Bilbao coordinated work on the Francoist repressive legislation , with its cornerstones Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas ( 1939 ) , Ley de Represión de la Masonería y Communismo ( 1940 ) and Ley de Seguridad del Estado ( 1941 ) . He developed appropriate juridical organization , e.g. setting up Tribunal Especial para la Represión de la Masonería y el Comunismo . As minister he contributed to legal groundwork for the so-called niños robados , for Patronato Central de Redención de Penas por el Trabajo , with some 10,5 thousand children covered in 1943 , and for Patronato de Protección a la Mujer . Under his guidance the divorce and marriage legislation of the Republic was retroactively reversed . Though extremely repressive , unlike the Soviet system the Francoist machinery under Bilbao recognized limits and normally respected its own rules
Francoist repressive legislation
White Terror (Spain)
Esteban de Bilbao Eguía