FROM MILITARY RULE TO

CIVILIAN LEADERSHIP
Transition from Military to Civilian Rule
• At the commencement of the American Rule in the Philippines, following
the Filipino-Spanish War it is but reasonable that the form of government,
at the onset, was military in nature.
• The following had served as American Military-Governor in the
Philippines, who acted as the leader of the American Forces in the
country, and acting as the representative of the American President as the
Commander-in-Chief of the American Military:
1. Mil. Gov. Wesley Merritt;
2. Mil. Gov. Elwell Otis; and
3. Mil. Gov. Arthur MacArthur, Jr..
 The Schurman Commission
• The Schurman Commission also known as the First Philippine Commission
was established by United States President William McKinley on January
20, 1899, and tasked to study the situation in the Philippines and make
recommendations on how the U.S should proceed after the sovereignty of
the Philippines was ceded to the U.S. by Spain on December 20, 1898
following the Treaty of Paris of 1898.
• Its final report was submitted on January 3, 1900, and recommended the
establishment of a civil government having a bicameral legislature and
being financially independent from the United States. The report also
recommended the establishment of a system of public education.
 The TAFT Commission
• The Taft Commission, also known as Second Philippine
Commission was established by United States President William
McKinley on March 16, 1900 following the recommendations of the
First Philippine Commission. The Second Commission was at first
the sole legislative body of the Philippines, while still under the
Philippine-American War. After the passage of the Philippine
Organic Act in 1902, the Commission functioned as a House of
bicameral legislature until it was supplanted in 1916 by an elected
legislature established in 1916 by the Philippine Autonomy Act.
• William Howard Taft was the first head of the Philippine
Commission, a post he filled between March 16, 1900 and July 4,
1901, after which the commission head also became the Civil
Governor of the Philippines. He held the post until January 31, 1904
after he was appointed as the Secretary of War by Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt. The Philippine Commission was often mentioned
informally and collectively as the "Taft Commission".
 The Spooner Amendment
• A few months before the inauguration of Taft as governor general, Senator
John Spooner filed a bill giving unprecedented powers to the executive
branch in the development of colonial policy in the Philippines.
• The Spooner bill was rejected on September 1, 1900, but McKinley
nevertheless granted the Taft commission legislative powers. Republican
legislators repackaged it as an amendment to it to the 1901 Army
Appropriation Bill, the passage of which was assured because no sane
lawmaker would dare risk denying funds to the army in time of war. The
passage of the Spooner amendment was a significant milestone in the
development of U.S.–Philippine policy because it allowed the president to
govern the Philippines by authority of Congress and not by his wartime
authority as commander in chief.
 The Philippine Organic Act
(Cooper Law)
• The Philippine Organic Act of July 1902 was a basic law for the Insular
Government (1901-1935). It was authored by Rep. Henry A.Cooper.
• The act provided the following:
1. Appointments of the civil governor, vice-governor, members the Philippine
Commission, and heads of Executive Departments shall be made by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;
2. Establishment of a bicameral legislature composed of a lower house, the
Philippine Assembly, which would be popularly elected, and an upper house
consisting of the Philippine Commission. The two houses would share
legislative powers, although the upper house alone would pass laws relating
to the Moros and other non-Christian people; and
3. Extending the United States Bill of Rights to Filipinos and sending two Filipino
resident commissioners to Washington to attend sessions of the United
States Congress.
 The Insular Government
• A territorial government of the United States of America created in 1901
in the Philippines. It was a civilian administration under the authority of
the Bureau of Insular Affairs, in contrast to the military government that it
replaced.
• The government was originally organized in order to replace military
governance with civilian. In 1902, the United States Congress passed the
Philippine Organic Act, which formally organized the Insular Government
and served as its basic law, or organic act, similar to a constitution. This act
provided for a Governor-General of the Philippines appointed by the
President of the United States, as well as a bicameral Philippine
Legislature with the appointed Philippine Commission as the upper house
and a fully elected, fully Filipino elected lower house, the Philippine
Assembly.
Towards Self Governance:
The Campaign for
Independence
 The Commission of Independence
• The Commission of Independence was created in 1918 for the purpose of
studying all matters related to the negotiation and organization of the
independence of the Philippines.

• The Commission was composed of the presiding officers of both houses of

the Philippine Legislature, as well as 11 senators and 40 congressmen.

• The most important undertaking of the Commission was the dispatch of

independence missions to the United States and the direction of the
publicity campaign for independence.
 The Independence Missions
• The 1st Parliamentary Mission was led by Senate President Manuel Quezon
and Senator Rafael Palma in 1919. The delegation was received by then
Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, in behalf of then President Woodrow
Wilson.

• Pres. Wilson, before his term expired, recommended the granting of

independence to the Philippines. This, however, was ignored by the
succeeding Republican President, Warren G. Harding.
 The Independence Missions
• The 2nd Parliamentary Mission was led by Quezon and Osmeña in 1922.
Said mission was primarily to present the viewpoint of the Filipinos on the
issues raised by the Wood-Forbes Mission Report.

• The mission had hoped to counteract and justify the political autonomy
granted the Filipinos by Governor General Francis B. Harrison, as well as to
get a definitive statement on how and when the independence will be
given to the Filipinos.

• The 2nd Mission returned to the Philippines with another vague promise of
the aimed independence.
 The Independence Missions
• In 1923, a Special Mission, led by then House Speaker President Manuel A.
Roxas left for Washington to present a Memorial against Governor General
Leonard Wood’s “reactionary and militaristic rule” in the Philippines.

• Then President Calvin Coolidge, replied in the negative to said Memorial,

saying that the Philippines is not yet ready to govern themselves since it
cannot handle the pressures and challenges of the Wood Administration.
 The Fairfield Bill
• The Fairfield Bill was the Administration’s alternative to the growing
number of Philippine Independence Measures filed in the United States’
Congress.

• The Bill was expected to provide the following:

a. A Filipino Governor-General;
b. A Transition Government; and
c. Independence in 20 years.

• The Bill was eventually scrapped due to misunderstanding between the

Philippine and US Congresses.
 The Supreme National Council
• After facing a very embarrassing episode with the Fairfield Bill, Quezon
launched the Supreme National Council to unite all political parties and all
segments of the Filipino Society for an ostensibly more effective and
vigorous fight for Philippine Independence.

• The Council had three (3) objectives:

a. To attract substantial Filipinos not prominent in the independence
campaign;
b. To decentralize the campaign to the various local levels; and
c. To attempt the gradual and peaceful use of the political authority vested
in the American Governor General and the Philippine Legislature.
 The OsRox Mission
• In 1931, Osmeña and Roxas left for the United States to secure what in
their judgment would be the best out of the situation that might arise in
the Congress concerning the Philippine Independence issue.

• The Mission succeeded in securing the passage of an independence bill,

the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, over the veto of then President Herbert
Hoover. The Act became a law in 1933.
 The Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act
• The Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act was the first US law passed for the
decolonization of the Philippines.
• By 1932, forces for the creation of this law coalesced around US farmers
who were hit by the Great Depression and feared Filipino imports of sugar
and coconut oil that were not subject to US tariff law; and Filipinos who
were seeking Philippine independence. The Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act was
authored by South Carolina Representative Butler Hare, Missouri Senator
Harry Bartow Hawes and New Mexico Senator Bronson M. Cutting. It was
finally passed by the United States Congress in December 1932, but was
vetoed by U.S. President Herbert Hoover. Congress then overrode the veto
on January 17, 1933.
• The law promised Philippine independence after 10 years, but reserved
several military and naval bases for the United States, as well as imposing
tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. It also required the Philippine
Senate to ratify the law.
• Quezon urged the Philippine Senate to reject the bill, which it did.
 The Tydings-McDuffie Act

• The Tydings–McDuffie Act (officially the Philippine Independence Act) provided for self-
government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States after
a period of ten years. It also established strict limitations on Filipino immigration. It was
authored by Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland and Representative John McDuffie of
Alabama, and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after the lobbying of
Manuel Quezon in 1934.
• The Act specified a procedural framework for, within two years of its enactment, the
drafting of a Constitution for the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
The act specified a number of mandatory constitutional provisions, and required approval
of the constitution by the U.S. President and by the Filipino people. The act mandated U.S.
recognition of independence of the Philippine Islands as a separate and self-governing
nation after a ten-year transition period.
• Prior to independence, the act allowed the U.S to maintain military forces in the
Philippines and to call all military forces of the Philippine government into U.S. military
service. The act empowered the U.S. President, within two years following independence,
to negotiate matters relating to U.S. naval reservations and fuelling stations of in the
Philippine Islands.
• The act reclassified all Filipinos, including those who were living in the United States, as
aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. A quota of 50 immigrants per year was
established.