3.  The Philippine Commonwealth
was created by the Tydings-
McDuffie Act, which was
approved by the U.S. Congress in
1934. When Manuel L. Quezon
became president in 1935, he
was the first Filipino to head an
elected government in the
Philippines.

4.  During the American Colonial Period, tenant
farmers complained about
the sharecropping system, as well as by the
dramatic increase in population which added
economic pressure to the tenant farmers'
families. As a result, an agrarian
reform program was initiated by the
Commonwealth. However, success of the
program was hampered by ongoing clashes
between tenants and landowners.

5.  An example of these clashes includes one
initiated by Benigno Ramos through
his Sakdalista movement, which advocated
tax reductions, land reforms, the breakup of
the large estates orhaciendas, and the
severing of American ties. The uprising,
which occurred in Central Luzon in May,
1935, claimed about a hundred lives.

7.  National Language
 Due to the diverse number of Philippine
languages, a program for the "development and
adoption of a common national language based
on the existing native dialects" was drafted in the
1935 Philippine constitution. he Commonwealth
created a Surian ng Wikang Pambansa (National
Language Institute), which was composed of
Quezon and six other members from
various ethnic groups. A deliberation was held
and Tagalog was selected as the basis for the
"national language" to be called "Pilipino".

9.  Economy
 The cash economy of the Commonwealth was mostly
agriculture-based. Products included abaca, coconuts and
coconut oil, sugar, and timber.Numerous other crops and
livestock were grown for local consumption by the Filipino
people. Other sources for foreign income included the
spin-off from money spent at American military bases on
the Philippines such as the naval base at Subic
Bay and Clark Air Base (with U.S. Army airplanes there as
early as 1919), both on the island of Luzon.
 The performance of the economy was initially good
despite challenges from various agrarian uprisings. Taxes
collected from a robust coconut industry helped boost the
economy by funding infrastructure and other development
projects. However, growth was halted due to the outbreak
of World War II

11.  The Philippines campaign of 1944–
1945, the Battle of the Philippines 1944–1945, or
the Liberation of the Philippines was the
American and Filipino campaign to defeat and
expel the Imperial Japanese forces occupying
the Philippines, during World War II. The Japanese
Army had overrun all of the Philippines during
the first half of 1942. The Liberation of the
Philippines commenced with amphibious
landingson the eastern Philippine island of
Leyte on October 20, 1944, and hostilities in a
small part of the Philippines continued through
the end of the war in August 1945.

12.  On 26 December, Manila was declared an open city. All
newspapers published the text of the proclamation and radio
stations broadcast the news through the day. A huge banner
bearing the words Open City and No Shooting was strung across
the front of the city hall. That night the blackout ended and
Manila was ablaze with lights.
 With the evacuation of the government and the army, a feeling of
foreboding and terror spread through the city, and the exodus,
which had ceased after the first confusion of war, began again.
"The roads back into the hills," noted one observer, "were black
with people striving to reach their native villages . . . . The few
trains still running into the provinces were literally jammed to
the car tops."2 The business district was deserted and there were
few cars along Dewey Boulevard.


13.  Here and there a few shops made a brave attempt at a holiday spirit with
displays of tinsel and brightly wrapped gifts. On the Escolta, two Santa
Clauses with the traditional white beards and red costumes looked
strangely out of place. One walked up and down as if dazed while the
other, more practical, piled sandbags before the entrance to his shop.
"No girls in slacks and shorts were bicycling along the water front,"
wrote Maj. Carlos Romulo reminiscently, "and there were no horseback
riders on the bridle path . . . the Yacht Club, the night clubs and hotels
... all looked like funeral parlors.“ "Let it be known," reported NBC
correspondent Bert Silen, "that our Christmas Eve was the darkest and
gloomiest I ever hope to spend."
 Late on the night of 26 December Radio Tokyo acknowledged receipt of
the Manila broadcasts declaring the capital an open city. Official
notification to 14th Army came later, either on the 28th or after,
when Imperial General Headquartersforwarded the information from
Tokyo. Apparently MacArthur made no attempt to notify the Japanese
forces in the Philippines of his intentions, but a mimeographed
announcement of the open city declaration was in the hands of the
Japanese troops by 31 December.

15.  The Philippine Department had been the
outlying U.S. Army command in the Pacific for
many years. In the summer of 1941 increasing
tension between Japan and the United
States caused the War Department to set up a
new command for the specific purpose of
organizing the defense of the Philippines. This
command, activated on July 26, 1941, was named
the United States Armed Forces, Far East (USAFFE,
or AFFE); General Douglas MacArthur, retired,
was placed on active duty and designated
commanding general.

16. . Aerial view of the devastated Manila
in May 1945

17.  At the time of Pearl Harbor, General MacArthur's
ground forces consisted of the Philippine Army of
10 divisions and supporting troops, with a total
strength of about 100,000, and a U.S. Regular
Army contingent of more than 25,000. Of the
latter force, the largest unit was the Philippine
Division, consisting of one American regiment
and two Philippine Scout regiments. The Japanese
struck before the Philippine Army could be
completely trained or properly equipped.

18.  The Japanese air attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941
seriously crippled elements of the American air forces stationed
in the islands and damaged naval installations. On December
10, Japanese forces landed at Aparri and Vigan on the northern
coast of Luzon. The main body of the invasion force began
landing on Luzon at Lingayen Gulf on December 22. Other
landings were made below Manila and on other islands of the
Philippines. Unable to stop the enemy at the shoreline of
Luzon, MacArthur withdrew sea forces into the Bataan
Peninsula, the island of Corregidor, and three other small islands
in Manila Bay. This complex retrograde movement was
accomplished by 7 January 7, 1942. Meanwhile, on January 2, the
Japanese had occupied Manila, which had been declared an open
city on December 24. The American and Filipino troops had lost
most of their supplies during their withdrawal; and a Japanese
blockade precluded the possibility of resupply or the landing of
reinforcements.

20.  On March 12, 1942, General MacArthur was ordered by the
President to leave for Australia. His successor in command
was Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright who, for a short
period (21 March to 6 May 1942), commanded the so-
called U.S. Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), although
General MacArthur remained the nominal commander.
 On April 9, 1942, by which time the troops of Bataan
had been reduced by hunger, disease, and casualties to
the point of military helplessness, their
commander, Maj. Gen. Edward P. King, Jr., surrendered
his forces to the Japanese. General Wainwright
surrendered the remainder of the American forces on
Corregidor and elsewhere in the Philippines on May
6, 1942.

21.  The Commonwealth of the Philippines was invaded by
the Empire of Japan in December 1941 shortly after Japan's
declaration of war upon the United States of America,
which controlled the Philippines at the time and possessed
important military bases there. The combined American-
Filipino army was defeated by April 1942,
but guerrilla resistance against the Japanese continued
throughout the war. Uncaptured Filipino army units, a
communist insurgency and supporting American agents all
played a role in the resistance. Due to the huge number of
islands, the Japanese did not occupy them all. Japanese
control over the countryside and smaller towns was often
tenuous at best.
 Allied forces liberated the islands from Japanese control in
1944, in a naval invasion.

22.  Japanese educational policies were embodied in
Military order.
 On October 14, 1943, the Japanese – sponsored
Republic created the Ministry of Education. Under the
Japanese regime, the teaching of Tagalog, Philippine
History and Character Education war reserved for
Filipinos.
 Most schools were damaged during World War II and
had to be closed down. In June 1942, the schools
were reopened by the Japanese. Their educational
policies, as detailed in Military Order No. 2, mandated
the teaching of Tagalog, Philippine history, and
character education to Filipino students, with
emphasis on love for work and dignity of labor.

23.  he Second Philippine Republic, officially known as
the Republic of the Philippines, or known in the
Philippines as Japanese-sponsored Philippine
Republic, was a puppet state established on
October 14, 1943, during the Japanese
occupation.
 President Manuel L. Quezon declared Manila, the
capital city, an "open city" and left it under the
rule of Jorge B. Vargas, as mayor. The Japanese
entered the city on January 2, 1942, and
established it as the capital. Japan fully captured
the Philippines on May 6, 1942, after theBattle of
Corregidor.

24.  General Masaharu Homma dissolved the Commonwealth of
the Philippines and established the Philippine Executive
Commission, a caretaker government, with Vargas as its
first chairman in January 1942. KALIBAPI– Kapisanan sa
Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas (Tagalog for the
"Organization in the Service of the New Philippines") was
formed by Proclamation No. 109 of the Philippine
Executive Commission (Komisyong Tagapagpaganap ng
Pilipinas), a piece of legislation passed on December 8,
1942, banning all existing political parties and creating
the new governing alliance. Its first director-general
was Benigno Aquino, Sr.. The pro-Japanese Ganap Party,
which saw the Japanese as the savior of the archipelago,
was absorbed into the KALIBAPI.

25.  For most of 1899, the revolutionary leadership had
viewed guerrilla warfare strategically only as a tactical
option of final recourse, not as a means of operation which
better suited their disadvantaged situation. On November
13, 1899, Emilio Aguinaldo decreed that guerrilla war
would henceforth be the strategy. This made American
occupation of the Philippine archipelago all the more
difficult over the next few years. In fact, during just the
first four months of the guerrilla war, the Americans had
nearly 500 casualties. The Philippine Army began staging
bloody ambushes and raids, such as the guerrilla victories
at Paye, Catubig,Makahambus, Pulang
Lupa, Balangiga and Mabitac. At first, it even seemed as if
the Filipinos would fight the Americans to a stalemate and
force them to withdraw. This was even considered by
President McKinley at the beginning of the phase.

26.  The shift to guerrilla warfare drove the US
Army to a "total-war" doctrine. Civilians were
given identification and forced
into concentration camps with a publicly
announced deadline after which all persons
found outside of camps without identification
would be shot on sight. Thousands of
civilians died in these camps due to poor
conditions.

28.  During the Second World War, the
government of the Commonwealth of the
Philippines was evacuated from the island
fortress of Corregidor to the still unoccupied
islands of the Visayas and the southern island
of Mindanao, then to Australia and finally, to
the United States.

29.  From May 1942 through October 1944, this
exiled government became "the symbol of the
past and the hope of the future." This handful
of men, led by the ailing nationalist,
Commonwealth President Manuel Luis
Quezon, sustained from afar the morale and
the faith in America by the Filipinos in
Japanese-occupied Philippines, a significant
factor in the failure of Japan's Greater East
Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Program in the
Philippines.

30.  Long considered a mere footnote in the
history of Philippine-American relations, the
two and a half years of efforts by the exiled
government proved to be a defining period in
the evolving relationship between the two
nations.


32.  After leaving Corregidor, MacArthur and his
family traveled by boat 560 miles to the
Philippine island of Mindanao, braving mines,
rough seas, and the Japanese navy. At the end of
the hair-raising 35-hour journey, MacArthur told
the boat commander, John D. Bulkeley, "You've
taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won't
forget it." On March 17, the general and his
family boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress for
northern Australia. He then took another aircraft
and a long train ride down to Melbourne. During
this journey, he was informed that there were far
fewer Allied troops in Australia than he had
hoped.

34.  Relief of his forces trapped in the Philippines
would not be forthcoming. Deeply
disappointed, he issued a statement to the
press in which he promised his men and the
people of the Philippines, "I shall return." The
promise would become his mantra during the
next two and a half years, and he would
repeat it often in public appearances.

35.  On October 20, 1944, a few hours after his troops
landed, MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine
island of Leyte. That day, he made a radio broadcast
in which he declared, "People of the Philippines, I
have returned!" In January 1945, his forces invaded
the main Philippine island of Luzon. In February,
Japanese forces at Bataan were cut off, and
Corregidor was captured. Manila, the Philippine
capital, fell in March, and in June MacArthur
announced his offensive operations on Luzon to be at
an end; although scattered Japanese resistance
continued until the end of the war, in August. Only
one-third of the men MacArthur left behind in March
1942 survived to see his return. "I'm a little late," he
told them, "but we finally came."

37.  Upon the reestablishment of the Philippine
Commonwealth in Manila in 1945, General
Douglas MacArthur exerted political pressure on
President Sergio Osmeña to convene Congress in
formal session. Osmeña was reluctant to do so
not only because of the huge expense associated
with the functioning of Congress, but more so
because he feared that its two houses would be
controlled by legislators who had collaborated
with the Japanese when the Philippine
Government was on exile in Washington, D.C.

38.  On May 24, 1945, Osmeña offered Roxas the position of
Resident Commissioner to the U.S. Roxas by then was
known to be actively seeking the right opportunity to
launch his presidential ambition with the backing of
General Douglas MacArthur, Quezon's former military
adviser and considered as the "Liberator of the
Philippines." Two days later, Roxas declined Osmeña's
offer and instead asked his supporters to announce his
candidacy for president at a time when there was no
designated date to hold a national election. The First
Commonwealth Congress thus provided the vehicle for
Roxas' primacy in Philippine postwar politics and
government. It also paved the way for the permanent
division of the old Nacionalista Party into two warring
factions. Its so-called Liberal Wing or faction (later Liberal
Party) nominated Roxas for the presidency in 1946.

40.  The Philippine Organic Act, approved on July
1, 1902, ratified McKinley's previous
executive order which established the
Philippine Commission, and stipulated that a
legislature would be established composed of
a popularly elected lower house,
the Philippine Assembly, and an upper house
consisting of the Philippine Commission. The
act also provided for extending the United
States Bill of Rights to Filipinos.

41.  On July 2. the U.S. Secretary of War telegraphed
that since the insurrection against the U.S. had
ended and provincial civil governments had been
established, the office of military governor was
terminated. On July 4, Theodore Roosevelt, who
had succeeded to the U.S. Presidency after the
assassination of President McKinley on
September 5, 1901, proclaimed a full and
complete pardon and amnesty to all people in the
Philippine archipelago who had participated in
the conflict

42.  On April 9, 2002, Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo proclaimed that the
Philippine–American War had ended on April
16, 1902 with the surrender of
General Miguel Malvar, and declared the
centennial anniversary of that date as a
national working holiday and as a special
non-working holiday in the Province
of Batangas and in the Cities
of Batangas, Lipa and Tanaun

43.  THANK YOU SO MUCH 