José Laurel 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 former president of the Philippines.
Background
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 1898 Malolos Constitution.
Education
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 (Doctor of Juridical Science).
Career
He entered politics and was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1925, serving there until he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1936.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (December 1941), and the subsequent Japanese assault on the Philippines, Laurel stayed in Manila. President Manuel Quezon had escaped, first to the Bataan Peninsula and then to the United States. Laurel offered his services to the Japanese, and, because of his criticism of US rule of the Philippines, he held a series of high posts in 1942–1943, climaxing in his selection as president in 1943. Twice in that year he was shot by Philippine guerrillas, but each time he recovered. In July 1946 he was charged with dozens of counts of treason, but he never stood trial, he shared in a general amnesty declared by President Manuel Roxas in April 1948.
Laurel was the Nationalist Party’s nominee for the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines in 1949, but he was narrowly defeated by the incumbent president, Elpidio Quirino, the nominee of the Liberal Party. Elected to the Senate in 1951, Laurel helped to persuade Ramon Magsaysay, then secretary of defense, to desert the Liberals and join the Nationalists. When Magsaysay became president, Laurel headed an economic mission that in 1955 negotiated an agreement to improve economic relations with the United States.
He retired from public life in 1957.
Membership
Laurel was an honorary member of the Philippine fraternity Upsilon Sigma Phi.
Connections
He married Pacencia Hidalgo on April 9, 1911. The couple had nine children:
Jose 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)
Jose Laurel III (August 27, 1914 – January 6, 2003) ambassador to Japan.
Natividad Laurel (born December 25, 1917).
Sotero Laurel II (September 27, 1919 – 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, 1924).
Potenciana "Nita" Laurel-Yupangco (born May 19, 1927).
Salvador Laurel (November 18, 1929 – 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, 1932 – November 19, 1967) He was the first two-time winner of the Macau Grand Prix, winning it consecutively in 1962 and 1963.