President Jose P laurel was the third president of the Republic of the Philippines. He was born in 1891 in Tanauan, Batangas. Laurel received law degrees from the University of the Philippines and Yale University. He was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1925 and appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1936. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II, Laurel was appointed by the Japanese as president from 1943 to 1945. After retiring from politics, Laurel focused on managing the Lyceum of the Philippines university until his death in 1959.