People’s Court Acquittal of President Laurel

Eusebio was a judge of the People’s Court that acquitted President Laurel, Madrigal, et al. of collaboration.

On Jan 28, 1948, President Roxas granted full amnesty to all  Philippine collaborators, many of whom were on trial or awaiting to be tried, particularly former President Jose P. Laurel (1943–1945). The Amnesty Proclamation did not apply to those collaborators, who were charged with the commission of common crimes, such as murder, rape, and arson. The presidential decision helped heal a wound that threatened to divide the people.

José Paciano Laurel y García (1891 – 1959) was the president of the Republic of the Philippines, a Japanese-sponsored administration during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. The presidency of Laurel remains one of the most controversial in Philippine history. After the war, he would be denounced in some quarters as a war collaborator or even a traitor, although his indictment for treason was superseded by President Roxas’ Amnesty Proclamation. His subsequent electoral success demonstrates public support for him. Before his death, Laurel came to be considered by some as doing his best in interceding, protecting and looking after the best interests of the Filipinos against the harsh wartime Japanese military rule and policies. However, the fact remains that he violated his Oath of Office and headed an illegal government of the Philippines.

When Japan invaded, President Manuel L. Quezon first fled to Bataan and then to the United States to establish a government-in-exile. Laurel’s prewar, close relationship with Japanese officials (a son had been sent to study at the Imperial Military Academy in Tokyo, and Laurel had received an honorary doctorate from Tokyo University), placed him in a good position to interact with the Japanese occupation forces.

In 1925 Laurel was elected to the Philippine Senate. He would serve for one term before losing his re-election bid in 1931 to Claro M. Recto. He retired to private practice, but by 1934, he was again elected to public office, this time as a delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention. Hailed as one of the “Seven Wise Men of the Convention”, he would sponsor the provisions on the Bill of Rights. Following the ratification of the 1935 Constitution and the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Laurel was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on February 29, 1936.

Laurel was among the Commonwealth officials instructed by the Japanese Imperial Army to form a provisional government when they invaded and occupied the country. He cooperated with the Japanese, in contrast to the decision of Filipino Chief Justice Abad Santos. Because he was well-known to the Japanese as a critic of US rule, as well as having demonstrated a willingness to serve under the Japanese Military Administration, that he held a series of high posts in 1942–1943. In 1943, he was shot by Philippine guerillas while playing golf at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, but he quickly recovered. Later that year, he was selected, by the National Assembly, under vigorous Japanese influence, to serve as President.

Here’s a story that illustrates Laurel’s ambivalent and precarious position.  In 1944, Laurel issued an executive order organizing the Kapisanan sa Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas (KALIBAPI) as the sole political organization to back the government. An attempt was made to organize a women’s section of the KALIBAPI, and Laurel hosted several women leaders in Malacañang Palace to plead his case. After he spoke, a university president, speaking in behalf of the group, responded, “Mr. President, sa kabila po kami“. (“Mr. President, we are on the other side.”) Laurel joined the others assembled in hearty laughter and the KALIBAPI women’s section was never formed.

On Oct 20, 1943 the Philippine-Japanese Treaty of Alliance was signed by Claro M. Recto,  [Eusebio’s friend] who was appointed by Laurel as his Foreign Minister, and Japanese Ambassador to Philippines Sozyo Murata. One redeeming feature was that no conscription was envisioned.

Laurel declared the country under martial law in 1944 through Proclamation No. 29, dated September 21. Martial law came into effect  Sep 22, 1944 at 9 am. Proclamation No. 30 was issued the next day, declaring the existence of a state of war between the Philippines and the United States and the United Kingdom.

Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers on Aug 15, 1945.  Since Apr 1945, President Laurel, together with his family and Cabinet member Camilo Osias, Speaker Benigno Aquino, Sr., Gen. Tomas Capinpin, and Ambassador Jorge Vargas, had been in Japan. Evacuated from Baguio shortly after the city fell, they traveled to Aparri and thence, on board Japanese planes, had been taken to Japan. On August 17, 1945, from his refuge in Nara, President Laurel issued an Executive Proclamation which declared the dissolution of the Second Republic of the Philippines.

On Aug 15, 1945, the Japanese forces surrendered to the United States. Gen. Douglas MacArthur ordered Laurel arrested for collaborating with the Japanese. In 1946 he was charged with 132 counts of treason, but was never brought to trial due to the general amnesty granted by President Manuel Roxas in 1948. Laurel ran for president against Elpidio Quirino in 1949 but lost in what was then considered as the dirtiest election in Philippine electoral history.

Laurel was elected to the Senate in 1951, under the Nacionalista Party. He was urged upon to run for President in 1953, but he declined, working instead for the successful election of Ramon Magsaysay. Magsaysay appointed Laurel head of a mission tasked with negotiating trade and other issues with United States officials, the result being known as the Laurel-Langley Agreement.

Laurel considered his election to the Senate as a vindication of his reputation. He declined to run for re-election in 1957. He retired from public life, concentrating on the development of the Lyceum of the Philippines established by his family.

Batangas Eastern Academy

The Batangas Eastern Academy is the pioneer in secondary education in San Juan.  The  school  was founded  by  philanthropist, Mrs. Mercedes  Salud  de Villa, a civic-spirited citizen of  San Juan  with  a group  of prominent  citizens. Mrs. Maria Ramos Sales, Mrs. Sotera Ramos Abania, Mr. Fidel Alday, Atty. Jose Contreras, Atty. Jose Castillo, Judge Eusebio Lopez and then Mayor Miguel Lopez worked with her.

BEA past presidents were Atty. Jose M. Contreras, (June 1940- October 1946, 1954-1956), Atty. Eusebio Lopez, (November 1946- April 1954), Mr. Fidel Alday (May 1956-July 1956), Mrs. Mercedes S.  de Villa (1956-1985), Mr. Jesus S.  de Villa (1985-1991), Mrs. Libertad V. Salud, (July 1991-August 1999), Dr. Mario S. De Villa (September 1999 to May 2001), Atty. Agileo de Villa (2001 to present). School Principals were Mr. Jesus Changco, (1941-1942), Mr. Vicente Salud (1946-1955), Mrs. Libertad V. Salud (1955-2000), Dr. Generosa S. Jaen (February 19, 2001 to May 2007) and  Mrs. Lorelie A. Galit (December 10, 2007-present).

Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU)

Eusebio was a founder of the Lyceum of the Philippines University in 1952.

Seal of Lyceum of the Philippines University – Truth and Courage, For God and Country

The Lyceum of the Philippines University (Filipino: Pamantasang Liseo ng Pilipinas, abbreviated LPU) is an institute of higher education located in Intramuros in the City of Manila. It was founded in 1952 by Dr. José P. Laurel, who became the third and one of the most acclaimed presidents of the Philippines. He named the institution after lykeion, the grove in ancient Athens where Aristotle taught his pupils. LPU is the only university founded by a president of the republic. Its educational vision is founded on principles Dr. José P. Laurel set down. It opened its gates to its first students on July 7, 1952.

The tower of the Lyceum building is a defining feature of Intramuros.

Two of its most prominent features are its entry point, the “Hall of Heroes” which exhibits busts of revered Philippine historical figures sculpted by the National Artist Guillermo Tolentino; and, the famous “Lyceum Tower” which serves as Lyceum’s trademark and stands witness to the university’s history and continuing progress.

Court Cases

G.R. No. L-43430 — January 7, 1936 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee,  vs. FILEMON D. MALABANAN, defendant-appellant. Eusebio M. Lopez for appellant. — In July, 1933, appellant was municipal president of the of San Juan, Province of Batangas, and was engaged in raising funds for the construction of a ward in the provincial hospital for tubercular patients. Notwithstanding all his efforts to secure contributions, he was unable to approximate the quota which had been set for his town by the provincial authorities, and he therefore on July 22, and July 29, organized and held cock-fights, neither day being authorized by law for such purposes.

Office of the Solicitor-General Hilado for appellee.

Lopez v. Abelarde, 36 Phil. 563, G.R. No. L-11189, March 29, 1917 – Appeal by bill of exceptions, filed by counsel for the objector Francisco Abelarde from the judgment of April 26, 1915, whereby the Court of First Instance of Occidental Negros, overruling all the oppositions to the application for the registration of a parcel of real estate belonging to Eusebio Lopez, decreed the adjudication and entry of the land that was the subject-matter of the application, together with all the improvements thereon, in behalf of the conjugal partnership formed by Eusebio Lopez and Ana Ledesma.

By a written application of November 18, 1914, counsel for Eusebio Lopez applied to the Court of First Instance of Occidental Negros for the registration, in accordance with law, of a tract of land containing 4,518,937 square meters, situated in the barrio of Columela (Daga) of the municipality of Cadiz Nuevo, Occidental Negros, known as the Bayabas Hacienda, which he purchased from the heirs of Leandro Linares y Victoria at the assessed valuation of P27,000. This hacienda is now occupied by Delfin Mahinay.

G.R. No. L-1243     April 14, 1947 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Petitioner, vs. EUSEBIO LOPEZ, Associate Judge of Second Division of People’s Court, BENIGNO S. AQUINO, and ANTONIO DE LAS ALAS, Respondents.  PERFECTO, J.: chanrobles virtual law library.

Solicitor General Lorenzo M. Tañada, as head of the Office of Special Prosecutors, and Prosecutors Juan R. Liwag and Pedro C. Quinto filed, in the name of the People of the Philippines, a petition praying that a writ of prohibition be issued commanding Associate Judge Eusebio M. Lopez, of the Second Division of the People’s Court, “to desist from further proceedings in, or further exercising his jurisdiction in the trial of, and from otherwise taking further cognizance of criminal cases for treason against Benigno S. Aquino (No. 3527) and against Antonio de las Alas (No. 3531), and other treason cases of the same nature actually pending before the Second Division of the People’s Court or in any other division where he may hereafter be assigned, and declaring him disqualified to sit therein,” chanrobles virtual law library.

On Mar 14, 1946, an information for treason was filed in criminal case No. 3534 against Guillermo B. Francisco. The accused entered his plea of not guilty and the case was heard on diverse days in the months of June and July, 1946, before the Second Division of the People’s Court, composed of Associates Judges Salvador Abad Santos and Jose P. Veluz and the respondent judge.chanroblesvirtualawlibrary chanrobles virtual law library.

After the prosecution had rested its case, counsel for the accused moved to dismiss, upon the sole ground that the overt acts charged in the information were not testified to by two witnesses as required by the treason law, article 114 of the Revised Penal Code.chanroblesvirtualawlibrary chanrobles virtual law library.

On Aug 24, 1946, a decision penned by Associate Judge Salvador Abad Santos, dated Aug 15, 1946, and concurred in by Associate Judge Jose P. Veluz, was promulgated, dismissing the case. Associate Judge Lopez reserved his decision.(chan robles virtual law library)

Sep 26, 1946 – Judge Lopez promulgated a separate concurring opinion which, according to the petition, “not satisfied with dismissing the aforementioned case on the ground raised by the accused therein, expressed views and conclusions of facts, not warranted by the evidence or by the issues raised by the parties nor necessary to the decision of the case, justifying the aid and comfort given to the Empire of Japan by the “Filipino leaders” or the so-called political collaborators and holding them in effect to be patriots and therefore not guilty of the crime of treason with which they stand charged.” chanrobles virtual law library.

Upon the allegation that “the respondent judge had shown that he does not possess that unprejudiced, dispassionate, unbiased and impartial state of mind in regard to the cases of the political collaborators now pending trial in the People’s Court, which is a requisite under the statute and which is essential and necessary as a matter of right in the proper administration of justice,” the prosecution filed petitions to disqualify respondent judge from sitting and participating in any manner in the hearing and decision of the criminal cases against Benigno S. Aquino and Antonio de las Alas and other treason cases of the same nature pending before the Second Division of the People’s Court. It is alleged that the petitions were filed under section 7 of Commonwealth Act No. 682, otherwise known as the People’s Court Act, in relation to section 1 Rule 124.chanroblesvirtualawlibrary chanrobles virtual law library

After due hearing and argument, the majority of the Second Division, Judges Abad Santos and Veluz, promulgated a resolution on Nov 8, 1946, granting the motions for the disqualification of Judge Lopez. On the same date Judge Lopez promulgated a resolution denying them.

The petition alleges that in said separate resolution respondent judge “again manifested his bias and prejudice in favor of political collaborators” and reaffirmed with more vigor the views and conclusions he expressed in his concurring opinion in the case of People vs. Guillermo B. Francisco as shown by the following excerpts of Eusebio’s rulings:

. . . that President Quezon gave instructions to the Filipino leaders before his departure for the United States, giving details of those instructions; that the Filipino leaders surrendered to the enemy and accepted services in the two puppet governments because they had to and because they were coerced to do so; . . . that the cooperation the Filipinos gave to the Japanese army was feigned and not real; . . . . (p. 11, Resolution, Annex I.)

The prosecution asserts that under my theory of the law all the political collaborators now facing charges of treason in this court cannot be convicted because I would decide them in accordance with my concurring opinion. I am only one of the fifteen judges in the People’s Court. Even in my division I cannot presume to control the majority. But the prosecution can rest assured that if I could be given the sole power to decide the cases against political collaborators and all the other cases pending before the People’s Court, I would dismiss every single one of them if the charges were limited to acts legal under the law of the occupant and not in contravention of the limitations upon the powers of the enemy established by international law. (P. 24, Resolution, Annex I.)

Additional evidence presented that Eusebio was not impartial

Instead of confining his discussion to the sufficiency of the evidence, which was the only issue raised in the motion for dismissal, Judge Lopez expressed personal ideologies, dislikes, prepossessions, and conclusions of fact, warranted by the evidence or the issue raised by the parties not necessary to the decision of the case, justifying unqualifiedly the aid and comfort given to the Empire of Japan by the “Filipino leaders” or the so-called political collaborators. These are few samples:

It is hard to believe that the Filipino leaders . . . accepted services under those two governments without compulsion or coercion.” (Annex E, p. 2.) chanrobles virtual law library

One thing was uppermost in their minds; the nation must survive . . . (Annex E, p. 4.) chanrobles virtual law library

They must feign cooperation . . .. (Annex E, p. 4.) chanrobles virtual law library

They had the instructions of President Quezon to do so. (Annex E, p. 5.) chanrobles virtual law library

The Philippines paid heavily, perhaps too heavily, for the ill-advised and irresponsible guerrilla activities of her own sons. (Annex E, p. 7.) chanrobles virtual law library

The leaders of the people surrendered and gave aid and comfort to the enemy because they knew that only by giving aid and comfort to the enemy could they hope to make the nation survive. (Annex E, p. 32.) chanrobles virtual law library

Speeches alone, no matter how eloquent in praises of Japan’s magnanimity and grandeur, are not sufficient to support conviction.” (Annex E, p. 36.)

and that,

They were shields to protect the people from the brutality of the enemy. (Annex E, p. 37.)

18 Feb 1947 –  Judge Lopez, in criminal case No. 822, People of the Philippines vs. Segundo Ubaldo, and notwithstanding our resolution in the Anastacio Laurel case, once more dissented orally against the decision of the Second Division of the People’s Court, which found Ubaldo guilty of the crime of treason, for having adhered and given aid to the enemy. The majority of that court found that, Ubaldo, while in command of about one hundred affiliates of the MAKAPILI, had captured seven Filipino civilians and thereafter turned them over to the Japanese Army, with instructions that they be beheaded, on the excuse that they were guerrillas.

28 Mar 1947 – Judge Lopez published his written dissenting opinion in the Ubaldo case, reiterating his previous stand in the Francisco (Annex E, p. 37), Aquino and De las Alas (Annex I, p. 24), and Balingit (Annex A, to Memo for petitioner, last page) cases, and concluding that “the acts committed by the accused were legal under the existing law of the occupant and were not in violation of any of the recognized principles of international law.”

Being among the more prominent Commonwealth officials left after the Commonwealth government went into exile in 1941, Benigno Simeon Aquino, Sr. (1894 – 1947) were among those recruited by the Japanese to form a government. Aquino became the director-general of KALIBAPI and one of the two assistant chairmen of the Preparatory Commission for Philippine Independence. When the Second Philippine Republic was inaugurated, he was elected Speaker of the National Assembly.

In December 1944, as the American forces continued their advance to liberate the Philippines from Japanese forces, the government of the Second Philippine Republic was moved to Baguio which included Aquino before they flew to Japan where together with other officials they were arrested and imprisoned at the Sugamo Prison when the Japanese surrendered. On Aug 25, 1946, Aquino was flown back to the Philippines for his trial on treason charges by the People’s Court, a few weeks later he was released on bail.  On Dec 20, 1947 he died of heart attack at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila while watching a boxing match.