XIV THE RETURN HOME aps r. Laurel ought to be grateful to me,” said Gen. MacArthur in an interview with Frederic S. Marquardt of the Philippine Free Press in July 1949. “I don’t know whether he knows it or not, but I saved his life, for when he was captured in Japan at the end of the war he expected .to be hanged. There was a responsible group in Washington that wanted to have the top Filipino collaborators tried by an international court... “I delayed any possible trial until the independent Phil- ippines was established on July 4, 1946. Then I sent word to President Roxas that if he would request the extridition of Laurel, Vargas, Osias, and Aquino, I~would recommend that they be returned to the Philippines to stand trial. Roxas took the cue immediately and asked for extradition. President Truman approved, and Laurel was sent back to Manila.” Commented Marquardt: “If MacArthur hadn't intervened, the head of the Japanese-sponsored Philippine Republic would have been charged with collaboration and tried by an inter- national court. There can be little doubt that he would have met the fate of Pierre Laval in France, Vidkin Quisling in Norway and Wang Ching-wei in China, all of whom paid with their lives for heading puppet regimes during the second world war.™*130 THELAUREL STORY Late that July, Laurel returned to Manila aboard an American army transport plane at about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon at the Nielsen airport in Makati. The President was cladin khaki pants and shirt, a brown leather jacket and hisold felt hat. He had a pipe sticking out of his breast pocket, and interment in a cold climate had made his cheeks ruddy. All the Laurel family, including their wives and children, hugged and kissed him when he reached the tarmac. . One of the halfa dozen reporters came forward to shake his hand vigorously to say: “Welcome home, Mr. President!” The newsman turned out to be a former college student of his, named Efrain E. Carlos.” | - “Any regrets Mr. President?” chorused the reporters, re- ferring to his role during the enemy occupation. “No regrets — I'd do it again!” he answered. But Laurel was disappointed that his old friends, like Recto, Sabido, Paredes, Abello, Zulueta and others didnot show up. He felt mollified when told that most of them were still imprisoned in Palawan. Neither was his compadre Roxas there, and when he wanted to call on him at the Palace he was told to use the kitchen’s entrance instead of the main stairway. Laurel * refused to go. One of the bystanders, a certain Col. Carpenter, a recent arrival from the United States, asked him, “Did you ever declare war on the United States?” “That isa wrong question,” came the reply. “What I did was to declare my country in a state of war short of conscription. None of our manpower were included under those circum- stances.” .An official approached Laurel and he turned out to be a former student of his, who was now Superintendent of Prisons. ‘Alfredo Bunye seemed almost apologetic as he said, “We have togofirst to Muntinlupa, Mr. President—but you can stayin my office. It’s large and you can receive visitors.” Laurel accepted ~ the arrest quietly, although it was the first time that he had been told aboutit. The family drovein other carsto Muntinlupa, and stayed in the office of the Director until nightfall. ‘The President learned, for the first time, how their Paco home had been looted, and their farm house in Tanawan hadThe Return Home 131 been burned during liberation. The ancestral home in the town Proper, which was occupied alternately by the Japanese and the Americans, just as it was occupied alternately by the Spanish and American soldiers at the turn of the century, was partially destroyed. The Laurel family visited him daily until he was released on bail during his arraignment before the People’s Court. People from nearby provinces dropped in during his in- carceration, bringing food and fruitsin token oftheir: ippreciation of what he had done for them or their families during the enemy occupation. One day, Diia. Aurora Quezon, the late President’s widow, came and Laurel kissed her hand in deep respect and - affection. They both cried fora few seconds as they remembered the late President, whose mortal remains had been transferred from the Arlington cemetery to the city that a grateful people hadnamed after him and entombedin hisimposing monument. About a month later he was brought to Manila to face the’ charge of treasonable collaboration before the People’s Court that was holding its session at the old Bilibid prison Azcarraga street. The court had been created soon after President Sergio Osmeiia had occupied Malacafian in accordance with Com- monwealth Act No. 682 under a directive of Preside nt Harry S. Truman. Secretary of Interior Harold Ickeshad orde-ed Osmeiia “to clean up the country of collaborators and prosecute them to the letter of the law.” It was Ickes who led a group of Washington officials who wanted Filipinos who had served under the Japanese — and that included Laurel, Aquino, Vargas and Osias — behind bars. Nobody was more aware of Ickes’s resolve than Gen. Douglas MacArthur. In his autobiographical book “Reminiscences” he" related that “by virtue of the office he held, and in the absence of a High Commissioner through which he had formerly oper- ated, Secretary Ickes argued that he should take over the running of the Philippines. It was his claim that the archipelago was a possession of the United States and he seer ed to think of the islands as another one of his ational parks.” Ickes had ordered President Osmefia to find out who among the Filipinos had been loyal and who had been disloyal tothe United States during the Japanese occupation. Ickes was182 THE LAURELSTORY going to have the disloyal people tried for treason. “It was quite evident to me,” continued MacArthur, “that Ickes intended to shoot or hang any Filipino who had anything to do with this puppet government, no matter what reasons they may have had for cooperating. All of these men were well known to me and their devotion to their country was unques- tionable.” MacArthur ruled that “any Filipino who had been named as collaborator would be rounded up and held for trial by and under such procedures as were provided for in the Philippine Constitution, and that I would guarantee the safety of each individual until the Philippine authorities could act.” ‘That was the reason why he kept Laurel, Aquino, Osias and Vargas in Sugamo, for he wanted them tried in the islands rather than elsewhere by an international court, if not by the United States. MacArthur's position was completely supported by Secre- tary of War Stimson, and after a sharp disagreement in Wash- ington, President Roosevelt decided against Ickes, who was not permitted thereafter to intrude into Philippine affairs. It might be added that Ickes never forgave MacArthur, and became a leader of a “vengeful and abusive faction which had repeatedly misrepresented and falsified his (MacArthur's) position, opin- ions and personal character,” according to the General. * The People’s Court began its hearings on Monday, Sept. 2, in the dilapidated old Bilibid prison north of the Pasig river, because the districts of Malate, Ermita and Intramuros had been flattened by the enemy resistance to the returning Americans. The first division of the Court would try the case against Laurel, while the fourth division would hear thecharges against Vargas, but since both cases were similar, the two divisions decided to hold the hearings together. Judge Leopoldo Rovira was chairman of the first division, with Pompeyo Diaz and Angel Gamboa as members, while the other court was presided by Judge Emilio Rilloraza with Jose Bernabe and Antonio Quirino as associates. Before the hearing started, Quirino resigned from the Court on the ground that he*was convinced that Dr. Laurel was innocent of the- collaboration charge. The courtroom was packed by spectators and newsmen whose photographers took pictures with their flashbulbs.The Return Home 133 The defense panel was led by Claro M. Recto, Quintin Paredes and Vicente Francisco, acknowledged as the premier criminal lawyers in the country. Both Laurel and Vargas were brought in from Muntinlupa by Supt. Bunye. The six judges including Manuel Escudero in lieu of Quirino filed in led by Rovira, who immediately rapped his gavel for silence. Laurel was dressed in a white linen suit, a white shirt anc the eternal black tie which he always wore publicly in me:nory of his mother. He looked haggard, tired and grey, for he had been worried as to how he would pay his defense lawyers, until his wife Dita. Paciencia tore open her pillow case where she had kept a thick wad of paper bills and jewelry that she had saved in the year and a half after her return from Japan. “Don’t worry, papa,” she said, “We are all right, you can fight your case in the People’s Court. Papa use this for your good fight. Don't worry about anything else - just fight and win!” And that is exactly what he did. She had been very busy during the 18 months after her return. She had contacted her friends in Batangas for business reasons. She invested and bought corn, rice, coco 1uts, sugar, vegetables and tobacco to be brought to Manila and sold to market vendors, making a nice profit out of it. She also engaged in the buying and selling of jewelry, and dealt in real estate. They owned a lot and house on Perdigon Street in Paco which they had bought in the early 1920's, During liberation, the enemy had burned the house, and Dia. Paciencia had a duplex house built in 1946, from which she got a good income. After brief preliminaries that first morning of the trialy - Laurel addressed the court with these words: “Your Honors I have comebefore this Honorable Court because I was summoned. to do so in connection with my petition to be released on bail. I must ask the indulgence of my counsel for this privilege of joining them in this, to me, avery important petitio 1. The other ‘reason why I found it necessary to appear today, gentlemen of the Court, is that I consider my provisional release very im- portant and vital to the defense of my case, because while Iam happy to announce that I am defended not only by the best lawyers of this country, but by the best lawyers in the world, still, Ibelieve that none of them can pretend toknow more about134 THE LAURELSTORY my case than myself, and none of them can pretend to take greater interest in my case than myself.” Then he launched a long dissertation on the legal points of his plea, in the presence of Solicitor General, Lorenzo Tafiada, a young and talented lawyer who was his former student and who taught law at the University of Santo Tomas and the University of Manila but was no match on knowledge that Laurel possessed on constitutional law. “I am just making this preliminary statement to help my esteemed friend here, Mr. Tafiada, if Imay, and help those who are interested in the proper application of the law and in giving justice not only to me, but to Mr. Vargas and to those similarly situated, by giving you a presentation of what I consider is the Jaw, and give you at the same time an analysis and the historical origin and development of that law.” The hearings were resumed that afternoon after lunch, and continued for the next few weeks. On the second day of the trial, Judge Quirino presented himself “as a humble defender of the accused Jose P. Laurel.” Laurel was touched by his offer and he told the court, “I wish to make it of record my most profound appreciation of Judge Quirino for his appearance.” On the other hand, the Solicitor General appeared disconcerted by the former judge’s appearance, but he kept quiet. Former Mayor Leon Guinto sat quietly in the room, while former City Fiscal Alejo Mabanag, the 59-year-old former city fiscal of Manila was subpoenaed by the defense to testify that the kempeitai had interfered with judicial cases to the extent of imprisoning Minister Laurel in Fort Santiago for prohibiting any kempeitai to enter the courts during trials, the slapping of awitness against a Japanese at the sala of Assistant City Fiscal Jose Gamboa of Manila and the hog-tying of the hands and feet of Judge Diego Locsin of Central Visayas for refusing a ‘kempeitai’s order to dismiss a case. Tafiada then related that several months previously when Mr. Hutchinson of the U.S. Attorney General’s office,came to Manila to inquire if he could prosecute President Laurel and ee Vargas, he had replied: “As long as I am Solicitor why I Peas pect ay countrymen. That is courts here. I have no‘The Return Home 135 « doubt on the fairness of the American judges, but I have complete confidence in the ability and integrity of our judges.” Tafiada probably told that incident to show thathe was no“Am- boy” (American boy) for prosecuting local defendar ts. Former Solicitor General Quintin Paredes: rebutted Tariada’s arguments that bail should hot be given to Laurel. He ended his plea by narrating how General Artemio Ricarte, a fellow Ilocano who had spent some four decades as an exile in Japan and who had been brought to theislands by the Japanese toestablish a dictatorial government, asked him for advice. The Abra solon agreed and gave his first and only advice on the establishment of a dictatorship: “Don't,” he told Ricarte, “do~ such a foolish thing.” To clinch his plea for bail, or temporary liberty to prepare his defense by filing a surety bond for his appearance when. wanted, hecited the grant by the People’s Court ofbail to former Minister Teofilo Sison, the first of the officials to » charged with treason soon after the body had been created during Osmefia’s administration. The court had found him guilty of treason and sentenced him to death, but while the appeal was pending before the Supreme Court, the lower court granted him bail for P50,000. The court, Sison maintained, could not deny him bail because before conviction, he still enjoyed the pre- sumption of innocence. With the Sison case asa precedent, the two divisions had no choice except to grant the temporary” release of Laurel and Vargas.* END NOTES 46. Senator Recto denied Marquardt's allegations that Me cArthur had saved Laurel's life. “Wang Ching-wek died in Japan following an unsuccessful operation in November 1944,” he said, “long before the surrender of Japan. Laval and Quisling were both tried by the courts of their own countries and not by an international court.” Recto added that as far as he knew, no“collaborator’ in any country was ever tried by an international court, The only international tribunal, according ere those of Nuremberg and Tokyo which tried anly German and Japanese war criminals respectively. (Avancefia-Maramagop cit. . pp. 284-87) : 47. Efren Carlos would later write: “His (Laurel's) witand wisdom readily1386 THE LAUREL STORY 49. *s captured the imagination of his students. Once he said he did not believe in flunking working students. He: was allergic to stupidity and nonsense. His love and capacity for hard work were amazing.” An- other newsman named Jake Clave who became Press assistant to President Marcos, wrote: “It was his view that the true function of education is to enlighten, to develop and to build up, not to fight or destroy. . William H. Quasha, “An American Looks at Dr. Jose P. Laurel,” Manila 1960, p. 23. Director Bunye’s son “Toti” was elected mayor of Muntinlupa in the 1987 elections as a supporter of Cory Aquino against the incumbent mayor who was a die-hard Mareos follower. ). Castillo, op. cit, 5-52. x For the impassioned plea of Laurel for bail, read his daughter Rose's book, “Days of Courage” (Manila 1950, p. 18) that took her five years to write and publish with the help of eana Maramag, offspring of the Poet Fernando Maramag.