Senator Manuel C. Briones

The result of the 1951 senatorial elections held on November 13, 1951 was unlike the 1946 elections wherein Visayans dominated the elections. There was only a lone Cebuano victor and he was Manuel C. Briones.

Manuel in the preceding election ran for vice president, his presidential tandem was Jose P. Laurel.  He was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court at the time he submitted his resignation and paid a call to President Elpidio Quirino on June 18, 1949. Quirino sought for his election, as he succeeded Roxas who died in 1948. Quirino was with the Liberal Party while Briones was with the Nacionalista. In that presidential election in 1949, Briones lost to Fernando Lopez of the Liberal Party, so did the presidential candidate of the Nacionalista Party, Jose P. Laurel, who lost to Quirino.

The next election, a midterm election with 8 senatorial seats to be voted, the entire Liberal Party slate lost. The election was dominated by the Nacionalista Party and one of them was the Cebuano jurist and veteran legislature Manuel C. Briones.

Jose P. Laurel, who lost in the 1949 presidential elections, topped the senatorial candidates with Manuel Briones in 3rd place. Briones was followed by the Boholano and future president, Carlos Polistico Garcia. Laurel who was president during the Japanese occupation became the president again. He was elected senator after serving as president. Laurel was also Senate president.

The Senate president prior to the elections in 1951 was the then former governor of Cebu, Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco. He lost, placing 12th among 20 candidates. The other Visayans of the Liberal Party slate were Pio Pedrosa of Leyte (Finance Secretary and Founder of  Prudential Bank) and Juan Borra, a congressman of the then fifth district of Iloilo.

It was in the 1951 elections that the block voting was abolished, a mode of casting votes that was introduced in 1941. Under Republic Act 599, approved on March 28, 1951, the Revised Election Code was further amended.

Senator Manuel C. Briones was born on January 1, 1894 and the child of Pedro Cabahug and Apolonia Briones. Pedro was the son of Bartolo Cabahug and Florencia Seno. The reason why Manuel carried the family name of his mother was because when the latter died, he was sent to the brother of his mother who was a priest and part of the arrangement was to carry the surname of his mother.

Manuel had a brother by the name of Buenaventura who married Victoria Lopez. Manuel took up law and became a lawyer on November 3, 1916. Briones entered politics by running as representative of the old first district of Cebu. Briones was assemblyman of the district from 1919 to 1931. This was from the fifth Philippine Legislature up to the eight Philippine Legislature. The old 1st district was composed of Bogo, Borbon, Carmen, Catmon, Danao, Pilar, San Francisco, Tabogon, Tudela, Poro, and Sogod.

Senator Manuel Briones was first elected as Senator on June 2, 1931. At that time (from 1916 to 1935) senators were elected by districts instead of  being elected at large or nationwide starting in 1941. Cebu was allocated the tenth senatorial district. Every senatorial district has to elect two senators, in 1931 the fellow senator of  Briones was Don Sergio Osmeña, who in 1935, ran for vice president under the party he founded, the Nacionalista Party.

Manuel C. Briones married Celestina Lorenzo and had the following children: Jose, Jesus, Antonio, Domingo and Esperanza (who married a Blanco).

Jose, a son, also became a lawyer on March 13, 1946. Jose was elected councilor of Cebu City, governor of Cebu from 1956 to 1961, then as congressman of the old second district of Cebu from 1961 to 1969. Father and son have streets (M.C. Briones St. and Jose L. Briones) in Cebu City named after them. Senator Briones, the legislature, jurist, and writer, the pride of Mandaue, died on September 29, 1957.

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