Iloilo prov'l government honors historian-lawyer
Atty. Rex Salvilla with Governor Tupas
Multi-awarded historian Atty. Rex S. Salvilla was honored during the 2008 Semana sang Iloilo as one of the Twelve Distinguished Ilonggos as Historian by the Province of Iloilo.
He is also a recipient of national awards from the Philippine Centennial Commission and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts as their accredited speaker on local history during the Philippine Centennial (1997-98) in more than 150 schools, colleges and universities, government agencies and private organizations.
In 1983, he was the national winner in a 10,000-word essay on Philippine Revolution sponsored by the American Historical Society. He is also a past president of the Iloilo Historical Association and the incumbent president of West Visayas Historical Research Foundation Inc.
He also wrote more than 200 articles on local history especially in his syndicated column "Anything Under the Sun" and authored more than 20 books on local history.
Atty. Salvilla also excelled in other fields for which he received the 1992 Most Outstanding Legal Aid Lawyer of the Philippines of the Citizens Legal Assistance Society of the Philippines (CLASP) for having won 36 free legal aid cases the year before that, one of the 1983 Ten Outstanding Citizen Soldiers of the Philippines where he was promoted on the spot in Malacañang to full colonel, and one of the 1995 Ten Outstanding Knights of Columbus of the Philippines receiving that award from Word Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant.
He was also one of the 2005 Twelve Outstanding Ilonggos of the Lions International, University of Iloilo Golden Jubilee Most outstanding alumni in Law and Education in 1997 and, 1983 Most Outstanding DECS PTA president in Region 6.
On the the side, he was past president of the Iloilo Bar, Association, Iloilo Press Club Inc., Radio-TV Federation of the Philippines (Iloilo), Reserve Officers Legion of the Philippines (Iloilo) and Philippine Environmental Journalists, Inc. (Iloilo) and Charter Faithful Navigator of Blessed Pedro Calunsod Assembly of the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus.
For all these, he received more than 300 plaques/certificates of recognition/appreciation from several schools, government agencies and private organizations plus eight decorations from the Armed Forces of the Philippines including the Military Medal of Merit.