Postwar Problems and the Republic
maximum prices for goods sold in liberated areas.
The damage done by the war of the
Philippines and the Filipinos was incalculable.
There was a basic problem about economy.
Damaged infrastructures had to be rehabilitated and
reconstructed. The problem of collaboration also
faced the government. The United States lend a
helping hand through giving materials and financial
aids to the Philippines on condition that the
Philippine Constitution should be amended in order
to give the Americans parity rights in the
exploitation of the countrys natural resources.
Postwar Economis Condition
The destructive effects of war have left their
imprint on the economy. The income of the
Filipinos sink radically and the means of livelihood
were reduced. The destruction of property, including
work animals result to poverty. The damage to the
different industries was estimated amounted to
about Php. 582,500,000, while domestic assets
sustained a reduction of about Php. 798,767,595.
Various industries suffered great losses: *rice Php.
140,291,000 *mining Php. 121,210,000 *sugar
Php. 94,590,000 *livestock Php. 81,203,000 The
farms lost some 30% of their implements. The
source of power to operate the farms was only 60%
of the prewar level. Livestock was reduced by about
65% resulting to scarcity of food. Facilities for
irrigating farms were either destroyed or left
unrepaired. Large areas of agricultural land were
neglected.
The Philippine Civil Affairs Unit
The American army promptly created the
Philippine Civil Affairs Unit. This agency provided
speedy relief for all of the people of Manila and the
provinces. PCAU organized food distributing center
in Manila and the provinces. PCAU also provided
employment to laborers and provided consumer
goods to wholesalers at fixed prices. President
Osmena issued an Executive Order setting
Since there was money in circulation, the people
purchased whatever was offered in the markets.
there was grumbling but the people had no other
alternative than to acquiesce to the whims of the
profiteers.
Re-organization of the Government
President Osmena re-organized the
government to make it responsive to the imperative
needs of the nation. On March 7, 1945, he signed an
Executive Order providing for the restoration of the
executive departments of the government as they
existed before the war. On February 27, the Order
was dated. On March 8, Osmena swore in the new
members of the Cabinet.
The Congress Convened
Most of the important affairs of the
government should have been handled by the
Filipino officials, but McArthur, a man of action
and of a military temper, actually made the
important decisions for Prsident Osmena. McArthur
belived that Osmena was too slow and wanted
Congress immediately convoked, for the American
Governments policy was to restore constitutional
government in the Philippines. On June 9, Osmena
called a special session of congress. Manuel A.
Roxas whose ambition is to be president of the
Philippines, immediately spoke for the so-called
collaboreationists by declaring that all men who
were employed during the Japanese occupation
were actually loyal to the Commonwealth
Government. Osmena, who was faced with the
difficult problem of rehabilitation and
reconstruction wanted peace within his Nacionalista
Party. On May 26, Roxas instructed his men to
launch his candidacy. The Congress held a
demonstration to the Malacanang to compel
Osmena to promise them back pay, but the
President, more realistic and honest. Roxas cocked
his eyes to the presidency, promised that if elected
he would recommend the passage of a Back Pay
Law. In 1948, the law was approved, promised to
give three years back pay to all prewar government
employees after the end of ten-year period in 1958.
The Collaboration Issue
The line of conduct Osmena was to follow
with regard to the question was laid down for him
by President Roosevelt when. In 1944, it was stated
that those who collaborated with the enemy should
be removed from authority and influence over the
political and economic life of the country. On
September 11, American Secretary of the Interior
Harold Ickes reminded Osmena, in a cablegram, of
the late President Roosevelts policy regarding
collaboration in his statement of June29, 1944. In
September 1945, the American Agency, the
Counter-Intelligence corps (CIC), handed over to
the Commonwealth Government all the detained
political prisoners. Big names in the Philippine
political scene were set fee upon the the suggestion
of both Osmena and Roxas. In 1946, the brilliant
book of Senator Claro M. Recto Three Years of
Enemy Occupation, cause those who wanted all
collaborators jailed was weakened. In 1946, Roxas
won the presidency and solved the collaboration
issue by proclaiming amnesty to all political
prisoners.
American Financial Aid
Senator Millard Tydings, co-author of the
Tydings-McDuffie Independence Act, was sent to
the Philippines to make the survey. On May 23,
1945, Tydings arrived in Manila and intended to
stay for four weeks. Tydings recommended that the
Philippines be given 100,000,000 dollars for
rehabilitation and reconstruction. It voted for
120,000,000 dollars for the rehabilitation of
buildings, roads, and bridges. To put Philippine
finance on a sound basis, the American Congress
also passed a law providing for 75,000,000 dollars
for budgetary purposes and another 25,000,00
dollars for the redemption of guerrilla notes. The
American Army surplus, worth one billion dollars
but with a scale value of Php. 100,000,000 was
turned over to the Philippine Government. The
United States Reconstruction and Finance
Corporation granted a loan of 60,000,000 to the
Philippines.
The Bell Trade and Rehabilitation Acts
On July 4, 1946, the proclamation of the
Philippine independence was settled matter. On
September 26, 1945, Congressman C. Jasper Bell of
Missouri introduced a bill providing for free trade
relations between the United States and the
Philippines for a period of twenty years. In October,
Senator Tydings introduced another bill providing
for an eight-year free trade relations with the United
States. After much discussion, the bill was
approved. The Bell Trade Relations Act, provided
for free trade relations between the United States
and the Philippines until 1954, after which goods
coming from the United States and the Philippines
would be taxed five percent tariff increase every
year until the full 100% was reached in 1974. The
American Congress passed the Tydings
Rehabilitation Act as a complement to the Bell
Trade Relations Act. President Truman signed the
bill into a law on April 30, 1946. The Rehabilitation
Act provided for an outlay of 620,000,000 dollars to
be given to those who suffered damage during the
war. The effectivity of the Rehabilitation Act was
conditioned by the amendment of the Philippine
Constitution in such way as to give parity rights
to the Americans.