TIMELINE

The School
Life of
Jose P.
Laurel

EVENT 1
The institution founded by
Father Valerio had greatly
deteriorated due to the
poor quality of the teaching
staff, and bored Jose was
often absent from his
Jose was malikot or a classes.

EVENT 2
mischievous child. When he
was about six or seven
years old, he slipped down
the deep well in the garden
at the backyard of the
house. His mother, Jacoba tried
reasoning with him, but
instead of studying his
homework, he would grab a

EVENT 3 guitar or violin, or any

stringed instrument, and
play some of the popular
Jose went to Manila to
native or Spanish tunes.
enter high school, and his
mother urged him to enroll
at San Juan de Letran,

EVENT 4
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
The class of 1911, to which
examinations.
Laurel belonged, graduated
the greatest number of

EVENT 5
outstanding Filipinos,
including Elpidio Quirino who
become his opponent for
the presidency nearly four
decades later.

From the first month of his

entrance in school as a

EVENT 6
sophomore, Laurel became
a members of the Crypta
Debating Club. The club had
25 members who met
weekly after class hours.

The senior class of 1910

EVENT 7 also had the Rizal Debating

Club led by a senior student
from the province of Capiz,
named Manuel Acuña
Roxas.
The Escuela gave him the
highest honor of those
days, that of a Doctor of
Jurisprudence. That was in
1918, when he had been
promoted to acting chief of
EVENT 8
the law division, and had a
third son whom he named
Sotero Cosme after his
deceased father.