The Brunei Emigrants

Dr.Jose P. Laurel, President of the second Republic of the Philippines during World War II, can trace his
ancestry to a Ddatu who sailed to the archipelago in the 15th century. He was called Gat Masungit
because of his touchy temper. Gat was the title of nobility used all over southeast Asia, a title permitted
by the Spaniards after their conquest of Maynilad in the 16th century, and the present Gatmaitans,
Gatchalians, and Gatbontons can trace their ancestry to some early immigrants who settled here many
centuries ago.

Gat Masungit, the eldest son of the Sultan of Brunei, left after some disagreement with his sire and
chose Batangas, which was known as Batangan because an earlier Datu had made his home in that
hospitable and fertile land. Two centuries earlier, ten Datus dah left Brunei because they were not
happy over the way the ruler was treating them, sailed on their binidays or boats durung the southwest
monsoon. They landed on the island of Panay and seven of the ten made that place their home. Three of
them led by Datu Puti called thus because of his light complexion, proceeded north to the bay of
Balayan on the island of Luzon which earlier Chinese traders had called Liu-Hsin and entered the
mainland through the Pansipit river to the south shore of Taal lake which they called Tanawan, the
native word for an elevated place for viewing. Datu Dumansil decided to remain there while his two
companions, Datu Puti and balensuela left for the southeast where the latter settled in the Bicol region.
The former returned in due time to Brunei to report what he had seen in the area known to them as the
Bisayas.

When the three Datus reached the bay of Balayan, they found the coastal area already populated and
therefore sailed up the wide Pansipit river to the lake called Taal. In the middle of this lake was a
volcano with smoke curling from its top, meaning that it was active. The lake was saline because the
river being broad and fairly deep, allowed the seawater from the bay to enter freely at the high tide
while the lake waters flowed at ebb tide. Gat Masungit, his family, and slaves found the land around
Tanawan fertile, for the ash erupted by the volcano for centuries had blanketed the adjoining areas. The
farmers of Tanawan, Lipa to the west and Taal to the southwest bordering the lake, planted rice, corn,
sugarcane, cacao, and coffee while the extensive pastures fattened the carabaos, goats, and horses that
the Spaniards had brought with them from Mexico. The residents of Tanawan boiled in the heat and the
streams of Sulphur and the liquid mineral substances burned everything around the lake, scalding all
animal life including alligators, sharks, and tuna, and killing them.

The surface and subterranean claps of thunder could be heard and felt for hundreds of kilometers
around and profuse volcanic ashes fell in all the nearby provinces especially in Tondo, Bulacan and
Pampanga perhaps carried there by a favorable wind. In Cavite, it is said that people ate their noonday
meals by candlelight. The people walked amazed asking for confession. The calamity lasted eight days.
All houses in Tanawan, the nearby village of Sala, and other habitations around the lake like Lipa and
Taal were destroyed. Hundreds of people have killed almost all the animals slain by the burning rocks
while trees and shrubs were burned. All the survivors moved away from the periphery of the volcano.
Those from Tanawan walked several kilometers to the east and made their homes in what is now the
town by that name while those from Lipa fled beyond nearby Mount Macolod to the east, to found the
present thriving city of Lipa moved. Taal residents moved southwest near Lemery adjacent to the coast
of Balayan. And when the volcano again erupted-the last was in 1911-the former lake residents were
too distant to be seriously affected.

Taal lake was saline but after the 1754 volcanic eruption gradually turned into a fresh-water body
because the Pansipit river through which the seawater freely entered during high tide, now became
shallow and blocked with volcanic ash and silt, and ocean fishes were slowly replaced by those found
only in inland waters. By 1850 all these towns had increased in population. Lipa had 32,573 inhabitants,
Taal 34,789, and Tanawan, the smallest 17,236 people. All three wide agricultural fields on which
farmers raised their crops when the demand for coffee rose in the second half of the 19th century,
Tanawan and Lipa landowners enjoyed a bonanza of Spanish duros which they spend on precious stones
from Manila’s jewelry emporiums.

Old-timers of the province recalled the first Laurel they remembered in their youth carried the baptismal
name of Miguel while his son was called Mariano, who sired Sotero, the most prominent member of the
clan at the turn of the 20th century. Sotero studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila, then
took up law at the University of Santo Tomas of the Dominican friars, where he came to know Filipino
nationalists Felipe Buencameno Sr., Mariano Ponce, and Emilio Jacinto including Marcelo Hilarion del
Pilar from Bulacan who wrote articles for Diaryong Tagalog in both Tagalog and Castilian critical of the
colonial administration.

Sotero wanted to study further in Madrid after his graduation from the university. Many of the young
Filipinos had gone there starting with Dr. Jose P. Rizal, Graciano Lopez-Jaena, and the Paterno brothers
but the untimely death of his father Mariano prevented him from studying abroad as the new head of
the Laurels he had to take care of the family affairs. He was then in his early twenties. He fell in love with
Jacoba Garcia, a sweet, mild-mannered thoughtful girl with an even disposition, according to a family
historian.
 Guerrillas in Tanawan

The Laurels of Tanawan like hundreds of other leading residents throughout the archipelago did
not like the way the colonial administration was being conducted. They did not like the way the Guardia
civil bullied the townspeople at the slightest provocation or that no gobernadorcillo or mayor could be
elected without the imprimatur of the Spanish friar. Since the mutiny of Cavite in 1872 and the
execution of Father Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora, Filipinos everywhere resented the return of their
parishes tended by Filipino secular priests to the friar orders. While at Santo Tomas, Sotero had read
Rizal’s first novel, Noli Me Tangere that had been surreptitiously passed from one student to another.
The novel opened their eyes to the true status of Spanish domination as well as to the native faults. The
readers, therefore, became more nationalistic than ever. Out in Kawit, Cavite, young Emilio Aguinaldo
had also read the book but confided to the author of this biography that he “did not understand” many
of the remarks of Rizal in that book.

When del Pilar and four other Manila lawyers founded the secret society known as El Cinco,
Sotero became a member. This organization has favored the freedom of the islands, was limited to five
members of each group to ward off government knowledge should one be arrested as a subversive by
the Guardia civil. This society, therefore, antedated the Katipunan that Andres Bonifacio organized a few
years later when he limited the membership of each nucleus to three. Had any of the original members
traveled to the nearby provinces of Luzon and Visayas, they would have attracted hundreds of members
but shortly after, in October of 1888, del Pilar fled to Spain to avoid arrest for having made a mortal
enemy of his own parish priest.

To avoid the suspicion that he was an active member of the secret society, Sotero had himself
appointed justice of the peace. But his status as a nationalist reached the ears of the Cavitenos led by
General Aguinaldo who name Laurel as Undersecretary of the Interior probably because Sotero hailed
from Batangas. By that time, Sotero was known throughout the province as a rebel leader.

He had studied the primary grades in the primary school of Father Valerion Malabanan where
most of the children of prominent provincial families had enrolled, for it was superior to the parochial
schools of each town. Father Valerio was unique in his time for although he believed in corporal
punishment, he never wielded the cane on recalcitrant students and instead gave a fatherly admonition
that persuaded them to mend their ways, according to Justice Ignacio Villamor, who became the
President of the University of the Philippines three decades later. Here he had Miguel Malvar the future
Capitan municipal of the adjoining town of Santo Tomas as his schoolmate whom he was to join in the
revolution against Spain in 1896-1897 and the war against the United States in 1898-1902.

When Aguinaldo had to abandon Cavite in 1897 because the Spaniards had reconquered the
province, he joined Laurel and Malvar against the pursuing Spanish troops in the village of Talisay just
east of the old Tanawan bordering the lake. The Spaniards then hurled three punitive columns under
General Nicolas Jaramillo against Aguinaldo, Malvar, and Laurel. The rebels were defeated and
Aguinaldo climbed the ridge of Mount Sungay or Horn of Paliparan, then went north across Pasig river to
Mount Puray in Bulacan. Miguel Malvar and Laurel fled to the uninhabited mountains to the northeast
of their province. Soon after Commodore Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, Sotero and his
followers returned to the province for news had reached him that Aguinaldo had cleaned out the
Spanish forces in Cavite. Malvar was still in Hongkong when hostilities broke out in February of 1899, the
Batanguenos prepared to fight the new invaders who wanted to make the island their colony.

The countryside however was peaceful before that time. President Aguinaldo called for a
constitutional convention in Malolos, capital of Bulacan where he had transferred his capital from
Bacoor in Cavite because it could be shelled from the bay by American warships and because it lay
between two American armies bivouacked in Cavite and Paranaque in Manila. Representatives of the
various provinces were asked to assemble in Malolos in September of 1898. And among those invited
was Atty. Sotero Laurel of Tanawan. Another townmate, the elderly and paralytic Apolinario Mabini, the
President’s principal adviser, became the de facto prime minister of the Republic in Malolos.

Months passed as members, principally Felipe G. Calderon, Mabini, and their followers,
argued about the various and different provisions of the proposed constitution. Late in January 1899,
Aguinaldo gave his approval by proclaiming the Constitution as the fundamental law of the land. Sotero
was one of the 50 or more representatives who affixed their signatures to the document. It was the first
democratic constitution ever conceived by a Christian nation in Asia which embodied the ideals and
wisdom of the Filipinos as a nation.

Not long after, when Sotero had returned to Tanawan, hostilities broke out between the two
former allies. Sotero Laurel y Remoquillo fully supported general Aguinaldo’s decision to send a special
emissary to Japan to acquire military arms and ammunition for the rebels. Mariano Ponce was sent to
Japan and succeeded in his mission. Unfortunately, the ship Nunobiko Maru on which the arms were
loaded sunk off Formosa or Taiwan during a strong typhoon. Later reports from Japan said that the
vessel had purposely been sinking because the rifles in wooden cases were really far implemented.
Gen.Malvar had been given command of Southern Luzon comprising Tayabas, Batangas, and Laguna. He
fought against the Americans led by Gen. Wheaton in Muntinlupa, San Pedro Tunasan, Calamba, and
Cabuyao. But the Americans had superior arms and artillery, forcing him to retreat eastward to defend
the towns of Pagsanjan, Pila, and Sta. Cruz. As a result, Filipino commanders adopted guerilla tactics,
avoiding frontal warfare. The infamous policy of “reconcentration” that Spanish Gen.Valeriano Weyler
had adopted in Cuba was put into effect by Southern Luzon. Barrio folks had to live in certain zones in
order to break up the supply lines of the insurgents; it proved effective for Gen. Franklin J. Bell. The U.S
general compelled the people of Batangas to live within designated areas where they were supplied
with food, medicine, and other necessities. All food found outside the zones was confiscated. Individuals
could not go out of the zones without a pass, otherwise, they were considered enemies. Citizens were
disarmed with bladed weapons including the balisong. Town policemen were also disarmed. No person
was allowed to be in the street after 8 o’clock at night. Whenever an American soldier was killed, a
guerilla prisoner chosen by lot was executed. Town officials who did not follow the dictum that they
should actively aid the Americans were summarily thrown in jail. Under such stringent circumstances,
guerilla resistance fizzled out.

The people of Batangas suffered greatly by such policy herded like animals in guarded areas
away from their homes and without a means of livelihood. Epidemics broke out in the crowded
concentration camps, causing the death of thousands of residents. As a result, the population of
Batangas declined from 312,192 in 1899 to 257,715 in 1903 according to statistics filed with the U.S
Congress in 1904.

Sotero Laurel y Remoquillo participated in numerous skirmishes with the Americans until some
time late in 1901 after the capture of Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela and when Malvar had already
assumed the command of all armed resistance against the Americans, he was captured. He threw inside
a concentration camp together with his sister Marcela. He caught dysentery which was endemic in camp
and died in 1902.

Sotero was buried at the Municipal cemetery of Tanawan following religious rites in the town’s
Catholic church. His wife and children together with his numerous relatives were present. So did
hundreds of townspeople. It seemed that the entire population of Tanawan mourned his death.
 The Truant School Boy

Jacoba Garcia, wife of Sotero Laurel was a devout Catholic like most of the women in the
country and brought her five children to Mass every Sunday and religious holiday. She named her
firstborn son Jose because he was born on March 9, 1891, the month dedicated to St.Joseph foster
father of Jesus Christ, and also after the local parish priest who had to be mollified because of a
misunderstanding with Sotero. The Laurels of Tanawan were good friends of the Rizal’s in Calamba
whose eldest son was Paciano. Because of this relationship, Dona Jacoba might have given the name
Paciano as her first son’s middle name.

Dona Jacoba like most mothers in the islands taught her children the ABCs. She enrolled Jose in
the Malabanan school and close friends of Jose nicknamed him bakute or runt in Tagalog. By that time,
however, the institution founded by Father Valerio had greatly deteriorated due to the poor quality of
the teaching staff and a bored Jose was often absent from his classes. He was a malikot or a mischievous
child. When he was about six or seven years old, he slipped down the deep well in the garden in the
backyard of the house, fortunately, the female cook in the kitchen on the second floor saw the accident
and her yells brought the father and a cochero or rig driver who was inside the house on the ground
floor, rushing to the garden. They managed to rescue him. They turned him upside down to remove
water from his stomach and pressed his chest to revive him.

He would go wading in the San Lucas river north of the town with some friends or walk to the
outskirts of the town to watch a horse race or just at the barbershop where much of the town gossip
could be heard. Here was told that anting-antings or amulets could be had by going to the cemetery at
night with a string running from his mouth to a banana tree and wait until midnight for cafre or ghostly
being whom he had to overcome by wrestling so that he could get the anting-anting. For many, a night
did Jose wait in the cemetery but no cafres ever made their appearance.

He returned to the cemetery a few nights later for he was bent on getting the cafres’ anting-
anting and for some reason or other he lost consciousness and was found lying on the ground by the
cemetery keeper at sunrise the following morning. He never explained what had happened although he
suspected that one of his barkada or gang had hit him on the head before dawn.

Then a herbolario (herbalist) the local medicine man who cured ailments with local herbs told him
he could win the favor of a nubile girl by scraping the rind of the root of the mandrake, boiling, and
making the girl drink it. “Oh, that’s nonsense! “said a friend. Believe it or not, replied the herbalist, that’s
what I give to married women when they want to become pregnant.

Some years later, he was to remember this claim when he went courting a local belle. During his
school days in Tanawan, he did very poorly in his studies, forcing his mother to seek tutorial help for her
firstborn son. He had spent three years in the fifth grade, making his teachers report to his mother that
her son was “hopeless”. She tried reasoning with him but instead of studying his homework, he would
grab a guitar or violin or any stringed instrument and play some popular native or Spanish tunes. Finally,
her appeals moved him when she gave him an 18 karat gold chain with a cross as a pendant. This gift
surprisingly had an effect on the youngster for he started studying his lessons and graduated from the
intermediate grade. The gold chain was a symbol of her love for him.

How could he show her that also loved her? He had no money buy to buy a gift. So the only way
was to improve his scholarly standing. He went to Manila to enter high school and his mother urged him
to enroll at San Juan de Letran where his father had studied. This time he took his studies seriously: he
scored 99 percent in Latin, over 90 in History, and got 100 in Algebra in the final examinations. Since his
early grades on these subjects were poor, the friar refused to pass him to the higher class. When he
returned to Tanawan that summer, his former classmates twitted him about his failure to be promoted.
The humiliation he felt made him resolve that he would never fail again in any school. Perhaps his
weekend trips to Tanawan to play the bandurria in a string orchestra had hurt his studies. So he gave up
any desire to become a part-time musician. He would become a lawyer like his father Sotero and his
mother had hoped. To continue with his studies, he transferred to Manila (South) High School located at
the corner of Victoria and Muralla streets in Intramuros whose American principal and teachers would
not permit any absentees of flunkers to remain in that institution. This was his first contact with
American educators, and he liked them compared to the American soldier in Tanawan who guarded the
prison camp where his father had died. The class of 1911 to which Laurel belonged, graduated the
greatest number of outstanding Filipinos including Elpidio Quirino who became his opponent for the
presidency nearly four decades later.

From the first month of his entrance into school as a sophomore, Laurel became a member of
the Crypta Debating Club. The club had 25 members who met weekly after class hours. The senior class
of 1910 also had the Rizal Debating Club led by a senior student from the province of Capiz, named
Manuel Acuna Roxas. The latter was born orator and his impassioned words moved the judges to named
his team the winner at the debate with the Crypta Club. Here Laurel developed his oratorical prowess
such that by the time he became a candidate for the Senate to held his audiences spellbound by his use
of proper phrases delivered in a forceful and convincing manner.

While in Manila as a student at the Dominican school, he had to board with a relative who lived
in Intramuros. To take care of minor expenses as a boarder, he offered to become a sacristan or acolyte
to the friar who said Mass every morning an hour before classes opened. The priest said Mass in Latin,
and Jose could not help learn many words in that language and his knowledge undoubtedly helped him
get a high grade in that tongue during examinations.

But when he transferred to the Manila South High School later named Araullo High School the
pittance he received from the friars ceased; so, learning of an opening in the Bureau of Forestry, he
applied and got the job of arranging, classifying, and looking after the specimens of timber that the
American Bureau of Director had gathered from all parts of the archipelago. The 40 centavos an hour
pay he received was barely sufficient for his meals at the boarding house and he needed money for his
mid-morning and afternoon snacks. So he practiced frugality. He washed and ironed his own clothes. He
wore a khaki shirt and trousers that American soldiers at that time bought from their commissary. Jose
bought rejects from commercial stores on Rizal Avenue that specialized in such men’s wear. Most of the
other students in the school wore tropical white ducks or Americans (coats) but Laurel didn’t care if he
was conspicuous in his khaki garb. His hair was unruly and rose like a cockatoo’s crest became too long
for good looks but he couldn’t afford the 50 centavos that local barbers charged per haircut. Because of
his monotonous wearing of khaki, his classmates called him “Scout”, the name given to the newly
formed Philippine Scouts of the U.S. Army.

Laurel began looking at girls as a teenager and when he reached 18 developed a “crush” on a
town belle. However, she has other suitors because she was an attracted lass. To favor his suit, Jose
thought of the herbalist’s advice and dug up a mandrake with its ovate leaves and whitish and violet
flowers. He had to find one in the nearby woods of the town for the plant was much prized by the local
medicine man as a love philter. He managed to pour the liquid into her coffee and since she did not
react favorably to his love potion, he planned to force the issue by doing something drastic.

So on Christmas of 1909, when he was almost 19 years old, he returned to Tanawan to court the
girl. He had been told while in Manila High School that a gentleman could kiss a girl while a sprig of
mistletoe hung overhead. This was a widespread custom in Europe and United States but not in the
Philippines. The girl then standing at the foot of the stairs of her room when Jose called on her. Noticing
the mistletoe overhead, he there and then kissed her on the cheek.

“How dare you,” she said in Tagalog. The surprising incident apparently ended that morning
without a fuss but that night as Jose was returning home, his rival with two companions waylaid him on
the street. The other young man rushed at him with a cane that caught him on the shoulder. Jose drew
his balisong as they momentarily separated facing each other and so did his rival draw his balisong. His
foe’s knife was aimed at his head which Jose parried with his left hand but the blade glanced at his head
and wounded his forearm. Jose quickly returned the blow by using his balisong on the body of his
opponent. He had probably slashed his foe either in the chest or the abdomen for after a minute his
antagonist slumped on the ground.

The three town policemen, hearing the francas, now appeared and disarmed the pair. They
were both brought to the nearby hospital for treatment. Jose went home with bandages on the forearm.
Several days later, he was served a summons to appear before the fiscal in Batangas City his opponent
had filed charges of assault and battery and frustrated murder. Jose pleaded not guilty before the judge
of the Court of the First Instance. The court assigned an attorney de oficio for his defense who made
such a poor showing that the judge found Jose guilty and sentenced him to jail for seven to 14 years as
prescribed by the penal code.

Laurel's family was shocked by the harsh verdict and Dona Jacoba cried in court upon hearing the
sentence on her favorite son. She appealed the case and filed bail. If only her husband Sotero was alive-
she was sure his son would have been absolved. Sotero as a lawyer and a justice of the peace in their
town would have known how to nullify the charges against his son.

Friends and family advised them to hire a good lawyer. Manuel Hidalgo, the uncle of Jose’s future
wife, recommended an American barrister, Clyde de Witt, to handle the appeal. Now, de Witt was
undoubtedly one of the foremost lawyers in the metropolis. Knowing his reputation, Floor leader
Manuel L. Quezon had differences with Speaker Sergio Osmena over the leadership of the Nacionalista
Party. So Jose went to de Witt at the Escolta and was told to come back Saturday morning to the
lawyer’s office. He was grilled for an hour on the details of the incident, starting with the kiss under the
mistletoe.

He was asked to show the scar on his forearm where the balisong of his opponent had left an
ugly mark. The Supreme Court- majority members were American justices who were aware of the
custom of kissing the girl under the mistletoe during the Christmas season found Laurel not guilty on the
ground of self-defense to the joy of Dona Jacoba and members of the family in Tanawan. The high
tribunal found no premeditation or treachery on the part of the defendant and therefore dismissed the
charge. But the appeal cost them dearly, for de Witt presented a bill for more than P10,000. Mrs. Laurel
had to sell a wide tract of land in Tagaytay near the old town to meet court costs and the American
lawyer’s fee. Clyde de Witt was true as the Spaniards named him “un abogado de campanilla” and
charged fees accordingly.

The court case was the culmination process of his becoming an adult. He now placed more
emphasis on his studies and graduated in 1911 not as the valedictorian but among the first five of his
class. He was satisfied with receiving honors on graduation day, considering that he was working full
time at the Bureau of Forestry. Dismissal of the criminal cases against him also made him abandon
chasing after pretty but fickle girls in town. He resumed visiting a girl not beautiful but possessed of an
even-temper and an understanding heart named Paciencia Hidalgo. He had been seeing her for the last
three years. She was well named by her parents to meet the numerous travails of married life. But
before his wedding on April 4, 1911, at the town church, Dona Jacoba made her eldest son solemnly
promise never to wield a bladed weapon again or spill human blood. He knelt before her as he made his
promise. He wore a black tie in her remembrance after she passed away in 1927.
 JPL Higher Learning: University of the Philippines

He moved to Manila to study at the University of the Philippines which was located on Taft
Avenue corner Padre Faura Street. He had to find a better paying job for he was now a married man and
living costs in Manila were higher than in a province. He found one in the Code Committee started by
the Executive Office to codify all laws inherited from Spain. One member of the committee was the well-
known American lawyer, Thomas Atkins Street who afterward became a member of the Supreme Court.
The committee was then engaged in compiling internal revenue laws and codifying administrative
regulations. Justice Street, according to contemporary barristers had a “progressive and most
enlightened interpretation of Philippine laws and his decision showed a clear grasp of the dignity of man
and his place on earth.” Noticing the new employee was a bright student taking up law, Street made him
his amanuensis. Laurel wrote Street’s careful phrasing and copied the assortment of provisions taken
from the extensive researches. Laurel like his job for it coincided with what he was learning at the Law
School headed by Dean George C. Malcolm who was to make a name as a legal luminary in later years.
From Atty. Street, Jose learned how to codify laws, how legal researches were conducted, and how ideas
were compressed into lucid, expressive phrases. The years Laurel spent under Street taught him to say
and write legal phrases like his mentor such that future legal commentators claimed that Laurel's style
was almost a duplicate of his American tutor. Laurel was a Catholic and Street a Protestant who went
regularly to the Union of Church in Ermita but they got along very well because they never spoke about
religion.

When Justice Street died in manila in the 1930s, Laurel who was then a member of the
Supreme Court made this eulogy:” As the early morning sunbeams tiptoe upon the dew of a more
glorious day we find we find a great and a noble soul went into an illimitable realm of silence which we
call death. Tired and strained with years of continuous labor and finally lulled into eternal sleep, Thomas
Atkinson Street has left this world of ours to enjoy the just delights of everlasting peace. He has
departed and we are bereaved. What a loss! The luster of his great mind has ceased to illuminate the
beaten part of life and his heart has ceased to glow with warmth for each of us. But he has left behind a
rich legacy of great thoughts and noble deeds, the example of a great life, and the memory of a great
name. Equally brilliant as the mind of Justice Street was his facile pen. He possessed a style that was
remarkable. Read his decision and there you will find that crystal clear clarity of expression, the
exquisite manner of fact presentation, and the wondrous force of his argumentation. The splendor of his
diction and the gem of his thoughts gave brilliance to his polished decisions which as a limpid mirror
showed the man who wrote them.

Because his knowledge of Spanish was poor, he enrolled in one course at the Escuela de
Cerecho to learn the background of Philippine laws that came from the laws of Indies or the Code
Napoleon. He bought the 1890 edition of the Velazquez dictionary in Spanish and English that helped
clarify many of the difficult Castillian words. While working and codifying the mass of the laws, he got to
know the three outstanding lawyers of that generation: Don Felipe del Pan, an elderly Spanish insular,
who had been Gen. Aguinaldo’s plenipotentiary to the United States and senior member of the
prestigious firm of Del Pan-Ortigas and Fisher; Don Francisco Ortigas Sr. whose forte was civil law; and
Don Manuel Araullo, who later became a member and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He often
consulted them on some legal points. Ortigas became so fond of the young Laurel that he used him to
translate from Spanish to English certain passages in the code and gave him as a gift book on civil law
which are still kept today in the library of the Laurel Memorial Foundation. He became a good friend of
Manuel A. Roxas who although two years ahead of him both high school and in the U.P., was working as
the private secretary to Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano. When Laurel’s youngest son Arsenio or Dodjie
was born, he had Roxas as the godfather and henceforth they addressed each other familiarly as
compadre Manoling or compadre Jose. This relationship was to continue for four decades and made
them appreciate each other’s precarious position during the enemy occupation of their country when
the Japanese kempeitai or military police threatened to arrest Roxas for being anti-Japanese.

He got his Bachelor of Laws degree in March of 1915 when he was already 24 years old with
two children; Jose Bayani, Jose III both with the baptismal name at the insistence of their mother who
said that since they were born on the same day on August 27, on the feast day of St.Joseph, they should
have the same name as that saint. The eldest son called Kuya Pepito by the rest of the children took up
the law and entered politics. The second was called Kuya Pepe who, after finishing high school, enrolled
at the Imperial Military Academy in Tokyo. Both and the other sons that followed had gone to public
schools rather than elitist institutions like the Ateneo de Manila of the Jesuits or De La Salle of the
Christian Brothers because as their father said, they should be schooled “like the common man.” Jose
Laurel was no longer the truant schoolboy who cut classes and refused to do his homework. He received
his diploma from Dean George Malcolm of the state university. He was awarded an expensive set of law
books for having written the best graduation thesis. All graduates who aspired to become a member of
the bar had to take examinations in the subjects taught in the universities and Laurel placed second in
the list of successful bar candidates.

The new member of the Philippine Bar had a sign hung at the entrance of his residence in
Tanawan and later in front of his house in the Paco District, announcing he was an abogado. But he did
not practice law and instead took a job in the law division of the Executive Office of the Governor-
General in the building next to Malacanan Palace. In the evening he continued studying by enrolling at
the Escuela de Derecho.

The Escluela gave him the highest honors of those days, that of a Doctor of Jurisprudence. That
was in 1918 when he had been promoted to acting chief of the law division and had a third son whom
he named Sotero Cosme after his deceased father.

The Philippines was then reaping the benefits brought by the establishment of free trade
between America and its Far East colony. The U.S. Tariff Acts of 1909 spurted colonial foreign trade.
From imports totaling 104.5 million pesos in 1910, imports jumped to 129.8 million while export
skyrocketed to 177.3 million in the years from 1914-1918; and rose spectacularly to 219.9 million and
then 234.7 million in the next five years. This tremendous rise in foreign trade was made possible by a
network of provincial roads started by Governor-general William Cameron Forbes, who was nicknamed
Caminero (a road worker) by Filipinos for having stressed the construction of highways to facilitate the
movements of the goods and farm products and partly because of the increase in the population of
about a million persons annually. And Laurel was one of those that helped the population increase for
he was to have nine children in all during the next two decades.