811B.00/9–1945: Telegram
President Sergio Osmeña of the Philippines to the Secretary of the Interior (Ickes)
In reply to your telegram of September 11 I desire to state that information given you that I intend to release numerous persons against whom evidence was collected by the U.S. Army is erroneous. Persons kept in detention by Counter Intelligence Corps of U.S. Army and later delivered to the Commonwealth Government have been ordered detained by me even beyond the period of 6 hours permitted by the criminal laws of the Philippines. A few of them have been temporarily released on bail as determined by the Department of Justice pending presentation of charges against them and their trial before the courts. The Philippine Congress has enacted a law12 creating a special court to try all persons accused of collaboration with the enemy. The judges of this court will be persons who never served in any capacity under the puppet governments and the prosecutors are chiefly recruited from Army judge advocates and guerrilla leaders. Doubtless the prosecution of alleged collaborators will be diligently conducted and those found guilty will be promptly punished in accordance with law.
We have never knowingly reinstated any official whom the U. S. Army authorities have detained for collaboration. Several officials and employees who continued in their posts during the puppet regime but committed no hostile act against the Philippine or American Government have been reinstated by me in executive or judicial branches after they had been cleared by the Counter Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army. I reinstated them on the basis of the views I expressed in a speech I delivered last November13 shortly after the landing of American forces in Leyte and after consultation with Army authorities. In conferences on the subject of collaboration held in Washington with Secretary of War Stimson first by me and later by Secretary Hernandez14 this Leyte speech was substantially [Page 1235] approved as a proper basis of action in pursuance of the policy enunciated by President Roosevelt on the subject.