Floro Crisologo

Floro Singson Crisologo (July 29, 1908 – October 18, 1970) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who represented the 1st district of Ilocos Sur in the Philippine Congress from 1946 until 1959 and from 1961 until his assassination in 1970.

Early life Crisologo was born on July 29, 1908, in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, to Moises de la Peña Crisologo and Victorina Querol Singson. He graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1933 and was admitted to the bar on November 6 that year. After setting up his law office in Vigan, he was elected in 1934 to the Municipal Council. In 1961, he was elected again to the position and served until his assassination in 1970.

During his stint in Congress, Crisologo authored several laws such as the ones that established the University of Northern Philippines and the Social Security System, and the Tobacco Law. However, Crisologo became controversial due to his attempts to monopolize the tobacco industry in the province by establishing the Farmer's Cooperative Marketing Association (Facoma), which bought the tobacco harvest of the farmers and required all farmers to process their leaves at his drying plant. To enforce this monopoly, he also organized a 300-strong private army, which residents nicknamed the "saka-saka" or the "barefooted", and whose role was to "tax" trucks filled with tobacco bound for Manila for as much as $100 for each vehicle. He was also personally embroiled in incidents of political violence such as during the 1965 elections, when he ran into a convoy of his congressional rival Pablo Sanidad and engaged them in a shootout that killed seven people and injured five others.

The atrocities of the saka-saka later provoked national outrage after they assassinated a former mayor of Bantay, next to Vigan, in 1969 and burned the villages of Ora Este and Ora Centro in the same municipality in May 1970, leading to the death of an elderly woman. After his son, Vincent, was arrested for leading the saka-saka in these incidents, Crisologo reportedly went to Malacañang and appealed for help from his ally, President Ferdinand Marcos, while demanding a greater share of rewards that Marcos had promised him in exchange for supporting his presidential reelection campaign in 1969. When Marcos refused, Crisologo reportedly then threatened to expose Marcos's role and that of his cousin Fabian Ver in cornering the tobacco monopoly in the Ilocos Region. His killer was never found and the case remains unsolved,

No special election was called to replace him in Congress, and his seat remained vacant until the dissolution of Congress in 1972 following the declaration of martial law by President Marcos and was only occupied again in 1987 by his nephew, Chavit Singson following Marcos's overthrow and the restoration of Congress. while he was in Congress. His son, Vincent Crisologo (born in 1947), was convicted for the burning of Ora Este and Ora Centro and jailed until he was pardoned by Marcos in 1980. He later became a politician and congressman in his own right in Quezon City.

In popular culture Crisologo was portrayed by Eddie Rodriguez in the 1991 film Bingbong: The Vincent Crisologo Story and by Eddie Garcia in the 2003 film Chavit.