Co Kim Cham vs. Valdez Tan Keh

Nature: Original Action in the Supreme Court, Mandamus.

FACTS: Petition for mandamus, in which petitioner prays that the respondent judge of the lower court be ordered to continue the proceedings in civil case which were initiated under the regime of the so-called RP established during the Japanese military occupation.

-respondent judge refused to take cognizance of and continue proceedings on the ground that general Douglas MacArthur had the effect of invalidating and nullifying all judicial proceedings and judgements of the courts of the Philippine Executive Commission. government established is a de facto government. Mac Arthur landed in Leyte and proclaimed to the people of the Philippines “that all laws regulation and processes of any other government in the Philippines that that of the said Commonwealth are null and void and without legal effect in areas of the Philippines free of enemy occupation and control.

ISSUE: Whether the judicial acts and proceedings of the courts under the Philippine Executive Commission were good and valid and remained so even after the liberation or reoccupation of the Philippines by the US and Filipino forces.

Whether the proclamation of Douglas MacArthur has invalidated all judicial proceedings.

If they were not invalidated, whether the courts can continue with such proceedings.

HELD: petition for Mandamus affirmed, CFI of Manila, ordering him to take cognizance of and continue to final judgement the proceedings in civil case no. 3012 of said court.

RATIO: It is legal truism in political and international law that all acts and proceedings of the legislative and executive, and judicial departments of a de facto government are good and valid.

Philippines is de facto type 2.

1) Government that gets possession and control of, or usurps, by force or by the voice of the majority, the rightful legal government and maintains itself against the will of the latter

2) Established and maintained by military forces who invade and occupy the territory of the enemy in the course of war

3) Established as an independent government by the inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection against the parent state.

It is evident that the Philippine Executive Commission which was organized by the Order No 1, issued by the Commander of the Japanese forces was a civil government established by the military forces of occupation and therefore a de facto government of the 2nd kind.

It necessarily follows that the judicial acts and proceedings of the courts of justice of those governments which are not of a political complexion, were good and valid, and by virtue of the well known principle

of postliminy in international law, remained good and valid after the liberation and reoccupation of the Philippines by the American and Filipino forces under the leadership of Mac Arthur.

Dissent by Perfecto J. – Douglas MacArthur as commander in chief of an army is vested with extraordinary inherent powers, as a natural result of the nature of the military operations aimed to achieve the purposes of his country in the war, victory being paramount among them. OCTOBER PROCLAMATION CANNOT BE CHALLENGED