Pedro Yap

Pedro López Yap (July 1, 1918 – November 20, 2003) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 1988.

Yap was born in San Isidro, Leyte in July 1918 to an ethnic Chinese father and his native Leytena wife.

It was also from that town that he earned his elementary education and went to Cebu for his secondary education at the Cebu Provincial High School or what is now known as the Abellana National School.

He then went to UP Manila to take his Bachelor of Laws (he was Cum Laude).

He topped the Bar examinations given in 1946 and was admitted to the Bar on March 29, 1947, topping the examinations with a grade of 91.7 percent.

Chief Justice Yap is among the first Visayans (although he was of Chinese descent) to be sent to the United States for further studies in law.

He then enrolled at the New York University (NYU) earning a Master of Laws specializing in International Law and later obtained a Doctor of Juridical Science also at NYU, thus starting his career as a diplomat.

Yap also taught law at the University of San Carlos in Cebu since 1949 until 1985 and became one of its trustees.

Yap began his governmental career as a diplomat and served as secretary of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Yap worked as a Partner at Salonga, Ordoñez, Yap and Associates Law Office from 1967 to 1985 as a trial lawyer.

He served as a delegate to the 1971-73 Constitutional Convention where he proposed the inclusion of an Article on Socio-economic Rights.

He was one of delegates representing the 2nd District of Cebu in the 1971-73 Constitutional Convention and was one of the 16 delegates who refused to sign the 1973 Philippine Constitution although he was able to have an Article on Socio-economic Rights included in the proposed draft before Martial Law was declared and revised to extend Marcos rule.

He was appointed to the Presidential Commission on Good Government in 1986 before being appointed associate justice.

He briefly served for two and a half months from April 19, 1988 to June 30, 1988, the shortest in history until that record was surpassed by Chief Justice Teresita de Castro.

He worked in the notable Salonga, Ordoñez, Yap & Associates Law Offices, which was named after Jovito Salonga and Justice Secretary Sedfrey Ordoñez.

In 1988, Yap became the Chief Justice, replacing Claudio Teehankee and was the second ethnic Chinese officeholder (although he had half Waray blood through his maternal side, the Lópezes of Leyte), the first being his predecessor, Claudio (who was a full-blooded Chinese from Manila being born to an emigrant father from Fujian province and his local-born wife of Chinese descent).