Philippines Table of Contents
Commonwealth Politics, 1935-41
The constellation of political forces in the United States that
assisted in the resolution of the independence question formed an odd
community of interests with the Filipino nationalists. Principal among
these were the agricultural interests. American sugar beet, tobacco, and
dairy farmers feared the competition of low-tariff insular products, and
the hardships suffered in a deepening depression in the early 1930s led
them to seek protection through a severance of the colonial
relationship. In this they had the support of Cuban sugar interests, who
feared the loss of markets to Philippine sugarcane. United States labor
unions, particularly on the West Coast, wanted to exclude Filipino
labor. A number of American observers saw the Philippines as a potential
flash point with an expansive Japan and argued for a withdrawal across
the Pacific to Hawaii.
In the climate generated by these considerations, Osme?a and Manuel
Roxas, a rising star in the Nacionalista Party and Osme?a's successor
as speaker of the House, successfully campaigned for passage of the
Hare-Hawes-Cutting Independence Bill, which Congress approved over
President Herbert Hoover's veto in January 1933. Quezon opposed the
legislation, however, on the grounds that clauses relating to trade and
excluding Filipino immigrants were too stringent and that the guarantees
of United States bases on Philippine soil and powers granted a United
States high commissioner compromised independence. After the bill was
defeated in the Philippine legislature, Quezon himself went to
Washington and negotiated the passage of a revised independence act, the
Tydings-McDuffie Act, in March 1934.
The Tydings-McDuffie Act provided for a ten-year transition period to
independence, during which the Commonwealth of the Philippines would be
established. The commonwealth would have its own constitution and would
be self-governing, although foreign policy would be the responsibility
of the United States. Laws passed by the legislature affecting
immigration, foreign trade, and the currency system had to be approved
by the United States president.
If the Tydings-McDuffie Act marked a new stage in Filipino-American
partnership, it remained a highly unequal one. Although only fifty
Filipino immigrants were allowed into the United States annually under
the arrangement, American entry and residence in the islands were
unrestricted. Trade provisions of the act allowed for five years' free
entry of Philippine goods during the transition period and five years of
gradually steepening tariff duties thereafter, reaching 100 percent in
1946, whereas United States goods could enter the islands unrestricted
and duty free during the full ten years. Quezon had managed to obtain
more favorable terms on bases; the United States would retain only a
naval reservation and fueling stations. The United States would,
moreover, negotiate with foreign governments for the neutralization of
the islands.
The country's first constitution was framed by a constitutional
convention that assembled in July 1934. Overwhelmingly approved by
plebiscite in May 1935, this document established the political
institutions for the intended ten-year commonwealth period that began
that year and after July 1946 became the constitution of the independent
Republic of the Philippines. The first commonwealth election to the new
Congress was held in September 1935. Quezon and Osme?a, reconciled
after their disagreements over the independence act, ran on a Coalition
Party ticket and were elected president and vice president,
respectively.
Source:
U.S. Library of Congress
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