Vicente Gella

Background

Vicente Gella was born on June 24, 1856, in Pandan, Antique, Philippines. He was the fourth among fifteen children of Bonifacio Gella and Juana Rendon. His parents owned extensive lands and fisheries in Pandan.

Education

Vicente Gella learned his first letters from the local school conducted by Don Juan Serpeños. Then he was sent to Manila where he enrolled in the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. Then he took up law at the University of Santo Tomas where he obtained a Licentiate of Jurisprudence degree in 1885.

Career

Vicente Gella went back to Pandan in 1886 and in the same year founded the Colegio de San Vicente Ferrer in San Jose, Antique, as an adjunct to the San Juan de Letran. This school which he directed lived up to 1898. Among his assistants were Perfecto Garbanzos, Pedro and Ariston Gella, his brothers. In this school, the following provincial figures received their early education: Leandro Fullon, Ramon Maza, Pedro Jimenez Villavert, Ruperto Yglesias, Antonio Lagazca, Igmidio Moscoso, Francisco Fadallome, and others who at one time or another took part in the Revolution. Instruction in primary and secondary education up to the third year was offered in this school.

At the same time that he was conducting this school and teaching, Gella practiced law and was the only registered lawyer for the whole province of Antique in 1890. He was appointed justice of the peace of San Jose and became an acting judge of the court of the first instance for a few years. He was occupying the latter position when Igbaong led an uprising about 1888. Upon the establishment of civil government during the American occupation, he accepted an appointment on April 13, 1901, as fiscal for Antique province, a position which he filled until January 1913.

In 1919 he was elected governor of the province defeating Antonio Lagazca and succeeding Anacleto V. Jimenez on October 16, 1919. He refused to run for another term and was succeeded by Enrique Salvani as governor.

Achievements

• Vicente Gella was particularly known as governor of the province of Antique. During his administration of three years, the Antique-Capiz and the Antique-Iloilo inter-provincial roads were opened to traffic, artesian wells were put up throughout the province, and sanitary measures adopted and enforced. It was during his incumbency that a water supply system was built in the provincial capital.
  
  He was also known as the founder and director of the Colegio de San Vicente Ferrer in San Jose, Antique.

Connections

Vicente Gella was married to Dolores Rodriguez Berres, a Spanish lady. With his second wife, Matilde Abiera y Palacios, he had the five children, Consuelo, Ernesto, Antonieta, Leopoldo, and Elisa.

Father:

Bonifacio Gella

Mother:

Juana Rendon

ex-wife:

Dolores Rodriguez Berres

Wife:

Matilde Abiera y Palacios

References

• Dictionary of Philippine Biography
  1970