Arellano Boulevard, Cebu City
It is the street that intersects Vicente Sotto Street and Legazpi Street in the Pier Area of Cebu City. It is named in honor of the first Filipino Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
A life size statue is erected in front of the Palace of Justice of Cebu City within the compound of the Capitol of the Province of Cebu.
Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano was born on March 2, 1847 in Orion, Bataan. His father's name was Don Servando Arellano, a Spaniard, while his mother, Dona Crisfora Lonzon, was Filipino.
Arellano finished his elementary and secondary schooling at the Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo and at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. He finished preparatory law course of Bachelor of Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree at the country's oldest university, the UST.
It was the American military governor, Gen. Elwell Otis, who appointed Arellano as the country's first Chief Justice on May 29, 1899. The Philippines, being an insular government of the United States, major appointments of the governor general who acted as the country's chief executive had to be confirmed by the president of the United States of America.
The appointment of Arellano was confirmed by President William McKinley in his Letter of Instructions to the Second Philippine Commission on April 7, 1900.
The appointment of Arellano as Chief Justice paved the way for the establishment of a civilian government of the Philippines under the American administration. A year later, the country experienced its first election of local government officials. In 1906 the country elected its first members of the national assembly with Don Sergio Osmeña chosen as the first Speaker of the National Assembly in 1907.
Cayetano Arellano served as the country's Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from June 11, 1901 to April 20, 1920. It was the Act No. 136 that provided the structure and composition of our courts and jurisdiction of cases and its territories. It was issued on June 11, 1901.
When President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded as president of the United States of America, the latter appointed CJ Arellano as the representative of the United States and the Philippines to the International Congress of Jurists in 1904.
CJ Arellano became the first Asian to be conferred the Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa from Yale University.
Arellano served the country as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for 18 years, retiring on April 12, 1920. He married Rosa Bernas and had one child named Asuncion.
Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano died on December 23, 1920. He was succeeded by Victorino Mapa, a Capiznon. The successor of Arellano served the Supreme Court as Chief Justice from April 23, 1920 to October 21, 1921.
American president William McKinley, who appointed Arellano, was the 25th president of the United States of America. He was president from 1897 to 1901, shot by an assassin on September 6, 1901 in Buffalo, New York. He died of wounds on September 14, 1901.
Theodore Roosevelt was the vice president of McKinley and the former succeeded the latter. The Supreme Court had Chief Justices mostly from Luzon and Western Visayas. The first Cebuano speaking Chief Justice was Pedro L. Yap of San Isidro, Leyte.
CJ Yap though born in San Isidro, Leyte finished his high school at the Cebu Provincial High School now called the Abellana National School and his Associate in Arts at the Cebu Junior College now the University of the Philippines Cebu Campus.
Pedro L. Yap was Chief Justice from April 18, 1988 to July 1, 1988. Yap succeeded CJ Claudio Teehankee the first Chief Justice to be appointed after EDSA People Power Revolt in 1986. Teehankee was Chief Justice from April 2, 1986 to April 18, 1988.
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