Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity - UP College of Law

Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity is a fraternity at the University of the Philippines which restricts membership to students from the UP College of Law and from pre-law colleges in Diliman.
History
The organization was established in October 1939 by some students of the College of Law with the stated aim of maintaining close fraternal bonds and aspiring to relevance on campus and in national affairs. An immediate impetus was a desire to mobilize Philippines students in opposition to the nascent dictatorship of then-President Manuel L. Quezon, who had declared one-party government.

It was in this context that the "Association of Philippine Barristers" was conceived. In November 1939, the Charter Members adopted the Greek letters "AΦB" as the organization's initials. Charter member and nationalist historian Renato Constantino wrote the Fraternity motto: "We shall not be saved without wisdom, for though knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty."

From its founding, intellectual or political leadership, or the potential to rise to leadership — not social background or financial resources — was the criterion for membership. Alphi Phi Beta's membership list is called the Roll of Lords.

From 1940 applicants were oriented to the ideals and aspirations of the founders and made to undergo skills tests in skills to prove their ability and their commitment. Humility and obedience were valued more highly than the ability to endure the intense ordeals required by other fraternal organizations on the campus.

By December 1941, as the war in Europe threatened to spread to the Pacific, the AΦB brothers in the Philippine Army reserve were among the first to enlist. Japanese bombs were dropped not only on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii but on Clark Field on Luzon Island, Sangley Point and Subic Bay, while Manila was strafed. Brothers saw action on the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor and fought in the resistance movement after Bataan and Corregidor fell to the Japanese forces. The University was closed through the three years of . As the tides of war changed, American forces recaptured New Guinea, Palau and Saipan, and they landed on Leyte, Nasugbu and Lingayen. Finally, the Battle for Manila was fought and won.

When the UP College of Law reopened 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 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.

Alumni
The recruitment policy emphasizing academic qualifications continued into the early postwar years and several members of Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity became editors of the Philippine Collegian, Philippine Law Journal, Philippinensian, and Philippine Law Register from the late 1940s to the 1980s. Alphans have regularly been well represented in the top ten students after the annual Bar examinations. Fraternity alumni include distinguished Filipinos serving government in the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Military, in legal education, business and industry, and in the law. Several fraternity members have served as Bar examiners.

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