Manuel L.

Quezon
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Manuel Quezon)
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Quezon and the second or
maternal family name is Molina.

His Excellency

Manuel L. Quezon

GCGH KGCR
 Quezon in November 1942

2nd President of the Philippines

In office

15 November 1935 – 1 August 1944

Serving with Jose P. Laurel (1943–1944)[a]

Vice President Sergio Osmeña

 Emilio Aguinaldo
Preceded by
 Macario Sakay (1901)

 Frank Murphy (1935)

 (Governor-General)

Succeeded by  Sergio Osmeña

 José P. Laurel (de facto)

Secretary of National Defense
in concurrent capacity as President of the Philippines

In office

16 July 1941 – 11 December 1941

President Himself

Preceded by Teófilo Sison

Succeeded by Jorge B. Vargas

1st President of the Senate of the Philippines
 In office

29 August 1916[citation needed] – 15 November 1935

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by  Gil Montilla (National Assembly Speaker)

 Manuel Roxas (Senate President)

Mayor of Quezon City

Acting

In office

12 October 1939 – 4 November 1939

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Tomas Morato

Senator of the Philippines from the 5th district

In office

16 October 1916 – 15 November 1935

Serving with

 Vicente Ilustre (1916–1919)

 Antero Soriano (1919–1925)
 José P. Laurel (1925–1931)
 Claro M. Recto (1931–1935)

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Position abolished

Resident Commissioner of the Philippines

In office
23 November 1909 – 15 October 1916
Serving with

 Benito Legarda (1909–1912)
 Manuel Earnshaw (1913–1917)

Preceded by Pablo Ocampo

Succeeded by Teodoro R. Yangco

Majority Leader of the Philippine Assembly

In office

16 October 1907 – 23 November 1909

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Alberto Barreto
Member of the Philippine Assembly from Tayabas's 1st district

In office

16 October 1907 – 15 May 1909

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Filemon Pérez

Governor of Tayabas

In office

1906–1907

Preceded by Ricardo G. Parás

Succeeded by Alfredo Castro

Member of the Lucena Municipal Council

In office

1906

Personal details

Born Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina

19 August 1878

Baler, El Príncipe, Nueva Écija, Captaincy General

of the Philippines (now Baler, Aurora, Philippines)

Died 1 August 1944 (aged 65)

Saranac Lake, New York, U.S.

Cause of death Tuberculosis

Resting place  Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington

County, Virginia, U.S. (1944–1946)

 Manila North Cemetery, Santa

Cruz, Manila, Philippines (1946–1979)

 Quezon Memorial Shrine, Quezon City,

Philippines (since 1 August 1979)

Political party Nacionalista (1907–1944)

Aurora Aragon
Spouse
 
 (m. 1918)

Children 4

Relatives Manuel L. Quezon III (grandson)

Education Colegio de San Juan de Letran

Alma mater University of Santo Tomas

Signature

Military service

Allegiance  First Philippine Republic

 Philippine Commonwealth

Branch/service  Philippine Revolutionary Army

 Philippine Commonwealth Army

Years of service  1899–1900

 1941–1944

Rank  Commander-in-Chief

 Major

Battles/wars  Philippine–American War

 World War II

 Philippines campaign (1941–1942)

 Japanese occupation of the

Philippines

Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina GCGH KGCR (UK: /ˈkeɪzɒn/, US: /ˈkeɪsɒn, -sɔːn, -

soʊn/, Spanish: [maˈnwel ˈlwis ˈkeson i moˈlina]; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also
known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who
served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 until his death in
1944. He was the first Filipino to head a government of the entire Philippines (as
opposed to the government of previous Philippine states), and is considered to have
been the second president of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo (1899–1901),
whom Quezon defeated in the 1935 presidential election.
During his presidency, Quezon tackled the problem of landless peasants in the
countryside. His other major decisions include the reorganization of the islands' military
defense, approval of a recommendation for government reorganization, the promotion
of settlement and development in Mindanao, dealing with the foreign stranglehold on
Philippine trade and commerce, proposals for land reform, and opposing graft and
corruption within the government. He established a government-in-exile in the U.S. with
the outbreak of World War II and the threat of Japanese invasion. Scholars described
Quezon's leadership as a 'de facto dictatorship' [1] and that he was "the first Filipino
politician to integrate all levels of politics into a synergy of power", having removed his
term limits as president and turning the Senate into an extension of the executive
through constitutional amendments. [2]
Quezon died of tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York during his exile. He was buried
in the Arlington National Cemetery until the end of World War II, when his remains were
moved to Manila. His final resting place is the Quezon Memorial Circle.
In 2015, the Board of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation approved a
posthumous bestowal of the Wallenberg Medal upon President Quezon and to the
people of the Philippines for having reached out, between 1937 and 1941, to the victims
of the Holocaust. President Benigno Aquino III and then-94-year-old Maria Zenaida
Quezon Avanceña, the daughter of the former president, were informed of this
recognition.

Early life and career[edit]

Quezon in his early years

Quezon was born on 19 August 1878 in Baler in the district of El Príncipe,[3] at that time
capital of Nueva Ecija (now Baler, Aurora). His parents were Lucio Quezon y Velez
(died 1898) and María Dolores Molina (1840–1893). [4] Both his parents were primary
grade school teachers, though his father was a retired sargento de Guardia
Civil (sergeant of the Spanish Civil Guard). His father spoke and taught Spanish as a
teacher.[citation needed]
According to historian Augusto de Viana and as written in his timeline on the history of
Baler, Quezon's father, Lucio, was a Chinese mestizo who came from
the Parián (Chinatown district outside Intramuros) in Paco, Manila, though learned how
to speak Spanish presumably in his time in the Spanish Guardia Civil and eventually
married his mother who was a Spanish mestiza born through a Spanish priest, Father
Jose Urbina de Esparragosa, who arrived in Baler from Esparragosa de la
Serena, Cáceres Province, Spain in 1847 serving as the town's parish priest. [5]
Although both his parents must have contributed to his education, he received most of
his primary education from the public school established by the Spanish government in
his village, as part of the establishment of the free public education system in the
Philippines, as he himself testified during his speech delivered in the House of
Representatives of the United States during the discussion of the Jones Bill, in 1914.
[6]
 He later boarded at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where he completed
secondary school and graduated in 1894.[7]

Maj. Quezon served under General Emilio Aguinaldo as an aide-de-camp.

In 1899, Quezon left his law studies at the University of Santo Tomas to join the
independence movement. During the Philippine–American War, he was an aide-de-
camp to Emilio Aguinaldo.[8] He rose to the rank of Major and fought in
the Bataan sector. However, after surrendering in 1900 wherein he made his first break
in the American press,[9] Quezon returned to the university and passed the bar
examinations in 1903, achieving fourth place.[10]
He worked for a time as a clerk and surveyor, entering government service as an
appointed fiscal (treasurer) for Mindoro and later Tayabas. He became a municipal
councilor of Lucena and was elected governor of Tayabas in 1906 after a hard-fought
election.[11]

Congressional career[edit]
House of Representatives (1907–1916)[edit]
Quezon as Resident Commissioner

In 1907, he was elected as representative of Tayabas's 1st district for the first Philippine

Assembly – which later became the House of Representatives – where he served
as majority floor leader and chairman of the committee on rules as well as the chairman
also of the committee on appropriations. From 1909 to 1916, he served as one of the
Philippines' two resident commissioners to the U.S. House of Representatives, lobbying
for the passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act or Jones Law.[7]
Senate (1916–1935)[edit]

Senate President Quezon (third from left) with representatives from the Philippine Independence Mission in
1924

Quezon returned to Manila in 1916 and was elected senator of the Fifth Senatorial
District. He was later elected Senate President by his peers, serving continuously until
1935 (19 consecutive years), the longest serving in history, until his younger province-
mate from Tayabas, Senator Lorenzo Tañada's four consecutive terms (24 years from
1947 to 1972). He headed the first Independent Mission to the U.S. Congress in 1919
and secured the passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act in 1934. In 1922, Quezon
became the leader of the Nacionalista Party alliance Partido Nacionalista-Colectivista.[12]

Presidency (1935–1944)[edit]
Presidential styles of
 Manuel L. Quezon

Reference style His Excellency[13]

Spoken style Your Excellency

Alternative style Mr. President

Administration and cabinet[edit]

Main article: List of cabinets of the Philippines §  Manuel L. Quezon (1935–1944)
First term (1935–1941)[edit]

First inauguration of Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon at the steps of the Legislative
Building in Manila on 15 November 1935.
Presidential car of Manuel Luis Quezon displayed at Museo ng Pampangulong Sasakyan (Presidential Car
Museum)

In 1935, Quezon won the Philippines' first national presidential election under the

banner of the Nacionalista Party. He obtained nearly 68% of the vote against his two
main rivals, Emilio Aguinaldo and Gregorio Aglipay. Quezon was inaugurated in
November 1935. He is recognized as the second President of the Philippines. However,
in January 2008, House Representative Rodolfo Valencia of Oriental Mindoro filed a bill
seeking instead to declare General Miguel Malvar as the second Philippine President,
having directly succeeded Aguinaldo in 1901. [14]
Supreme Court appointments[edit]
President Quezon was given the power, under the Reorganization Act, to appoint the
first all-Filipino cabinet in the Philippines in 1935. From 1901 to 1935, although a Filipino
was always appointed chief justice, the majority of the members of the Supreme Court
were Americans. Complete Filipinization was achieved only with the establishment of
the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935. Claro M. Recto and José P. Laurel were
among Quezon's first appointees to replace the American justices. The membership in
the Supreme Court increased to 11: a chief justice and ten associate justices, who
sat en banc or in two divisions of five members each.

Ramón Avanceña – 1935 (Chief Justice) – 1935–1941

José Abad Santos – 1935
Claro M. Recto - 1935–1936
José P. Laurel – 1935
José Abad Santos (Chief Justice) – 1941–1942
Government reorganization[edit]
To meet the demands of the newly established government set-up and in compliance
with the provisions of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, as well as the requirements of the
Constitution, President Quezon, true to his pledge of "More Government and less
politics", initiated a reorganization of the government bodies.[15] To this effect, he
established the Government Survey Board to study the existing institutions and in the
light of the changed circumstances, make the necessary recommendations. [15]
Early results were seen with the revamping of the Executive Department. Offices and
bureaus were either merged with one another or outrightly abolished. Some new ones,
however, were created.[15] President Quezon ordered the transfer of the Philippine
Constabulary from the Department of Interior, to the Department of Finance. Among the
changes in the Executive Departments by way of modification in functions or new
responsibilities, were those of the National Defense, Agriculture and Commerce, Public
Works and Communications, and Health and Public Welfare.[15]
In keeping with other exigencies posed by the Constitution, new offices and boards
were created either by Executive Order or by appropriate legislative action. [15] Among
these were the Council of National Defense,[16] the Board of National Relief,
[17]
 the Mindanao and Sulu Commission, and the Civil Service Board of Appeals.[15][18]
Social justice program[edit]
Pledged to improve the lot of the Philippine working class and taking inspiration from the
social doctrines of Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI as well as the authoritative treatises
of the world's leading sociologists, President Quezon started a vigorous program
of social justice, which he introduced through appropriate executive measures and
legislation obtained from the National Assembly.[15]
Thus, a court of Industrial Relations was established to mediate disputes, under certain
conditions, minimizing the inconveniences of the strikes and lockouts. A minimum wage
law was enacted, as well as a law providing for an eight-hour work day and a tenancy
law for the Filipino farmers. Another measure was the creation of the position of Public
Defender to help poor litigants in their court suits. [15]
Commonwealth Act No. 20 authorized Quezon to institute expropriation proceedings
and/or acquire large landed estates to re-sell them at nominal cost and under easy
terms to tenants thereon, thus enabling them to possess a lot and a home of their own.
It was by virtue of this law that the Buenavista estate was acquired by the
Commonwealth Government. Quezon also launched a cooperative system of
agriculture among the owners of the subdivided estates in order to alleviate their
situation and to provide them greater earnings. [15][19]
In all these, Quezon showed an earnest desire to follow the constitutional mandate on
the promotion of social justice.[15]
Economy[edit]
Upon the creation of the Commonwealth, the economic condition of the nation was
stable and promising.[15] With foreign trade reaching a peak of four hundred million
pesos, the upward trend in business was accentuated and assumed the aspect of a
boom. Exports crops were generally good and, with the exception of tobacco, they were
all in high demand in foreign trade markets. Indeed, the value of the Philippine exports
reached an all high of 320,896,000 pesos, the highest since 1929. [15]
Manuel Quezon signing documents.

Additionally, government revenues amounted to 76,675,000 pesos in 1936, as

compared with the 1935 revenue of 65,000,000 pesos. Even the government
companies, with the exception of the Manila Railroad, managed to earn profits. Gold
production increased about 37% and iron nearly 100%, while cement production
augmented by some 14%.[15]
Notwithstanding this prosperous situation, [15] the government had to meet certain
economic problems besetting the country. For this purpose, the National Economic
Council was created. This body advised the government in economic and financial
questions, including promotion of industries, diversification of crops and
enterprises, tariffs, taxation, and formulation of an economic program in the preparation
for the future independent Republic of the Philippines.[15]
Again, a law reorganized the National Development Company; the National Rice and
Corn Company (NARIC) was created and was given a capital of four million pesos. [15]
Upon the recommendation of the National Economic Council, agricultural colonies were
established in the country, especially in Koronadal, Malig, and other appropriate sites
in Mindanao. The government, moreover, offered facilities of every sort to encourage
migration and settlement in those places. [15] The Agricultural and Industrial Bank was
established to aid small farmers with convenient loans on easy terms. [20] Attention was
also devoted to soil survey, as well as to the proper disposition of lands of the public
domain. These steps and measures held much promise for improved economic welfare.
[15]