tasks demanding full use of their talents and energies. Recto was defeated in the election, winning just 8 percent of the vote. Since his time, subsequent administrations practiced with fidelity and enthusiasm what he called "subservience and colonial mentality," most of them with greed and rapacious intents. To the judgment of Recto and many political gurus, colonial mentality towards America by the sycophant Philippine government, and its evil twin—servility to the almighty dollar, are among the major contributories to graft and corruption, which in turn have paralyzed the nation's economy. In 1991, Philippine president Corazon Aquino initially fought for the continuation of the Republic of the Philippines - U.S. Bases Treaty, but ultimately acquiesced to the will of the people, and the Philippine Senate rejected its renewal. In September 1991, by a slim majority led by Senator Jovito Salonga, the lawmaking body rescinded the agreement. Recto the Jurist Recto was known as an abogado milagroso (lawyer of miracles), a tribute to his many victories in the judicial court. He wrote a three-volume book on civil procedures, which, in the days before World War II was standard textbook for law students. His prominence as a lawyer paralleled his fame as a writer. He was known for his flawless logic and lucidity of mind in both undertakings. He served the wartime cabinet of President José P. Laurel during the Japanese occupation. Together with Laurel, Camilo Osías, and Quintín Paredes, he was taken into custody by the American colonial government and tried for treason. In his defense, in his treatise entitled "Three Years of Enemy Occupation" (1946), he convincingly presented the case of patriotic conduct of Filipinos during World War II. He fought his legal battles and was acquitted. Poet, playwright, essayist He was reared and schooled in the Spanish language, his mother tongue alongside Tagalog, and he was also fluent in English. He initially gained fame as a poet while a student at University of Santo Tomás when he published a book Bajo los Cocoteros (Under the Coconut Trees, 1911), a collection of his poems in Spanish. A staff writer of El Ideal and La Vanguardia, he wrote a daily column, Primeras Cuartillas (First Sheets), under the pen name "Aristeo Hilario." They were prose and numerous poems of satirical pieces. Some of his works still grace classic poetry anthologies of the Hispanic world. Among the plays he authored were La Ruta de