Carlos Padilla (politician)

Carlos Mapili Padilla (September 19, 1944 – May 5, 2023) was a Filipino politician who served as the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya from 2016 until his death in 2023. Padilla was elected to his first term as Governor in 2016 and was re-elected in 2019 and 2022.

Early life and education
Carlos Mapili Padilla was born in present-day Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines on September 19, 1944. As an illegitimate child whose father died when he was 13, he was raised by his mother, Victoriana Mapili of Aringay, La Union, and Tayug, Pangasinan, along with his older two siblings. He studied at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), where he served as President of the Supreme Student Council.

Political career
Padilla first served as Mayor of the then-undivided municipality of Dupax, Nueva Vizcaya. He was the last Mayor of an undivided Dupax and the first mayor of Dupax Del Norte after Dupax was split into three municipalities in 1975 namely, Dupax del Norte, Dupax del Sur and Alfonso Castañeda.

House of Representatives
In 1978, he was among eight Assemblymen elected to represent Region II (Cagayan Valley) in the Interim Batasang Pambansa as a member of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party of President Ferdinand Marcos. He ran again in 1984 as an opposition candidate to represent Nueva Vizcaya in the Regular Batasang Pambansa but lost to former Congressman and Senator Leonardo Perez after a bitterly disputed campaign marred by allegations of fraud. He was finally elected to represent Nueva Vizcaya in the restored Congress in 1987.

While in Congress, he served as Deputy Speaker and a Minority Leader. He became a member of very important congressional bodies such as the Commission on Appointments and the House of Representative Electoral Tribunal (HRET). He became the Co-chair of the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCom), a body to assess Philippine education. As Education Committee chairman, he authored the landmark law Free High School Act of 1988 (RA 6655) that ensures free high school education for every Filipino, and RA 6728, providing various forms of government assistance to students and teachers in private education. Padilla also authored RA 6966 regulating the librarian profession, RA 7104 creating the Commission on the Filipino Language, RA 7168 converting the Philippine Normal College into the Philippine Normal University, RA 7536 creating the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Philippine Nursing Act (RA 9173), and the Philippine Dentistry Bill (HB 4908). Padilla was also the principal author and sponsor of laws establishing schools in the province such as the Nueva Vizcaya State University and the Philippine Science High School-Cagayan Valley Campus, located in Bayombong.

On several occasions, he represented Congress in several international conferences abroad, such as the International Labour Organization Conference in Geneva, the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization Conference, and the UNESCO General Assembly in Paris among others.

2004 Elections
In 2004, he ran for senator under the ticket of Senator Panfilo Lacson and lost. He ended up at the 24th spot garnering 3,863,693 votes which represents 11.53% votes.

Governor of Nueva Vizcaya
Padilla ran for governor in 2016 and won, receiving 91,105 votes. He ran again for a second term in 2019 winning by a bigger margin. He secured his last term after winning in the 2022 local elections, garnering 143,552 votes.

During his time in office, he was a critic of large-scale mining operations in the province such as the open-pit mine operated by the Australian mining firm OceanaGold in barangay Didipio in the town of Kasibu. After the firm's permit to operate the mine expired on June 20, 2019, Padilla issued a directive to the company to cease its operation. However, it was overruled by the national government, which renewed the permit for another 25 years.

Personal life and death
Carlos M. Padilla was married to Ruth Raña Padilla, who also served as governor of Nueva Vizcaya and Commissioner of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC). They had three children: Carlos Jr. (Jojo), Ruthie Maye (Maye), and Carlo Paolo (CP) and seven grandchildren.

Padilla died after suffering a heart attack on May 5, 2023, at the age of 78. He was later interred at his ancestral home in Dupax del Norte.

Awards
Padilla was a recipient of the outstanding alumnus award at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), where he also received his doctorate degree in Public Administration, honoris causa. He likewise received the same honorary degree in Education, and in Humanities, from the Philippine Normal University and the Nueva Vizcaya State Institute of Technology and the Nueva Vizcaya State Polytechnic College, now the Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU) respectively. In 2022, he was awarded the Dangal ng Wika by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) in recognition of his contributions and achievement in the furtherance of the use of the Filipino language.

Legacy
Anti-mining advocates in El Salvador commended Padilla for his contribution to the historic unanimous vote of the country's legislature banning metal mining to protect rivers, thus making El Salvador the first nation to do so. The decision was made in 2017 following Padilla's testimony before Salvadoran legislators and public about the effects of OceanaGold, causing the company to pay compensation and the eventual abandonment of the El Dorado project. This story was documented in the book The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed, which won a Philippine National Book Award. Padilla was supposed to receive the award on behalf of the authors.