Salvador Araneta

Who was Salvador Araneta?

Salvador Z. Araneta was a Filipino nationalist, constitutionalist, statesman, civil servant, lawyer, educator, economist, businessman, industrialist, environmentalist, and philanthropist. He was a member of the Philippine Constitutional Convention of 1933 and 1971 and founder and twice president of the Philippine Constitution Association. Araneta served as Secretary of Economic Coordination under President Elpidio Quirino, Secretary of Agriculture under President Ramon Magsaysay, and as member of the National Economic Council.

As an educator, he founded Gregorio Araneta University Foundation, the first private agricultural school after World War II, endowed the university with one sixth of his personal wealth and turned it into a foundation. He also founded FEATI University to train engineers and mechanics for Far Eastern Air Transportation, Inc., the first airline that operated after the war serving China and San Francisco. Araneta pioneered in the flour industry, in soy bean extraction, in the manufacture of electric motors, animal feeds, animal vaccines. He was co-founder of NEPA, PRRM, and the White Cross, an orphanage.