IGNACIO
VILLAMOR
(1863 - 1933)
Ignacio
Villamor was born on
His
family was so hard up to that he had virtually no time to play games with other
children in the neighborhood. He had to work daily and help his parents
cultivate their little farm. At the age of ten, his father died so his widowed
mother had to lean more on him.
When
he first told his mother he wanted to go to school, she dissuaded him because
the school was behind the mountains and he was too young to be away.
With
the help of his uncle Escolastico Borbon, his mother was finally able to send
him to the public school of his town under the guidance of a good teacher,
Mariano Torrijos. Afterwards, he attended a grammar school in the same town for
two years under Juan Valera. Then he was sent to the seminary of Vigan, Ilocos
Sur, to continue his studies.
Desirous
of advancing further, he solves to go to
In
1885 he completed his Bachelor of Arts, after which he took up law in the
He
had his first experience as a teacher at the college of San Juan de Letran,
where he tutored the boarding students and reviewed them for classroom
examination.
A
co-founder of the Universidad Literaria
de Filpinas,he also established the Colegio
de
In the deliberations of the Malolos
Congress to which he was elected member, he took active part I farming the
Philippine Republic’s educational policies.
He
joined the government in 1901 as prosecuting attorney of Pangasinan. He was
appointed Judge of the Sixth Judicial District in 1902; Attorney General in
1907; and Chief of the Executive Bureau, the first Filipino to occupy this
important position.
In
1915 he became the first Filipino President of the University of the
Under
him UP became the “ the crown of the public school systems and the center of
education, where Philippine culture inspired by the Spanish civilization and
strengthened by the vigorous spirit of the American nation flourished “.
In
1918, he became the director of the Bureau of Census. Two years later, (1920),
he was named associate justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, a position
which he held until his retirement.
As a jurist, he achieved
national and international fame because of his profound legal scholarship and
his humane philosophy of law. The Spanish Royal Academy of Legislature and
Jurisprudence made him an honory member, the first Filipino jurist thus recognized.
A
painstaking author, he wrote Criminality
in the Philippine Islands, Commentaries on the Election Law, Election Frauds
and Their Remedies, Japan’s Educational Development, Slavery in the
Philippines, Industrious Men, Ancient Filipino Writing, and The University of
Santo Tomas in Her Third Century.
He had little concern for
material wealth but was so proud of his library that he referred with pride to
his books as “my fincas and my haciendas.”
As
a father, he took the deepest interest in the affairs of his home and was most
happy when surrounded by his wife and children.
A
few months prior to his death, he expressed his wish to have the cap and gown
he had worn in 1893, when he received from the university of Santo Tomas the
degree of Licentiate in Laws placed on his coffin. On the morning of