Caricature of President Jose Laurel

Third President of the Republic of the Philippines

October 14, 1943 – August 17, 1945

Laurel was born on 9 March 1891 in Tanauan, Batangas to Sotero Laurel and Jacoba Garcia. His father, who was the Secretary of the Interior in Emilio Aguinaldo's cabinet and a signatory to the Malolos, Constitution.

Laurel and his  wife Pacencia had nine children, Jose Bayani, Jr., who became Speaker and a candidate for vice president in 1957; Salvador, who became vice-president from 1986-1992; Sotero Cosme, who served in the Senate from 1987-1992; Jose Sotero, who served as Ambassador to Japan; Mariano Antonio, who became president of the Philippine Banking Corporation;  Arsenio, who was the one of the first professional Filipino race car drivers; Natividad, Rosenda Pacencia, and Potenciana.

In 1921,Laurel was appointed chief of the Executive Bureau on the strength of his academic achievements.He was promoted to Undersecretary of the Interior after a year, and ten months later, he became the Secretary of the same department by Governor-General Leonard Wood. During the Cabinet Crisis of 1923, Laurel resigned his post along with the rest of the Filipino Cabinet members as a sign of protest against Wood’s opposition to measures working for Philippine independence.

Laurel run and won for a Senate seat in the 1924 elections but lost to Claro M. Recto in the 1931 elections, however, he was later elected as the delegate for Batangas in the 1934 Constitutional Convention. In 1935, He was appointed by President Manuel L. Quezon as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

As World War II broke out in the Pacific on 8 December 1941, Quezon along with other government officials fled to Corregidor to establish a Commonwealth government in exile and ordered Laurel to remain in Manila by Quezon because of his close relationship with Japanese officials before the war broke out.

As the Japanese took over the Philippines in January 1942, they created the Philippine Executive Commission to govern the country. The commission included Laurel as Commissioner of Justice, and later Commissioner of the Interior. Because of this appointment, Laurel was seen as a collaborator with the Japanese. He was then elected president of the Japanese-sponsored Republic on 25 September 1943, with Benigno Aquino Sr. as speaker. They were then flown to Tokyo along with Vargas, where they were prodded by the Japanese government to declare war on the United States and Great Britain. Laurel refused, saying that the Filipinos would disapprove of it and he would lose his following if he did so. When the Americans launched the first air raid on Manila and the Japanese threatened to kill more Filipinos if he did not agree, Laurel issued a declaration of war on the United States and Great Britain after consulting with Roxas and other Filipino leaders. There was one condition: no Filipino could be drafted into service under the Japanese military. Before the war ends, the Japanese ordered Laurel and other government officials to leave for Baguio, from where they were brought to Japan as hostages. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, after two days, Laurel dissolved the Japanese-sponsored Philippine Republic.

Laurel later ran for the presidency under the Nacionalista Party in the elections of 1949, but lost to Elpidio Quirino of the Liberal Party amid charges of massive cheating and fraud.Despite losing in the presidential race, Laurel won a Senate seat in 1951.

In 1957, Laurel retired from politics and focused on managing the Lyceum of the Philippines, which he founded on July 7, 1952, and at the same time, he also served as the president of the Philippine Banking Corporation. He died on November 6, 1959 of a massive heart attack and stroke.