World War Two matters
Jovito R. Salonga, president of the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines from 1987 to 1991, is the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service. He is recognized for the exemplary substance of his long public career "in service to democracy and good government."Salonga, Chairman Emeritus of Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, fought the fascist Japanese who invaded his homeland in 1941, for which he was arrested, jailed and tortured. In his autobiography, the founder of Bantay Katarungan revealed: "I decided to counteract Japanese propaganda in Pasig by circulating news about the war, based on short-wave broadcasts from Australia (BBC) and from San Francisco, California. I made use of my typewriter and added my own comments." [A Journey of Struggle and Hope. Quezon City: UP Center for Leadership, Citizenship and Democracy, 2001, p. 14]
In April 1942, Salonga was arrested by Japanese military police at the instigation of pro-Japanese elements in his hometown. "I was detained in the Pasig municipal jail and investigated day and night at the nearby Kempeitai headquarters (house of well-known contractor Fortunato Concepcion) in the presence of my father. I was slapped, beaten up, and made to carry a heavy load of water atop my head while under interrogation."
A few days after the Fall of Bataan, Salonga was transferred to Fort Santiago, then to the City Jail in San Marcelino (Manila) where he met other Filipinos ("men of breeding and dignity") who had also been circulating war news from Allied sources. He was already in the Old Bilibid in Manila when he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
It was June 11, 1942. After his trial and sentencing, Salonga was brought to the New Bilibid in Muntinlupa. Eight months of incarceration. He was lucky to be released due to Kigensetsu, Japan’s foundation day, February 11, 1943.
Salonga went back to his law studies, took and topped the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1944. While he was taking the tests for admittance to the practice of law, his fellow Evangelicals were being oppressed by the imperialist Japanese. On August 24, 1944, Tito Dans, Agustin Ortega, Serafin Aquino, Col. Jose Moran and Severino Araos, who were members of Rev. Mary Boyd Stagg’s Anti-Japanese Propaganda and Espionage Movement based in Cosmopolitan Church, were court-martialed and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in Muntinlupa. He himself had narrowly evaded the round of arrests and guerrilla suppression. Salonga was listed as a captain in the ROTC-Hunters Guerrillas.
In the aftermath of the Japanese Occupation, Salonga testified in the war crimes trial of Colonel Nagahama, Kempeitai chief and Fort Santiago commander.
In addition to the Shintoist war criminals, native collaborators of the fascist invaders were also being held to account for their treasonous behavior. Who victimized Salonga’s fellow Protestants? "I was to be told later that a certain Franco Vera Reyes, a double agent, who had probably been in Cosmopolitan a number of times, was the one who squealed on Mother Stagg and her co-workers." (p. 27)
What about the fanatical follower of Benigno Ramos who caused the arrest and torture of Salonga? The name is found in page 38 of his memoirs.
Be that as it may, the matter of Filipino wartime collaboration with the murderous followers of the Japanese emperor was also tackled in the 16th National Conference of the UP Lipunang Pangkasaysayan.
The collaborators were native inhabitants and residents of the Philippines who allowed themselves to be tools of the Nipponese war machine. They were Hitler’s Oriental imitators, spies, snitches and stool pigeons, puppet politicians and bureaucrats, pro-Japanese propagandists and opportunistic profiteers.
The label most synonymous with collaborator is "Makapili," which the Supreme Court defined as "the "Makabayan Katipunan ng mga Pilipino (Makapili), an organization of military character, founded and organized for the purpose of giving material support and physical or moral assistance and aid to the Empire of Japan and Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines." [People of the Philippines vs. Domingo Capacete]
In this case, the High Court affirmed the conviction of the appellant for murder, for which he was sentenced to reclusion perpetua and ordered to pay a 10,000-peso fine and costs for treason. [G.R. No. L-943 November 22, 1947]
In another case, a collaborator was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment and fined 10,000 pesos and the costs of treason for the following acts: "In the month of February, 1945, adhered and given aid and comfort to the enemy by joining the Makapili organization in the City of San Pablo, Laguna, and cooperating with the Japanese Army in the apprehension of guerrilla suspects, in particular, in the rounding up, on February 24, 1945, of over six hundred civilians in the said city and the identification and segregation out of that group of a number of guerrilla suspects, who were on that same day massacred by the Japanese soldiers." [People of the Phil. vs. Ismael Aquivido]
Military collaboration, that is, assisting the Japanese armed forces in its operations, made the Makapili and similar bands accessories and accomplices in homicide and genocide.
How about political collaboration, that is, accepting Nippon’s imperial ambitions and using the political and policy process to facilitate fascist and elitist intentions?
Prime mechanism of this political crime was the puppet regime – an illegitimate agency whose "Constitution was never submitted to the people for approval, and whose President was not elected by popular suffrage." [Arturo M. Tolentino. Voice Of Dissent. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House, Inc., 1990, p. 51]
The puppet regime invited "the (Japanese) Army to administer the coal mines and their properties which belong to the National Development Company located in Uling, Naga, Cebu; Danao, Cebu; and Malangas, Zamboanga." [The Tribune, July 12, 1944]
The puppet regime was also a vehicle for the Nipponization of Philippine society. A unit in the Ministry of Education was created for the "function of spreading Oriental culture principally among school children." The Bureau of Oriental Culture was charged with the preparation of textbooks for both public and private schools, and "in its studies and researches on other East Asian cultures, special emphasis will be laid on the culture of Japan." To carry out its non-Filipino mandate, "a separate section will be created to conduct studies and investigations Japanese culture." [The Tribune, February 3, 1944, p. 1]
These Nipponese indoctrination units, ostensibly civilian, became military in intent when push came to shove. The New Philippine Cultural Institute, an educational institution created by the Japanese military, turned "later into a volunteer army which showed determination to fight against the returning US forces." [Motoe Terami-wada, "Lt. Shigenobu Mochizuki and the New Philippine Culture Institute," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, March 1996]
At present, to be branded a "bagong makapili" for, say, supporting the onerous provisions of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA is harsh indeed).
