On October 19, 1886, Jorge Bocobo, who translated Dr. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo into English, was born in Gerona, Tarlac.
Bocobo, who got an almost perfect score in the Civil Law examination in the country, also translated the Code of Kalantiaw, Lupang Hinirang, and Andres Bonifacio’s Decalogue.
He was one of the 100 Filipino students, the so-called “pensionados,” who were sent to the United States to study for four years in American School on October 10, 1903.
He helped President Manuel L. Quezon in drafting speeches and statements in connection with the campaign for Philippine independence as a member of four independence commissions to the United States in 1919, 1922, 1923, and 1924.
Bocobo also translated into English Rizal’s preface to Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt’s book, Filipinas. His legal publications included outlines of the laws on property, obligations, and court decisions from 1924 to 1944.
Notably, Bocobo, who became the fifth president of the University of the Philippines from 1934 to 1939, was influential in the development of education in the Philippines.
In his years of teaching and as acting dean of the U.P. College of Law from 1914 to 1917, he greatly contributed to making U.P. the most outstanding law school in the country and one with the best legal library.
He held several other positions, including justice of the Supreme Court from 1942 to 1944 and chairman of the Code Commission.
He was the principal author of the Civil Code of the Philippines, for which he was given a Presidential Award of Merit by President Elpidio Quirino in 1949.
Bocobo was imprisoned but later cleared of the charges of treason by the Americans on May 17, 1954, because he held office with the government installed by the Japanese during their occupation of the country.
He died on July 23, 1965.
Source: Philippine News Agency archives
Photo credit: WikiPilipinas (Filed by JR AMIGO/ai/mnm)