7/28/2019 Co Kim Chan vs

1/1

Co Kim Chan vs. Valdez Tan Keh

75 PHIL 131

FACTS:

Co Kim Chan had a pending civil case for mandamus which prays that the

respondent judge be ordered to continue the proceeding which was initiated under the

regime of the so-called Republic of the Philippines established during the Japanese

military occupation, with the Court of First Instance of Manila.

After the Liberation of the Manila and the American occupation, Judge Arsenio

Dizon refused to continue hearings on the case, saying that a proclamation issued by

General Douglas MacArthur had invalidated and nullified all judicial proceedings and

judgments of the courts of the Philippines and, without an enabling law, lower courts

have no jurisdiction to take cognizance of and continue judicial proceedings pending in

the courts of the defunct Republic of the Philippines (the Philippine government under

the Japanese).

ISSUES:

1. Whether the government established in the said Japanese occupation is in fact a

de facto government.

2. Whether the judicial acts and proceedings of the in the Philippines under the

Philippine Executive Commission were good and valid even after the liberation or

reoccupation of the Philippines by the US Forces.

HELD:

In political and international law, all acts and proceedings of the legislative, executive

and judicial department of a de facto government is valid. Being a de facto government,

judicial acts done under its control, when they are not political in nature, to the extent

that they effect during the continuance and control of said government remain good.

All judgment and judicial proceedings which are not of political complexion were good

and valid before and remained as such even after the occupied territory had come again

into the power of true and original sovereign.

Wherefore, the respondent judge is directed to take cognizance of the civil case (3012)

and continue the proceedings.