DE FACTO AND DE JURE GOVERNMENTS

A de jure government (government of law) is an organized government of a state which has the general support of the people.
A de facto government (government of fact) is a government which actually exercises power or control but without legal title.
There are three kinds of de facto government:

1. the government that gets possession and control of, or usurps by force or by the voice of the majority, the rightful legal government and maintains itself against the will of the latter;
2. that established as an independent government by the inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection against the parent state; and
3. that which is established and maintained by military forces who invade and occupy a territory of the enemy in the course of war, and which is denominated as a government of paramount force.

The Second Republic of the Philippines was a de facto government of paramount force, having been established by the Japanese belligerents. On the other hand, in a decision rendered by the Supreme Court it declared that the government under Corazon Aquino was a de jure government as the people have already accepted it and the community of nations have recognized its legitimacy.

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