Independence

Contrary to methods used elsewhere in decolonization, the liberation of the Philippines came as a series of gradual reforms granted by the United States. At the end of the Philippine-American war, President William Howard Taft began the process of liberating by passing a range of motions to improve the state of the economy in the Philippines, particularly focusing on the primary issue of poverty. Specifically, he implemented the pensionado program, which introduced new businesses and industry to the Philippines.

Fourteen years later, in 1916, those reforms had become successfully rooted into Philippine society. With the Jones Law passed by the U.S. in the same year, another step towards an independent Philippine republic was taken. Through this law, the United States granted the Philippines a legislature modeled after its own. In the Filipino’s first democratic election, Manuel Quezon was chosen as President. Still under the influence of the United States, the Philippines were making rapid progress towards achieving self-government.

          

The notion of independence gained even more plausibility for Filipinos in 1934, when the Tydings-McDuffie Act was passed. This assured Philippine independence from the U.S. by 1946. The following year, the Philippines established a constitution and created the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

            

Despite the setback caused by the invasion and subsequent three-year occupation by the Japanese in 1941, the United States, led by General MacArthur, successfully recaptured and regained control of the Philippines in 1945. A year later, the United States took swift action to complete its plan of freeing the Philippines, and on July 4, 1946, the Philippines was officially granted full independence.

Philippine Independence is Proclaimed