Vicente Abad Santos Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honorable
Vicente Abad Santos
Office:96th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
Appointer:Ferdinand Marcos
Predecessor:Fred Ruiz Castro
Successor:Abraham Sarmiento
Office2:Member of the Interim Batasang Pambansa
Birth Date:July 12, 1916
Birth Place:San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippine Islands
Death Place:Manila, Philippines
Nationality:Filipino
Relations:José Abad Santos (uncle)
Pedro Abad Santos (uncle)
Jamby Madrigal (niece)
Office1:Secretary of Justice
Party:Kilusang Bagong Lipunan
Termstart:January 17, 1979[1]
Termend:July 12, 1986
Termstart1:August 2, 1970
Termend1:January 16, 1979
Termstart2:June 12, 1978
Termend2:June 5, 1984
Predecessor1:Felix Makasiar
Successor1:Catalino Macaraig Jr.
President1:Ferdinand Marcos
Constituency2:Region III
Alma Mater:University of the Philippines Diliman (LL.B)
Harvard University (LL.M)
Occupation:Politician
Profession:Lawyer, jurist

Vicente Abad Santos (12 July 1916 – 30 December 1993) was a Filipino who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

Profile

Abad Santos was born in San Fernando, Pampanga, a city in Central Luzon to a single mother Escolastica Abad Santos. The two maternal uncles were prominent Filipinos during the American period, Chief Justice José Abad Santos, and his brother Pedro, a leading socialist leader during the Commonwealth era.

Abad Santos earned his bachelor's degree and degree in law at the University of the Philippines in Manila before earning a master's degree at Harvard Law School in the United States. After serving briefly as a trial court judge, he joined the faculty of the University of the Philippines College of Law as its dean in 1958. He would serve as dean for the next 11 years.

Public service

Abad Santos was appointed Secretary (later Minister) of Justice by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1970. He would serve in that capacity until January 1979. As early as June 1977, he was appointed to the Supreme Court, but he deferred accepting the appointment until January 17, 1979, when he was finally seated on the High Court.

Long viewed as a supporter of Ferdinand Marcos, he displayed considerable independence from the Marcos government once he was seated on the Supreme Court. By 1986, he was asked by the anti-Marcos opposition to swear into office Corazon Aquino's vice-presidential candidate Salvador Laurel at the height of the EDSA Revolution.[2] When Aquino assumed the presidency on February 25, 1986, she asked for the resignation of the incumbent justices of the Supreme Court to allow her a free hand in reorganizing the Court. Abad Santos and fellow incumbent Justice Claudio Teehankee were the President's first two appointments to the reorganized Supreme Court. However, Abad Santos retired shortly after, in July 1986, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Reappointed to the Court on April 3, 1986
  2. Web site: Del Mundo . Fernando . Doy Laurel: Forgotten patriot of EDSA I . July 1, 2022 . Philippine Daily Inquirer . February 23, 2013.