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<a href="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/salonga-tanada.webp" rel="lightbox">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/salonga-tanada.webp" alt="JOvito Salonga at the senate in 1966" />
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Senator Jovito Salonga (right) confers with Senator Lorenzo Tañada at the senate in 1966 (Photo credit:  <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jovitosalonga/" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Photo credit">Esteban Salonga flickr account</a>).
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<p>
Jovito Salonga's long life began after the onset of American rule in the Philippines. His youth was a time of national hope and longing for 

independence. These things shaped him, alongside his family's deep Christian convictions and the hardships of their daily life. When he was twelve, a speech by the then House Speaker Manuel Roxas in his hometown stirred him to dream of a life in law and in public life. 
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<p> 
Seizing on this ambition, he rose through public schools to the College of Law at the University of the Philippines. When war overtook his studies, 

Salonga quickly ran afoul of the new Japanese authorities. He was tortured and jailed and released after nearly a year. Amid dearth and uncertainty, 

he crammed for the bar examinations and, in 1944, earned the highest score. 
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<p> 
At war's end, Salonga embraced Philippine independence but denounced "parity rights" and other compromising ties to the United States. He topped off 

his legal education with graduate degrees from Harvard and Yale universities and then plunged headlong into the life of his new nation. 
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June 22, 1920: Jovito Salonga was born in Pasig