Jose Roy

Jose J. Roy (July 19, 1904 - March 14, 1987) was a Filipino lawyer, economist, and politician who served for 25 consecutive years as a congressman and senator in the Congress of the Philippines. Known as the "poor man's economist", he drafted, authored and co-authored laws to improve the lot of the peasantry. As a member of Congress, he took particular pride in the sponsorship of almost all laws on land reform. He is also considered to be the "Father of the Philippine banking system" because of his authorship and involvement in almost all the major finance and tariff measures since the beginning of the Third Philippine Republic in 1946.

Roy was born and raised in Moncada, Tarlac. His family were tenant farmers and he attended public schools. As a young boy, his first ambition was to become a writer and one of the topics he wrote on for a school paper was crop-sharing. Seeing and much affected by the oppression surrounding the farmers around him, he thought crop-sharing would be the best remedy for the life of disparity that existed between the wealthy landlords and the poverty-stricken tenant farmers.

Roy worked his way through college and graduated from the University of the Philippines with an LLB degree in 1930. With his knowledge of Spanish, English, Filipino, Ilocano and Pampango, he was able to support himself through law school by working as an interpreter in the Public Service Commission. After graduation, he continued working at the PSC where he later became a special attorney specializing in transportation. At that time, he was just one of three public utility practitioners who specialized in transportation.

...
Wikipedia