A Doctorate from Yale University Lecture Notes PDF

Readings \# 5- A Doctorate from Yale University The Filipinization of the insular bureaucracy started by Francis Burton Harrison, Cameron Forbes' successor who occupied Malacanan from 1913 to 1920, resulted in a need for more capable natives to fill the vacancies left by the Americans bureaucrats....

Readings \# 5- A Doctorate from Yale University The Filipinization of the insular bureaucracy started by Francis Burton Harrison, Cameron Forbes' successor who occupied Malacanan from 1913 to 1920, resulted in a need for more capable natives to fill the vacancies left by the Americans bureaucrats. During the Spanish regime's last decades, young Filipinos travelled to Spain from Europe to further their education. The Bureau of Education under the Americans therefore granted money for young Filipinos to study in the United States, paying for their transportation, tuition, books and room and board in the universities they had chosen. This started the "Americanization" of the Filipinos, for those who returned usually liked almost everything that was American. Scores of native students left every year and upon return had to work in the government for a specified period of time. Since hundreds had already left by that time Laurel had received his doctorate from the Escuela De Derecho, he decided that he too would also like to become a *pensionado*. He chose Yale University in the New Haven, Connecticut, as his institution for further study at the advice of some American lawyers in Manila. He chose to enter the university that Elihu founded in the 18^th^ century. New Haven on the eastern seaboard of the American continent is as far from Manila as the latter is from London-halfway around the world. *Pensionados* had to board a trans-Pacific liner to reach San Franscisco via Hongkong, Shanghai, Yokohama and Honolulu to reach the westernmost state of California. Then they to ride for some days on strains that crossed the vast American continent via either Chicago of St. Louis to reach New York City. During the transit travelers had to sleep on Pullman berths. Once there, the *pensionados* had to board local trains that brought them either to Boston or New Haven. All in all, the journey would take several weeks. Even before he left Manila, Laurel was bent on mastering constitutional law. His contacts with Teodoro M. Kalaw, who had been Undersecretary of the Interior when he was a mere clerk in the Executive Bureau, had affected him greatly. Kalaw had commented in 1910 on the Malolos Constitution, followed two years later by a treaty on "Teorias Constitucionales" which must have awakened Laurel's interest on the subject. Kalaw must have approved his appointment to the bureau and kept a fatherly eye on his bureaucratic career. Both came from the same province of Batangas and both were descended from the leading families of their towns. Don Valerio, Teodoro's father, knew Sotero Laurel and their sires must have known each other, for LIpa was only less than 10 kilometers south of Tanawan and the Batanguenos were clannish provincial lot. After Laurel's return from Yale with a doctorate in civil law, Kalaw must have recommended him for assistant chief of the law division in that bureau. And when Don Teodoro left the Department in 1922, he must have urged Laurel, who was already the Undersecretary to replace him. At Laurel's swearing in as his successor, Kalaw said. "With us today is a great man deserving a great position", Dr. Laurel has a double advantage in that, having been in the Department for many years. He is imbued with the spirit and the traditions of this Office and being young with ample academic and cultural background, he has enough initiative not to be entirely influenced by office tradition which can foster uselessness and sterility. Many of our bureaucrats take either of two roads: that of the old office routine or a completely new one, to show off their power of originality. Both are to be detested. But there is a third road, which many forget but which is most recommendable: that of handling office projects as though they were both old and new at the same time. There is no new project which does not goes back to the past nor is there any old project which will not be influenced by new circumstances. Once he reached New Haven Laurel took a room at the Yale Divinity dormitory together with another scholar named Jose Ma.Celeste who was taking a graduate course in economics. Laurel was about five feet six inches tall and rather thin while Celeste was two or three inches shorter with an agreeable disposition. Both had to practice utmost economy for the money they got as pensionados was barely sufficient to meet their lodging payments. They often cooked their meals on a gas burner to save on meals outside, selecting dishes to which they had been accustomed at home such adobo of chicken and pork or sinigang of fish or puchero with cabbage and calf's meat or barbecue liver and meats. The Batangueno planted during summer onions and tomatoes in a small plot back of their dormitory. He was astounded to learn that the Italian barbershop in the vicinity charged a dollar per head and to save money he trimmed his owned hair. He used a hand mirror to reflect the back of his head in the bathroom and then snipped with a sharp pair of scissors the excess hair at the sides and the back of his head. Thus, when a friend named Juan Collas, who was taking courses in English at a nearby school, dropped in for a chat, he was surprised to find Laurel cutting his own hair in the bathroom. "He should had been an Ilokano, instead of me" said Collas to himself. The 40 to 50 dollars Laurel was able to save every month he remitted by telegraphic transfer to his wife in Manila. For the dollar was then double in value to the peso and feeding and clothing four children cost money. The salary he received in the government that was partly turned over to his wife was not enough for the support of his growing family. Dona Paciencia Laurel however was an enterprising woman. She bought *sinamay* of abaca or hemp fiber in Tanawan and sold it in Manila to be made in *barong* shirts for males and *ternos* for women. She needed capital the first year but the second year made enough profit to repay loans she had incurred and to support her family comfortably. She now had four children before her husband left for the U.S: the two Jose', a girl Natividad nicknamed Nene and Sotero or Teroy. She was to have five more after her husband returned. The letters of recommendation from Justice Street, Dean George Malcolm and Atty. Clyde de Witt to his professor in Yale most probably opened the doors to his becoming a member of the editorial board of the Yale law Review. He contributed an article or two for the Americans who were interested in the legal changes that had occurred in their colony after they had seized it from Spain. Being a staff member of one of the Yale's publications was a distinct honor, for no Filipino had ever held such a post. His professor in constitutional law was William Howard Taft, former Governor General who had been President and later Chief Justice of the U.S Supreme Court and who most probably facilitated his membership in the American bar. Since the preamble to the Jones law of 1916 had stated that the independence of the Philippines would be granted "as soon as the stable government can be established therein" and encouraged by President Woodrow Wilson who believed in self-determination for all nations, the Filipinos sent the first independence mission to the United States in the spring of 1919 to urge Congress to pass legislation declaring independence of the islands. With the Filipinization of the bureaucracy abetted by Governor General Harrison, the political leaders of the country felt that the American promise in the Jones law should be fulfilled. Unfortunately, Washington officials were more concerned about the problems of political and economic adjustment resulting from war. The question of the Philippine independence was shoved into limbo. He wanted to pay his respects to the chairman of the first independence mission to the U. S., Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and the vice-chairman Rafael Palma, the incumbent Secretary of the Interior, the top official in the Department where he was working. He knew some members of the large mission such as Dean Maximo M. Kalaw, younger brother of Don Teodoro, who was the Undersecretary of the Interior and newsmen Pedro Aunario of the La Vanguardia, Arsenio N. Luz of El Ideal and Franscisco Varona of El debate. He also called on Resident Commissioners Jaime C. de Veyra and Don Teodoro Yangco, one of the first millionaires in the archipelago. The Library of Congress had the original of the written Constitution of the United States on which he spent days poring over the amendments and commentaries on them by American scholars. He became interested in a copy of the Athens Constitution that had been drawn up in Greece more than two thousand years ago by the philosopher Aristotle. He also met in this city several pensionados who were to occupy important positions in the insular government such as Jose Abad Santos, who was to become Secretary of Justice less than a decade later; Prudencio Lancauon, future Secretary of Education; Dr. Angel Arguelles, future Director of the Bureau of Science and Feliciano Ocampo, who would succeed him as Undersecretary of the Interior. When classes reopened in September, Laurel was already busy on his doctoral dissertation on constitutional law, and that June he wore the toga and hood of a doctor of laws. He had applied to practice his profession in the U.S. while in Washington and was admitted to the American bar. (taken from the book "The Laurel Story" by Carlos Aquino, 1992).