Miguel Cuenco

Miguel Diosomito Cuenco (December 15, 1904 – June 30, 1990) was a Filipino Visayan lawyer, journalist, and legislator from Cebu, Philippines. Except the years from 1941 to 1945 (dissolution during the Second Philippine Republic) and from 1946 to 1949, he served as member of the Lower House of Congress representing the 5th legislative district of Cebu from 1935 to 1965.

Early life Miguel Cuenco was born to the couple Mariano Albao Cuenco of Sogod, Cebu and Remedios Lopez Diosomito of Baybay, Leyte on December 15, 1904. His siblings were Jose Ma. Cuenco, the first Archbishop of Jaro, Iloilo, and former Senate President Mariano Jesus Cuenco.

He pursued further studies in the United States, attending Yale University, Harvard University and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he took Diplomacy and International Relations.

Miguel Cuenco married Fara Remia Jalbuena Ledesma on May 27, 1948.

Legal education He also was a professor of political law at the University of San Carlos and later became the dean of the College of Law. Before the war, he was appointed by the Supreme Court as member of the committee responsible for amending the Code of Legal Ethics by the recommendation of Jose P. Laurel. The Osmeñas and Cuencos later established alliance in 1954 to 1955, a political fusion that Miguel hesitated to join for quite some time.

Affiliated with the Nacionalista Party,

As legislator in the Lower House of Congress, he authored the Republic Act 709, a law approved on June 5, 1952, and that required the mandatory teaching of Spanish language in colleges and universities. He was Chairman on the Committee on Elections from 1931 until 1935, Chairman of the Committee on Public Works from 1934 to 1945, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and member of the following committees: on Revision of Laws, and on Labor and Industrial Relations. In April 1954, he was part of the Philippine delegation to the Geneva International Conference. However, he declined the offers of President Manuel Roxas and later President Elpidio Quirino for diplomatic posts for the United States, United Nations, Spain, Rome or Shanghai.

In 1958, he filed a complaint against Dioscoro Lazaro, Manuel Cuenco, Jose P. Velez, Jesus P. Velez, Federico A. Reyes, and Nicolas Jumapao for an article published on The Republic Daily, a Cebu newspaper of which Lazaro was the publisher, that reported Cuenco was sued by the company for issues allegedly involving the company's management. The case was dismissed by the Supreme Court on March 31, 1976.

The Supreme Court also ruled a separate case involving the assets of Bisaya Land Transportation, stating that Cuenco's rights to the assets only arise upon the dissolution of the company.

Later years On December 17, 1965, he announced his retirement from politics .