title: Cesar Climaco
text: Cesar C. Climaco (Nacimiento: February 28, 1916 — Muerte: November 14, 1984) es un Filipino politico quien ya servi como alcalde del Ciudad de Zamboanga por onse años. Ya queda ele famoso como un prominente y agresivo critico del regimen de ley martial de presidente Ferdinand Marcos y tambien por su colorido personalidad y por causa no quiere ele manda corta su pelo hasta hay restora el regulacion democracia na Filipinas. Ya asesina con Climaco del año 1984.
  
  Joventud
  Si Climaco ya nace na Ciudad de Zamboanga. Ele un hijo del un agente de aduana quien ya queda tambien un consejo de municipal. Ya acaba ele su primera y secondaria educacion na su pueblo despues ya cambia ele na Manila junto con Julia, quien hay queda su mujer na futuro, para prosegui con el educacion colegio. Ya entra ele escuela na Universidad de Santo Tomas na curso ante juresprudencia y aquel tiempo ya tarabaja ele como chufer de un familia para ayuda paga su estudio. Despues ya entra ele escuela na Universidad del Filipinas na curso de ley y juresprudencia y mientras tanto ya trabaha ele como un portero na Corte de Apelacion del Filipinas. Ya gradua si Climaco del añ0 [1941] na curso de ley y ya admiti con ele na oficina del maga titulo de abogado despues ele ya pasa na examinacion de abogacia.
  
  Political career
  
  Climaco first entered political life when he ran and won a seat in the Zamboanga City council in 1951. Within two years, at the age of 37, he would be appointed as mayor of Zamboanga City, holding the post until the following year. 
  
  In 1954, Climaco joined the Operation Brotherhood, a group sponsored by the Jaycees to help provide for medical and relief needs to refugees in war-torn Vietnam. As the Project Manager and Field Coordinator based in Vietnam, Climaco earned the friendship of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and found his activities covered by LIFE magazine.
  
  Climaco would first win election as Zamboanga City mayor in 1955, as a candidate of the Liberal Party, and served in such capacity until 1961.
  
  Mayor (first two terms)
  
  Climaco would become a national figure during his first stint as Zamboanga City mayor. He would become known for his personal courage, as shown by his willingness to venture alone out to hotspots and personally confronting neighborhood toughies with threats of imprisonment. He maintained a similarly tough stance towards the city's policemen, once disarming cops he caught asleep at their posts during a surprise inspections. Climaco also maintained a harmonious relationship with the city's Muslim population, and cracked down on gambling.
  
  As mayor, Climaco ordered the construction of Abong-Abong park in Pasonanca, which was planned to provide space for a camp site, housing projects, and a shantytown to house the city's homeless population. During this period, Zamboanga City would earn the appellation as the cleanest city in the Philippines. One measure he enacted to earn such a reputation for his city was a directive requiring all horses in horse-drawn carriages to be tied with diapers beneath their tails as they plied their routes.
  
  He struck a friendship with the mayor of Manila, Arsenio Lacson, who had earned a similar reputation for toughness and good governance. Climaco soon earned the nickname "Arsenio Lacson of the South" , to which Lacson remarked that at the rate Climaco was going, the Manila mayor would soon be known as the "Climaco of the North."
  
  Macapagal administration official
  
  In 1961, Climaco gave up his post as mayor for an unsuccessful run for the Senate under the Liberal Party. After his defeat, he was appointed by President Diosdado Macapagal as Commissioner of Customs. As Customs Commissioner, he brought in cadets from the Philippine Military Academy, vaunted for their idealism and honesty, to work in a Bureau of Customs which had long been reputedly corrupt. He again ran and lost for a Senate seat in 1963. Climaco then was appointed as a Presidential Assistant under Macapagal.
  
  In 1965, Climaco tried for a third time to win election as a Senator. He fell only around 4,000 votes shy of winning a seat in the Senate. In the same election, his political ally, President Macapagal, was defeated for re-election by a law school contemporary and friend of Climaco's, Senate President Ferdinand Marcos.
  
  Mayor (third term)
  
  President Marcos declared martial law in 1972. Distressed at the development, Climaco left for exile to the United States He vowed never to cut his hair until democratic rule was restored in the country. He returned to the Philippines in 1976, and two years later, sought election to the Interim Batasang Pambansa as a member from Zamboanga. He was defeated in this effort.
  
  In 1980, Climaco staged his political comeback when he won re-election as Zamboanga City mayor under the banner of a political party he had organized, the Concerned Citizen's Aggrupation. By this time, crime and violence, often at the hands of policemen and the military, had become prevalent in the city, and a frustrated Climaco posted a scoreboard in front of city hall listing a running tally of unsolved violent crimes in the city. Climaco did not hesitate in denouncing the military and the police in the city, and had the police chief transferred out of the city. Upon the outbreak of violent incidents in the city, Climaco would rush to the scene on board his motorcycle and quell the disruption. Despite the threats of violence, Climaco never carried a gun or surrounded himself with bodygaurds.
  
  Climaco maintained a harsh view towards the Marcos government. He was critical of the highly-centralized structure of government under which it was necessary to obtain the blessing of the Office of the President before funds could be disbursed. When President Marcos lifted martial law in 1981, Climaco retorted, "Marcos did not lift martial rule. He only tilted it." Climaco was able to stoke anti-Marcos sentiment within Zamboanga City.  When Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated in 1983, Climaco renamed one of the city's main squares as "Aquino Plaza".
  
  In 1984, Climaco successfully sought election as a Member of Parliament in the Batasang Pambansa. Climaco however declined to assume his seat until he had completed his six-year term as mayor, a stance that was seen as an act of defiance against the Marcos government.
  
  Assassination
  
  In the morning of November 14, 1984, Climaco rushed to the scene of a fire that had broken out in downtown Zamboanga City. He supervised operations to put out the fire, then prepared to leave. He sighted a display of caskets at a nearby funeral home and jokingly said, "reserve one of those for me".  Climaco then mounted his motorcycle to return to his office. A man approached from behind the mayor and shot him in the nape at point-blank range. The assassin escaped, while Climaco was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
  
  The crowd that attended Climaco's funeral in Zamboanga City was estimated as ranging from fifteen thousand people  to up to two hundred thousand people . He was buried at Abong-Abong Park.
  
  To date, nobody has been convicted for Climaco's assassination. Police and military officials pinned the blame on a Muslim group led by Rizal Alih, but attempts to apprehend him were unsuccessful. Climaco's widow publicly expressed that it was the military who was behind the murder. Climaco himself was said to have remarked before his death that if he were ever assassinated, the military would blame Alih for the murder.
  
  Legacy
  
  Climaco's son, Julio Cesar, would be appointed Zamboanga City OIC mayor in 1986, and served in that post until the following year. His niece, Beng Climaco, was elected in 2007 to the House of Representatives, representing the 1st District of Zamboanga City. 
  
  In 1994, Eddie Garcia starred in a film biography of Climaco, "Mayor Cesar Climaco", produced by Seiko Films.