Jos Paciano Laurel y Garca

Early life and career

Jos Paciano Laurel y Garca was born on March 9, 1891 in the town of
Tanauan, Batangas. His parents were Sotero Laurel I and Jacoba Garca. His father
had been an official in the revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo and a
signatory to the 1898 Malolos Constitution.
While a teen, Laurel was indicted for attempted murder when he almost
killed a rival suitor of his girlfriend with a fan knife. While studying and finishing
law school, he argued for and received an acquittal.
Laurel received his law degree from the University of the Philippines College
of Law in 1915, where he studied under Dean George A. Malcolm, whom he would
later succeed on the Supreme Court. He then obtained a Master of Laws degree
from University of Santo Tomas in 1919. Laurel then attended Yale Law School,
where he obtained a Doctorate of Law.
Laurel began his life in public service while a student, as a messenger in the
Bureau of Forestry then as a clerk in the Code Committee tasked with the
codification of Philippine laws. During his work for the Code Committee, he was
introduced to its head, Thomas A. Street, a future Supreme Court Justice who
would be a mentor to the young Laurel.
Upon his return from Yale, Laurel was appointed first as Undersecretary of
the Interior Department, then promoted as Secretary of the Interior in 1922. In
that post, he would frequently clash with the American Governor-General Leonard
Wood, and eventually, in 1923, resign from his position together with other Cabinet
members in protest of Wood's administration. His clashes with Wood solidified
Laurel's nationalist credentials.

Personal life
He married Pacencia Hidalgo in 1911. The couple had nine children:
Jos Laurel, Jr., (August 27, 1912 March 11, 1998) Member of the
Philippine National Assembly from Batangas from 1943 to 1944, Congressman
from Batangas' Third District from 1941 to 1957 and from 1961 to 1972, Speaker
of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 1954 to 1957 and from
1967 to 1971, Assemblyman of Regular Batasang Pambansa from 1984 to 1986,
Member of the Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986 from June 2 to
October 15, 1986 and a running-mate of Carlos P. Garcia of the Nacionalista Party
in Philippine presidential election of 1957, placed second in the vice-presidential
race against Diosdado Macapagal of Liberal Party (Philippines)
Jos Laurel III (August 27, 1914 March 18, 1998) Ambassador to Japan
Natividad Laurel (born December 25, 1916)
Sotero Laurel II (September 27, 1918 September 16, 2009) Senator of the
Philippines from 1987 to 1992 became Senate President pro tempore from 1990 to
1992

Mariano Antonio Laurel (January 17, 1922 - August 2, 1979)

Rosenda Pacencia Laurel (born January 9, 1925)
Potenciana "Nita" Laurel-Yupangco (born May 19, 1926)
Salvador Laurel (November 18, 1928 January 27, 2004) Senator of the
Philippines from 1967 to 1972, Prime Minister of the Philippines from February 25
to March 25, 1986, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines from March 25,
1986 to February 2, 1987, Vice President of the Philippines from February 25,
1986 to June 30, 1992 and a presidential candidate of the Nacionalista Party in
Philippine presidential election of 1992 placed seventh in the presidential race
against Fidel V. Ramos
Arsenio Laurel (December 14, 1931 November 19, 1967) He was the first
two-time winner of the Macau Grand Prix, winning it consecutively in 1962 and
1963

Descendants
Roberto Laurel, grandson, President of Lyceum of the Philippines UniversityManila and Lyceum of the Philippines University-Cavite, son of Sotero Laurel (3rd
son of Jos P. Laurel)
Peter Laurel, grandson, President of Lyceum of the Philippines UniversityBatangas and Lyceum of the Philippines University-Laguna
Jose Bayani "JB" Laurel, Jr., UNIDO Party list, grandson
Camille Isabella I. Laurel, UNIDO Party list, great-granddaughter
Ann Maria Margarette I. Laurel great-grand daughter
Jose Antonio Miguel I. Laurel, great-grandson
Franco Laurel, great-grandson, singer and actor
Rajo Laurel, great-grandson, fashion designer
Cocoy Laurel, grandson, actor
Iwi Laurel-Asensio, granddaughter, singer and entrepreneur
Patty Laurel, granddaughter, TV host and former MTV VJ
Jos Laurel IV, grandson, representative of the 3rd District of Batangas, son of Jos
B. Laurel, Jr.
Denise Laurel, great-granddaughter, actress and singer
Nicole Laurel-Asensio, great-granddaughter, lead singer of General Luna (band)

Senator and Congressman of the Philippines

In 1925 Laurel was elected to the Philippine Senate. He would serve for one
term before losing his re-election bid in 1931 to Claro M. Recto. He retired to
private practice, but by 1934, he was again elected to public office, this time as a
delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention. Hailed as one of the "Seven Wise
Men of the Convention", he would sponsor the provisions on the Bill of Rights.
Following the ratification of the 1935 Constitution and the establishment of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines, Laurel was appointed Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court on February 29, 1936.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

Laurel's Supreme Court tenure may have been overshadowed by his
presidency, yet he remains one of the most important Supreme Court justices in
Philippine history. He authored several leading cases still analyzed to this day that
defined the parameters of the branches of government as well as their powers.
Angara v. Electoral Commission, 63 Phil. 139 (1936), which is considered as
the Philippine equivalent of Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), is
Laurel's most important contribution to jurisprudence and even the rule of law in
the Philippines. In affirming that the Court had jurisdiction to review the rulings of
the Electoral Commission organized under the National Assembly, the Court,
through Justice Laurel's opinion, firmly entrenched the power of Philippine courts
to engage in judicial review of the acts of the other branches of government, and to
interpret the Constitution. Held the Court, through Laurel:
The Constitution is a definition of the powers of government. Who is to
determine the nature, scope and extent of such powers? The Constitution itself has
provided for the instrumentality of the judiciary as the rational way. And when the
judiciary mediates to allocate constitutional boundaries, it does not assert any
superiority over the other departments; it does not in reality nullify or invalidate an
act of the legislature, but only asserts the solemn and sacred obligation assigned to
it by the Constitution to determine conflicting claims of authority under the
Constitution and to establish for the parties in an actual controversy the rights
which that instrument secures and guarantees to them.
Another highly influential decision penned by Laurel was Ang Tibay v. CIR,
69 Phil. 635 (1940). The Court acknowledged in that case that the substantive and
procedural requirements before proceedings in administrative agencies, such as
labor relations courts, were more flexible than those in judicial proceedings. At the
same time, the Court still asserted that the right to due process of law must be
observed, and enumerated the "cardinal primary rights" that must be respected in
administrative proceedings. Since then, these "cardinal primary rights" have stood
as the standard in testing due process claims in administrative cases.
Calalang v. Williams, 70 Phil. 726 (1940) was a seemingly innocuous case
involving a challenge raised by a private citizen to a traffic regulation banning
kalesas from Manila streets during certain afternoon hours. The Court, through
Laurel, upheld the regulation as within the police power of the government. But in
rejecting the claim that the regulation was violative of social justice, Laurel would
respond with what would become his most famous aphorism, which is to this day
widely quoted by judges and memorized by Filipino law students:
Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor
anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic
forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception
may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of

all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to insure
economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the
maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of
the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures
legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers
underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus
populi est suprema lex. Social justice, therefore, must be founded on the
recognition of the necessity of interdependence among divers and diverse units of
a society and of the protection that should be equally and evenly extended to all
groups as a combined force in our social and economic life, consistent with the
fundamental and paramount objective of the state of promoting the health,
comfort, and quiet of all persons, and of bringing about "the greatest good to the
greatest number.

Presidency
The presidency of Laurel understandably remains one of the most controversial in
Philippine history. After the war, he would be denounced by the pro American
sectors as a war collaborator or even a traitor, although his indictment for treason
was superseded by President Roxas' Amnesty Proclamation. However, despite
being one of the most infamous figures in Philippine history, he is also regarded as
a Pan-Asianist who supported independence. When asked if he was pro American
or pro Japanese, his answer would be pro Filipino.

Accession
When Japan invaded, President Manuel L. Quezon first fled to Bataan and
then to the United States to establish a government-in-exile. Quezon ordered
Laurel, Vargas and other cabinet members to stay. Laurel's prewar, close
relationship with Japanese officials (a son had been sent to study at the Imperial
Japanese Army Academy in Tokyo, and Laurel had received an honorary doctorate
from Tokyo University), placed him in a good position to interact with the Japanese
occupation forces.
Laurel was among the Commonwealth officials instructed by the Japanese
Imperial Army to form a provisional government when they invaded and occupied
the country. He cooperated with the Japanese, in contrast to Chief Justice Abad
Santos, who was shot for refusing to cooperate. Because he was well-known to the
Japanese as a critic of US rule, as well as having demonstrated a willingness to
serve under the Japanese Military Administration, he held a series of high posts in
19421943. Under vigorous Japanese influence, the National Assembly selected
Laurel to serve as President in 1943.

Assassination attempt
On June 5, 1943, Laurel was playing golf at the Wack Wack Golf Course in
Mandaluyong when he was shot around four times with a 45 caliber pistol. The

bullets barely missed his heart and liver. He was rushed by his golfing companions,
among them FEU president Nicanor Reyes, Sr., to the Philippine General Hospital
where he was operated by the Chief Military Surgeon of the Japanese Military
Administration and Filipino surgeons. Laurel enjoyed a speedy recovery.
Two suspects to the shooting were reportedly captured and swiftly executed
by the Kempetai. Another suspect, a former boxer named Feliciano Lizardo, was
presented for identification by the Japanese to Laurel at the latter's hospital bed,
but Laurel then professed unclear memory. However, in his 1953 memoirs, Laurel
would admit that Lizardo, by then one his bodyguards who had pledged to give his
life for him, was indeed the would-be-assassin. Still, the historian Teodoro
Agoncillo in his book on the Japanese occupation, identified a captain with a
guerilla unit as the shooter.

Dissolution of the regime

On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration served upon Japan an ultimatum
to surrender or face utter annihilation. The Japanese government refused the offer.
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, with some 300,000 inhabitants, was almost totally
destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped from an American plane. Two days later, the
Soviet Union declared war against Japan. The next day, August 9, 1945, a second
atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Allied Forces' message now had a
telling effect: Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers on August
15, 1945.
Since April 1945, President Laurel, together with his family and Cabinet
member Camilo Osas, Speaker Benigno Aquino, Sr., Gen. Tomas Capinpin, and
Ambassador Jorge B. Vargas, had been in Japan. Evacuated from Baguio shortly
after the city fell, they traveled to Aparri and thence, on board Japanese planes,
had been taken to Japan. Laurel was put in Sugamo prison then was later
transferred to Nara for house arrest. On August 17, 1945, from Nara Hotel in
Nara, Japan, President Laurel issued an Executive Proclamation which declared
the dissolution of his regime.
President Jose Paciano G. Laurel, Sr. is the only Philippine President who
served the three branches of government. He became a senator-congressman,
associate justice and a president of the second republic(Ryan Adaoag Gragasin)

Retirement and death

Laurel considered his election to the Senate as a vindication of his
reputation. He declined to run for re-election in 1957. He retired from public life,
concentrating on the development of the Lyceum of the Philippines established by
his family.
During his retirement, Laurel stayed in a 1957 3-story, 7-bedroom mansion
in Mandaluyong City, dubbed "Villa Pacencia" after Laurel's wife. The home was
one of three residences constructed by the Laurel family, the other two being in
Tanauan, Batangas and in Paco, Manila (called "Villa Peafrancia"). In 2008, the

Laurel family sold "Villa Pacencia" to Ex-Senate President Manny Villar and his
wife Cynthia.
On November 6, 1959, Laurel died at the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in
Manila, from a massive heart attack and a stroke. He is buried in Tanauan,
Batangas.