Maximino Noel was born to parents Florencio Mercado Noel and Filomena Jaen in Carcar, Cebu on May 29, 1879. His father was the first municipal president of Carcar, and so was his brothers Vicente and Mariano who succeeded his father. He attended Liceo de Manila and took up Commerce. The ancestral house of the Noel family built in the mid-19th century was proclaimed a heritage house by Ambeth R. Ocampo, chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in May of 2010.
Career
Maximino, planter and businessman, was voted councilor in his hometown of Carcar, Cebu. Then he replaced Mariano when he was elected as mayor of Carcar in 1916 and served for six years. From 1922 to 1925, he became a member of the Cebu Provincial Board. He was considered the longest-serving Congressman due to the length of his tenure representing Cebu's old 3rd legislative district, which was composed then of the municipalities of Talisay, Minglanilla, Naga, San Fernando, and Carcar. He was elected as member of the Philippine Legislature in 1928–1931. Vicente Rama, his political rival to the position, published in his newspaper Bag-ong Kusog the story entitled Si Amar ug si Leon. Scholars believed the hero, Amar, represented Rama and the villain Leon, the political rival Noel. The exhumation of the remains of Leon Kilat, who was betrayed and killed in Carcar at the height of the Philippine Revolution, was also made into a political issue during that election. Before World War II, he was one of the stockholders and original member of the Board of Directors of the now defunct National Rice and Corn Corporation by virtue of the executive order issued by then President Manuel L. Quezon. In 1931–1934, he would again serve for another term and then reelected in 1938–1941. In 1941, he was voted again to the same office but served only in 1945 because of the outbreak of World War II. Moreover, he was voted to the same office in 1946–1949. In the 1949 elections, he was defeated by Primitivo Sato. However, Sato did not finish his term and was unseated as the House Electoral Tribunal ruled in favor of Maximino Noel's electoral protest that was promulgated by Enrique Medina in Electoral Case No. 42 on November 22, 1952. He again won in the same elective post under Nacionalista Party in 1954–1957, 1958–1961, and 1961–1965. During his term in Congress, he was a member of the Commission on Appointments, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Internal Government and Privileges, and a member of the Committee on Accounts.
