Dr. Jose P. Laurel: A traitor or hero? PDF

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Dr. Jose P. Laurel: A ‘traitor' or a ‘hero'?Dr. Jose P laurel is the third President of the Philippines and the first president of the second Philippine republic. He the most misunderstood president of the country. People claim of his heroic act of protecting the country amidst the Japanese occupati...

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Dr. Jose P. Laurel: A ‘traitor' or a ‘hero'?

Dr. Jose P laurel is the third President of the Philippines and the first president of the second Philippine republic. He the most misunderstood president of the country. People claim of his heroic act of protecting the country amidst the Japanese occupation. While some people state that he is a traitor and a puppet president of the Japanese government. In the year 1943, Dr. Jose P. Laurel was unanimously elected as the first president of the second Republic of the Philippines. He was used as a puppet by the Japanese to easily control the Philippine government. People claimed that he collaborated with the Japanese to control our country. There were times that the President visited Japan to have a private meeting with the Japanese leaders. This led many people to think that he is a traitor to the country as his actions also show. Some Filipinos believed that he did not deserve to be a President and there he failed to win the Presidential election after the war. People did not see holistically about the condition. However, evidence shows that Dr. Jose P. Laurel's patriotism was still and never been controlled by the Japanese. When Manuel L. Quezon fled the country, JPL was left to take charge of the Japanese occupation. He drafted the 1943 Philippine Constitution based on the 1935 Constitution that was influenced by the American Occupation. When the Japanese wanted to redraft the constitution base on their plans, JPL refused and defended that his contents are what the nation needs. During his presidency, he did not let any other language but Filipino to be used on the government premises, and through this, he raised our language. To protect the Filipinos, he followed the Japanese orders but not everything. He refused the Japanese plans of declaring war between the Philippines and America instead he did not let any Filipino fight in World War II. He secretly deceived the Japanese, he refused them many times on their intentions. He even saved other politicians like Manuel A. Roxas from dangerous Japanese troops called Kempeitai that execute anti-japanese individuals. His braveness in taking responsibility for the country amidst Japanese occupation was truly a heroic act that should be acknowledged. Years passed and he was still misunderstood in so much way. He was still claimed to be a traitor as history declares he is and that he does not deserve to be a hero. Despite all this

misunderstanding led by the conditions, by truly understanding the history we can say that he truly deserves to be recognized as a hero. His integrity and heroic act of saving many Filipinos were enough to say he was a patriotic President. Through research and interpretation, we can infer that he is the kind of President we deserve. His patriotism never led us down in times of crisis....