Eduardo Rivera Gullas Sr. (October 13, 1930 – November 6, 2025), known as "Eddie" or "Eddiegul", was a Filipino politician fromCebu. The son ofVicente Gullas and Josefina "Pining" Rivera,^[2] he was elected to seven terms as a Member of theHouse of Representatives of the Philippines, representing the1st District of Cebu from 1992 to 2001, 2004 to 2013, and from 2019 to 2022. He was at the time of his death a member ofNacionalista and theOne Cebu party. Gullas had also served as the governor ofCebu during the administration of PresidentFerdinand Marcos, whom he was a close political associate of.^[3] During his tenure as governor, Cebu was struck byTyphoon Ike, which affected and devastated the province. Gullas also served as the president of theUniversity of the Visayas.^[when?] He had also held the offices of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and the House Majority Leader. He served as mayor ofTalisay, Cebu from 2016 to 2019.^[4] He was among the 70 congressmen who voted to deny the ABS-CBN franchise.^[5] Gullas died on November 6, 2025, at the age of 95.^[6]

Eduardo was born on October 13, 1930.^[7][8] He was the eldest son^[7] and one of the three children^[8] ofVicenteA. Gullas, a lawyer and educator fromCebu,^[9] and Josefina "Pining" Rivera.^[8] His father was the founder of what is now theUniversity of the Visayas (UV),^{[A][7][9][10]} Cebu's oldest^[8] andVisayas' largest private university.^[11]

He was the graduate ofBachelor of Laws at UV in 1956; and his pre-law,Bachelor of Arts, with majors in English and Philosophy,^[7] at theUniversity of Santo Tomas (UST) in 1952.^[9]

He was married to Norma "Mingming" Selma.^[8] They had two sons:^[12] Eduardo Jr. and Gerald Anthony Sr. ("Didi").^[8]

The Gullas family has been involved in politics and remains influential due to their contributions to education, among others, and voter support in southern Cebu province, particularly in thecity of Talisay.^[10] Notably, the1st district of Cebu has been in their control.^[13]

While Eddie's father failed in his attempt to participate, some of his relatives also succeeded otherwise:^[7]

• Atty.Paulino (his uncle) was the representative ofthe old 2nd district of Cebu (1925–1928)^[8] and the "Commissioner of the Visayas" inthe Japanese-sponsored government.^[7]
• Jose (his brother) was the representative of the 1st district (2001–2004).^[14]
• Samsam (his grandson) entered politics in 2013, and has been city mayor since 2019. His wife,Rhea, has been the district representative since 2022.^[14] Both were re-elected unopposedin 2025.^[15]
• Digul (Eduardo III; his grandson, Samsam's younger brother)^[7] has been a councilor of Talisay for more than a decade.^[16] He was likewise re-elected in 2025.^[17]

After graduation at UST, Gullas returned to Cebu and, later with his youngest brother Jose, worked in the family-run UV. He was a janitor and a teller in the accounting department.^[7]

Later, he became the university president; and from 1960s to 1980s, the school expanded with the installation of new facilities.^[7]

Gullas started his political career in theCongress in1969.^[7][13] Being a member of the rulingNacionalista Party (NP) of presidentFerdinand Marcos,^{[7][9][11][18]} he was electedrepresentative ofthe old 3rd district of Cebu,^{[B][7][9][8][11][18]} defeating two incumbent representatives.^[7][9]—Atty.Antonio Cuenco ofthe old 5th district^[8] and fromLiberal Party, with only a margin of 16 votes;^[10] and re-electionist Ernesto Bascon, a UV alumnus.^[7] That controversial result became the subject of an electoral protest filed by Cuenco before theSupreme Court which, however, was lost in a decision more than a month later.^[9][10]

His term was cut short in 1972^[9] bythe declaration of martial law asthe president abolishedCongress.^[13]

On January 1, 1974, with the organization of the newly-createdProfessional Regulation Commission, Gullas was appointed by president Marcos as one of the associate commissioners.^[19]

In 1976, Gullas, a close associate of First LadyImelda Marcos,^[20] was appointedgovernor of Cebu by President Marcos^[7][13][20] who had been reorganizing the provincial government;^[11] replacingOsmundo Rama.^[21] The Duranos, yet another Marcos ally, opposed the appointment, leading to the rivalry which became public by 1978.^[11]

The rivalry was evidentin the 1978 elections for theInterim Batasang Pambansa (National Assembly), as Gullas and the Duranos led two of the factions of theKilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), Marcos' ruling party since the imposition of martial law. However, KBL lost all 13 seats forCentral Visayas to oppositionistPusyon Bisaya.^[11]

In the 1980 local elections, Gullas retained the governorship.^[11][20] In July 1981, Gullas was appointed by the president into the14-member Executive Committee,^[22] a body of advisors that acted as the collective deputy presidency^[7] and which would serve in a caretaker capacity, representing the provincial governments.^[23]

In 1986, Gullas supported Marcosin the presidential election where the latter lost in the entireCebu City and Cebu province.^[11] His governorship ended sometime after theEDSA revolt^{[7][9][13][8]} when he was replaced by Rama—the same man whom he had replaced^[13]—asOfficer in Charge on PresidentCorazon Aquino's orders.^[21]

Thereafter, He returned to resume his duties at UV.^[7] He declined calls to run for governor inthe first post-EDSA local election to focus, albeit shortly, in his private life and in managing their university.^[13]

Gullas returned to politicsin 1992.^[13] This time underNationalist People's Coalition (NPC),^[24] he reclaimed the congressional seat in the elections,^[B] defeating incumbent representative ofCebu's 1st district, Atty. Antonio Bacaltos ofTalisay,^[8] by landslide.^[25] He assumed the post until 2001.^[7][8]

Being one of NPC members, he became part of the so-called "Rainbow Coalition".^[26] He was a Promdi member at the time he won his third termin 1998.^[27]

During thepresidency of Joseph Estrada, Gullas became theHouse majority leader succeedingMar Roxas.^[27] In the height of controversies involvingthe president particularly thejueteng payola,^[28][29] he resigned from the position by November 5, 2000, the day he defected from the ruling coalitionLapian ng Masang Pilipino.^[27] The following day, he was one of the Cebuano representatives who relaunched the dormant^[28] regional political partyAlayon,^[C][29] which he established in 1986.^[30] He later served as the party's secretary general.^[31]

Meanwhile, he was later accused of misusing government-owned equipment for the construction of his hilltop mansion inMinglanilla, which he denied.^[28]

Gullas was known for converting the municipality of Talisay into a city.^[32] Constitutionally barred to seek another congressional term,^[7] he became the first elected city mayorin 2001^[29] as the conversion had been ratified in a plebiscite on December 30, 2000.^[8]

Gullas regained the seat for representative of the same districtin 2004^[33] and served until 2013.^[7] He had been a member again of NP by mid-2000s;^[34] and was once a member ofKampi, part of the majority coalition.^[35]

In 2005, he was among those more than a hundred representatives who openly supported presidentGloria Arroyo amid an opposition-led move to impeach the presidentfor electoral fraud.^[34]

He led the Cebuano legislators who opposed the proposed division of Cebu known asSugbuak, which was later eventually shelved.^[36]

In the House of Representatives, Gullas, in some occasions, filed bills that sought to reinstate and institutionalize the use ofEnglish language as the solemedium of instruction (MOI) in allpublic schools countrywide;^[D] and to mandate its use in government and admission examinations to public learning institutions.^[E] These were in an attempt to strengthen proficiency of Filipinos in English, in line with orders from President Arroyo.^[46] Also, these were among the attempts to revise the Bilingual Education Program by theDepartment of Education (DepEd),^[47] introduced in 1974.^[41] He said that the policy had weakened English as subjects supposed to be taught in that language were actually done inTaglish, or a blend of English andthe local dialect.^[43][45] Such efforts failed to become a law on procedural grounds, despite having widespread support in the chamber^[46] and from DepEd.^[41][45]

Gullas first filed the bill during the13th Congress^[41]—in 2006—causing mixed reactions among the Congress.^[37] Despite the approval on the English bill by the House in September,^[43] Senators failed to act on the bill^[41] because they were preoccupied with the2007 midterm elections.^[43]

He refiled the bill at the start of the14th Congress. He principally authoredHouse Bill (HB) No. 305 (also called theEnglish Bill and theGullas Bill),^[41][47] which was later made a priority measure.^[41] Among the 240 House members, at least 205 signed as co-authors^[38][41] of the bill which was endorsed by a total of 207.^[41][42]

Later,HB No. 5619 was filed, with Gullas as the principal author^[39][40][43] and one of the six lead sponsors.^[45] It was a substitute measure,^[44] consolidating^[39] those individually authored by Gullas,Raul del Mar ofCebu City, andLuis Villafuerte ofCamarines Sur^[44] (hence, theGullas, Villafuerte and del Mar bill);^[39] and was one of two bills filed in the House on the issue of MOI.^[40] This time, coincided with the move towards globalization,^[44] it aimed to reinforce the use of English in the country for the Filipinos to be competitive on the labor market.^[39][45] The bill also sought to encourage the use of English in interaction in schools.^[F] Around 202 of 238 House members co-authored the bill.^[44][45] Despite the endorsement of the measure for approval,^[43] by January 2010, the bill was up for report on committee level and was reportedly not a priority.^[44]

In 2013, Gullas, running for the city mayorship of Talisay under the NP–Alayon,^[16][48] lost in anupset to businessman-inventor Johnny (JVR) delos Reyes by a margin of 736 votes;^[13][16] thus his only electoral defeat in his political career.^[13][48] His candidacy had been marred by massive opposition from those affected, both by the 2011 closure of the old public market in Tabunok, which he reopened in the final days of the campaign,^[16] as well as by the city government's decision to relocate the market to anotherbarangay.^[14][48] He later conceded defeat.^[16]

In 2016, the Gullas family regained the city as Eddiegul defeated re-electionist delos Reyes^[14] by a margin of more than 35 thousand votes.^[13] He served for the second time as city mayor until 2019.^[7][14]

Gullas was amongthe 70 representatives who voted for the denial of a new franchise forABS-CBN.^[10]

He retired from politics in 2022.^[10]

Gullas, along with Cuenco and Bascon, was a member of the Cebu's Junior Jaycees, a non-profit organization for the youth.^[7]

Gullasofficially became a lawyer on March 8, 1957.^[9][8]

In 1981, he founded theCebu Popular Music Festival, an annual song contest.^[32]

Gullas died on November 6, 2025, at the age of 95 due toseptic shock,pneumonia, andacute respiratory failure.^[32]

• 1930 births
• 2025 deaths
• Governors of Cebu
• Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino politicians
• Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino politicians
• One Cebu politicians
• Nacionalista Party politicians
• Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Cebu
• Majority leaders of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
• Deputy speakers of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
• University of the Visayas alumni
• Mayors of Talisay, Cebu

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