Anacleto Díaz (November 20, 1878 – February 10, 1945) was a Filipino

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

who served as an

Associate Justice An associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some ...

of the

Supreme Court of the Philippines The Supreme Court (; colloquially referred to as the ' (also used in formal writing), is the highest court in the Philippines. It was established by the Taft Commission on June 11, 1901, through the enactment of Act No. 136, which abolished th ...

Profile

Díaz earned his law degree from the Escuela de Derecho de Manila. He was elected as a representative from

La Union La Union (), officially the Province of La Union (; ; ; ; ; ), is a coastal province in the Philippines situated in the Ilocos Region on the island of Luzon. The province's capital, the San Fernando, La Union, City of San Fernando, is the most ...

to the Philippine Assembly in 1910, and served in that capacity until 1912. That year, he was named a provincial fiscal for

Ilocos Sur Ilocos Sur (), officially the Province of Ilocos Sur (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the capital of Vigan, while Candon is ...

. In 1917, he was appointed city fiscal of

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

. He was later appointed as a trial court judge. In 1927, while serving as a judge, Díaz was appointed to head a commission tasked with revising the

penal code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain Crime, offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that ...

of the Philippines. By 1930, his committee had finished drafting the

Revised Penal Code of the Philippines The Revised Penal Code contains the Philippine criminal law, general penal laws of the Philippines. First enacted in 1930, it remains in effect today, despite several amendments thereto. It does not comprise a comprehensive compendium of all Phi ...

, which remains as the basic penal law in the Philippines. Díaz was appointed to the

by the American President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

on July 20, 1933. Among his more notable opinions was in ''People v. Cu Unjieng'', 61 Phil. 236 (1935), which was one of the more widely talked-about criminal cases of its day. Díaz's service in the Court was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. The ensuing Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941 effectively prevented the Supreme Court organized under the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

government. When the Japanese reestablished the Court in 1942, none of the incumbent members of the old Court were appointed to the new tribunal headed by

José Yulo José Yulo Yulo Sr. (September 24, 1894 – October 27, 1976) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (May 7, 1942 – July 9, 1945) during the Japanese Occupation and was Speaker of the National Assembly of the Philippines ...

Death

Díaz was one of two Supreme Court Justices who were executed by the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

during the Battle of Manila in 1945. On February 10, the then-paralyzed Díaz and two of his sons were among 300 men herded by the Japanese army and lined up along the corner of

Taft Avenue Taft Avenue (; ) is a major road in southern Metro Manila. It passes through three cities in the metropolis: Manila, Pasay, and Parañaque. The road was named after the former Governor-General of the Philippines and President of the United Stat ...

and

Padre Faura Street Padre Faura Street is an east-west street in downtown Manila, Philippines. It carries traffic one-way westbound from Romualdez Street to Roxas Boulevard. Starting at its eastern terminus at Paco Park in Paco, Manila, Paco district, the street ...

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, City of Greater Manila (now part of

). Japanese soldiers then opened machine gun fire, killing Díaz and his sons as well as scores of others.''By Sword and Fire'', p. 253-255 Two days later, Diaz's colleague on the Court, Antonio Villa-Real, was murdered by Japanese forces in nearby

Pasay Pasay, officially the City of Pasay (; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 Philippine census, 2020 census, it has a ...

. The area where Díaz was executed would later become part of the Supreme Court compound when the Court relocated to Padre Faura after the war.

References

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Anacleto 1878 births 1945 deaths Executed Filipino people 20th-century Filipino judges People executed by Japanese occupation forces People from La Union Spanish-language writers of the Philippines Associate justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from La Union People executed by Japan by firing squad World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan Members of the Philippine Legislature