José P. Laurel

José Paciano Laurel y García CCLH (March 9, 1891 – November 6, 1959) was a Filipino politician and judge. He was the president of the Second Philippine Republic, a Japanese puppet state when occupied during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. Since the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal (1961–1965), Laurel has been officially recognized by later administrations as a former president of the Philippines.

José Paciano Laurel y García was born on March 9, 1891 in the town of Tanauan, Batangas. His parents were Sotero Laurel I and Jacoba García. His father had been an official in the revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo and a signatory to the 1899 Malolos Constitution.

While a teen, Laurel was indicted for attempted murder when he almost killed a rival suitor of the girl he stole a kiss from with a fan knife. While studying and finishing law school, he argued for and received an acquittal.

Laurel received his law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1915, where he studied under Dean George A. Malcolm, whom he would later succeed on the Supreme Court. He then obtained a Master of Laws degree from University of Santo Tomas in 1919. Laurel then attended Yale Law School, where he obtained his J.S.D. degree.

Laurel began his life in public service while a student, as a messenger in the Bureau of Forestry then as a clerk in the Code Committee tasked with the codification of Philippine laws. During his work for the Code Committee, he was introduced to its head, Thomas A. Street, a future Supreme Court Justice who would be a mentor to the young Laurel.

Upon his return from Yale, Laurel was appointed first as Undersecretary of the Interior Department, then promoted as Secretary of the Interior in 1922. In that post, he would frequently clash with the American Governor-General Leonard Wood, and eventually, in 1923, resign from his position together with other Cabinet members in protest of Wood's administration. His clashes with Wood solidified Laurel's nationalist credentials.

Laurel was a member of the Philippine fraternity Upsilon Sigma Phi.

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's Supreme Court tenure may have been overshadowed by his presidency, yet he remains one of the most important Supreme Court justices in Philippine history. He authored several leading cases still analyzed to this day that defined the parameters of the branches of government as well as their powers.

Angara v. Electoral Commission, 63 Phil. 139 (1936), which is considered as the Philippine equivalent of Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), is Laurel's most important contribution to jurisprudence and even the rule of law in the Philippines. In affirming that the Court had jurisdiction to review the rulings of the Electoral Commission organized under the National Assembly, the Court, through Justice Laurel's opinion, firmly entrenched the power of Philippine courts to engage in judicial review of the acts of the other branches of government, and to interpret the Constitution. Held the Court, through Laurel:

The Constitution is a definition of the powers of government. Who is to determine the nature, scope and extent of such powers? The Constitution itself has provided for the instrumentality of the judiciary as the rational way. And when the judiciary mediates to allocate constitutional boundaries, it does not assert any superiority over the other departments; it does not in reality nullify or invalidate an act of the legislature, but only asserts the solemn and sacred obligation assigned to it by the Constitution to determine conflicting claims of authority under the Constitution and to establish for the parties in an actual controversy the rights which that instrument secures and guarantees to them.

Another highly influential decision penned by Laurel was Ang Tibay v. CIR, 69 Phil. 635 (1940). The Court acknowledged in that case that the substantive and procedural requirements before proceedings in administrative agencies, such as labor relations courts, were more flexible than those in judicial proceedings. At the same time, the Court still asserted that the right to due process of law must be observed, and enumerated the "cardinal primary rights" that must be respected in administrative proceedings. Since then, these "cardinal primary rights" have stood as the standard in testing due process claims in administrative cases.

Calalang v. Williams, 70 Phil. 726 (1940) was a seemingly innocuous case involving a challenge raised by a private citizen to a traffic regulation banning kalesas from Manila streets during certain afternoon hours. The Court, through Laurel, upheld the regulation as within the police power of the government. But in rejecting the claim that the regulation was violative of social justice, Laurel would respond with what would become his most famous aphorism, which is to this day widely quoted by judges and memorized by Filipino law students:

Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to insure economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus populi est suprema lex. Social justice, therefore, must be founded on the recognition of the necessity of interdependence among divers and diverse units of a society and of the protection that should be equally and evenly extended to all groups as a combined force in our social and economic life, consistent with the fundamental and paramount objective of the state of promoting the health, comfort, and quiet of all persons, and of bringing about "the greatest good to the greatest number.

The presidency of Laurel understandably remains one of the most controversial in Philippine history. After the war, he would be denounced by the pro-American sectors as a war collaborator or even a traitor, although his indictment for treason was superseded by President Roxas' Amnesty Proclamation. However, despite being one of the most infamous figures in Philippine history, he is also regarded as a Pan-Asianist who supported independence. When asked if he was pro-American or pro-Japanese, his answer would be pro-Filipino.

Accession

When Japan invaded, President Manuel L. Quezon first fled to Bataan and then to the United States to establish a government-in-exile.Quezon ordered Laurel, Vargas and other cabinet members to stay. Laurel's prewar, close relationship with Japanese officials (a son had been sent to study at the Imperial Japanese Army 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.

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 Chief Justice Abad Santos, who was shot for refusing to cooperate. 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, he held a series of high posts in 1942–1943. Under vigorous Japanese influence, the National Assembly selected Laurel to serve as President in 1943.

Domestic policies

Economy

During Laurel's tenure as President, hunger was the main worry. Prices of essential commodities rose to unprecedented heights. The government exerted every effort to increase production and bring consumers' goods under control. However, Japanese rapacity had the better of it all. On the other hand, guerrilla activities and Japanese retaliatory measures brought the peace and order situation to a difficult point. Resorting to district-zoning and domiciliary searches, coupled with arbitrary arrests, the Japanese made the mission of Laurel's administration incalculably exasperating and perilous.

Food shortage

During his presidency, the Philippines faced a crippling food shortage which demanded much of Laurel's attention. Rice and bread were still available but the sugar supply was gone. Laurel also resisted Japanese demands that the Philippines issue a formal declaration of war against the United States. He later was forced to declare war on the US and Great Britain as long as Filipinos would not have to fight.

Foreign policies

Philippine-Japanese Treaty of Alliance

On October 20, 1943 the Philippine-Japanese Treaty of Alliance was signed by Claro M. Recto, 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.

Greater East Asia Conference

Shortly after the inauguration of the Second Philippine Republic, President Laurel, together with cabinet Ministers Recto and Paredes flew to Tokyo to attend the Greater East Asia Conference which was an international summit held in Tokyo, Japan from November 5 – 6, 1943, in which Japan hosted the heads of state of various component members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The conference was also referred to as the Tokyo Conference.

The Conference addressed few issues of any substance, Eradication of Western Opium Drug Trade and to illustrate the Empire of Japan's commitments to the Pan-Asianism ideal and to emphasize its role as the "liberator" of Asia from Western colonialism.

Martial law

Laurel declared the country under martial law in 1944 through Proclamation No. 29, dated September 21. Martial law came into effect on September 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. This took effect on September 23, 1944 at 10:00 A.M.

Resistance

Due to the nature of Laurel's government and its connection to Japan, much of the population actively resisted his presidency, supporting the exiled Commonwealth government; as can be expected. However, this did not mean that his government did not have forces against the anti-Japanese resistance and the ongoing Philippine Commonwealth military.

Assassination attempt

On June 5, 1943, Laurel was playing golf at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong when he was shot around four times with a .45 caliber pistol. The bullets barely missed his heart and liver. He was rushed by his golfing companions, among them FEU president Nicanor Reyes Sr., to the Philippine General Hospital where he was operated by the Chief Military Surgeon of the Japanese Military Administration and Filipino surgeons. Laurel enjoyed a speedy recovery.

Two suspects to the shooting were reportedly captured and swiftly executed by the Kempetai. Another suspect, a former boxer named Feliciano Lizardo, was presented for identification by the Japanese to Laurel at the latter's hospital bed, but Laurel then professed unclear memory. However, in his 1953 memoirs, Laurel would admit that Lizardo, by then one of his bodyguards who had pledged to give his life for him, was indeed the would-be-assassin. Still, the historian Teodoro Agoncillo in his book on the Japanese occupation, identified a captain with a guerilla unit as the shooter.

Dissolution of the regime

On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration served upon Japan an ultimatum to surrender or face utter annihilation. The Japanese government refused the offer. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, with some 300,000 inhabitants, was almost totally destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped from an American plane. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan and invaded Manchuria. The next day, August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Allied Forces' message now had a telling effect: Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers on August 15, 1945.

Since April 1945, President Laurel, together with his family and Cabinet member Camilo Osías, Speaker Benigno Aquino Sr., Gen. Tomas Capinpin, and Ambassador Jorge B. 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. Laurel was put in Sugamo Prison then was later transferred to Nara for house arrest. On August 17, 1945, from Nara Hotel in Nara, Japan, President Laurel issued an Executive Proclamation which declared the dissolution of his regime.

President Laurel is the only Philippine president who served the three branches of government. He became a senator-congressman, associate justice and a president of the second republic.

1949 presidential election

On September 2, 1945, the Japanese forces formally 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 he 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 future Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo and Marvin M. Gray considered as the dirtiest election in Philippine electoral history.

Return to the senate

Laurel garnered the biggest votes and was elected to the Senate in 1951, under the Nacionalista Party. He was urged to run for President in 1953, but 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.

Retirement and death

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.

During his retirement, Laurel stayed in a 1957 3-story, 7-bedroom mansion in Mandaluyong City, dubbed "Villa Pacencia" after Laurel's wife. The home was one of three residences constructed by the Laurel family, the other two being in Tanauan, Batangas and in Paco, Manila (called "Villa Peñafrancia"). In 2008, the Laurel family sold "Villa Pacencia" to Ex-Senate President Manny Villar and his wife Cynthia.

On November 6, 1959, Laurel died at the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in Manila, from a massive heart attack and a stroke. He is buried in Tanauan, Batangas.

National Honor

He married Pacencia Hidalgo on April 9, 1911. The couple had nine children:

• José Laurel Jr. (August 27, 1912 – March 11, 1998), member of the Philippine National Assembly from Batangas from 1943 to 1944, Congressman from Batangas' Third District from 1941 to 1957 and from 1961 to 1972, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 1954 to 1957 and from 1967 to 1971, Assemblyman of Regular Batasang Pambansa from 1984 to 1986, Member of the Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986 from June 2 to October 15, 1986 and a running-mate of Carlos P. Garcia of the Nacionalista Party in Philippine presidential election of 1957, placed second in the vice-presidential race against Diosdado Macapagal of Liberal Party (Philippines)
• José Laurel III (August 27, 1914 – January 6, 2003) ambassador to Japan
• Natividad Laurel (born December 25, 1916)
• Sotero Laurel II (September 27, 1918 – September 16, 2009) Senator of the Philippines from 1987 to 1992 became Senate President pro tempore from 1990 to 1992
• Mariano Antonio Laurel (January 17, 1922 – August 2, 1979)
• Rosenda Pacencia Laurel (born January 9, 1925)
• Potenciana "Nita" Laurel Yupangco (born May 19, 1926)
• Salvador Laurel (November 18, 1928 – January 27, 2004) Senator of the Philippines from 1967 to 1972, Prime Minister of the Philippines from February 25 to March 25, 1986, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines from March 25, 1986 to February 2, 1987, Vice President of the Philippines from February 25, 1986 to June 30, 1992 and a presidential candidate of the Nacionalista Party in Philippine presidential election of 1992 placed seventh in the presidential race against Fidel V. Ramos
• Arsenio Laurel (December 14, 1931 – November 19, 1967) He was the first two-time winner of the Macau Grand Prix, winning it consecutively in 1962 and 1963.

Descendants

• Roberto Laurel, grandson, President of Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila and Lyceum of the Philippines University-Cavite, son of Sotero Laurel (3rd son of José P. Laurel)
• Peter Laurel, grandson, President of Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas and Lyceum of the Philippines University-Laguna
• Carlos "Chuck" Perez Laurel, grandson
• Luis Marcos "Mark" Laurel, grandson, lawyer, son of Sotero Laurel (3rd son of José P. Laurel)
• Jose Bayani "JB" Laurel Jr., UNIDO Party list, grandson
• José Laurel IV, grandson, representative of the 3rd District of Batangas, son of José B. Laurel Jr.
• Francis Castillo-Laurel, grandson
• Antonio "Tony" Castillo-Laurel, grandson
• Jose "Joey" C. Laurel V, grandson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Philippine Ambassador to Japan
• Maria Mercedes "Ditas" Laurel-Marquez, granddaughter
• Maria Elena "Marilen" Laurel-Loinaz, granddaughter
• Christine C. Laurel, granddaughter
• Benjamin "Benjie" C. Laurel+, grandson
• Eduardo C. Laurel+, grandson
• Susanna "Susie" D. Laurel-Delgado, granddaughter
• Celine "Lynnie" D. Laurel-Castillo
• Victor "Cocoy" D. Laurel, actor and singer
• Iwi Laurel-Asensio, granddaughter, singer and entrepreneur
• Patty Laurel, granddaughter, TV host and former MTV VJ
• Camille Isabella I. Laurel, UNIDO Party list, great-granddaughter
• Ann Maria Margarette I. Laurel great-grand daughter
• Jose Antonio Miguel I. Laurel, great-grandson
• Franco Laurel, great-grandson, singer and actor
• Rajo Laurel, great-grandson, fashion designer
• Denise Laurel, great-granddaughter, actress and singer
• Nicole Laurel Asensio, great-granddaughter, lead singer of General Luna band.