You might be related.  Start your tree to find out. It's free!

We’ll search our network daily and notify you when we find family tree matches.

Start your tree
Added by rickwittner

Hortensia Lopez Laguda

1921-2010
Born: Lloilo, Lloilo, Philippines
Died: Negros Occidental, Philippines

Footprints
 
Family Members
  • Getting family members ...
 
Life Story
  • Birth

  • Marriage

  • Death

  • Story: Obit

    <p align="center"><span style="font-size: 1.25em;"><strong><span>Former congresswoman Hortensia Starke, 89 </span><br></strong></span></p> <p align="center"><span>By Carla Gomez</span><br><span>Inquirer Visayas</span><br><span>First Posted 08:51:00 12/02/2010</span><br><br><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <div> <p>BACOLOD CITY--Former Representative Hortensia Starke, the fearless critic of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, champion of the sugar industry during the dictatorship, and staunch opponent of land reform, died on Monday at her home in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.</p> <p>"She was 89 and her heart gave out," her son Mark Hodel said.</p> <p>Starke represented Negros Occidental's sixth district in Congress from 1987 to 1995.</p> <p>"I am saddened to hear of [her] passing. She was a sincere, strong, and courageous fighter for reforms in the sugar industry. We will surely miss her," said Government Service Insurance System chairman Daniel Lacson Jr., who was Negros Occidental<span style="color: blue;"> governor</span> when Starke was in Congress.</p> <p>Rafael Coscolluela, another former governor and former head of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, said Starke was one of the most colorful personalities in Negros.</p> <p>"Hortense brought a unique presence to local and national politics. She spoke her mind without hesitation and fought for her causes without fear. It was good to have her on our side during the difficult martial law era and during the early post-Marcos <span style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="position: static; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: blue; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400;"><span class="kLink" style="position: relative; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: blue !important; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400;">elections</span></span></span></span>," Coscolluela said.</p> </div> <p align="center">&nbsp;</p>

  • Story: Politics

    <p>Open for Business<br><br>Land as a source of wealth and power is waning; instead the business interests of the members of the House of Representatives are more varied, a sign of the modernization, if not the democratization, of the Philippine elite.<br><br>by Sheila S. Coronel<br><br>Negros Occidental Rep. Hortensia Starke often behaved like she had wandered off the set of Gone with the Wind, but she was also the most eloquent defender of landlord interests in the 8th House of Representatives.<br><br>THOSE WERE the days. In July 1988, in the first-ever State of the Nation of Address made by a post-Marcos president in Congress, sugar planter and Negros Occidental Rep. Hortensia Starke marched triumphantly into the session hall attired in a swirling ball gown and twirling a frilly parasol.<br><br>Just a month before, the House of Representatives had passed an emasculated land reform bill, with 118 voting for and only 49 against it. Starke was one of the most eloquent defenders of landlord interests in the legislature. "Your land is like your favorite dress," she said at one point. "If it is taken away from you, it is as if you have been stripped." When Starke, clad in all her finery, strode into Congress that day, the symbolism was too much to bear: It was seen as the clearest signal of the victory of the landed aristocracy.<br><br>Since then, the image of the House of Representatives as a "landlord-dominated House" was etched in the public mind. Up to now, nearly 40 percent of congressmen still own agricultural land, but this is down from 58 percent a decade ago. Despite this decline, the ranks of Congress still include members of the biggest landowning families in the country: Rep. Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III is part of the Cojuangco clan, which owns the 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac; his cousins Mark and Carlos Cojuangco are heirs of their father's estates, which include at least 3,000 hectares in Negros Occidental; and Antonio 'Tonyboy' Floirendo Jr. stands to inherit control of a 5,000-hectare banana plantation in Davao del Sur.<br><br>Yet the days of Hortensia Starke are over. For sure, Congress remains a house of privilege, where the landed and wealthy dominate. But agricultural land as the foundation of power has been eclipsed by other sources of wealth, including manufacturing, services (construction, restaurants, schools, labor contracting, among others), and trade. This trend was already evident in the 1980s, but the image of the likes of Starke was so compelling, it hid the reality that the hacienderos, for all their flair, are a dying class.<br><br></p>

 
 
Do you know more about this person's life story? Contact profile creator rickwittner
Errors OccurredX
Errors Loading Page_