COMMONWEALTH

GOVERNMENT OF THE
PHILIPPINES
1935-1946
DEFINITION OF COMMONWEALTH
a political community founded for the common good
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/

founded on law and united by compact or tacit agreement
of the people for the common good
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

a group of countries or states that have political or
economic connections with one another
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

HARE-HAWES-CUTTING ACT
(BUTLER HARE,HARRY HAWES, & BRONSON CUTTING)
OsRox Mission (which stands for Osmea and Roxas)
successfully lobbied for the enactment of the Hare-Hawes-
Cutting Act, which was passed by the Congress on January 13,
1933 over President Herbert Hoovers veto in 1932.

The U.S. Senate approved the bill four days later on January
17, 1933. It required the Philippine Senate to ratify the law.

Rejected by the Philippine Legislature due to tariff,
immigration provisions, and indefinite retention of U.S. military
bases in the islands.
TYDINGS-MCDUFFIE LAW
(MILLARD TYDINGS & JOHN MCDUFFIE)
In 1934, a new mission (the QuAquAl Mission, made up of
Quezon, Benigno Aquino Sr., and Rafael Alunan) negotiated the
Tydings-McDuffie or the Philippine Independence Act, which set
a ten-year transition period to be known as the Commonwealth
of the Philippines, followed by the recognition of the
independence of the Philippines by the United States.
1935 PHILIPPINE COMMONWEALTH
CONSTITUTION
A constitutional convention was convened in Manila in July 1934. It was
presided over by Claro M. Recto with 202 elected Filipino delegates who
decided that the constitution to be written would cover not only the
transitional Commonwealth, but would apply to the Republic as well

The convention finished its work on February 8, 1935 and submitted it to
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, for certification
that its provisions complied with the Philippine Independence Act.

It was certified on March 25, 1935 and it was subsequently ratified by
the Filipino people in a plebiscite on May 14, 1935.





1935 PHILIPPINE COMMONWEALTH
CONSTITUTION

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines provided
for a presidential system of government with a unicameral
legislature. It had the power to enact laws for the Philippines,
known as Commonwealth Acts, through the National Assembly.

1935 PHILIPPINE GENERAL ELECTION
On September 16, 1935, a million Filipinos had trooped to the polls to
elect their two highest officials the President and Vice President.

Candidates for presidency included:

former president Emilio Aguinaldo
Iglesia Filipina Indepediente leader Gregorio Aglipay
Manuel Quezon

Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and his running mate Senate
President pro tempore Sergio Osmea were elected as President and
Vice President, while voters elected representatives for the new
unicameral National Assembly and for local positions.
COMMONWEALTH INAUGURATION
On November 15, 1935 the new Philippine Commonwealth was
inaugurated at the legislative building in Manila.

The new government established nation-building policies in preparation
for independence. These included national defense, economic
development, continued Filipinization of the government, reforms in
education, improvement of transport, industrialization, and the
colonization of Mindanao.
The Commonwealth was meant to lay down the foundations for an
independent, fully-functional state. Its priorities could be seen in the
first laws enacted by the new National Assembly:
Commonwealth Act No. 1 - established the Philippine Army and a national
defense policy;
Commonwealth Act No. 2 - established the National Economic Council;
Commonwealth Act No. 3 - created the Court of Appeals.

Womes Suffrage Act gave the women the right to vote and to run for a
position in the government.
December 1937 proclaiming the national language of the Philippines based
on Tagalog language.





SOME SIGNIFICANT FACTS
1935 PHILIPPINE COMMONWEALTH
CONSTITUTION
the 1935 Constitution was amended in 1940 to permit the re-
election of the president and the vice president, to restore the
senate and thus shift the legislature back to the bicameral
system, and to establish a national electoral authority, the
Commission on Elections. The proposed amendments were
ratified in a plebiscite held on June 18, 1940.
WORLD WAR II: THE THREAT
OF JAPAN
With war looming over the world following German aggression in
Europe and the Japanese annexation of Manchuria, the National
Assembly conferred emergency powers on the government. The
Philippine Army was placed under the command of the United
States Armed Forces Far East (USAFFE), headed by Douglas
MacArthur.

Filipinos re-elected Quezon, Osmena, and legislators to fill seats
in the newly create bicameral congress on November 11, 1941.

War in Asia broke out on December 8, 1941 following the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbor. Japanese bombed Camp John Hay in
Baguio City, Clark Air Base in Pampanga, and, Nichols Field outside
of Manila.

WORLD WAR II
On December 24, 1941, President Quezon and his war cabinet evacuated to
the island stronghold of Corregidor in Manila Bay and two months later left
for Australia, en route to the safety of the United States.

The Commonwealth Government continued to function in exile, gaining
recognition from the world community as a member of the United Nations.
President Quezon continued to represent the Commonwealth of the
Philippines in Washington, D.C.

During this exile, Quezon became ill with tuberculosis, and later he died of
it. Osmea replaced him as the president.

Osmea gave his inaugural address in Washington, D.C., making him the
only Philippine President thus far to deliver an inaugural address outside
the Philippines.





Manila was declared an open city to prevent its destruction on
December 26, 1941, and it was occupied by the Japanese on
January 2, 1942.


When General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines to escape to
Australia on March 1942, he left General Jonathan Wainwright in
command. General Wainwright took his command on the island of
Corregidor and placed Major General Edward P. King in command of
the troops on Bataan.



WORLD WAR II

On April 3,1942 Japanese attacked American and Filipino troops in
Bataan.

While in exile, McArthur ordered a general counterattack against
the Japanese. The commanding officer on Luzon, Major General
Edward King, ignored this ridiculous order to avoid further
destruction.

Trusting to the mercy of the Japanese, he surrendered his troops on
April 9,1942.



WORLD WAR II:THE FALL OF
BATAAN
Infuriated by the lengthy American resistance on Bataan, and the heavy losses
they had suffered themselves, the Japanese vented their rage on their sick and
exhausted prisoners of war whom they subjected to the atrocities of the Bataan
Death March and the harsh conditions of Japanese "hell camps".

The Bataan Death March was a 60-mile (96.56km) forced march under blazing sun
without food and water of American and Filipino prisoners of war by Japanese
forces during World War II.

Thousand of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and
beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk.

WORLD WAR II:THE FALL OF
BATAAN
WORLD WAR II:THE FALL OF
CORREGIDOR
After the fall of Bataan, the Imperial Japanese Army then concentrated on
the island of Corregidor. Lt. General Jonathan Wainwright refused to
surrender.

The island was relentlessly pummeled by the Imperial Japanese artillery for
several weeks. The island was surrounded and cut off from receiving any
reinforcements and supplies from the United States. Food, water and
ammunition had dropped to critical levels.

On the night of May 5, the Imperial Japanese landed troops and tanks. They
quickly began advancing towards Malinta Tunnel where there were thousands
of patients and nurses.
WORLD WAR II:THE FALL OF
CORREGIDOR
To avoid a massacre Wainwright was forced to surrender the troops on Corregidor and
the other three fortified islands but General Masahara Homma refused Wainwright's
offer of surrender.

General Homma warned Wainwright during surrender negotiations that he would
execute all prisoners of war unless the surrender applied not only to Corregidor but to
all American and Philippine troops still resisting the Japanese on other islands of the
Philippine archipelago.

The American-Filipino troops on the outer islands were getting conflicting messages
from General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur did not want these islands to surrender but
wanted Sharp to create Guerrilla units and hide in the hills. Finally Colonel Traywick,
Wainwright's emissary, reached General Sharp to express the severity of the situation
where eventually the U.S. commanders on the Visayan Islands, Mindanao and Cebu
surrendered.
Meanwhile, the Japanese military organized a new government in the Philippines
known as the Second Philippine Republic, which was headed by president Jos 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.

Remnants of the
Philippine Army also fought the Japanese through guerrilla warfare, and it was
successful, since all but 12 of the 48 provinces were liberated.

The American General Douglas McArthurs army landed on Leyte on October
20,1944, and they were all welcomed as liberators,

along with Philippine
Commonwealth troops when other amphibious landings soon followed. Fighting
continued in remote corners of the Philippines until Japan's surrender in August
1945, which was signed on September 2 in Tokyo Bay.
WORLD WAR II
RESTORATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH
OF THE PHILIPPINES
After the War in the Philippines, the Philippine Commonwealth was restored.

On April 23, 1946, the first postwar election was held, in which Manuel Roxas and
Elpidio Quirino were elected President and Vice President.

Roxas took his oath of office on May 28, 1946 as the third and last President of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines in front of the ruins of the Legislative Building in
Manila. In the succeeding weeks, pursuant to the provisions of the Philippine
Independence Act, the Commonwealth of the Philippines became the Republic of
the Philippinesthe Third Republic.

Thus, on July 4, 1946, Roxas would again take his oath as President, this time as
President of the newly-inaugurated and independent Republic of the Philippines.
In spite of the years of Japanese occupation, the Philippines
became independent exactly as scheduled a decade before,
on July 4, 1946.