Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

(2001-2009)
14th Philippine President
5th Republic

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, holds many records. Elected as Senator during her first try 1992 and was re-elected in 1995. She was sworn in as the 14th President of the Philippines on January 20, 2001 by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. after the Supreme Court unanimously declared the position of the President vacant, the second woman to be swept into the presidency by a peaceful People Power Revolution or also known as the EDSA II.

The president is the daughter of the late President Diosdado and Eva Macapagal who were well known for their integrity and simple but dignified lifestyle. During the Presidency of Diosdado Macapagal, the Philippines was second only to Japan economic progress in Asia.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, born in April 5, 1947, was valedictorian of her high school class at Assumption Convent, was consistent on the Dean’s List in Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and graduated magna cum laude at Assumption College. She obtained a Master’s degree in Economics from the Ateneo de Manila and a doctorate degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines.

Macapagal-Arroyo joined the Philippine government in 1986 during the administration of President Corazon Aquino, who appointed her Undersecretary of Trade and Industry during her tenure in the Senate, she authored 55 laws on economic and social reforms and was named outstanding Senator several times. When she was elected Vice President, President Joseph Estrada appointed her as concurrent Secretary of Social Welfare and Development, a post she held until her resignation from the Cabinet on October 12, 2000.

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Joseph Ejercito Estrada

(1998-2001)
13th Philippine President
5th Republic

Joseph Estrada is the ninth president of the Third Republic of the Philippines. He was born on April 19, 1937 in Tondo, Manila. He is the eight of the ten children of Emilio Ejercito and Maria Marcelo. Estrada studied at the Ateneo de Manila University and took up engineering at the Mapua Institute of Technology. He was in his third year in college when he decided to try the movies.
Displeased with his decision to drop out of college, his parents forbade him to use his family name, which forced him to adopt “Estrada” as a screen name and “Erap” (“Pare” or friend when spelled backward) as a nickname.
In 1974, he founded the Movie Workers Welfare Fund (MOWELFUND) that provides movie industry workers with financial and professional assistance.

Estrada entered politics when he ran for Mayor in San Juan in 1968. he was only proclaimed mayor in 1969, after he won an electoral protest against Dr. Braulio Sto. Domingo. As mayor (1969-1986), Estrada was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) in Public Administration (1972). He was also named most Outstanding Mayor and Foremost Nationalist (1972), and most Outstanding Metro Manila Mayor (1972). He won a seat in the senate in 1987 and chaired the Committee on Cultural Minorities and Rural Development on September 16, 1991, he voted for the rejection of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Security, which ended the stay of the United States military bases in the Philippines.
He was elected vice president in 1992. He was appointed chairman of the Presidential Anti-Crime commission (PACC).
He was elected President of the Philippines in 1998 to January 20, 2001.
He is married to Luisa Pimentel with whom he has three children
The problems of the Estrada administration reached a crescendo in 2000. Bugged by the intensifying insurgency in Mindanao and a series of natural and man-made calamities nationwide, the new administration poorly restored hope of a bright future. Then came the BW Resources anomaly, which Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Perfecto Yasay blamed on the president.
In October, Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson, a former friend and close ally of the president, exposed that the president received about P500 million from jueteng kickbacks and excise tax from the Ilocos region. Corruption charges against the president ensued which spawned the dramatic passage of the Articles of Impeachment by the House of Representatives led by Speaker Manuel Villar on November 13.
The Senate then convened itself as an Impeachment tribunal and began the process on December 7. The House prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses, mostly women, who testified that the president was involved in several irregular transactions. One witness, Clarissa Ocampo, a senior vice-president of Equitable-PCI Bank, claimed he saw the president affix a different signature, Jose Velarde, on a multi-million Peso bank transaction.
The defense panel, composed of the brightest lawyers in the country, and the majority party senator-judges, questioned the materiality and relevance of Ocampo’s testimony. Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide ruled that Ocampo’s testimony would only be considered if the prosecution panel could prove that the multi-million bank account came from irregular transactions.
On January 16, the House prosecutors were about to establish the missing link by opening an envelope, which they claimed would prove that the president had amassed P3.3 billion in ill-gotten wealth, when 11 senator-judges voted not to open the envelope. This prodded Senate President Aquilino Pimentel to resign, the House prosecutors and complainants to walk out, and the viewing public to storm to the historic intersection of EDSA and Ortigas in Mandaluyong City – the start of the 5-day People Power 2 at EDSA, that would force President Joseph Estrada to leave office.
Former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Corazon Aquino, Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, students, office workers, activists, lay people, laborers, politicians and celebrities joined the furious crowd in asking for the resignation of the president. On January 18, Nora Aunor stunned everyone when she joined the rally, publicly admitting her previous relationship with the president, and called him a woman-beater. The following day, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim, the military generals, and the police officers withdrew their support from the president, as foretold by former President Ramos.
In the morning of January 19, the president was guided out of Malacanang by Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Angelo Reyes to give way to a new president, a woman. Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took his oath as the 14th president before Chief Justice Davide at noontime. She formally began her term in office on January 22, the same day the new US President George Bush was inaugurated at the White House.
At present, Estrada is back to the arms of his legitimate wife. One of his mistresses, Laarni Enriquez, flew to Hong Kong during the heat of the Impeachment trial. His friends like Lacson, Charlie Ang, Jaime Dichaves, and Nora Aunor also abandoned him. Much worse, one of his alleged illegitimate daughters, Josephine Rose Ejercito, said his father deserved what he got.
The Arroyo administration is preparing criminal charges against Estrada. The president said he was ready to face the music and prove his innocence. Ironically, he claimed that the controversial second envelope, which triggered the People Power 2, should have been opened in the first place.

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Fidel Valdez Ramos

(1992-1998)
12th Philippine President
5th Republic

Ramos, Fidel Valdez (1928- ), Filipino soldier and politician, President from 1992 to 1998, and one of the leaders of the 1986 EDSA revolution in the Philippines that drove President Ferdinand Marcos from power. Fidel “Eddie” Ramos was the son of a diplomat and legislator who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs. After winning a government scholarship to the United States Military Academy at West Point and studying engineering at the University of Illinois, he saw active service in the Korean War and was Chief of Staff (1966-1968) to the Philippine Civil Action Group in Vietnam.

His service to the state continued through the Marcos years, during which he headed the Philippine Constabulary (now the Philippine National Police) and served as Vice-Chief of Staff of the armed forces for five years. Ramos was also identified as one of the “Rolex Twelve”, the group of close associates of the president. However, he switched sides in the struggle for power in February 1986, aligning himself with Corazon Aquino and the “People Power” movement against Marcos. He and Juan Ponce Enrile led the resistance to Marcos centred on two military camps. He was rewarded with promotion to Chief of Staff and then, in January 1988, with the post of Defence Minister in Aquino’s government. He increased his popularity during these years by helping to defeat a series of coup attempts against Aquino.

Aquino nominated Ramos as her choice for President in the 1992 elections. Ramos won a narrow victory to become the 12th president of the Philippine Republic. His immediate priorities were to deal with the energy crisis and the economy; he tackled economic problems through policies of fiscal transparency and deregulation, as well as less popular methods such as extending value added tax. Ramos also sought to end insurgencies by Communist and Muslim rebels, and formed a National Unification Commission in August 1992 to oversee this. In the same month he gave permission for the return of Ferdinand Marcos’s remains to the Philippines. Legislative elections held in June 1995 that were presented by Ramos as a referendum on his administration led to overwhelming victory for his supporters; by this time, his policies had reformed the Philippine economy and lifted its growth rate closer to that of other Pacific Rim “tiger economies”. In October he took personal charge of the government’s campaign against organized crime. The withdrawal of the Lakas ng Edsa party from the ruling coalition weakened Ramos’s support, but he was still able to put through an important economic liberalization package in March 1996. In September the government concluded a landmark agreement with the Muslim secessionist Moro National Liberation Front in Mindanao, ending the long-term insurgency there. Congressional opposition to suspected moves by Ramos to amend the constitution, allowing him to stand for a second term in 1998, led to the ousting in October 1996 of the Senate president Neptali Gonzales, a firm Ramos supporter.

In March 1997 the Philippines Supreme Court rejected a campaign by Ramos supporters to allow a second presidential term, confirming its decision in June. In September 1997 a mass rally in Manila, attended by Cardinal Jaime Sin and Corazon Aquino among others, demonstrated against all efforts to change the constitution to allow Ramos a second term. In December, Ramos duly endorsed his chosen presidential candidate. However, the presidential elections in May 1998 were won by Ramos’s former vice-president, Joseph Estrada.

Endorsed by the outgoing president Corazon Aquino, former defence minister Fidel Ramos narrowly won the 1992 presidential elections in the Philippines. His government successfully enacted economic liberalization measures, invigorating the Philippines’ economy. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Muslim rebel group in Mindanao, ending a long-standing uprising there.

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Ferdinand E. Marcos

1965-1986)
10th Philippine President
3rd Republic
4th Republic (Martial Law, "The New Republic" Parliamentary Government)

Philippine Lawyer and Politician, Ferdinand Marcos was born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte on September 11, 1917. His parents are Don Mariano Marcos and Doña Josefa Edralin. Marocs studied law in the late 1930’s at the University of the Philippines.
Marcos took up leadership in a time wherein the country was in crisis economically and socially. His goals at that time were to uplift the economic and social condition of all the people using hard-work and self-reliance.
His first term was innovative and inspirational. Marcos embarked on a huge infrastructure program, unifying the scattered islands through a network of roads, bridges, rails and ports, committing all the available resources to development. He carefully

steered the Republic’s diplomacy during a period of transition in international relations, which saw the confrontation of the Cold War give way to peaceful negotiations. He was host to the Vietnam allies at the Manila Summit of 1966, and embarked on intense personal diplomacy throughout the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
The national problems, however, were much graver than could be solved in any single term of office. Combining into an explosive force were poverty, social inequity and rural stagnation, the burden of centuries coupled with rising expectations, a bounding birthrate and mass-education. The country at that time was said to have been making only four million pesos a day while spending six million pesos. Industries had a very slow growth. The school facilities could not accomodate the increasing number of children. Diseases continued to spread. Criminality was on the increase. Marcos was trapped between the entrenched oligarchy, which controlled the Congress and the firebrands from the Manila student movement in the peasant regions of Luzon.
As a result of this, Marcos sent out the Army to face the resurgence of armed Communist activity and the emergence of Maoist urban guerrillas. In August 1971, the write of habeas corpus was suspended.
This worked in the short term, but as soon as it was lifted, radical agitation started again. By the middle of 1972, nearly the entire media turned dead set against the Administration and government was beginning to be slowed down by the intense rivalry between the political parties.
The economic effects of this paralysis of government were made worse by great floods which in the Luzon plain ruined much of agriculture, infrastructure and industry. The people wallowed deeper in cynicism and despair. In Manila, crime, pornography and violence drove citizens from the streets. Invoking the last constitutional defense of the state, President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972.

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Diosdado Pangan Macapagal

(1961-1965)
9th Philippine President
3rd republic

Diosdado P. Macapagal was the fifth president of the Third Republic of the Philippines.
He was born in Lubao, Pampanga on September 28, 1910 to Urbano Macapagal and Romana Pangan.
He studied law at the University of Sto. Tomas. After receiving his law degree, he was admitted to the bar in 1936. in 1940, he became President Manuel L. Quezon’s legal assistant. In 1948, President Elpidio Quirino, appointed Macapagal as chief negotiator with the British Government of the issue of Philippine Sovereignties over the Turtle Islands. After the successful transfer of the Turtle Island, Macapagal was assigned as second secretary to the

Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. In 1949, he won a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1953 and served until 1956.
He became the vice president of Carlos P. Garcia in 1957. He was elected president of the Philippines in 1961. Under his presidency, financing institution such as The Philippine Veterans Bank was organized. One of his major foreign policy achievements was the forming of Maphilindo (composed of Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia) in 1963, which paved the way for the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Macapagal was instrumental in changing of the date of the Philippine Independence Day from July 4 to June 12.
In 1965, Macapagal ran and lost to Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippine presidential election. In 1971, he was elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He succeded Carlos P. Garcia who died while serving as president of the constitution.
Diosdado P. Macapagal died on April 21, 1997.

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Carlos Polistico Garcia

(1957-1961)
8th Philippine President
3rd Republic

Carlos P. Garcia was the fourth President of the Third Philippine Republic.
He was born in Talibon, Bohol on November 4, 1896 to Policronio Garcia and Ambrosia Polistico.
He studied at the Siliman University in Dumaguete and later transferred to the Philippine Law School now the Philippine College of Criminology where he finished his law degree in 1923. he took the bar examination and was among the top ten who passed it.
In 1925, he was elected as Representative of the Third District of Bohol to the National Assembly. He was one of the 24-elected to the senate in 1940 but the outbreak of the war prevented him from

assuming office. He resumes his term as senator in 1945 and was re-elected in 1946. he was elected as vice president during the Magsaysay administration in 1953. He was appointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs in his concurrent capacity as vice president. Garcia took over the presidency when Magsaysay died in an airplane accident in Cebu on March 1957.
Garcia presided over the remaining nine months of Magsaysay’s term. He then ran and won the 1957 presidential election. As president, he was instrumental in pursuing and implementing the “Filipino First” policy, which was conceived to initiate economic independence and also bring back the pride of Filipinos in their country. Furthermore Garcia was the first president to promote Philippine culture through dances and costumes.
Carlos P. Garcia died after a heart attack in Quezon City on June 14, 1971 while he was serving as president of the Constitutional Convention. He was married to Leonila Dimataga.

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Ramon Magsaysay

(1953-1957)
7th Philippine President
3rd Republic

Magsaysay, Ramón (1907-1957), Philippine statesman, born in Iba, and educated at the University of the Philippines and José Rizal College. From 1942 to 1945, during World War II, he organized and led the guerrilla force that fought the Japanese. He was elected (1946) and re-elected (1949) on the Liberal party ticket to the Philippine House of Representatives. An advocate of stronger government action against the Communist-led Hukbalahap (Huk) guerrillas, he was appointed secretary of national defence in 1950. He reorganized and strengthened the army and the constabulary and intensified the campaign to crush Huk resistance, waging one of the most successful antiguerrilla campaigns in modern history by winning over the peasantry and preserving tight military discipline. In 1953 Magsaysay resigned his post as defence secretary and became the presidential candidate of the Nationalist party after criticizing the Liberal government. He was elected president of the Philippines in November 1953, but his efforts to reform the country were frustrated by wealthy landowner interests in the national congress. He died in a plane crash.

In 1953 the government attempted unsuccessfully to end the Huk rebellion by a peace parley with the rebel leaders. In the presidential elections, held on November 10, former Defence Minister Ramón Magsaysay won a decisive victory over the incumbent Quirino, and because of his vigorous conduct of the campaign against the Huks, the back of the rebellion was broken, although it was not entirely suppressed.

Congress approved, on August 11, 1955, legislation empowering President Magsaysay to break up large landed estates and distribute the land to tenant farmers. On September 6 the Philippines and the United States concluded a trade agreement on private US investment in Philippine enterprises.

In the mid-1950s the United States and the Philippines jointly acknowledged Philippine ownership of US military bases in the islands. The Philippine Senate also ratified the peace treaty with Japan and a Philippine-Japanese agreement providing for US$800 million in Japanese reparations.

Magsaysay died on March 17, 1957, in an air crash, and the next day Vice-President Carlos P. Garcia was sworn in as President. In June a statute outlawing the Communist Party was promulgated. The statute provided a maximum sentence of death for active party membership but allowed surrender without penalty within 30 days after promulgation. Some 1,400 holdouts of the Huk movement surrendered. Garcia was subsequently elected president, and Diosdado Macapagal, an opposition Liberal Party candidate, was elected Vice-President. Macapagal was elected President in 1961, but in the elections of 1965 he lost to the Nationalist candidate, Ferdinand Marcos.

Magsaysay was elected president of the Philippines in 1953 and served four years in office. Magsaysay was a strong opponent of the Communist-led Huk guerrillas, and he reorganized and strengthened the armed forces in a campaign to crush them. He was killed in a plane crash in 1957.

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Elpidio Quirino

(1948-1953)
6th Philippine Presedint
3rd Republic

Quirino, Elpidio (1890-1956), president of the Philippines (1948-1953). He was born in Vignan on Luzon, studied law,After obtaining a law degree from the University of the Philippines, near Manila, in 1915, Quirino practiced law until he was elected a member of the Philippine House of Representatives in 1919-25 and a senator in 1925-31. In 1934 he was a member of the Philippine independence mission to Washington, D.C., headed by Manuel Quezon, which secured the passage in Congress of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, setting the date for Philippine independence as July 4, 1946. He was also elected to the convention that drafted a constitution for the new Philippine Commonwealth. Subsequently he served as secretary of finance and secretary of the interior in the Commonwealth government.

After World War II, Quirino served as secretary of state and vice president under the first president of the independent Philippines, Manuel Roxas. When Roxas died on April 15, 1948, Quirino succeeded to the presidency. The following year, he was elected president for a four-year term on the Liberal Party ticket, defeating the Nacionalista candidate.

President Quirino's administration faced a serious threat in the form of the Communist-led Hukbalahap (Huk) movement. Though the Huks originally had been an anti-Japanese guerrilla army in Luzon, the Communists steadily gained control over the leadership, and, when Quirino's negotiations with Huk commander Luis Taruc broke down in 1948, Taruc openly declared himself a Communist and called for the overthrow of the government. By 1950 the Huks had gained control over a considerable portion of Luzon, and Quirino appointed the able Ramon Magsaysay as secretary of national defense to suppress the insurrection. (see also Index: Hukbalahap Rebellion)

Quirino's six years as president were marked by notable postwar reconstruction, general economic gains, and increased economic aid from the United States. Basic social problems, however, particularly in the rural areas, remained unsolved; Quirino's administration was tainted by widespread graft and corruption. The 1949 elections, which he had won, were among the most dishonest in the country's history. Magsaysay, who had been largely successful in eliminating the threat of the Huk insurgents, broke with Quirino on the issue of corruption, campaigning for clean elections and defeating Quirino as the Nacionalista candidate in the presidential election of 1953. Subsequently, Quirino retired to private life.

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Manuel Acuna Roxas

(1946-1948)
5th Philippine President
3rd Republic

Roxas y Acuña, Manuel (1892-1948), Philippine statesman and first president (1946-1948) of the Philippines, born in Capiz, and educated at the University of Manila. After studying law at the University of the Philippines, near Manila, Roxas began his political career in 1917 as a member of the municipal council of Capiz (renamed Roxas in 1949). He was governor of the province of Capiz in 1919-21 and was then elected to the Philippine House of Representatives, subsequently serving as Speaker of the House and a member of the Council of State. In 1923 he and Manuel Quezon, the president of the Senate, resigned in protest from the Council of State when the U.S. governor-general (Leonard Wood) began vetoing bills passed by the Philippine legislature. In 1932 Roxas and Sergio Osmeña, the Nacionalista Party leader, led the Philippine Independence Mission to Washington, D.C., where they influenced the passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act. Roxas was later opposed by Quezon, who held that the act compromised future Philippine independence; the Nacionalista Party was split between them on this issue. In 1934, however, Roxas was a member of the convention that drew up a constitution under the revised Philippine Independence and Commonwealth Act (Tydings-McDuffie Act). Roxas also served as secretary of finance in the Commonwealth government (1938-40).

During World War II Roxas served in the pro-Japanese government of José Laurel by acquiring supplies of rice for the Japanese army. Although a court was established after the war to try collaborators, Roxas was defended by his friend General Douglas MacArthur. Roxas was elected president of the Commonwealth in 1946 as the nominee of the liberal wing of the Nacionalista Party (which became the Liberal Party), and, when independence was declared on July 4, he became the first president of the new republic.

Although Roxas was successful in getting rehabilitation funds from the United States after independence, he was forced to concede military bases (23 of which were leased for 99 years), trade restrictions for Philippine citizens, and special privileges for U.S. property owners and investors. His administration was marred by graft and corruption; moreover, the abuses of the provincial military police contributed to the rise of the left-wing Hukbalahap (Huk) movement in the countryside. His heavy-handed attempts to crush the Huks led to widespread peasant disaffection. Roxas died in office in 1948 and was succeeded by his vice president, Elpidio Quirino.

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Jose P. Laurel

(1943-1945)
4th Philippine President
2nd Republic(Japanese Occupation)

Jose Paciano Laurel (b. March 9, 1891, Tanauan, Luzon, Phil.--d. Nov. 6, 1959, Manila), president of the Philippines (1943-45), during the Japanese occupation of World War II.

After receiving law degrees from the University of the Philippines (1915) and from Yale University (1920), he was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1925 and appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1936.

After the Pearl Harbor attack, Laurel stayed in Manila after President Manuel Quezon escaped first to Bataan and then to the United States. He offered his services to the Japanese; and because of his criticism of U.S. rule of the Philippines he held a series of high posts in 1942-43, climaxing in his selection as president in 1943. Twice in that year he was shot by Philippine guerrillas but recovered. In July 1946 he was charged with 132 counts of treason but was never brought to trial; he shared in the general amnesty in April 1948.

As the Nationalist Party's nominee for the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines in 1949, he was narrowly defeated by the incumbent president, Elpidio Quirino, nominee of the Liberal Party. Elected to the Senate in 1951, Laurel helped to persuade Ramón Magsaysay, then secretary of defense, to desert the Liberals and join the Nationalists. When Magsaysay became president, Laurel headed an economic mission that in 1955 negotiated an agreement to improve economic relations with the United States. He retired from public life in 1957.

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Sergio Osmeña,Sr.

(1944-1946)
3rd Philippine President
COMMONWEALTH PERIOD (American Period)

Osmeña, Sergio (1878-1961), Philippine independence leader and statesman, born on Cebu. Trained as a lawyer, he was elected to the first Philippine assembly, became its speaker (1907-1916), and later served as senator from Cebu. Osmeña headed several missions to the United States to argue for Philippine independence and was instrumental in gaining commonwealth status for the Philippines in 1935. Twice elected vice-president of the commonwealth (1935 and 1941), he became president of the government in exile when President Manuel Quezon died in 1944. He was, however, defeated (1946) in the first elections of an independent Philippines.

He was the founder of the Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista) and president of the Philippines from 1944 to 1946. Osmeña received a law degree from the University of Santo Tomás, Manila, in 1903. He was also editor of a Spanish newspaper, El Nuevo Día, in Cebu City. In 1904 the U.S. colonial administration appointed him governor of the province of Cebu and fiscal (district attorney) for the provinces of Cebu and Negros Oriental. Two years later he was elected governor of Cebu. In 1907 he was elected delegate to the Philippine National Assembly and founded the Nationalist Party, which came to dominate Philippine political life.

Osmeña remained leader of the Nationalists until 1921, when he was succeeded by Manuel Quezon, who had joined him in a coalition. Made speaker of the House of Representatives in 1916, he served until his election to the Senate in 1923. In 1933 he went to Washington, D.C., to secure passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting independence bill, but Quezon differed with Osmeña over the bill's provision to retain U.S. military bases after independence. The bill, vetoed by the Philippine Assembly, was superseded by the Tydings-McDuffie Act of March 1934, making the Philippines a commonwealth with a large measure of independence. The following year Osmeña became vice president, with Quezon as president. He remained vice president during the Japanese occupation, when the government was in exile in Washington, D.C. On the death of Quezon in August 1944, Osmeña became president. He served as president until the elections of April 1946, when he was defeated by Manuel Roxas, who became the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines.

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Manuel L. Quezon

(1935-1944)
2nd Philippine President
COMMONWEALTH PERIOD (American Period)

Quezon y Molina, Manuel Luis (1878-1944), Philippine statesman, born in Baler, and educated at the University of San Tomás.. He cut short his law studies at the University of Santo Tomás in Manila in 1899 to participate in the struggle for independence against the United States, led by Emilio Aguinaldo. After Aguinaldo surrendered in 1901, however, Quezon returned to the university, obtained his degree (1903), and practiced law for a few years. Convinced that the only way to independence was through cooperation with the United States, he ran for governor of Tayabas province in 1905. Once elected, he served for two years before being elected a representative in 1907 to the newly established Philippine Assembly.

In 1909 Quezon was appointed resident commissioner for the Philippines, entitled to speak, but not vote, in the U.S. House of Representatives; during his years in Washington, D.C., he fought vigorously for a speedy grant of independence by the United States. Quezon played a major role in obtaining Congress' passage in 1916 of the Jones Act, which pledged independence for the Philippines without giving a specific date when it would take effect. The act gave the Philippines greater autonomy and provided for the creation of a bicameral national legislature modeled after the U.S. Congress. Quezon resigned as commissioner and returned to Manila to be elected to the newly formed Philippine Senate in 1916; he subsequently served as its president until 1935. In 1922 he gained control of the Nacionalista Party, which had previously been led by his rival Sergio Osmeña.

Quezon fought for passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934), which provided for full independence for the Philippines 10 years after the creation of a constitution and the establishment of a Commonwealth government that would be the forerunner of an independent republic. Quezon was elected president of the newly formulated Commonwealth on Sept. 17, 1935. As president he reorganized the islands' military defense (aided by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as his special adviser), tackled the huge problem of landless peasants in the countryside who still worked as tenants on large estates, promoted the settlement and development of the large southern island of Mindanao, and fought graft and corruption in the government. A new national capital, later known as Quezon City, was built in a suburb of Manila.

Quezon was reelected president in 1941. After Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines in 1942, he went to the United States, where he formed a government in exile, served as a member of the Pacific War Council, signed the declaration of the United Nations against the Fascist nations, and wrote his autobiography, The Good Fight (1946). Quezon died of tuberculosis before full Philippine independence was established.

He began to practise law in 1903 and was elected governor of his native province of Tayabas (now Quezon) two years later. He became a member of the first Philippine assembly in 1906. As resident commissioner to the United States Congress (1909-1916), he worked for Philippine independence. He was elected the first president of the newly formed transitional Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935 and re-elected in 1941. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II, he escaped to the United States, where he headed the Philippine government in exile until his death. Quezon City and Quezon Province are named after him.

Manuel Luis Quezón y Molina was President of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944. Filipino nationalism began to surface at the end of the 19th century, but it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that American policy towards the independence of the islands changed. In 1941 the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, with Quezon as its first president. A fully independent Republic of the Philippines was proclaimed in 1946.

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Emilio Aguinaldo

(1899-1901)
First Philippine President

First Republic of the Philippines

   Emilio Aguinaldo first studied in San Juan de Letran. He joined the revolution in 1896 as a lieutenant under Gen. Baldomero Aguinaldo and rose to the rank of general in a few months.
He was 29 years old when he became Chief of State, first as head of the dictatorship he thought should be established upon his return to Cavite in May 1898 from voluntary exile in Hongkong.

   On January 23, 1899, two months before turning 30, Aguinaldo was proclaimed the first president of the Republic of the Philippines, and he convened the Philippine Congress which ratified the country’s Constitution. The first Asian constitutional Republic was thus established – an event that inspired other colonized Asian countries to work for independence.


   He took an oath of allegiance to the United States a week after his capture in Palanan, Isabela. His term also featured the setting up of the Malolos Republic, which has its own Congress, Constitution, and national and local officialdom — proving Filipinos also had the capacity to build.


   Aguinaldo is best remembered for the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898, in Kawit, Cavite.

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Alamat ng Banahaw

Nang ang malaking Bundok sa gitna ng pulong Luzon ay hindi pa kilala sa pangalang Banahaw, gayon din ang tahanang natatayo sa paanan at liblib, ay marami nang pook ang pinaninirahan ng mga tao. Lubha pa yaong mga lunsod na malapit sa ilog.

Sa maraming mag-aanak na doo'y ay kabilang ang mag-asawa ng Lukban at Bayabas. Iisang anak nilang lalaki, si Limbas, ang namumukod sa lakas, sa tapang at sa bilis. Sa kanyang panudla ay bihirang usa, baboy-damo, unggoy, at malaking ibon ay nakaliligtas. Kaya't hindi nagluwat, sa paligid-ligid, ng malaking bundok ay natanyag ang pangalang Limbis. Siya ang nagging hantungan ng paghanga ng lahat. Sa malayong pook ay dumating ang kabayanihan ni Limbas.

Isang araw ay nawala si Limbas at gayon na lamang ang panimdim ng mag-asawa. Hindi sila makakain at nmakatulog sa hindi pagdating ng kanilang anak Makalipas ang pitong araw ng pagkabalisa ay muling nagbalik si Limbas. Dala niya ang isang balutan na sari-saring damit at pagkain. Sa buhay ng mag-asawa ay hindi pa sila nakakalasap at nakakatikim ng gayong nag-iinamang damit at nagsasarapang pagkain. Pakinggan natin ang balita ni Limbas.

"Isang maginoong balbasin ang nagpakilala sa kanya na isang 'encantado'. Sa maharlikang tahanan nito sa tugatok ng bundok ay doon isinama si Limbas. Doon, ang lahat ng hayop ay puti ng balahibo, di lamang ang mga manok pati ang mga usa. Ang kakawan ay napakalawak at humihitik sa mga bunga. May sasakyang hinihila ang dalawang kabayong puti, na siyang ginagamit sa paglalakbay sa buong Luzon. At sumama lamang ako at pag-uwi ng bahay ay hindi mawawala ang dulot."

Yaong balutan ng damit at pagkain na pasalubong ni Limbas sa kanyang mga magulang ay unang dulot ng maginoo. Nguni't ang bilin nito bago iabot ang dulot ay dapat munang humalik si Limbas sa kanyang mga magulang. Anupa't ang hindi paghalik sa kamay ay makakapagpabago sa dalang dulot. Hindi miminsanang nawala si Limbas ng pituhang araw at hindi rin sa kanyang pagbalik ay sari-saring kasuotan at pagkainang dala ang nakasisiya sa kanyang mga magulang.

Minsang pagbalik ng bahay ni Limbas ay isang balutan ng maliit na bolang ginto ang padala ng ginoo. At sa tuwa ni Limbas ay nakalimutan humalik muna ng kamay sa kanyang mga magulang, at kara-karakang binuksan ang ballot at sinabing, "Narito po ang ating kayamanan mga bolang ginto!"

Subali't ng buksan ang balutan ay hindi ginto abg lumabas kundi mga bunga ng Anahaw.

Kaya't sa pagkagulat ay napasigaw si Limbas: Ba! Anahaw! Ba! Anahaw! Ba! Anahaw!"

At buhat noon ay tinawag na Banahaw ang malaking bundok na yaon sa gitna ng Luzon. Gayon din, ang bayan ng Lukban at Tayabas ay nagsimula sa pangalang Bayabas at Lukban, na mga magulang ni Limbas.

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Alamat ng Buwaya

Pagtatanim at pagbebenta ng gulay ang kinabubuhay ng magasawang Waldo at Busyang na parehong masipag at mabait.kung paguugsli ang paguusapan ay walang maiipipintas sa magasawang ito,maliban na lamang sa pisikal na anyo,napakapangit kase ng babae at napakapandak naman ng lalake. Gayunpamana,ang kapintasang iyon ay hindi nakikita ng mga tao dahil sa kagandahag loob na ipina mamalas ng mag-asawa.


Bilang ganti ng langit sa mga kabutihan nina Waldo at Busyang,sila ay pinagkalooban ng isang anak na pagkaganda-ganda.Tibig ng ligaya ang puso ng mag-asawa sa pag kakaroon ng maipagmamalaking anak.


Nakiisa naman sa kanilang kagalakan ang mga kapitbahay.Mrami ang nagpasalamat
dahil hindi naging kamukha ng sanggol ang kanyang ama at ina.Palibhasa kaaya-ayang pagmasdan ang magandang mukha ng anak nila na pinangalanan na Aya.Di kalaunan,habang lumalaki ang bata,napapansin nilang ito nagiging salbahe,napakasinungaling at maramot.


Dahil sa ugali ni Aya na hindi maganda,sya ngayon ay kinaiinisan ng mga taong dati ay sa kanya pumupuri.Sa pagdadalaga ni Aya ay lalo itong naging mapagmataas, utos at bilin ng magulang ay hindi nito pinakikinggan,sa halip kung ano ang pinagbabawal at masamaay sya nitong ginagawa.

Anak, iwasan mo si Don Segundo,baka ikaw ay mapahamak,pagpapaalaala ng nangangambang ina. 


Tse,anong pakialam nyo? Bakit maibibigay ba ninyo ang naibibigay sa akin ni Don Segundo?,sagot ni Aya.


Upang huwag nang lumaki ang gulo ay tumahimik na lang si Busyang,nagpatuloy naman sa
pakikipagtagpo sa mayamang Don Segundo ang ambisyosang anak.


Hanggang isang araw,natuklasan nila na nagdadalantao si Aya,sa pagkakataong ito ay nagawa pa ring magtimpi ng ama,hindi sinumbatan ang dalagang nagkamali. Masakit para sa isang ina ang sinapit ng kanyang anak ngunit masaya sa kaloobang tinanggap iyon ni Busyang. Baka sakaling magbago si Aya kung ito ay isa na ring ina. 


Dtapwat mali sila ng akala,sapagkat ang anak ay hindi nagbago,nangyari pa nagmistulang itong reyna kung utusan ang ama at ina.madalas ang anak pa ang nagagalit kapag ang pagkaing maibigan ay hindi agad maibigay. Isang araw,kararating pa lang ng mag-asawa mula sa psgtitinda ng gulay,galing sa kuwarto ay lumabas si Aya at hiningi ang ipinagbiling prutas,humingi ng paumanhin ang inang makakalimutin subalit nagsiklab sa galilt ang anak na sutil.


Puwee!,pangit na nga kayo ay mangmang pa! walang silbi,bumalik ka sa bayan ngayon din!, bulyaw nito sa ina,


Kagyat nasumagot ang amang nangingitngit,ngunit sya man ay pinagwikaan din ni Aya.Ang kasamaan ng anak ay kaya pa nilang pagtiisan ngunit ang paglalait at paghamak sa kanila bilang magulang ay hindi na nya mapalampas, labis-labis na ang ginawa nilang pagbibigay,hindi naman sila nagkulang ng pangaral at pagtuturo kay Aya subalit bakit lumaki itong matigas ang ulo? Sa sama ng loob ng ama, ang irog na anak ay kanyang naitulak,sa pagkakatumba ni Aya,nanlilisik pa ang mga matang tumingin sa ama. 


Paaptayin ko kayo! pagbabanta nito habang tumatayo. 


Kung kasamaan pa rin ang nasa iyong pagiisip,sanay huwag ka nang makatayo. Ito ang nabigkas ni Waldo, mga katagang mula sa kanyang puso na punom-puno ng hinanakit.Dinig ng langit ang hiling ni Waldo upang ang paghihirap nila ay mabigyan ng wakas. Ang parusang angkop sa suwail na anak ay iginawad,hindi na nga nakatindig si Aya at sa inis nito ay gumapang patungong hagdanan. 


Lumayo kayo sa akin. wala akong magulang tulad ninyo!, lalayas na ako sa bahay na ito.Tandaan
ninyo,kapag nagkaroon ako ng pagkakataon,papatayin koo kayo! 


Pagapang na bumaba ng hagdanan ang anak,sa pagsayad ng mga kamay nito sa lupa ay unti-unti itong nagbago, Nagkataon namang may mga nagdaraan at kltang-kita nila ang nagaqanap na nagdadalan-taong si Aya, parang itinulos sa pagkakatayo ang mag-asawa at di malaman ang gagawin. Diyos ko,ano po itong nangyayari sa aming anak? Napasigaw ang mga naguusyoso ng Dambuhalang bayawak!Subalit sa kabangisang ipinakita nito ng sakmalin ang nakataling kambing ay napagtanto nilang hindi bayawak kundi mabangis na hayop.sa takot mamatay ay nagmadaling tumakas si Aya,mula noon buwaya na ang tawag sa ito,ang galit ng unang buwaya sa kanyang mga magulang at sa tao ay nagpasalin-salin sa lahat ng buwaya hanggang sa kasalukuyan na panahon.

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