Did you know? The first recorded Doctor of Civil Law holder was in 1748.
According to Dominican Historian Rev. fr. Fidel Villaroel, O.P., in his voluminous book “A History of the University of Santo Tomas: Four Centuries of Higher Education in the Philippines – Vol. I,” the first recorded Thomasian who held the Doctor of Civil Law was Don Domingo Ignacio de Sanz Arenas.
The professorial chair was bestowed upon Sanz Arenas on June 12, 1747, for acing the attorney post in a competitive examination administered by the Royal Audiencia, the highest court in the territories of the Captaincy General of the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, and the predecessor of the present-day Supreme Court of the Philippines in 1901.
The Royal Audiencia attorney then delivered his inaugural lecture to the colegiales of Santo Tomas, the royal Colegio de San Felipe, and the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, along with some manteistas in attendance.
Then, in December of the same year, the University conferred the Licentiate in Law on Sanz Arenas. One of his examiners was Dr. Domingo de Neyra, University of San Ignacio’s professor of instituta, who was a double doctorate holder of Canon and Civil Laws, respectively.
In 1748, UST had its own Doctor of Civil Law in the person of Sanz Arenas himself.