Freedom by aurelio alvero biography

The charges brought up against him by the postwar court were formidable: up to 22 counts of treason, from his active role in such pro-Japanese organizations as the Kalibapi and Makapili to selling war materiel to the enemy and participating in the destruction of Manila.

The most outrageous offenses were damnably detailed: among them, that within one year, his trading firm — capitalized at only P15,000 — earned a whopping P2,000,000 from sales to the Japanese (shades of Pharmally!), and that he personally directed the burning of a part of Pasay toward the end of the war.

For these, and despite his spirited protestations, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bilibid, cut short by an amnesty granted by President Quirino in 1952.

How could the same man, so gifted and so promising, turn out so badly?

Even before the war, Alvero had railed against American imperialism, and — like Gen. Artemio Ricarte, among others — saw Japan as a fri