Salvador Laurel
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|
8th Vice President of the Philippines | |
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In office February 25, 1986 – June 30, 1992 | |
President | Corazon Aquino |
Preceded by | Re-established Title last held by Fernando Lopez |
Succeeded by | Joseph Estrada |
5th Prime Minister of the Philippines | |
In office February 25, 1986 – March 25, 1986 | |
President | Corazon Aquino |
Preceded by | Cesar Virata |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
16th Secretary of Foreign Affairs | |
In office March 25, 1986 – February 2, 1987 | |
President | Corazon Aquino |
Preceded by | Pacifico A. Castro (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Manuel Yan |
Member of the Interim Batasang Pambansa | |
In office June 12, 1978 – September 16, 1983 | |
Constituency | Region IV-A |
Senator of the Philippines | |
In office December 30, 1967 – September 23, 1972[1] | |
Personal details | |
Born | Salvador Roman Hidalgo Laurel November 18, 1928 UNIDO (1980–1988) (1978-1979)KBL |
Spouse | |
Children | 8 |
Parent(s) | ) |
Salvador Roman Hidalgo Laurel
Early life
Salvador Laurel was the fifth son and eighth child of
Laurel first enrolled at
Laurel was a member of Upsilon Sigma Phi during his university studies.[3]
Stay in Japan
Towards the end of the war, the Japanese
The long confinement gave the romantic and impressionable 15-year-old Salvador the luxury of time to write poetry and prose and satisfy his insatiable thirst for books. Whenever he was lucky to find an English book, he would read it voraciously and discuss it with his mentor, Camilo Osias. However, his most treasured moments in Nara were those spent with his father, enjoying their daily morning walks in the park when José would discuss his views on life.
On September 15, 1945, his father Jose P. Laurel, his older brother
Return to Manila
Christmas 1945 was the bleakest one for the Laurel family; their Peñafrancia home was looted and emptied of its furniture, while the former president was placed in solitary confinement in Sugamo Prison in Japan. Salvador gifted his father a book entitled The World in 2030 A.D. by the Earl of Birkenhead. Lacked in writing instruments, he used that book to write his Memoirs.[6] He also wrote the poem To My Beloved Father to lift up his father's spirits and sent it to him as a Christmas present.
Trudge on, noble leader
And with thy dauntless
Courage
Swerve not in thy glorious, tho'
thankless path,
And heed not their threats
and wrath;
Forgive them who are nescient
And
With their perennial
Discontent
Thy goals impend;
Assuage thy bitter struggle
and with thy
Sapient calm, O Sage!
The glorious and the great
Have always been exalted late
And in the midst of great
work condemned.
— Salvador Laurel
At La Salle, he joined a group of young men who planned to go by sea to the
His father Jose P. Laurel and brother Jose III would finally return to the Philippines on July 23, 1946.[5]
Although all his older brothers were lawyers, he enrolled at the University of the Philippines as a premedicine student, where he obtained his AA (pre-medicine) and was admitted to medicine proper, shifting to law two years later. He was admitted to the law school while working to complete his (AA Pre-Law). He received his LLB (Bachelor of Laws) degree in UP in March 1952. He was a member of the Student Editorial Board of the Philippine Law Journal.[7]
He was acclaimed the University Champion Orator after he won the first prize in three consecutive inter-university oratorical contests: the 1949 Inter-University Oratorical contest sponsored by the Civil Liberties Union; the Student Councils Association of the Philippines, and the Inter-University Symposium on the Japanese Peace Treaty in 1951.
Without waiting for the results of the
Of his studies and scholastic endeavors at Yale University,
Salvador H. Laurel was a superb scholar at Yale. Like his father in an earlier day, he came to us in the vital formative years of his intellectual development, and remained to earn his master of laws degree (LLM) and doctorate in juridical science (J.S.D.) with highest standing. I have taught so many brilliant students from other countries at Yale Law School. Doy was one of the very best and has always been one of my favorites. His papers and comments were always informed, perceptive, wise, creative and deeply dedicated to the public and common interest. His deepest loyalty and devotion is to his own country, but he is aware of a larger interdependent world.
Personal life
Laurel later married Celia Díaz (May 29, 1928 - July 12, 2021) in 1950, a society debutante. He was the grandfather of actress Denise Laurel. He had a daughter who is also an actress, Pia Pilapil, to a veteran actress Pilar Pilapil. [9]
Legal career
In
He campaigned throughout the country, convincing lawyers to join him in his quest to bring justice to the poor, and by the end of that first year, 750 lawyers had joined CLASP. For his brilliant record as “Defender of the Defenseless,” the young Laurel was awarded "Lawyer of the Year 1967" by the Justice and Court Reporters Association (JUCRA).
Years later, in 1976, no less than the
A legal scholar and a professor of law the Lyceum University, Laurel edited the Proceedings of the Philippine Constitutional Convention (1934–1935) in seven (7) volumes based on and faithfully reproduced from the personal record kept by his father, Dr. Jose P. Laurel, a delegate from Batangas to the said Convention. These massive tomes were published in 1966.
Political career
Senator
It was not until 1967 that Salvador H. Laurel seriously entered politics, when he won a Senate seat in the sixth Congress. He officially took his oath of office as senator on December 30, 1967. At 39 years old (38 at the time of his election), Laurel became the youngest Nacionalista senator in post-war history – a record that would be held for the next forty years.[11]
In the Senate, he authored five "justice for the poor laws" also known as "Laurel laws."[12]
1. R.A. 6033, requiring courts to give priority to cases involving poor litigants;
2. R.A. 6034, giving free meals, travel and lodging allowances to poor litigants and their witnesses;
3. R.A. 6035, providing free transcript of stenographic notes to poor litigants;
4. R.A. 6036, dispensing with bail in minor cases; and
5. R.A. 6127, crediting prisoners with the full period (only one-half under previous law) of their detention in the service of prison terms
Laurel also authored nine judicial reform laws from 1968 to 1970; the Government Reorganization Act; and amendments to the Land Reform Code, one of which created the Department of Agrarian Reform.[13]
As chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice, Laurel reported on the Administration of Justice in Central Luzon (1969); the State of the Philippine Penal Institution and Penology (1969); the Criminal Jurisdiction Provisions of the RP-US Military Bases Agreement (1969); the Dissident Problem in Central Luzon (1971); and Violations of Civil Liberties in the case of the "Golden Buddha" (1971).
Laurel helped represent the country in numerous international assemblies. He was sent to the United Nations General Assembly three times and to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in Lima, Peru, in 1968. Later, when he was elected member of the
In 1972, Senator Laurel was the first high-ranking Filipino government official to visit the
Laurel was voted the "Most Outstanding Senator" from 1968–1971.[
Freedom fighter
During martial law, Laurel enaged in fiery speeches that exhorted the people not to be afraid and to join him in the fight to restore democracy.[14]
Through his leadership, he succeeded in organizing the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO), drawing within its ambit leaders such as
The UNIDO national convention[16]
Laurel's unquestioned and courageous leadership earned him the unanimous endorsement of his party, the UNIDO. During the UNIDO national convention at the Araneta Coliseum on June 12, 1985, nearly 25,000 delegates attended and proclaimed him the party standard-bearer in the snap election against President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Corazon Aquino, widow of Ninoy Aquino, spoke before the huge assembly endorsing Laurel's candidacy. Five months later, however, she declared her own candidacy causing a major crisis in the opposition – a rift that could cause its downfall and ensure a Marcos victory.
A series of meetings were arranged between the two opposition candidates to iron out their differences but up to the third meeting the impasse could not be broken. Cory, backed by the Convenors group, was determined to run for president. Finally, Laurel said he would agree to run as her vice president provided she ran under the UNIDO banner but Cory refused. Laurel immediately filed his certificate of candidacy as president at the Commission on Elections.
1986 Snap Elections
However, Cory sent Ninoy's sister, Lupita Kashiwahara to inform Laurel that she had changed her mind – she was willing to run under the UNIDO. True to his word and anxious to keep the opposition united in order to win the snap elections, Laurel made the supreme sacrifice of giving up his lifetime's work and presidential ambition to give way to Corazon C. Aquino.
The Cory–Doy campaign vigorously began and on February 25, 1986, they took their oaths, respectively, as president and vice president of the Philippines at the Club Filipino.[15]
Vice president and prime minister
Presidential styles of Salvador Laurel | |
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His Excellency The Honourable[17] | |
Spoken style | Your Excellency |
Alternative style | Mr. Vice President |
For a month following the People Power Revolution in late February 1986, Laurel became the only person in Philippine history to hold the posts of vice president, prime minister, and foreign minister concurrently. The office of prime minister was abolished in late March 1986.
Secretary of foreign affairs
As secretary of foreign affairs from February 1986 to September 1987, Vice President Laurel represented the Philippines in various international conferences attended by the heads of state. His official visit to China in 1986 was hailed as the "milestone marking the re-orientation of Philippine foreign policy".
He resigned from the Cabinet as secretary of foreign affairs on September 8, 1987, citing as his reasons "fundamental differences on moral principles" with President Corazon Aquino. He was succeeded by Raul Manglapus in October 1987.
1992 presidential elections
In 1992, Laurel ran for president (under the banner of the Nacionalista Party) and lost in a field of seven contenders.[19] This was his first and only electoral defeat since 1967.
Post-vice presidency (1992–2004)
In 1993, Laurel was appointed by President Ramos to be chairman of the National Centennial Commission in the run-up to the Philippine Centennial celebrations of the country's independence on June 12, 1898.
Laurel was supposed to resign after the centennial celebrations, but President
The charges, however, were eventually proved groundless in court.[20]
Later life and death
Following his retirement from public service in 1999, Laurel devoted much of his time to law practice, international consultancy, free legal aid, and writing books. He also busied himself with the Nacionalista Party, of which he was president.
In June 2003, Laurel flew to the United States to seek medical intervention after he was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes. He died on January 27, 2004, in his rented home in Atherton, California. He was 75 at the time of his death.[21] His remains were cremated days afterward. On January 29, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation No. 544, declaring seven days of official mourning for Laurel.[22] Laurel’s ashes were brought to his hometown of Tanauan, Batangas on February 5 for a necrological service at St. John the Evangelist Church. His ashes were later brought to the Batangas Provincial Capitol in Batangas City for a memorial service. His ashes were interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig on February 6.[23]
In addition, Arroyo awarded Laurel the grand cross of the Order of Lakandula posthumously on February 7, 2004.
Honors and awards
- :Grand Cross (Bayani) of the Order of Lakandula, 7 February 2004 (posthumous)[24]
- : Grand Cross (Dakilang Kamanong) of the Gawad Mabini, 1996[25]
- Order of the Knights of Rizal, Knight Grand Cross of Rizal (KGCR).[26]
Notes
- ^ The Philippines was a unincorporated territory of the United States known as the Philippine Islands at the time of Laurel's birth.
- ^ Original term was until December 30, 1973. This was cut short pursuant to the Declaration of Martial Law by President Ferdinand Marcos on September 23, 1972.
- ^ "Jose P. Laurel (1891–1959)". Jose P. Laurel Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2008.
- ^ Avecilla, Victor (November 15, 2016). "Remembering Salvador 'Doy' Laurel". Opinion. ManilaStandard.net. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ "Salvador H. Laurel". The Philippine Diary Project. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Jose P. Laurel A Register of His Papers in the Jose P. Laurel Memorial Library-Museum" (PDF). E-LIS repository. Jose P. Laurel Memorial Library. 1982. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ "Jose P. Laurel: Biographical Sketch". Jose P. Laurel Memorial Foundation Incorporated. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ Laurel, Salvador (1952). "An Inquiry into the Effects of the Suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus upon the Constitutional rights of an accused person except the right to bail". Philippine Law Journal. 27 (1). Archived from the original on September 3, 2021.
- ^ "Salvador H. Laurel". biography.yourdictionary.com. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ "Theater actress Celia Díaz-Laurel, 93". wwe.bworldonline.com. July 13, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
- ^ Joaquin, Nick (1985). Doy Laurel in Profile. Makati: Lahi. p. 255.; See also: Gleeck, Lewis E. Jr. (1987). President Marcos and the Philippine Political Culture. Manila. pp. 150–151.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ See: Crisanto, Carmelo A.; Crisanto, Joyce M. (2007). Building the Nation: First 100 Years: Nacionalista Party, 1907–2007. Las Piñas City: Villar Foundation.
- ^ Asa, Leon L., “Remembering the Late Former Vice President Dr. Salvador “Doy” H. Laurel”. The Lawyer’s Review. March 31, 2004
- ^ Republic Act No. 6389 – via Supreme Court E-Library.
- ^ See also: Bonoan, Christopher (February 25, 2021). "Doy Laurel: The EDSA Icon You've Yet to Know". Opinion. The Manila Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- ^ a b "The Freedom Fighter". Salvador H. Laurel. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- ^ See Maria Felisa Syjuco Tan, Highlights of Philippine History Volume 3: The Marcos Years 1965–1986 (Quezon City: Pantas Publishing, 2017), pp. 194–195; Nick Joaquin, "DOY LAUREL in Profile" (Collector's Edition: 2012)
- ^ A subsidiary honorific as the vice presidency ranks higher than the premiership, which was eventually abolished.
- ^ Haberer, Claude (2009). Between Tiger and Dragon: A History of Philippine Relations with China and Taiwan. Pasig City: Anvil. p. 131.
- ^ Lande, Carl H. (1996). Post-Marcos Politics: A Geographical Statistical Analysis of the 1992 Presidential Election. Manila: De La Salle University Press. p. 54.
- ^ Avecilla, Victor (November 15, 2016). "Remembering Salvador 'Doy' Laurel". Opinion. ManilaStandard.net. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
- ^ Santos, Sammy (January 29, 2004). "Laurel, 75, Dies of Cancer in US". Philstar Global. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
- ^ Presidential Proclamation No. 544, s. 2004 (January 29, 2004), Declaring the period of mourning over the death of Salvador H. Laurel, former Vice-President of the Republic of the Philippines, retrieved August 16, 2022
- ^ illanueva, Marichu; Ozaeta, Arnell (February 6, 2004). "Doy buried today". The Philippine Star. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ "Roster of Recipients of Presidential Awards". Retrieved July 11, 2022.
- ^ "Gawad Mabini". Official Gazette.
- ^ "Our Story". Knights of Rizal. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
References
- Zaide, Sonia M. (1999). The Philippines: A Unique Nation. Quezon City: All Nations Publishing.
External links
Offices and distinctions | ||
---|---|---|
Political offices | ||
Vacant | Vice President of the Philippines 1986–1992 |
Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Prime Minister of the Philippines 1986 |
Position abolished |
Preceded by Pacifico A. Castro as Minister of Foreign Affairs
Acting |
Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1986–1987 |
Succeeded by |
Party political offices | ||
First | UNIDO nominee for Vice President of the Philippines 1986 |
Last |
Preceded by | President of the Nacionalista Party 1989–2003 |
Succeeded by |
Vacant Title last held by Alejo Santos
|
Nacionalista nominee for President of the Philippines 1992 |
Vacant Title next held by Manny Villar
|