Hilarion Guia

Hilarion Magbuhos Guia was a Filipino educator, leprosy activist and the first mayor of Culion, Palawan. He was afflicted with leprosy until the 1960s.

Early life Hilarion Magbuhos Guia was born on October 21, 1942, to Gil Guia and Maria Magbuhos in Mabini, Batangas. He was the youngest of nine children of a family which owned vast agricultural lands. He and five other siblings contracted leprosy and the family had to sell the lands for medical treatment expenses.

Biography Living with leprosy, education and teaching Hilarion Guia was orphaned at age three left to the care of his grandmother Francisca Gonzales. Guia went to the Culion leper colony in May 1950 motivated with the prospect of attaining formal education. He attended the Culion Catholic Elementary School and St. Ignatius Academy. He was declared cured of leprosy in the early 1960s.

Guia moved to the Central Luzon Sanitarium in Tala, Caloocan and enrolled at the Holy Rosary College obtaining a degree in education in 1965. He became close friends with another advocate and politician, Ramon Mitra, in the 1960s. Senator Mitra filed a bill in 1971 to make Culion a municipality. However the efforts were frozen when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. Emiliano Marasigan was his vice mayor.

Later life and death After serving as mayor, Guia returned to teaching.

Personal life Hilarion Guia was afflicted with leprosy which rendered his hands unusable. He admitted that like others who contracted leprosy, the disease has affected his self-esteem but as of 2006 this is no longer the case.

Guia married Rosalinda Hilao, a daughter of a leper who remained unafflicted of the disease. They did not have biological children but the couple became surrogate parents of five children from different leprosy parents.