By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
mestizos.”
The People vs. Cayat case. Cayat was arrested for having in his possession an A-1-1 gin. Igorots and members of non-Christian tribes then were looked at as not educated enough to be allowed to have in their possession, much less partake of alcoholic drinks not made by their tribes. The presumption was they engaged in unruly behavior when they drank those.
Cayat was convicted and was ordered to pay the amount of P300.00 as fine. During those days, mid-930s, that amount was a fortune.
Note that the lower court decision was handed down in 1937. Incidentally that was two full years before Marcos graduated from the UP College of Law. It was also on that year that the Supreme Court issued its decision affirming the conviction on appeal.
Tne most important argument advanced by Cayat’s lawyer was his having been denied the equal protection clause of the constitution. This means that everybody belonging to the same class of people must be treated equally.
Apparently, Igorots then were considered not equal to the other Filipinos. To repeat, they were looked down on as less educated.
The young lawyer who handled the case for Cayat was Sinai Hamada y Carino. The Supreme Court was impressed by his argument to the effect that so many Igorots had already been educated in the finest schools in the Philippines, in the USA or elsewhere. They had already become doctors and had high sounding professional titles appended to their names. And They were ready and eager to take ctheir rightful places in various levels of society and contribute to nation building.
Hamada could not have gone any inch further. He himself graduated from the UP College of Law several years earlier than then President Marcos. He (Hamada) was also an editor of the UP Collegian when he was a student there. And he was an Igorot. A Bontoc-Ibaloi mestizo, with Japanese blood.
To drive home how important his achievement was as editor of the UP Collegian, no student ever became such more than once. The only exception was Homobono Adaza. Those who saw him on TV might have realized through that there is a fine line between craziness and brilliance.
The Supreme Court, to escape from them looking stupid from the arguments of Atty. Hamada without making his case win, escaped by saying that if indeed the Igorots were at par with the rest of Filipinos, altering the law thru a court decision (judicial legislation) is not legal. It was the legislative branch of government that should do that.
Looking at the names of the justices that handed down that decision, they all sounded like Spanish mestizos.
**
