Top 100 Cebuano Personalities - Manuel C. Briones

CEBU, Philippines — A great Cebuano Jurist and the first to become a member of the Supreme Court, Manuel C. Briones led the way for other Cebuanos to sit at the sacred altar of the country’s highest tribunal.

M.C. Briones was elected as a delegate of the Constitutional Convention held on July 10, 1934 in accordance with the Tydings-McDuffie Law. He then became a member of the fable “Seven Wise Men” who were part of the committee that drafted the 1935 Constitution.

Briones was appointed as Justice of the Court of Appeals on February 5, 1942, years later he was appointed as Justice of the Supreme Court on September 15, 1945 and was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments on September 17, 1945.

He served the Supreme Court up to May 24, 1949. It was the Grand Old of Cebu, President Sergio Sergio Osmeña Sr., who appointed him to the Supreme Court. Under the 1935 Constitution, while the members of the Supreme Court were appointed by the president, their appointments must have the consent of the Commission on Appointments as an institutional check and balance mechanism to the actions of the chief executive. (FREEMAN)