COMMENTARY: Justice Florenz Regalado

Justice  Florenz  Regalado, 87, is gone.

He set t he bar exam record of 96.7, followed by classmate and compadre Bobby de la Fuente,  with 95.95, in 1954.    

Flor's record may stand until the desert sands grow cold.

There will be a funeral Mass at 9:00 am on Friday, July 31, in the Mendiola Abbey Church where his remains will be brought Thursday afternoon.
 
I played hookey in early 1955, as a Rizal Hi senior. In Quiapo, Eddie Sanchez, our would-be valedictorian, saw the results of the 1954 bar blared by the afternoon papers. He was curious about how his brother, Bobbit, had fared.

Bobbit, who I got Prez Cory to name as Labor Minister, was our first MABINI Chair (her orig choice had to be replaced cuz, per the urban legend, she said, "I cannot proceed with your appointment, sorry." "Why po, ma'm?" "I learned you have 57 children." "Ma'm, 43 lang po," including one who would be a good Bedan lawyer in 1972.)

Bobbit got only 9 1. 2. Flor, Bobby and Bobbit comprised three reasons I attended San Beda, the grace of a Compassionate Providence.
 
Last we talked a decade or so ago, Flor  again told me his answer to a bar criminal law question on estafa was miscorrected and that eventually, he got the Justice-Examiner to concede his point. For crying out loud.
 
I tell my studes, "you get 96.71%,  and detect a seeming miscorrection, take it, let go, not to grouse anymore."

Flor told me his boyish hope and dream was to be an elevator operator. He had been named after Florenz Ziegfield, the famed Broadway impresario.  

Bobby I asked in 1986 if I could recommend  him to Prez Cory as a Supreme Court Justice. He declined (as I did in January 1987 when handed a signed SC appointment I had not sought). Flor was busy as a ConCom Delegate in 1986 ; I suggested his elevation to the SC in 1988 and was successful, to the nation's everlasting benefit.

On September 29, 1967, Flor lost in the Supreme Court, unanimously. He moved to reconsider. On December 29, 1967 he won, unanimously, in Tactaquin v. Palileo. In 1967, the SC worked between Christmas and New Year. Last Dec. 22 all our courts closed, not to reopen until January 5, 2015.  Vol. 21 of SCRA carried the two rulings and covered September to December. Now, a SCRA volume may have only four days of confusing opinions. The two Tactaquin rulings comprised seven pages.
 
As law juniors, we made bulakbol to attend our December 8 Immaculate Conception fiesta in Pasig. He gave all of us five's, save Jess Regalado Cornago, his nephew, who he graded with two five's.

He could be just, to a fault.  

He who is merely just, is severe?  Poor Jess.

'Bye Justice. Thank you.