Claveria’s Reform
Narciso Claveria was a Governor-General of the Philippines who served from 1844-1849. He is known for his reforms on the use of surnames and on the calendar. Many Filipinos did not have surnames before Narciso Claveria, which caused difficulty in the collection of taxes. As a solution, Claveria released the “Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos.” Most of the modern Filipino surnames now are from this document.
On the other hand, Claveria also led in calendar reformation. From 1521 to 1844, the Philippines was one day behind the global calendar. As a solution, Claveria dropped on December 31. Because of this, December 30, 1844, was followed by January 1, 1845.