Pedro Abad Santos - Early Years

Early Years

Abad Santos was born to a wealthy family in the town of San Fernando (now City of San Fernando, Pampanga). He was the eldest of the 10 children of Vicente Abad Santos and Toribia Basco. He is a brother of José Abad Santos, who would become chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He was also the uncle of another Vicente Abad Santos, who would become an associate justice of the Philippine Supreme Court.

Pedro, or Perico as he was known, completed his secondary education at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. He later enrolled in the University of Santo Tomas where he received his Doctor of Medicine. He later took and topped the medical board examinations.

After several years, he studied law by himself and took the bar examinations (this was allowed at the time), which he topped.