The 11th Senatorial District
It was in 1907 during the American regime that the National Assembly, today’s House of Representatives, was established with Don Sergio Suico Osmeña Sr. as the first elected Speaker. In 1916, Congressman William Atkinson Jones of the State of Virginia authored the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916. It is the law that created the Philippine Senate.
That Senate was unlike now where our senators are elected at large, meaning the whole country votes for them. Under the Jones Law, the country was divided into 12 senatorial districts, with two senators representing every district. The first six districts were composed of the provinces in Luzon. The 7th to 12th Senatorial Districts were composed of Visayas and Mindanao provinces, with Cebu as the 10th District. This was only from 1916 to 1935 as the 1935 Constitution abolished the Senate. However, a constitutional amendment restored the Senate in 1940. This time the 24 senators were elected nationwide.
The 11th Senatorial District was composed of the Provinces of Bohol, Misamis and Surigao. From 1916 up to 1935 there were five who were given the privilege of representing the district. The longest to serve was the Boholano lawyer and congressional veteran, Jose Aniceto Butalid Clarin, the only one who was senator of the district from 1916 to 1935. Jose was the son of Governor Aniceto Velez Clarin, who traced his roots to Cebu. In his honor, a municipality in Misamis Occidental is named after him, while the Municipality of Clarin, Bohol, is named after his father, Governor Clarin, the first civilian governor of Bohol.
The other Boholano who represented the senatorial district was Juan Torralba who also served as pioneer Congressman of the old 1st Congressional District of Bohol composed then of the towns of Antequera, Baclayon, Balilihan, Calape, Corella, Cortes, Dauis, Loay, Maribojoc, Panglao, Tagbilaran, and San Isidro. He was also Governor of Bohol from 1922 to 1928. Senator Torralba was the son of Margarito Torralba and Cirila Sarmiento. He was born on March 7, 1883. The brother of Senator Juan Torralba by the name of Ramon finished Doctor of Medicine at the University of Sto. Tomas, became a military doctor, an decided to live in Cebu. He married Lourdes Velez Rosal. A street in Barangay Apas, formerly called Stephenson Street, has been renamed after Col. Ramon Torralba. The other three senators were Nicolas Capistrano who originally came from Bulacan but lived in Cagayan de Misamis (now Cagayan de Oro), Francisco Soriano, and Troadio Galicano of Carcar, Cebu.