Commonwealth of the Philippines

Native name	Kómonwélt ng Pilipinas
Conventional long name	Commonwealth of the Philippines
Conventional short name	the Philippine Commonwealth
Common name	the Philippines
Continent	moved from Category:Asia to Southeast Asia
Region	Southeast Asia
Country	Philippines
Empire	United States
Status	Associated state
Status text	Associated state of the United StatesCommonwealth
Era	Interwar period
Event start	Tydings-McDuffie Act
Year start	1935
Date start	November 15,
Event end	Independence
Year end	1946
Date end	July 4
Life span	1935-1946
|p1	Insular Government of the Philippine Islands
Flag p1	Flag of the Philippines (navy blue).svg
S1	History of the Philippines (1946–1965)
Flag s1	Flag of the Philippines (navy blue).svg
Symbol type	Coat of arms
Image coat	Coat of arms of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.png
Image map caption	Location of the Philippines in Asia
National anthem	"The Philippine Hymn" (Territorial)
Common languages	Tagalog, English, and Spanish
Government type	Republic
Capital	Manila¹
Title leader	President
Leader1	Manuel L. Quezon
Year leader1	1935-1944
Leader2	Sergio Osmeña
Year leader2	1944-1946
Leader3	Manuel Roxas
Year leader3	1946
Title deputy	Vice President
Deputy1	Sergio Osmeña
Year deputy1	1935-1944
Deputy2	Elpidio Quirino
Legislature	National Assembly(1935-1941)Congress(1945-1946)
Year deputy2	1946
Stat area1	300000
Stat year1	1939
Stat pop1	16000303
Currency	Peso
Footnotes	¹ Capital held by enemy forces between December 24, 1941 and February 27, 1945. Temporary capitals Corregidor from December 24, 1941-; Iloilo City from February 22; Bacolod from February 26; Buenos Aires, Bago City from February 27; Oroquieta from March 19; Bukidnon from March 23; Melbourne, Australia from April; Washington, DC from May, 1942 to October, 1944; Tacloban from October 20, 1944.²In exile.

The Commonwealth of the Philippines () was a designation of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946 when the country was a commonwealth of the United States. The Commonwealth was created by the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1934. When Manuel Quezon was inaugurated president in 1935, he became the first Filipino to head a government of the Philippines.

The Commonwealth had a strong executive and a Supreme Court. The legislature, dominated by the Nacionalista Party, was at first unicameral, but later bicameral. In 1937, the government selected Tagalog, the dialect of Manila, as the national language, although it would be many years before usage became general. Women's suffage was adopted and the economy recovered to its pre-depression level before the Japanese occupation.

The Commonwealth government was in exile from 1942 until 1945, when the Philippines was under Japanese occupation. In 1946, the Commonwealth ended and the Philippines was proclaimed a republic.

Names

The Commonwealth of the Philippines was also known as the "Philippine Commonwealth", or simply as "the Commonwealth". It had official names in () and (). The 1935 constitution specifies "the Philippines" as the country's short form name and uses "the Philippine Islands" only to refer to pre-1935 status and institutions. Under the previous regime, known most formally as the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, both terms had official status.

Structure

The Commonwealth had its own constitution, which remained effective until 1973, and was self-governing although foreign policy and military affairs would be under the responsibility of the United States, and certain legislation required the approval of the American President.

It featured a very strong executive, a unicameral National Assembly, and a Supreme Court, all composed entirely of Filipinos, as well as an elected Resident Commissioner to the United States House of Representatives (as Puerto Rico does today). An American High Commissioner and an American Military Advisor,

History

Creation

, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Manuel L. Quezon]]

The pre-1935 U.S. territorial administration, or Insular Government, was headed by a governor general who was appointed by the president of the United States. In December 1932, the United States Congress passed the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act with the premise of granting Filipinos independence. Provisions of the bill included reserving several military and naval bases for the United States, as well as imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. It was vetoed by President Herbert Hoover but the American Congress overrode his veto in 1933 and passed the bill. The bill, however, was opposed by the then Philippine Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and was also rejected by the Philippine Senate. or Philippine Independence Act, which allowed the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines with a ten-year period of peaceful transition to full independence. The Commonwealth was officially inaugurated in November 15, 1935.

In October 1935, presidential elections were held. Candidates included former president Emilio Aguinaldo, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente leader Gregorio Aglipay, and others. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña of the Nacionalista Party were proclaimed the winners, winning the seats of president and vice-president, respectively. and it was occupied by the Japanese on January 2, 1942. Meanwhile, battles against the Japanese continued on the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor, and Leyte until the final surrender of United States-Philippine forces on May 1942.

Quezon and Osmeña were escorted by troops from Manila to Corregidor, and later they left for Australia and then the United States. There they set up a government in exile, which participated in the Pacific War Council as well as the Declaration by United Nations. During this exile, Quezon became ill with tuberculosis, and later he died of it. Osmeña replaced him as the president.

Meanwhile, the Japanese military organized a new government in the Philippines known as the Second Philippine Republic, which was headed by president José P. Laurel. This government ended up being very unpopular.

The resistance to the Japanese occupation continued in the Philippines. This included the Hukbalahap ("People's Army Against the Japanese"), which consisted of 30,000 armed people and controlled much of Central Luzon. However, the economy remained dependent to the U.S. This was due to the Bell Trade Act, otherwise known as the Philippine Trade Act, which was a precondition for receiving war rehabilitation grants from the United States.

Policies

Uprisings and agrarian reform

At the time, tenant farmers held grievances often rooted to debt caused by the sharecropping system, as well as by the dramatic increase in population, which added economic pressure to the tenant farmers' families. As a result, an agrarian reform program was initiated by the Commonwealth. However, success of the program was hampered by ongoing clashes between tenants and landowners.

An example of these clashes includes one initiated by Benigno Ramos through his Sakdalista movement, which advocated tax reductions, land reforms, the breakup of the large estates or haciendas, and the severing of American ties. The uprising, which occurred in Central Luzon on May, 1935, claimed about a hundred lives.

National language

Due to the diverse number Philippine languages, a program for the "development and adoption of a common national language based on the existing native dialects" was drafted in the 1935 Philippine constitution.

Economy

visiting Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C.]]

The cash economy of the Commonwealth was mostly agriculture-based. Products included abaca, coconuts and coconut oil, sugar, and timber.

Demographics

In 1941, the estimated population of the Philippines reached 17,000,000 while Manila's population was 684,000. The number of Chinese rose to 117,000. There were also 30,000 Japanese, with 20,000 living in Davao, and 9,000 U.S.A.-Mexicans. English was spoken by 27% of the population, while Spanish was spoken by only 3%.

The following is the estimated number of speakers of the dominant languages: The colors indicate the political party or coalition of each President at Election Day.

¹ Died due to tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York. ² End of Commonwealth government, independent Republic inaugurated.

Quezon Administration (1935-1944)

, president from 1935-1944]] In 1935 Quezon won the Philippine's first national presidential election under the banner of the Nacionalista Party. He obtained nearly 68% of the vote against his two main rivals, Emilio Aguinaldo and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay. Quezon was inaugurated in November 1935. He is recognized as the second President of the Philippines. However, in January 2008, Congressman Rodolfo Valencia of Oriental Mindoro filed a bill seeking instead to declare General Miguel Malvar as the second Philippine President, having directly succeeded Aguinaldo in 1901.

Quezon had originally been barred by the Philippine constitution from seeking re-election. However, in 1940, constitutional amendments were ratified allowing him to seek re-election for a fresh term ending in 1943. In the 1941 presidential elections, Quezon was re-elected over former Senator Juan Sumulong with nearly 82% of the vote.

In a notable humanitarian act, Quezon, in cooperation with United States High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, facilitated the entry into the Philippines of Jewish refugees fleeing fascist regimes in Europe. Quezon was also instrumental in promoting a project to resettle the refugees in Mindanao.

Quezon suffered from tuberculosis and spent his last years in a "cure cottage" in Saranac Lake, New York, where he died on August 1, 1944. He was initially buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His body was later carried by the USS Princeton and re-interred in Manila at the Manila North Cemetery before being moved to Quezon City within the monument at the Quezon Memorial Circle.

Osmeña Administration (1944-1946)

, president from 1944-1946]] Osmeña became president of the Commonwealth on Quezon's death in 1944. He returned to the Philippines the same year with General Douglas MacArthur and the liberation forces. After the war, Osmeña restored the Commonwealth government and the various executive departments. He continued the fight for Philippine independence.

For the presidential election of 1946, Osmeña refused to campaign, saying that the Filipino people knew of his record of 40 years of honest and faithful service. Nevertheless, he was defeated by Manuel Roxas, who won 54 percent of the vote and became the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines.

Roxas Administration (May 28, 1946-July 4, 1946)

, last president of the Commonwealth from May 28, 1946-July 4, 1946]] Roxas served as the President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in a brief period, from his subsequent election on May 28, 1946 to July 4, 1946, the scheduled date of the proclamation of Philippine Independence. Roxas prepared the groundwork for the advent of a free and independent Philippines, assisted by the Congress (reorganized May 25, 1946), with Senator Jose Avelino as the Senate President and Congressman Eugenio Perez as the House of Representatives Speaker. On June 3, 1946, Roxas appeared for the first time before the joint session of the Congress to deliver his first state of the nation address. Among other things, he told the members of the Congress the grave problems and difficulties the Philippines are set to face and reports of his special trip to the United States–the approval for independence.

On June 21, he reappeared into another joint session of the Congress and urged the acceptance of two important laws passed by the Congress of the United States on April 30, 1946 to the Philippine lands. They are the Philippine Rehabilitation Act and the Philippine Trade Act. Both recommendations were accepted by the Congress.

See also

Political history of the Philippines

Treaty of Manila (1946)

Notes

References

External links

The Present Government of the Philippines Book written by Maximo Kalaw detailing the functions of the different branches of the Philippine Commonwealth

Parallel and Divergent Aspects of British Rule in the Raj, French Rule in Indochina, Dutch Rule in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia), and American Rule in the Philippines

Philippines: Polity Style: 1897-2009

Category:1946 disestablishments Category:American colonial period of the Philippines Category:Former countries in Philippine history Category:Former polities of the Interwar period Philippine Commonwealth Category:Former regions and territories of the United States Category:Governments in exile during World War II Category:History of United States expansionism Category:Military history of the Philippines during World War II Category:States and territories established in 1935 Category:United States – Asian relations