Commonwealth’s First President
Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina commonly known as Manuel L. Quezon was born in the district of El Principe, province of Aurora, on August 19, 1878. Died on August 1, 1944, at Saranac Lake, New York, United States of America. He was a Filipino statesman, independence movement leader, and the very first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, which was founded under US tutelage in 1935.
Quezon was the son of a schoolteacher and a modest landowner of Tagalog heritage on the island of Luzon. His parents, Lucio Quezon and Maria Dolores Molina were of Spanish origin.
Quezon married his first cousin, Aurora Aragon. They were fortunate to have four children. His great-grandson Manuel L. Manolo Quezon III served in the cabinet of the Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino administration. Manuel was a law student at the University of Santo Tomas at the time of the Philippine war against the Americans. As a result, he was obliged to discontinue his studies and work as Emilio Aguinaldo's camp aide. He rose from a low rank to become Major of the army.
Quezon was jailed and then freed during the American occupation. He earned his legal degree from the University of Santo Tomas and finished fourth in the law test in 1903. He went into politics after serving as a soldier. He rose through the ranks of the Philippine government, serving as a councilor, governor, and senator. He was friendly to Americans because he thought that this was the only way for the Philippines to gain freedom.
Quezon was named resident representative for the Philippines in 1909, with the freedom to talk but not participate in the United States. House of Representatives; throughout his time in Washington, D.C., he advocated vehemently for the U.s to give sovereignty as soon as possible. Quezon was instrumental in winning Congress' adoption of the Jones Act in 1916, having vowed freedom for the Filipinos without specifying a date when it would take full effect. The legislation granted the Country full independence and established a parliamentary system national parliament modeled after the United States. Congress. Quezon resigned as commissioner and returned to Manila in 1916 to be elected to the newly constituted Philippine Senate, which he later presided over until 1935.
As president, he was an outspoken advocate for the rights of the Filipino people, particularly peasants. He also battled for women's right to vote in elections, which he won. He also recommended that Tagalog/Filipino be designated as the national language. As a result, he is known as the Father of the National Language. In the Philippines, he also created the Partido Nacionalista. It is the oldest political party not just in the Philippines, but also in South Asia as a whole.
Under President Manuel L. Quezon's and the United States' admission in 1934, According to Foreign Secretary Paul V. McNutt, Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution found safety in the Philippines before Filipinos and Jews alike felt the impact of the Second World War. On August 21, 1937, President Quezon issued Proclamation No. 173 in response to opponents of his open-door immigration policy. He urged all Filipinos to accept the refugees and tasked the authorities with assisting them. This was the motivation for President Quezon to issue Commonwealth Act 613, subsequently known as the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.
Manuel pushed for the approval of the Tydings–McDuffie Act (1934), which allowed for said Filipinos' true independence ten years after the formation of democracy and the installation of a Commonwealth administration that might serve as the predecessor to an independent state. On September 17, 1935, Manuel was voted Into the office of the newly formed Commonwealth. As head of state, he rearranged the archipelagos' military protection (with the assistance of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur as his special adviser), addressed the massive issue of landless farmers inside the rural areas who then started working as renters on large properties, encouraged the peace agreement and advancement of the vast southern island of Mindanao, and fought graft and corruption in government. In a suburb of Manila, a new federal capital, eventually known as Quezon City, was established.
In 1941, Manuel was re-elected president. When World War II (WWII) broke out, Quezon fled the Philippines and moved to America when Japan attacked and occupied the Philippines in 1942. He was diagnosed with TB, which led to his death at the age of 66. His ashes were interred at Manila's North Cemetery before being relocated inside the Quezon Memorial Circle monument.
Biography by Sisha De Borja Mones
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