Arsenio Laurel

Arsenio "Dodjie" Hidalgo Laurel (December 14, 1931 – November 19, 1967) was a champion race car driver from the Philippines. He was the first two-time winner of the Macau Grand Prix, winning it consecutively in 1962 and 1963. Early life Born on December 14, 1931, Laurel was a scion of a prominent political family in the Philippines. He was the youngest of nine children. His father was José P. Laurel, the President of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, while several of his brothers would eventually serve the country as Vice President (Salvador "Doy" Laurel), House Speaker (José B. Laurel Jr.), senator (Sotero Laurel II) and ambassador (José S. Laurel III). On March 22, 1945, at the tender age of 13, Laurel joined his family and officials such as former Speaker of the National Assembly Benigno Aquino Sr., former Minister of Education Camilo Osias and his wife, and General Mateo Capinpin in evacuating from Baguio and began a long and perilous overland journey to Tuguegarao, where a Japanese navy plane would fly the group to Japan via Formosa (now Taiwan) and Shanghai, China. On September 15, days after Japan formally surrendered to the United States, his father, his older brother Jose III, and Aquino Sr. were arrested by a group of Americans headed by a Colonel Turner for collaborating with Imperial Japan and were imprisoned in Japan. He later joined the rest of the Laurel family in flying back to Manila on November 2. He obtained a Master's Degree in Law at Yale University.