What are the consequences of belligerent occupation? 1.

It does not result in

transfer or suspension of the sovereignty of the legitimate government although
it may at the moment unable to exercise it. 2. The belligerent occupant cannot
perform such acts as declaring the independence of the occupied territory or
requiring its inhabitants to renounce their allegiance to the lawful government. 3.
The belligerent is required to restore and ensure public order and safety while
respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country more
particularly with regard to family honor and rights, the lives of persons, private
property, and religious convictions and practice. (Hague Convention No. IV, 1907,
Reg., Arts 53-56) 4. Whenever necessary, the belligerent occupant may
promulgate new laws, nonpolitical as well as political, provided they do not
contravene the generally accepted principles of international law. Political laws
are automatically abrogated upon the end of the occupation but the non-political
laws may continue even beyond the occupation unless they are expressly
repealed or modified by the legitimate government. (Hilado vs Dela Costa, April
30, 1949) 5. The belligerent occupant is permitted to exact from the populace
contributions over and above the regular taxes for the needs of the army of
occupation or for the administration of the territory. (HC No. IV, 1907, Reg., Arts
49-51) It may also, for valuable consideration, make requisitions of things or
services for the needs of the occupying forces. (Ibid, Art.52) 6. The belligerent
occupant is permitted to introduce military currency, provided the purpose is not
to debase the country’s economy. Thus, in Haw Pia vs China Banking
Corporation (80 Phil 604), the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the payments
made by the plaintiff in Japanese military notes to settle a loan extended to her in
Philippine currency before the outbreak of the Pacific war. 7. Private property
cannot be confiscated, but those susceptible of military use may be seized,
subject to restoration or compensation when peace is made. (HC No. IV, Reg.,
Arts 53-56) The property of municipalities and of institutions dedicated to
religion, charity and education, and the arts and sciences, even when state-
owned, shall be treated as private property, and their destruction is expressly
forbidden. (Ibid) 8. The army of occupation can only take possession of cash,
funds and realizable securities which are strictly the property of the state, depots
of arms, means of transport, stores and supplies, and generally movable property
of the state, depots of arms, means of transport, stores and supplies, and
generally movable property belonging to the state which may be used for military
operations. (Ibid) All appliances, whether on land, at sea, or in the air, adapted for
the transmission of news, or for the transport of persons or things, exclusive of
cases governed by naval law, depots of arms and generally all kinds of
ammunition of war may be seized but must be restored and compensation fixed
when peace is made.(Ibid) 9. The occupying state shall be regarded only as
administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests,
agricultural estates belonging to the hostile state and situated in the occupied
territory. (Ibid, Art 55) This rule was applied in Banaag vs Singson Encarnacion
(April 19, 1949), where a lease of five years granted by Philippine Executive
Commission in 1942 over certain municipal fisheries was deemed automatically
canceled upon the re-establishment of the Commonwealth government.

What is the right of postliminy or postliminium? It “is that in which persons or

things taken by the enemy are restored to the former state on coming actually
into the power of the nation to which they belong”. (Vattel in Leitensdorfer vs
Webb, 1 N.M. 34, 44 cited in Cruz, 2000) In its broadened concept, the jus
postliminium also imports the reinstatement of the authority of the displaced
government once control of the enemy is lost over the territory affected. Thus,
upon the end of a belligerent occupation, the laws of the reestablished
government are revived and all acts taken by the belligerent occupant which it
could not legally do under the law of nations, as well as lawful acts of a political
complexion, are invalidated.

What are the non-hostile intercourse? 1. A flag of truce is a white flag carried by
an individual authorized by one belligerent to enter into communications with the
other. The bearer, or parlementaire, is entitled to inviolability as long as he does
not take advantage of his privileged position to commit an act of treachery. But
the other belligerent is not obliged to receive a flag of truce. (HC No. IV, 1907,
Reg., Arts. 32, 34; Fenwick, 578; Wilson and Tucker, 294 cited in Cruz, 2000) 2.
Cartels are agreements to regulate intercourse during war on such matters as
postal and telegraphic communication, the reception of flags of truce, and the
exchange of prisoners. A cartel ship is a vessel sailing under a safe-conduct for
the purpose of carrying exchanged prisoners of war.