Brunei Emigrants Lecture Notes PDF

THE BRUNEI EMIGRANTS Dr. Jose P. Laurel, President of the second Republic of the Philippines during the World War 11, can trace his ancestry to a Datu who sailed to the archipelago in the fifteenth century. He was called Gat Masungit because of his touchy temper. Gat was the title of nobi...

THE BRUNEI EMIGRANTS Dr. Jose P. Laurel, President of the second Republic of the Philippines during the World War 11, can trace his ancestry to a Datu who sailed to the archipelago in the fifteenth 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 sixteenth century, and the present Gatmaitan’s, Gatchalian’s and Gatbonton’s 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 then known as Batangan, because an earlier Datu had made his home in that hospitable and fertile land. Two centuries earlier, ten Datus had left Brunei because they were not happy over the way the ruler was treating them, sailed on their binangays or boats during 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 o Balayan on the island of Luzon, which earlier Chinese trade had called Liu-hsin, and entered the mainland through the Pansipit River to the south shore of Tant lako which they call Tanawan, the native word for an elevated place for viewing. Datu Dumangsil decided to remain there while his two companion, Datus Puti and Balensuola Jen 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 sea water from the bay to enter freely at 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 specialized in the manufacture of bladed weapons, for they had learned in Borneo how to forge crude iron into hardened steel, and one of their products, a folding knife known as the balisong, is still made in that locality. Gat Masungit who feared the incursions of occasional pirates from Mindanao built a large lantaka or muzzle-loading cannon on the small island fronting Tanawan aimed at the southwest where marauders would come. His first born was called Gat Leynes, whose progenies are now known as the Leynes family. The people of Taal lake were either pagans or Muslims until after the arrival of the Spaniards in the late sixteenth century, when they accepted Christianity. Masungit's offsprings were given the name of Dela Cruz which was changed by a later head of the clan named Miguel when Governor Narciso Claveria in 1849 decreed the adoption of surnames for all natives; for the great majority of them were known only by their baptismal names. Surnames such as Santos and De la Cruz were out. When Miguel De la Cruz was advised by his wife to choose a suitable surname by consulting the parish priest, he hotly declared, "What!" he said, "I to seek advice from a man in skirts?" But he did go to the priest who advised him to adopt the name of an aromatic evergreen shrub. " All you need to do in changing your name is, why not Laurel? It means honor and henceforth you must live with honor," said the priest. Thus did Miguel De la Cruz change his family name to Laurel and become the first of the clan to bear that surname. Another story is told that the change in surname was made by Miguel while he was hiding in the wilds of Tagaytay after an altercation with the parish priest of Tanawan, and chose that name as a camouflage. In December of 1754, disaster struck all the populated areas around the lake when the volcano erupted suddenly, so violently and for so long, that death and destruction became commonplace. Wrote Fray Martinez de Zuniga four decades later; Taal volcano never erupted furiously as it did then. The noise was like that made by a furious battle. The ashes flung by the eruption, as well as the grit, were so plentiful that they covered the roofs of houses and streets of Manila and all places within 20 leagues (90 kilometers). The rocks, thick smoke, and fire that the volcano threw out with furious energy was unbelievable. The water of the lake boiled in the heat, and streams of Sulphur and liquid mineral substances burned everything around the lake, scalding all animal life, including alligators, sharks and tunas, 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 candle light. The people walked amazed, asking for confession. The calamity lasted eight days." All the houses in Tanawan, the nearby village of Sala and other habitations around the lake, like Lipa and Taal, were destroyed. Hundreds of people were 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. 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 sea water 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 had wide agricultural fields on which the farmers raised their crops. When the demand for coffee rose in the second half of the nineteenth century, Tanawan and Lipa landowners enjoyed a bonanza of Spanish duros which they spent 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 twentieth 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 like Felipe Buencamino Sr., Mariano Ponce and Emilio Jacinto, including Marcelo Hilario del Pilar from Bulacan who wrote articles for Diarong Tagalog in both Tagalog and Castilian critical of the colonial administration. Sotero wanted to study further in Madrid after his graduation at the university. Many of the young Filipinos had gone there, starting with Dr. Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez-Jaena and the Paterno brothers, but the untimely death of his father Mariano prevented him from studying abroad because as the new head of the Laurels he had to take care of family affairs. He was then in his early twenties. He fell in love with a local lass named Jacoba Garcia, "a sweet, mild- mannered thoughtful girl with an even disposition," according to a family historian. GUERILLAS 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 Fathers Burgos, Gomes 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 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. To avoid suspicion that he was an active member secret society. Sotero had himself appointed Justice of but his status as a nationalist reached the ears of Cavitenos led by General Aguinaldo who named Laurel Undersecretary of the Interior probably because Sotero is from Batangas. By that time, Sotero was known throughout the province as a rebel leader. He had studied the primary grades in the primary of Father Valerio Malabanan, where most of the children’s prominent provincial families had enrolled. for it was superior to the parochial schools of each town- Father Valerio vas unique in his time, for although he believed in torment- he never wielded the cane on recalcitrant students, and instead gave fatherly admonitions that them to mend their ways, according to Justice Ignatio Villamor, became President of the University of the Philippines three decades later. Here he had Miguel Malvar the future capitan municipal of the adjoining tow-n of Santo Tomas, as his schoolmate, whom he was to join in the revolution against in 1896-97 and the war against the United States in 1898- 1902. When Aguinaldo had to abandon Cavite in 1897 because the Spaniards had the proving, he joined and Malvar against the pursuing Spanish troops in the of Talisay just east of the old Tanawan bordering the lake. Spaniards then hurled three punitive columns under General Nicolas Jaramillo against Aguinaldo, Malvar and Laurd. rebels were defeated, and Aguinaldo the ridge of Mount Sungay or Horn of Paliparan. then went north across PEig 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 I, 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 sank because the rifles in wooden cases were really farm implements. 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 guerrilla tactics, avoiding frontal warfare. The infamous policy of "reconcentration" that Spanish Gen. Valeriano Weyler had adopted in Cuba, was put into effect in 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 were confiscated. Individuals could not go outside such zones without a pass, otherwise they were considered as enemies. Citizens were disarmed of bladed weapons including the balisong. Town policemen were also disarmed. No person was allowed to be in the street after 8 0'clock at night. Whenever an American soldier was killed, a guerrilla 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 a 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 sometime 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 was thrown 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 SCHOOLBOY Jacoba Garcia, wife of Sotero Laurel, was a devout Catholic like most of the women of her 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 9th (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 of Calamba, whose eldest son was named Paciano. Because of this relationship Ma. Jacoba might have given the name of Paciano as her first son's middle name. Donia Jacoba, like most mothers in the islands, taught her children the caton or ABC's. She enrolled Jose in the Malabanan school. Jose was never called Pepe by his family, although close friends nicknamed him bakute or runt inTagalog. 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 at 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 driver, who were 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 loll at the barberia or barber shop where much of the town gossip could be heard. Here he 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 a Kapre 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 Kapres ever made their appearance. He returned to the cemetery a few nights later, for he was bent on getting the Kapres' 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 it and making the girl drink it. "Oh, that's nonsense!" said a friend. "Believe it or not," replied the herbalist, "that's what I 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 schooldays in Tanawan, he did very poorly in his studies, forcing his mother to seek tutorial help for her first-born 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 a violin, or any stringed instrument, and play some of the popular native or Spanish tunes. Finally, her appeals moved him when she gave an 18-karat gold chain with a cross as 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 he also loved her? He had no money 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 banduria 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 as his mother had hoped. To continue with his studies, he transferred to the 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 or flunkers to remain in that institution. This was his first contact with American educators, and he liked them compared to the American soldiers 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. Among his classmates were the following; Jose Yulo, who became the Speaker of the House of Representatives; Dr. Basillio J. Valdes, who became the Chief of Staff of the newly formed Philippine army , Ambassador Proceso Sebastian; Manila City Engineer Alejo Aquino; Director of Mines Demetrio Andres; Directors Gregorio San Agustin and Manuel Sumulong of the Bureau of Animal Industry; Directors Alfonso Concepcion and Vicente del Rosario; Secretary of Public Works Ricardo Nepomuceno; General Alberto Ramos of the Constabulary; Professor Gaudencio Garcia; Governor Marcelino Agana of Tarlac and Governor Juan A. Sarenas of Davao; Representative Paulino Gullas of Cebu; Newspapermen Bernardo P. Garcia of the Manila Bulletin and Ramon Nava of the Philippine Free Press From the first month of his entrance in 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 Acufia Roxas. The latter was a born orator and his impassioned words moved the judges to name 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 he held his audiences spellbound by his use of the 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 but 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 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 to school 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 americanas (coats) but Laurel didn't care if he was conspicuous in his khaki garb. His hair, which 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. Jose P. Laurel had a broad forehead, bright and intelligent eyes, well-shaped lips that would pucker whenever he smiled; his nostrils tended to be wide, like all Malays, and the shape of his face was aquiline. The only defect to his looks were shallow pits on his face left by smallpox when he was still small. He had an engaging smile and was a good conversationalist. He began looking at girls as a teenager, and when he reached 18 developed a "crush" on a town belle. However, she had other suitors because she was an attractive 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 spring of mistletoe hung overhead. This was a widespread custom in Europe and the United States, but not in the Philippines. The girl was 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 fuss, but that night as Jose was returning home, his rival with two companions way laid 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 fracas, 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 because 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 for his defense, who made such a poor showing that the judge found Jose guilty and sentenced him to jail from seven to 14 years as prescribed by the penal code. The Laurel family was shocked by the harsh verdict, and Döna. Jacoba cried in court upon hearing the sentence on her favorite son. She appealed the case and filed bail. If only her husband Sotero were alive — she was sure his son would have been absolved. Sotero Laurel, as a lawyer and a justice of the peace in their town, would have known how to nullify the charges against his son. Friends of the family advised them to hire a good lawyer. Manuel Hidalgo, uncle of Jose's future wife, recommended an American banister, 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 planned to join him in the practice of law after Quezon had differences with Speaker Sergio Osmena over the leadership o fthe Nationalista 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 lend an ugly mark. The Supreme Court— the majority members were American justices who were aware of the custom of kissing a girl under a mistletoe during the Christmas season found Laurel not guilty on the ground of self-defense to the joy of Dona Jacoba and members of her 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 lawyers fee. Clyde de Witt was in deed, as the Spaniards named him, "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 case 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 hold 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. He moved to Manila to study at the University of the Philippines, which was then 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 their 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 afterwards became a member of the Supreme Court. The committee was then engaged in compiling internal revenue laws and codifying administrative regulations. Justice had a "progressive and most enlightened interpretation of Philippine laws, and his decisions 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 extensive researches. Laurel liked 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 Church in Ermita, but they got along very well because they never spoke about religion. When Justice Street died in Manila in the 1930's, 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 a great and noble soul gone into the illimitable realm of silence which we call death. Tired and strained with years of continuous labor and finally lulled into eternal sleep, Thomas Atkins 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 path 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 decisions 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 Derecho to learn the background of Philippine laws that came from the Laws of the 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 Castilian words. While working and codifying the mass of laws, he got to know three of the 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 in 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 the next 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 and Jose Ill, both with the same 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 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 P. Laurel was no longer the truant school boy 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 that 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 evenings he continued studying by enrolling at the Escuela de Derecho. 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 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 to 234.7 million in the next five years. 12 This tremendous rise in foreign trade was made possible by the 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 movement of goods and farm products; and partly because of the increase in 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.