Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity - UP College of Law

The Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity is the exclusive College of Law fraternity in the University of the Philippines.

To this date, the Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity maintains its singular existence as a UP College of Law-based fraternity, with no recognized chapters outside the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Its present roster of Lords hails from the UP College of Law and from pre-law colleges in the University.

In October 1939, some juniors and sophomores of the College were moved to marshall unaffiliated scholars and student leaders into an organization that would be held together by close fraternal bonds. They aspired to be a relevant factor on campus, and in national affairs. The immediacy of their resolve was spurred by the desire to mobilize the studentry and place themselves in the forefront of the effort to dampen what they perceived was a threatened dictatorship about to be born when then Philippine President Manuel Quezon declared the creation of a “one-party” government.

It was in this context that the “Association of the Philippine Barristers” was conceived. In November 1939, the Charter Members adopted the Greek letters A ? B equivalent to the organization’s initials. Charter member and respected nationalist-historian Renato Constantino wrote the Fraternity Motto “We shall not be saved without Wisdom, for Knowledge is Power, but only Wisdom is Liberty.”

All the founders were campus intellectual or political leaders. From its founding, intellectual or political leadership or the potential to rise to leadership - was the basis for the extension of an invitation to membership, and the standard by which all aspirants are evaluated so that they may qualify for eventual admission to its Roll of Lords.

The year 1940 was a year of expansion and consolidation for the Alphans. Those with the scholastic qualifications, and showed potential for leadership in campus and national affairs, were invited to join. The neophytes were oriented to the ideals and aspirations of the founders. Those who decided to proceed with their applications were made to undergo tests in skills essential to prove their actual possession of perceived potential, and commitment to the ideals and causes of the founders. No aspirant was turned down just because he did not have the social background or financial resources.

In addition, there were tests of humility, surrender of the individual to the larger aspirations and interests of the group, and the ability to yield total obedience to the consensus of the majority. While this seemed a simplistic approach, compared to the other fraternal organizations on the campus that believed that intensive physical tests sealed fraternal bonds, the founding brothers felt that those with a low threshold of pain, but nonetheless had all the other qualifications for membership and would be assets, would not be turned off and stay away. The approach worked, and the best minds on the campus joined the new fraternity.

By December 1941, the war in Europe had threatened to spread to the Pacific. The Brothers who were in the Philippine Army reserve were among the first to respond to the call to the colors. Japanese bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor, Clark Field, Sangley Point and Subic Naval Base. Manila was strafed.

Brothers saw action in Bataan and Corregidor. They fought in the resistance movement after Bataan and Corregidor fell. The University was closed through the three years of Japanese occupation. The tides of war changed. American forces recaptured New Guinea, Palau and Saipan. Then they landed on Leyte, Nasugbu and Lingayen. Finally, the Battle for Manila was fought and won.

The UP College of Law was re-opened at what was left of the Cancer Institute and the College of Engineering buildings on the Manila campus.

The Fraternity was reactivated. Brothers Adriano Garcia, Arturo Atienza, Renato Constantino, Bienvenido Ejercito, and Benedicto Balderama were the moving spirits. They also formed the Board of Editors of the 1942-46 Philippinensian. Adriano Garcia, as President of the University Senior Council, headed the editorial board of the first postwar Philippinensian.

The recruitment policy emphasizing scholarship and academic qualifications was carried over into the early post-war years. It has paid off for the Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity. The Roll of Editors of the Philippine Collegian, Philippine Law Journal, Philippinensian, and Philippine Law Register from the late 1940s to the 1980s are replete with Alphans. Since 1940, Alphans have consistently been in the top 10 of the annual Bar Examinations. The Order of Lord Chancellors and the Fraternity’s Roll of Lords contain some of the more distinguished names in the Philippines serving Government in the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature, and the Military, in legal education, in business and industry, and in the profession. Several Brothers have also been Bar Examiners, an acknowledgment of their eminence in their fields of practice.

And the Brothers, forged in the academic furnace of the University of the Philippines, went forth to the far-flung corners of the world. They continue the tradition of service and excellence instilled in them by the Fraternity in their adopted countries.