75 phil.

113, September 27, 1945

CO KIM CHAM vs. ESEBEUIO VALDEZ TAN KEH

FACTS:
Co Kim Cham had a pending case that was filed during the period of Japanese
occupation. He filed a petition of Mandamus, in which he is requesting for the judge
of the lower court to continue the proceedings in the Court of First Instance in
Manila. But Judge Arsenio P. Dizon refused to take cognizance of and continue the
proceedings of the said case since the proclamation issued on October 23, 1944 by
General Douglas MacArthur invalidating and nullifying the judicial proceedings and
judgments of the court of the Philippines, in the absence of an enabling law, the
lower courts have no jurisdiction to take cognizance of and continue judicial
proceedings pending in the courts while the government is under the occupation of
the Japanese.

ISSUES:
1. Whether or not the judicial acts and proceedings of the court existing in the
Philippines under the Philippine Executive Commission and the Republic of
the Philippines were good and valid.
2. Whether or not the proclamation issued by General Douglas MacArthur in
which he declared that all laws, regulations and processes of any of the
government in the Philippines are null and void has invalidated all
judgments and judicial acts and proceedings of the said courts.
RULLING:
1. YES. The judicial acts and proceedings of the court were good and valid. The
government, during the Japanese occupation being de facto government, it
necessarily follows that the judicial acts and proceedings of the court of
justice of those governments, which are not of a political complexion, were
good and valid. Those not only judicial but also legislative acts of de facto
government, which are not of a political complexion, are remain valid after
reoccupation of a territory.
2. NO. The proclamation does not invalidate the judgement and judicial
proceedings. And applying the principles for the exercise of military authority
in an occupied territory, President McKinley, in his executive order to the
Secretary of War of May 19,1898, said in part: "Though the powers of the
military occupant are absolute and supreme, and immediately operate upon
the political condition of the inhabitants, the municipal laws of the conquered
territory, such as affect private rights of person and property and provide for
the punishment of crime, are considered as continuing in force, so far as they
are compatible with the new order of things, until they are suspended or
superseded by the occupying belligerent; and in practice they are not usually
abrogated, but are allowed to remain in force and to be administered by the
ordinary tribunals, substantially as they were before the occupation. This

enlightened practice is, so far as possible, to be adhered to on the present

occasion. The judges and the other officials connected with the
administration of justice may, if they accept the authority of the United
States, continue to administer the ordinary law of the land as between man
and man under the supervision of the American Commander in Chief."