 American Colony and Philippine Commonwealth 1901 - 1941 President McKinley's Schurmann Commission (1899) recognized the determination of the Filipino people to gain their independence and recommended the establishment of the institutions for a civilian domestic government as soon as practical. 
Even though on March 16, 1900 the fighting in the War of Independence was still far from over,
President McKinley appointed the Second Philippine Commission (Taft Commission) and gave it the
legislative and executive authority to put in place the civilian government the Schurmann Commission
had recommended.
In 499 statutes issued between September 1900 and August 1902, the Taft Commission swept away three centuries of Spanish governance and installed in its place the laws and institutions of a modern civil state. It established a code of law, a judicial system and elective municipal and provincial governments. The Philippine Organic Act of 1902 extended the protections of the United States Bill of Rights to Filipinos and established a national bi-cameral legislature. The lower house was the popularly elected Philippine Assembly and the upper house was the Philippine Commission appointed directly by the President of the United States. 
Following American practice, the Philippine Organic Act imposed the strict separation of church and
state and eliminated the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion. In 1904 the
administration paid the Vatican US$7.2 million for most of the lands held by the religious orders. The
lands were later sold back to Filipinos. Some tenants were able to buy their land but it was mainly
the established estate owners who could afford to buy the former church lands.
The first elections to the Philippine Assembly were held in July 1907 and the first session opened on October 16, 1907. The Nacionalista Party of Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmena won the election and continued to dominate Philippine electoral politics until World War II. The political success of the Nacionalista Party was the skill of Quezon and Osmena in tying the traditional patron-client relations (utang na loob) to the new institutions of the modern civil state. It was also their worst mistake. The Nacionalista Party was a network of overlapping patron-client relations that were more concerned with particular local and personal interests and little inclined to address the larger national issues of social reform; land ownership, tenancy rights, population growth and the distribution of wealth. The Party built the power and influence of the old landed elite into the new institutions of democratic governance. And what is the same thing stated differently, the new party politics excluded the non-elites from the rewards and benefits of representative institutions. The failure of democratic politics in the Philippines to represent its non-elites and mitigate their grievances has been the recurrent cause of violent discontent and the desperate resort to revolt and insurrection. The Jones Act of 1916 carried forward the Philippine Organic Act of 1902. An elected Philippine Senate replaced the appointed Philippine Commission and the former Philippine Assembly was renamed the House of Representatives. As before, the Governor-General, responsible for the executive branch, was appointed by the United States President. Framing of the 1935 Philippine Constitution As provided for the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 a constitutional convention was called to draft a constiution for th ePhilippines Commonwealth. A total of 202 delegates were elected on July 10,1934. The convention elected Claro M. Recto of Batangas as its President. The subcommittee of seven on the Constitution headed by Filemon Sotto finished the drafton October 20 after which the draft of the constitution was submitted to the whole convention for discussion. After a series of debate on the provisions, the approved ammendments were submitted to the Committee was then approved on February 8,1953 by vote of 177 to 1. The 1935 Constitution served as the constitution for the Philippines Commonwealth and for the future Republic of the Philippines. It established a republican form of government that was in many aspects similar to that of theUnited States. Under the 1935 Constitution, the government was divided into three co-equal branches-legislative, executive and judicial. The executive power was vested in the President of the Philippine who would be elected directly by the people to serve for a term of six years. The legislative power was vested in a unimaerical National Assembly whose members would be elected by the people. The judicial power was vested in the Supreme Court and other lower courts created by the Congress. Political Developments Under the Commonwealth Government Reorganization. Upon assumption to office President Quezon set to reorganize the government. Old government bureaus and offices were either abolished or reorganized. Among the new offices created by Quezon were the National Economic Council, Census Commission, Commission of Mindandao and Sulu and the Institute of the National Language. The reorganization was done to comply with the requirements of the constitution. Women Suffrage. The women voted for the first time on May 14, 1935 in the plebiscite to ratify the 1935 constitution. The 1935 Constitution provided that women suffrage or the right to vote would be granted if no less than 300,000 qualified woman were to vote affirmatively for the grant of the right of suffrage within two yers after the adoption of the constitution. In a plebiscite held on April 30, 1937, a total of 447,725 women voted for the grant Thus, by constitutional mandate, Filipino women acquired the right of suffrage- to vote and be voted upon After winning the vote, Filipino women entered politics and ran for the public office. In the 1937 local elections, 24 women were elected to various elective municipal and provincial offices. One was Carmen Planas, the first woman councilor of Manila. In the 1941 national elections, Elisa R. Ochoa from Agusan was elected to the House of Representatives. The Presidential Election of 1941. The first national election under the amendment of Constitution was held on november 11,1941, less than a month before the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific. Manuel L. Quezon and Vice President Sergio Osmeņa were re-elected. All 24 seats in the newly-created Senate were won by the Quezon and Osmeņa's Nacionalista Party. In the House of Representatives, all but three seats were captured by Quezon party. Quezon and Osmeņa were inaugurated on December 30, 1941. Development in Education. To promote the education of the Filipinos, President Quezon created the National Council of Education in 1936 as an advisory body on Educational matters. Its first chairman was Dr. Rafael Palma. The council made vital reccomendation for the further improvement of system of education in the Philippines. Vocational and adult education were given emphasis under the Commonwealth in 1938, the National Assembly passed a law providing for the establishment of national vocational school in various parts of the country. An adult education program was started with the creation in 1936 of the office of Adult Education. By the end of 1940, there were 6,000 school for adults with an enrollment of more than half a million. Economic Development Agricultural development. By the end of 1935, there were 4,017,880 hectares of land under cultivation. This figure increased to 6,690,539 hectares in the end on 1939. This growth was made possible through infratructure development like irrigation systems. Soils surveys were made andlocal plant nurseries were established. Also more public lands were opened up for cultivation. The Public Land Law granted Filipino citizens the right to apply for a homestaed of not more than 24 hectares of public agriculture lands. By means of this law, many landless Filipinos were able to acquire their own landfarms. Trade and Industry. The country's fpreign trade with the U.S. grew considerably from P 374 million in 1935 to P 593 million in 1941. The domestic trade was enhanced by the " Buy Philippines! " slogan of the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) in 1934. The NEPA popularized the use of native products like the Barong Tagalog for men and the Balintawak for women. The government also improved the communication and transportation facilities. More roads and bridges were constructed. On November 20, 1935, Commercial airial Travel between the Philippines and UnitedStates were inaugurated with the arrival of the China Clipped in Cavite, a Pan American World Airways passenger seaplane, after 5-day flight from California. |
