WW2 magistrate now included on official list of SC justices

It said that all four were considered incumbent Justices of the SC by virtue of their valid and legal designation; that three of the four, except Justice Imperial, designated as SC Associate Justice by the Japanese Imperial Command were included in the SC Roster of Justices shows that the real intention was to recognize and include them in the said list; and that their inclusion acknowledges and confirms their services as magistrates. (File Photo By Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — After more than 70 years, the Supreme Court (SC) has formally included to its roster Justice Domingo Imperial who sat as magistrate of the high court during the Japanese occupation of the country during World War II.

In a resolution released Tuesday, the court en banc ordered the Office of Administrative Services (OAS) to update the Roster of Supreme Court justices to include Imperial who was assigned Roll No.

42-A in the Roll of Justices.

Dr. Roger L. Mendoza, son of retired SC Associate Justice Vicente V.

Mendoza, raised the non-inclusion of Imperial in the roster of Associate Justices of the SC despite being designated as one of its members.

Mendoza explained that Imperial, together with Justice Jose G. Generoso, Justice Jose M. Hontiveros, and Justice Jose Lopez Vito, was designated as high court magistrates by the occupation forces of the Japanese Imperial Army in 1942 but had been excluded in the total count of SC justices.

Justices Imperial, Generoso, Hontiveros and Vito, were designated by the then Chair of the Executive Commission under the Japanese Imperial Command to sit temporarily as justices of the SC for the purpose of reaching a quorum and disposing specifically assigned criminal cases.

The designation was published in the Official Gazette No. 5, page 307 in May 1942.

The OAS reported “that the failure to recognize Justice Imperial was unintentional and inadvertent.

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It said that all four were considered incumbent Justices of the SC by virtue of their valid and legal designation; that three of the four, except Justice Imperial, designated as SC Associate Justice by the Japanese Imperial Command were included in the SC Roster of Justices shows that the real intention was to recognize and include them in the said list; and that their inclusion acknowledges and confirms their services as magistrates.

Thus, the OAS recommended “in the spirit of justice, fairness and uniformity” the inclusion of Justice Imperial on the list of SC Justices “by assigning to him the same number assigned to Justice Generoso, ‘in accordance with the date of designation and in alphabetical order,’ adding a suffix letter (a) to provide a distinction.”