the Marcos administration. The increasing authoritarianism of the Marcos government led Kalaw to become one of the few people within the party to criticize the administration. By 1971, convinced that the party will not include her in the senatorial slate for the upcoming elections, Kalaw decided to accept the offer from her cousin, opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr., to become guest candidate of the Liberal Party.


Kalaw was one of the wounded in the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing. All her life, she carried a shrapnel in her body. She won in her reelection bid, a first for a woman senator.


Other than her women constituency, Eva had the backing of her husband, Teddy Kalaw, whose generosity to his wife made things easy for her. During the martial law years, Eva Kalaw presided over a rich table in her San Juan home where the oppositionists came to discuss their moves. They fondly called the Kalaw residence "Casa Eva."



Twice she was jailed on charges of subversion. And twice, she proved to them they could not destroy her. In one of her jail terms, right in the cell where her cousin, Benigno Aquino Jr., was kept in solitary confinement, she requested for her books, piano and novenas. Incarceration, for her, became a time for reflection and peace.


In 1984, she ran for Assemblyman in the Batasan Pambansa, won, and remained at the forefront of the opposition. When she arrived at the Batasang Pambansa during the opening of the 1984 session, her colleagues and the gallery crowd cheered and stood up. It was a rousing recognition of her stature in Philippine politics, and eloquently expressed her fellow lawmakers' great esteem for her.


In less than two years' time, the 1986 EDSA Revolution took place. She ran for Vice President during the Snap Election of 1986 but lost. She ran for Senator in 1987 but did not make it. Her last position in the government was as a managing director and resident representative of the Philippines at the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, the country's de facto embassy in Taipei, during the Estrada administration.


Mrs. Kalaw may not have sustained her political victories, but her unwavering commitment to the causes of freedom and democracy, development of women, family and children's welfare and the wellbeing of the OFW, among others, to her last breath bequeathed to her in turn the love, admiration and gratitude of the multitude who recognized in her a real champion of the Filipino people and nation.


Eva Estrada Kalaw died on May 25, 2017 at the age of 96 due to an undisclosed ailment. She is survived by her daughter Chingbee Kalaw-Cuenca, sons Teodoro III, Salvador and Tyrone, as well as 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Her remains were laid to rest at Loyola Memorial Park in Parañaque City.





Source: 

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Eva Estrada Kalaw, Wikipedia
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<li>
Woman ahead of her time, Jojo G. Silvestre, June 15, 2020, Manila Tribune 
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</ul>

June 16, 1920: Eva Estrada Kalaw was born in Murcia, Tarlac