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Aurelio Alvero: Traitor or Patriot?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1996

Grant K. Goodman
Grant K. Goodman
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Abstract

Aurelio Alvero (1913–58) was a brilliant and complex Filipino intellectual who was found guilty of collaboration with Japan by the postwar Philippine People's Court and spent 1945–17 and 1950–52 in prison. An examination of his prewar and wartime activities leads to the conclusion that Alvero was neither a traitor nor a patriot but rather a romantic opportunist who saw the advent of the Japanese in the Philippines as potentially providing him with a previously unattained level of power and authority in his own society.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Special Issue 1: The Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asia , March 1996 , pp. 95 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1996

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References

1 Principal sources for the biographical details of Alvero as well as of his literary works are Ungson, Lourdes C., “Magtanggol Asa: His Vision of TAGALA (An Appreciative Study)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Santo Tomas, 1972)Google Scholar and Lardizabal, Clotilde R., “Biography and Works of A. S. Alvero” (Muntinglupa, Rizal: New Bilibid Prison, 1951)Google Scholar.

2 Invitation and program found in Papers of Manuel L. Quezon, National Library of the Philippines.

3 The details and quotations which follow are all taken from court transcripts, appendices and annexes of the following: United States of America, Commonwealth of the Philippines, Case No. 3 for Treason, People's Court, “People of the Philippines versus Aurelio Alvero alias Reli”, Vols. 1–8, Manila, 1945–50; Republic of the Philippines, Supreme Court, “The People of the Philippines versus Aurelio Alvero alias Reli”, Aug. 1946-Jan. 1947; Republic of the Philippines, Supreme Court, Criminal Case No. 3 for Treason, “The People of the Philippines versus Aurelio Alvero”, 1948; Republic of the Philippines, Supreme Court, Baguio, “The People of the Philippines versus Aurelio Alvero alia Reli”, Decision, 12 Apr. 1950. All of these records, paginated and unpaginated, typewritten and printed, were certified by the Republic of the Philippines, General Services Administration, Records Management and Archives Office, Manila, Rosalina A. Concepcion, Chief, Archives Division and Luis G. Cordero, Officer-in-Charge.

4 For further details on the Makapili, the New Leaders Association, Bisig Bakal ng Tagala and O.P.O.G., see Motoe Terami-Wada, “Filipino Armies Under the Japanese Occupation”, Solidarity, No. 139–140 (Jul.-Dec. 1993).