Commonwealth[edit]

Main article: Commonwealth of the Philippines

Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon with United States PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt in Washington,
D.C.

The Great Depression in the early thirties hastened the progress of the Philippines towards
independence. In the United States it was mainly the sugar industry and labor unions that had a
stake in loosening the U.S. ties to the Philippines since they could not compete with the Philippine
cheap sugar (and other commodities) which could freely enter the U.S. market. Therefore, they
agitated in favor of granting independence to the Philippines so that its cheap products and labor
could be shut out of the United States.[137] In 1933, the United States Congress passed the Hare
HawesCutting Act as a Philippine Independence Act over President Herbert Hoover's veto.
[138]

Though the bill had been drafted with the aid of a commission from the Philippines, it was

opposed by Philippine Senate President Manuel L. Quezon, partially because of provisions leaving
the United States in control of naval bases. Under his influence, the Philippine legislature rejected
the bill.[139] The following year, a revised act known as the TydingsMcDuffie Act was finally passed.
The act provided for the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines with transition to full
independence after a ten-year period. The commonwealth would have its own constitution and be
self-governing, though foreign policy would be the responsibility of the United States, and certain
legislation required approval of the United States president.[139] The Act stipulated that the date of
independence would be on the July 4 following the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the
Commonwealth.
A Constitutional Convention was convened in Manila on July 30, 1934. On February 8, 1935, the
1935 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines was approved by the convention by a vote of
177 to 1. The constitution was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 23, 1935 and
ratified by popular vote on May 14, 1935.[140][141]
On September 17, 1935,[142] presidential elections were held. Candidates included former
president Emilio Aguinaldo, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente leader Gregorio Aglipay, and
others. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmea of the Nacionalista Party were proclaimed the
winners, winning the seats of president and vice-president, respectively.[143]

The Commonwealth Government was inaugurated on the morning of November 15, 1935, in
ceremonies held on the steps of the Legislative Building in Manila. The event was attended by a
crowd of around 300,000 people.[142] Under the TydingsMcDuffie Act this meant that the date of full
independence for the Philippines was set for July 4, 1946, a timetable which was followed after the
passage of almost eleven very eventful years.

World War II and Japanese occupation[edit]

Main articles: Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Second Philippine Republic and Home front
during World War II The Philippines

As many as 10,000 people died in the Bataan Death March

Military[edit]
Japan launched a surprise attack on the Clark Air Base in Pampanga on the morning of December
8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Aerial bombardment was followed by
landings of ground troops on Luzon. The defending Philippine and United States troops were under
the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the
defending forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island of Corregidor at the entrance to
Manila Bay.
On January 2, 1942, General MacArthur declared the capital city, Manila, an open city to prevent its
destruction.[144] The Philippine defense continued until the final surrender of United States-Philippine
forces on the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942 and on Corregidor in May of the same year. Most of the
80,000 prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at Bataan were forced to undertake the
infamousBataan Death March to a prison camp 105 kilometers to the north. About 10,000 Filipinos
and 1,200 Americans died before reaching their destination. [145]
President Quezon and Osmea had accompanied the troops to Corregidor and later left for the
United States, where they set up a government in exile. [146] MacArthur was ordered to Australia,
where he started to plan for a return to the Philippines.
The Japanese military authorities immediately began organizing a new government structure in the
Philippines and established the Philippine Executive Commission. They initially organized a Council
of State, through which they directed civil affairs until October 1943, when they declared the
Philippines an independent republic. The Japanese-sponsored republic headed by President Jos P.

Laurel proved to be unpopular to the pro-colonial Filipinos, but very popular to the pro-Asiatic
independence Filipinos.
Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground guerrilla activity.
The American-aligned Philippine Army, as well as remnants of the U.S. Army Forces Far East,[147]
[148]

continued to fight the Japanese and pro-Japanese paramilitary forces in a guerrilla war and was

considered an auxiliary unit of the United States Army.[149] Their effectiveness was such that by the
end of the war, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces.[150] One element of
resistance in the Central Luzon area was furnished by the Hukbalahap, which armed some 30,000
people and extended their control over much of Luzon.[150]
The occupation of the Philippines by Japan ended at the war's conclusion. At the eve of the
liberation of the Philippines, the Allied forces and the Japanese Empire waged the largest naval
battle in history, by gross tonnage in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.[153] The American army had been
fighting the Philippines Campaign since October 1944, when MacArthur's Sixth United States
Army landed on Leyte. Landings in other parts of the country had followed, and the Allies, with the
Philippine Commonwealth troops, pushed toward Manila. However, fighting continued until Japan's
formal surrender on September 2, 1945. Approximately 10,000 U.S. soldiers were missing in action
in the Philippines when the war ended, more than in any other country in the Pacific or European
Theaters. The Philippines suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical destruction, especially
during the Battle of Manila. An estimated 1 million Filipinos had been killed, a large portion during the
final months of the war, and Manila had been extensively damaged, mainly due to excessive use of
artillery by the American forces.[150]
Home front[edit]
As in most occupied countries, crime, looting, corruption, and black markets were endemic. Japan in
1943 proposed independence on new terms, and some collaborators went along with the plan, but
Japan was clearly losing the war and nothing became of it. [154]
With a view of building up the economic base of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the
Japanese Army envisioned using the islands as a source of agricultural products needed by its
industry. For example, Japan had a surplus of sugar from Taiwan, and a severe shortage of cotton,
so they try to grow cotton in on sugar lands with disastrous results. They lacked the seeds,
pesticides, and technical skills to grow cotton. Jobless farm workers flock to the cities, where there
was minimal relief and few jobs. The Japanese Army also tried using cane sugar for fuel, castor
beans and copra for oil, derris for quinine, cotton for uniforms, and abaca (hemp) for rope. The plans
were very difficult to implement in the face of limited skills, collapsed international markets, bad
weather, and transportation shortages. The program was a failure that gave very little help to
Japanese industry, and diverted resources needed for food production.

Living conditions were bad throughout the Philippines during the war. Transportation between the
islands was difficult because of lack of fuel. Food was in very short supply, due to inflation. [155]

Independent Philippines and the Third Republic (1946

1965)[edit]
Main article: History of the Philippines (19461965)

Administration of Manuel Roxas (19461948)[edit]

Manuel Roxas, President from 1946 until 1948.

Elections were held in April 1946, with Manuel Roxas becoming the first president of the
independent Republic of the Philippines. The United States ceded its sovereignty over the
Philippines on July 4, 1946, as scheduled.[111][156] However, the Philippine economy remained highly
dependent on United States marketsmore dependent, according to United States high
commissioner Paul McNutt, than any single U.S. state was dependent on the rest of the country.
[157]

The Philippine Trade Act, passed as a precondition for receiving war rehabilitation grants from the

United States,[158] exacerbated the dependency with provisions further tying the economies of the two
countries. A military assistance pact was signed in 1947 granting the United States a 99-year lease
on designated military bases in the country.

Administration of Elpidio Quirino (19481953)[edit]

Elpidio Quirino, president from 1948 until 1953.

The Roxas administration granted general amnesty to those who had collaborated with the
Japanese in World War II, except for those who had committed violent crimes. Roxas died suddenly
of a heart attack in April 1948, and the vice president, Elpidio Quirino, was elevated to the
presidency. He ran for president in his own right in 1949, defeating Jos P. Laurel and winning a
four-year term.
World War II had left the Philippines demoralized and severely damaged. The task of reconstruction
was complicated by the activities of the Communist-supported Hukbalahap guerrillas (known as
"Huks"), who had evolved into a violent resistance force against the new Philippine government.
Government policy towards the Huks alternated between gestures of negotiation and harsh
suppression. Secretary of Defense Ramon Magsaysay initiated a campaign to defeat the insurgents
militarily and at the same time win popular support for the government. The Huk movement had
waned in the early 1950s, finally ending with the unconditional surrender of Huk leader Luis Taruc in
May 1954.

Administration of Ramon Magsaysay (19531957)[edit]

President and Mrs. Magsaysay withEleanor Roosevelt at the Malacaan Palace.

Supported by the United States, Magsaysay was elected president in 1953 on a populist platform.
He promised sweeping economic reform, and made progress in land reform by promoting the
resettlement of poor people in the Catholic north into traditionally Muslim areas. Though this relieved
population pressure in the north, it heightened religious hostilities.[159] Nevertheless, he was extremely

popular with the common people, and his death in an airplane crash in March 1957 dealt a serious
blow to national morale.[160]

Administration of Carlos P. Garcia (19571961)[edit]

Carlos P. Garcia, president of thePhilippines from 1957 until 1961.

Carlos P. Garcia succeeded to the presidency after Magsaysay's death, and was elected to a fouryear term in the election of November that same year. His administration emphasized the nationalist
theme of "Filipino first", arguing that the Filipino people should be given the chances to improve the
country's economy.[161] Garcia successfully negotiated for the United States' relinquishment of large
military land reservations. However, his administration lost popularity on issues of government
corruption as his term advanced.[162]

Administration of Diosdado Macapagal (19611965)[edit]

Diosdado Macapagal, president of the Philippines from 1961 until 1965.

In the presidential elections held on November 14, 1961, Vice President Diosdado
Macapagaldefeated re-electionist President Carlos P. Garcia and Emmanuel Pelaez as a Vice
President. President Macapagal was the President of the Philippines that changed the
independence day of the Philippines from July 4 to June 12.
Land Reform Code[edit]
Main article: Agricultural Land Reform Code
See also: Land reform in the Philippines
The Agricultural Land Reform Code (RA 3844) was a major Philippine land reform law enacted in
1963 under President Diosdado Macapagal.[163]
The code declared that it was State policy
1. To establish owner-cultivatorship and the economic family-size farm as the basis of
Philippine agriculture and, as a consequence, divert landlord capital in agriculture to
industrial development;
2. To achieve a dignified existence for the small farmers free from pernicious institutional
restraints and practices;
3. To create a truly viable social and economic structure in agriculture conducive to greater
productivity and higher farm incomes;

4. To apply all labor laws equally and without discrimination to both industrial and agricultural
wage earners;
5. To provide a more vigorous and systematic land resettlement program and public land
distribution; and
6. To make the small farmers more independent, self-reliant and responsible citizens, and a
source of genuine strength in our democratic society.