Raul Daza

Raul Daza died on 12 October 2026 at the age of 91. His grandson, Representative Niko Raul Daza, and the family announced the death on Thursday 15 October, saying he had passed away peacefully; the date was given in a post by the Palapag Municipal Information Office. No cause of death was made public.

Tributes came from across the Liberal Party and the province. ML party-list Representative Leila de Lima called him a pillar of democracy and a man of integrity and courageous conviction, and the Northern Samar provincial government said his leadership would inspire generations of public servants. His remains were to lie in state at The Chapels at Heritage Park in Taguig from 17 to 19 October, with a Liberal Party tribute on 18 October and a necrological service at the House of Representatives on 19 October. He was then to be taken home to Catarman, Northern Samar, for a wake at the family residence and the Provincial Capitol, with a funeral Mass at Our Lady of Annunciation Cathedral on 24 October. The family asked for donations to the Foundation for the Diocese of Catarman in place of flowers.

Raul Aguila Daza was born in Manila on 2 May 1935 to Raymundo B. Daza, a lawyer, and Rosario Aguila, a public school teacher. He was one of nine children and his family roots were in Northern Samar, the province he would represent for most of his life.

He attended public elementary and secondary schools in Quezon City. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1957, was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi honor society the same year, and placed 11th in the 1957 bar examinations. He went on to earn an MBA cum laude from the University of the East in 1961 and passed the Philippine CPA examinations in 1968.

Before politics, Daza practised law privately in the Philippines. He ran for Congress in a 1967 special election for the lone district of Northern Samar, losing to Eusebio Moore of the Nacionalista Party, then beat Moore as the Liberal Party candidate in 1969.

When martial law was declared in September 1972, Daza joined legislators who challenged its constitutionality in the Supreme Court and was one of ten congressmen who refused to sign on to Marcos's national assembly. Facing arrest, he fled to the United States on 23 January 1973 and was granted political asylum. In Los Angeles he led anti-Marcos groups alongside exiles such as Raul Manglapus and Jovito Salonga. In 1974 he passed both the California bar and the California CPA examinations, the first Filipino to do so without formal schooling in the United States, and he practised law in Los Angeles County until 1985.

After the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, he returned to Manila on 12 August 1985 despite a pending warrant. He was arrested the next day and arraigned on charges under the anti-subversion law, was released on bail after pressure from United States senators, and campaigned for Corazon Aquino in the February 1986 snap election. President Aquino appointed him deputy minister of the Presidential Commission on Good Government and, briefly, governor of Northern Samar.

He won the 1st District of Northern Samar in 1987 and held it until 1998, serving as speaker pro tempore and then deputy speaker from 1992 to 1998. He was president of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1999 and a commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Constitutional Reforms from 1999 to 2000. He was elected governor of Northern Samar in 2001 and re-elected in 2004 and 2007. He returned to the House from 2010 to 2013, lost to Harlin Abayon in 2013, and regained the seat in 2016 after a contested electoral tribunal ruling. He served in the minority until 2019, when he chose not to seek another term.

Daza married Teresita S. Ruiz, a businesswoman, on 5 December 1959. They had four children. Their son Paul Daza also served as congressman and governor of Northern Samar, and their grandson Niko Raul Daza later represented the province's 1st District. Daza was a member of the Liberal Party for 61 years, from 1965 until his death, and his family described his belief that, despite the many colours of politics, there is only one flag and one country.

Daza is remembered as one of the longest serving public figures from Northern Samar and as one of the lawmakers who stood against martial law at personal cost. His family said he helped lay the blueprint for the province's development, driven by the belief that a province long burdened by poverty could rise to dignity and prosperity. His legislative work focused on health care, local infrastructure, education, public safety and access to government services. The political career he began in 1967 was carried on in Congress by his son and grandson.