Lawyer Ruben Balane, a legal luminary who taught at the UST Faculty of Civil Law, died on Oct. 11 due to pneumonia. He was 80.
His death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Maria Andrea Brogada, to the Varsitarian.
Balane graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in humanities and obtained his law degree from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in 1966.
In the same year, he ranked second in the 1966 Philippine Bar Examinations.
Balane taught at the UP College of Law from 1970 to 2006 and became its college secretary from 1970 to 1973.
He also taught civil law review and succession at the Ateneo School of Law and in UST.
The UST Civil Law Student Council said Balane would be “greatly remembered by the students he inspired and motivated.”
“I would have quit teaching a long time ago if all I wanted for you was to pass the bar—you are prepared for the higher things, not the bar,” the student council quoted Balano as saying.
Second-year UST Civil Law student Roselie Villaflor said Balane was a meticulous professor who was never absent in online classes.
Tributes for Balane also poured in on social media.
Former Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said Balane “was, for the longest time after the passing of Jose Benedicto Luna Reyes, the greatest civil law expert we had.”
“A polyglot and extremely literate, he taught generations of law students from UP and Ateneo. He was loved and will be greatly missed,” he wrote on Twitter.
For Sen. Nancy Binay, Balane was a ninong who always gifted her books on Christmas.
“As a close friend of my father, you were a constant presence throughout my childhood. Mami-miss ka namin, Ninong Ruben,” she said.
Balane’s remains were brought to the Santa Maria della Strada Parish Church in Quezon City on Oct. 17 and were interred at Holy Cross Memorial Park. Justin Benedict Lim
