The High Court in Captivity: The Supreme Court of the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation (1941-1945)

Note: This is  an abstract of my paper delivered in the 3rd CSSP Graduate Student Research Conference April 28-29, 2017 Palma Hall, UP Diliman

The paper will discuss the period when the Philippines is under Empire of Japan, (1941-1944 ), which focus on one of most important institution in the Philippine government the Supreme Court. While several publication in Philippine History focus mostly on biography, the Executive Department and member of the Army, this paper give some insight to the Judicial branch of the Commonwealth Government in the crucial period of our history.  What will the Supreme Court will do case the war broke out?; Quezon’s controversial instruction that “You have to do what they ask you to do except one thing –the taking of any oath of allegiance to Japan.”; the participation of the Supreme Court Justices in the preparation to war, the tale of the two Chief Justices, Jose Abad Santos, his participation and death and  Jose Yulo, his works under the Japanese guidelines; Gen. Homma’s captivity of the Judiciary, his orders and instructions, the 1943 Constitutional provision on the power of the Supreme Court and how it all end with the members accused as a collaborator.


Key Terms:  Japanese Occupation, Instructions, courts, invasion, Supreme Court

Filipina: A Powerful Change Maker

Note: My Essay Won the Essay Writing Contest in UHG in regards to Women's Celebration last March 2017 and I want to share it with you!

We are all familiar with some women who made change in the passage of time. We read them from books, we saw them in the movies or known it personally.  Joan of Arc expanded the losing Kingdom of France in 1400; Elizabeth Expanded the British Empire into the largest exporting country in the world and Ann Frank mesmerized us on what the real war looks like in the heart of a teen age girl. However, in the Philippines, our textbooks and pop culture stereotype that women are always, in the past, has a Maria Clara attitude, always depend on the husband decision and not participating in social change, then change to a modern-liberal western-oriented women.  I do not agree with that, since history will teach us that Filipina has already a change-maker since the beginning of this nation.

 A question will rise in this essay.  Are we really familiar with our own women- a Filipina, who made a remarkable achievement that change our history? I’m a history student so pardon me for the use of my example.  But my argument will stand the women in the Philippines made change, and we can see it in the passage of time. And those changes they made affect all of us as a citizen, as a nation and a Filipino.  Let me start we my definition of change. In this essay, change is something that is political, social and economic.  Without those change, we are not what we are now.  Then, the word “women”. I used the term Filipina, for this is the right term for those women who live in the Philippines, off course with honor and pride.  

Before the Magellan set foot in the sand of Samar and saw the women of the Visayas, a powerful women in Pangasinan name Prisesa Urduja was already known as a warrior and men are restrain to duel with her for they afraid to lose their honor.  Lucky, Magellan did not set foot in Luzon and the periodization that they have, then save the image Lapu-lapu as a great warrior who killed Magellan in the Battle of Mactan.

During the Silang rebellion in Ilocos, Diego, the revolutionary leader was assassinated and his wife immediately took over the leadership.  The four month of leadership ended with her execution in the present they Plaza in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.  That rebellion, though considered by Renato Constantino as action without ideas, appears in history that the Spanish government ruled with brutality and inhumane attitude toward the Filipino.  

And who can forget the twenty women of Malolos who signed and presented a letter to Governor-General on December 12, 1888 requesting permission to open a night school where they could be taught Spanish.  Rizal made an essay about this in Sol amid a daring attempt to show how powerful Filipina women have in the time of terror and colonization. After a decade, this education will be given, off course not by the Mother Spain but the Imperialist United States.

Before, when we used the Philippine bill for transaction, the only women you will see there is Josefa Llanes Escoda, who founded the Girls Scout of the Philippines, and engage in a guerilla activities during the Japanese occupation. Imagine the terrible consequence of that to women, were incident of rape and murdered were rampant due to the Japanese brutal occupation.  But what she did was a show of encouragement that a Filipina can stand for her country amid the time of war.

At the time of dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos, were political writings are controlled by the military and ideas can only be sought through novel and essay, who can forget about Lualhati Bautista, the author of Dekada’70 (a story of a family live in the period of Martial Law), Gapo  (discussed about the prostitution in Olongapo City) and Bata-bata Paanoi ka Ginawa? (a mother who live with her feministic idea) . Those controversial novels that question the authority of the dictator made us realized that the women are also powerful in pen.  Probably Mr. Marcos no longer read those novels, but the next generation will have an idea how dangerous the era have. 

And who can forget the women, a housewife without experience in governance, who fought against the dictator in 1986 Snap Presidential Election, established a revolutionary government and restored the democracy that the millennial women enjoyed at this time.  Corazon Aquino, made to the Time Magazine and US Congress as one of the most significant women in Asia.  We almost fall in a tremendous bank loans, thanks to restoration of the three branches of government, were plunder is now a high crime.  Her legacy continued to exist, for democracy is the basic principle in a strong Republic. 

So what is the meaning of this entire example? History will say that a Filipina did change in the passage of time. From the pre-colonial period to the restoration of democracy, women in the Philippine can never set aside. They are participant in very change that the society required.  Women in the Philippines are politically and socially oriented, for they have the courage to be an active participant which made them a real Filipina. 

  

The millennials today, with their so called “pabebe” attitude, but not all, can also be like what the Filipina in the past did. They can also be a central personage in history. The society needs change, but it does not have a qualification who can be the one who will make it. You don’t need to be a president who voted by 16 million people, or a dictator to start a change in the society.  Those Filipina, which provided here as an example, made and change history, not because they were powerful, but they have the courage to be empowered. Women empowerment is the key for change, for they are not only a wife for a husband, or a mother of their child, but rather, a women in the Philippine who willing to do change. That’s made them a Filipina, a woman of a Filipino nation. 

Occidental Mindoro November Tour 2016

It was my first time:  first, to travel 14 hours via bus and Ro-Ro, second, to experience zip line.  Occidental Mindoro is separated in Luzon where Tamarraw and Crocodile inhabit, and the indigenous tribe of Mangyan. When I first set foot,  in San jose, I was amazed since it was a first class municipality. We went to one of the oldest train which started its combustion in 1900 for the Sakadas. In Sablayan, I enjoyed the longest island-to island zip line in South-East Asia.  It proved to me the reality of the quotes that once said by a director ( Miss Lee) in a conference “ love the place, not your friend. Your friend will leave you, but the place will stay where it is forever.”