Cesar Alzona

Caezar Yatco Alzona (Sept 15, 1926-June 27, 1997) Laguna, Philippines, is the author of the original first Philippine Marines Hymn, with music by famous classical Philippine composer, Rodolfo S. Cornejo. He also authored another Marine-themed song, entitled "First to Fight." He served valiantly and received much praise as a military leader in the Marine Corps of the Philippine Navy against Muslim terrorists and Islamic insurgents in the southern island of Mindanao during the early years of Philippine independence from the United States in the 1950s. He was also one of the Filipino military personnel of the Korean war.

Personal life
He married socialite Esperanza Soldevilla Cornejo, daughter of Philippine legislator, Miguel R. Cornejo, in 1951. As a Lieutenant in the Philippine Navy, he was sent to attend the professional United States Marine Corps TBS at Quantico, Virginia, and transferred to the U.S. with his wife and two small children, Augustus Caesar and Eduardo, in 1954. As part of the Philippine Military and Diplomatic Corps in Washington DC, his daughters Cezarina Barbara and Esperanza Patricia were born at the U.S. Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, while he made a name in public and civic service.

Government service
In 1963 he returned to the Philippines to distinguished Philippine government service as a Deputy Assistant Minister of General Services in the cabinet of President Ferdinand Marcos and Executive Director of the Commission on National Integration (CNI) of the Philippines. During the time of President Corazon Aquino he was the Administrator of the Senate (Batasang Pambansa Complex). Throughout decades of government service, he belonged to the 5th Group of the Development Academy of the Philippines and he named that group as the Pentacrons. Caezar also became the Vice President of the Alumni Association of the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP).

He also returned to good memories of his studies at the Imperial Academy of Japan when he joined Philippine Ambassador to Japan Jose Laurel III who founded the Philippine Federation of Japan Alumni (PHILFEJA), but more known was Jose's younger brother, Salvador Laurel, who became Philippine Vice President alongside Corazon Aquino during the 1986 People Power Revolution. During the time of President Fidel V. Ramos, he was offered the position of Ambassador to Cambodia.

Death
He is buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery of the Heroes) for national patriots, in Fort Bonifacio (formerly Fort McKinley) in Taguig, Metro Manila.