Cornelio Balmaceda

Cornelio Balmaceda (born Cornelio Agor Balmaceda, September 15, 1896 – April 17, 1982) was a former Secretary of Commerce and Industries in the Philippines. He was also one of the original board of trustees and then later became president of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

Known for his notable achievements in Philippine government, particularly the creation of the Department of Commerce and Industry and his leadership in the establishment of the Asian Development Bank in the Philippines, Balmaceda was also a writer and a journalist.

Balmaceda was born on September 15, 1896 in San Miguel (now Sarrat), Ilocos Norte. The son of farmers, Santos Balmaceda and Crispina Agor, he became the only child after his four siblings died in infancy. He attended elementary school in Sarrat and the first three years of high school in Laoag, Ilocos Norte. He left for Manila when he was sixteen to finish his last year of high school in the Manila High School. Having been taught by American teachers who were sent to the Philippines to teach English when the Americans took over the country, Balmaceda became fluent in English.

For his first job, he was hired as a cub reporter in the Manila Times, a daily newspaper in Manila run by American journalists. In a few weeks he was given a regular beat as news reporter until he rose to be an editorial writer. Balmaceda was among the first five Filipino newspapermen who wrote in English. He enrolled in the University of the Philippines where he finished a degree in Bachelor of Arts in 1918. He was granted a government scholarship to study in Harvard University where he obtained an MBA, major in Foreign Trade in 1922. He finished a Law degree at the University of Manila in 1927 and passed the Philippine bar in December of the same year. He married Monica Jamias with whom he has seven children: Cornelio, Jr., Erlinda, Zenaida, Virginia, Gloria, Grace and Rose Marie.

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