HAPPINESS IS NOT necessarily found in pursuit of the American Dream. Take it from lawyer Galahad Pe Benito.

Having earned his juris doctorate from Ateneo Law School in Manila in 1994, he had scoured every school that would shoulder his expenses for further studies. “I was delighted to hear the news that I got accepted in Tulane. They agreed to reduce my tuition by half.”

At 39, having earning his Masters degree in Law from, one of the best schools in environmental law, the prestigious Tulane University in New Orleans, he had everything planned.

While his wife was employed as a nurse in a US hospital, he would have a private practice in Pasadena, servicing Filipinos on their immigration and real property cases. With high-paying jobs and a family of three, they lived lá dolce vita for six years in the US.

Pe Benito had every reason to savor the proverbial “greener pasture” his family was already enjoying. But it was not the life he had dreamt of. “Law practice, I soon realized, is not just a money-making venture. Eventually, you feel burned out and long for that one thing that really matters to you. My life had become so routinary that I saw no growth in the next 5 to 10 years,” he told the Inquirer.

“There was nothing for me there except for the big bucks, compared to practicing here. We were not exactly happy.” And so he decided to return home to practice environmental law. In 2006, he packed his household, returned to the Philippines and began living a simpler life in Quezon City.

Son growing up with other people

And then there’s their son, Galagen, who had practically grown up in day care centers. There was no other option for a couple occupied with their respective careers. “It was a depressing sight seeing your child grow with other people,” said Pe Benito. “So we weighed every option at hand and decided to head home together.”

Leaving the child at the centers obviously didn’t help him. To this day, he is having a hard time learning Filipino and can manage only a word or two.

Thanks to every day experience in the US, however, Pe Benito learned several lessons that have greatly changed his outlook in life. Adapting to the American environment taught him how to be on his own, unlike when he and his family were in Manila where they were constantly helped along.

Like RP

Still, they found living in New Orleans very much like living in the Philippines. “There was corruption left and right, and the weather was very much like ours.”

The experience began, for Pe Benito when “I had to drive a cargo truck to move our stuff to a new house. I couldn’t imagine doing it myself.” Painting a whole house and doing the plumbing were also alien to him until he found himself actually doing it. “It was not practical to hire aides to do those odd jobs. We had to be frugal and independent,” he said.

Galahad and Genecar Pe Benito tightened their belts to afford the high cost of living and still set aside some savings. True enough, they had enough money when they returned to the Philippines to start again. They are also waiting for refunds on retirement and security premiums paid while they were in the US.

Genecar now teaches at University of Santo Tomas and their son Galagen, now 7, is schooling in Kostka School in Katipunan, Quezon City “because he would flunk Filipino classes in Ateneo.” Still, the child was raised in pure Filipino culture, says Pe Benito.

Does he miss anything at all in the States? Well, he does miss seeing Michael Jordan play live, and the rush of everyday living in the US. His experience of driving all the way to Houston to escape before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans was also one for the books.

Now an environmental lawyer

A member of both the State Bar of California and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, this Tulane-trained lawyer has touched base and gone hands on for environment protection in his own country for two years now.

Pe Benito is on a part-time/on call engagement with a US law firm operating in the Philippines. He has served as legal consultant to the Development Insurance and Surety Corporation in Manila and Court Attorney VI for the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He has also lawyered for the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp., Britanico Consunji and Sarmiento Law Office and Phoenix Iron and Steel Corporation, all in Manila.

Meanwhile he is a law professor at the Far Eastern University’s Institute of Law, where he teaches environmental law, among other subjects. He is also working on a book on environmental law.

Environmental law as an area of practice has not yet been fully developed in the country but the statues were already in place 10 years ago, he says. “We already have a number of laws in the country. The problem lies in enforcement, obviously. Anyone in the street claims that he is pro-environment but barely a handful walks the talk,” he adds.

Pe Benito has also volunteered his services for the environmental campaigns of Odette Alcantara’s Mother Earth Philippines and Tony Oposa’s Climate Change Campaign.

Asked if he’s any happier now, this returning native utters a loud “Yes!” Nothing tops seeing his family intact and his environmental law career going gung-ho in his own country.