Manuel L.

Quezon
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This article is about the Philippine president. For other uses, see Quezon (disambiguation).
This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Quezon and the
second or maternal family name is Molina.

His Excellency

Manuel L. Quezon

2nd President of the Philippines

In office
November 15, 1935 – August 1, 1944

Vice President Sergio Osmeña

Preceded by Emilio Aguinaldo (1901)

Frank Murphy (Governor General)

Succeeded by Sergio Osmeña

 José P. Laurel (de facto)

Secretary of National Defense

In office
July 16, 1941 – December 11, 1941

Preceded by Teófilo Sison

Succeeded by Jorge B. Vargas

1st President of the Senate of the Philippines

In office
August 29, 1916 – November 15, 1935

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Gil Montilla (National Assembly Speaker)

Senator of the Philippines

from the 5th district

In office
October 16, 1916 – November 15, 1935

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Position abolished

Resident Commissioner of the Philippines

In office
November 23, 1909 – October 15, 1916

Preceded by Pablo Ocampo

Succeeded by Teodoro R. Yangco

Majority Leader of the Philippine House of Representatives

In office
October 16, 1907 – November 23, 1909

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Alberto Barreto (Philippine Assembly)

Member of the Philippine Assembly

from Tayabas' 1st district

In office
October 16, 1907 – October 16, 1916

Preceded by Position established

Succeeded by Filemon Pérez

Governor of Tayabas

In office
1906–1907

Preceded by Ricardo Paras

Succeeded by Alfredo Castro

Personal details

Born Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina

August 19, 1878

Baler, Philippines
Died August 1, 1944 (aged 65)

Saranac Lake, New York, U.S.

Resting place Quezon Memorial Circle

Political party Nacionalista Party

Aurora Aragón
Spouse(s) (m. 1918; died 1949)

Children 4

Relatives Manolo Quezon (grandson)

Education University of Santo Tomas

Signature

Military service

Allegiance Philippines

Branch/service Philippine Revolutionary Army

Philippine Commonwealth Army

Years of service 1899–1900

1941–1944

Rank
Major (1899–1900)

Battles/wars Philippine–American War

World War II

• Philippines Campaign

• Japanese occupation of the Philippines

 Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (August 19, 1878 – August 1, 1944) was a Filipino statesman,
soldier and politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to
1944. He was the first Filipino to head a government of the entire Philippines (as opposed to the
government of previous Philippine states), and is considered to have been the second president of
the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo (1899–1901).
During his presidency, Quezon tackled the problem of landless peasants in the countryside. His
other major decisions include the reorganization of the islands' military defense, approval of a
recommendation for government reorganization, the promotion of settlement and development in
Mindanao, dealing with the foreign stranglehold on Philippine trade and commerce, proposals for
land reform, and opposing graft and corruption within the government. He established a government-
in-exile in the U.S. with the outbreak of the war and the threat of Japanese invasion.
It was during his exile in the U.S. that he died of tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York. He was
buried in the Arlington National Cemetery until the end of World War II, when his remains were
moved to Manila. His final resting place is the Quezon Memorial Circle.
In 2015, the Board of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation approved a posthumously
bestowal of the Wallenberg Medal upon President Quezon and to the people of the Philippines for
having reached out, between 1937 and 1941, to the victims of the Holocaust. President Benigno
Aquino III, and then 94-year-old María Zeneida Quezon Avanceña, who is the daughter of the former
President, were informed about this recognition.

Contents

 1Early life and career

 2Congressional career
o 2.1House of Representatives
o 2.2Senate
 3Presidency
o 3.1First term (1935–1941)
o 3.2Administration and cabinet
 3.2.1Appointments 1935–1941
o 3.3Supreme Court appointments
 3.3.1Government reorganization
 3.3.2Social justice program
 3.3.3Economy
 3.3.4Agrarian reform
 3.3.5Educational reforms
 3.3.6Women's suffrage
 3.3.7National language
 3.3.8Council of State
 3.3.91938 midterm election
 3.3.101939 plebiscite
 3.3.11Third official language
 3.3.121940 plebiscite
 3.3.131941 presidential election
o 3.4Second term (1941–1944)
 3.4.1War Cabinet 1941–1944
 3.4.2Jewish refugees
 3.4.3Government-in-exile
  3.4.4Talks of post-war Philippines
 3.4.5Quezon-Osmeña Impasse
 3.4.6Death
 4Electoral history
 5Personal life
 6Ancestry
 7Honors
 8Legacy
 9In popular culture
 10Recording of speech
 11See also
 12References
 13Notes
 14External links

Early life and career[edit]

Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina

Quezon, was born in Baler in the district of El Príncipe[1] (now Baler, Aurora). His parents were Lucio
Quezon (died 1898) and María Dolores Molina (June 7, 1840 – 1893). His father was a primary
grade school teacher (maestro) from Paco, Manila and a retired Sergeant of the Spanish Civil
Guard(sargento de Guardia Civil), while his mother was a primary grade school teacher (maestra) in
their hometown. His father spoke and taught Spanish as a teacher. His father was a Chinese-Filipino
mestizo, while his mother a Spanish-Filipino mestiza.[2]
Although both his parents must have contributed to his education, he received most of his primary
education from the public school established by the Spanish government in his village, as part of the
establishment of the free public education system in the Philippines, as he himself testified during his
speech delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States during the discussion of
Jones Bill, in 1914.[3] He later boarded at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where he completed
secondary school.
In 1899, Quezon left his law studies at the University of Santo Tomas to join the independence
movement. During the Philippine–American War he was an aide-de-camp to Emilio Aguinaldo.[4] He
rose to the rank of Major and fought in the Bataan sector. However, after surrendering in 1900
wherein he made his first break in the American press,[5] Quezon returned to the university and
passed the bar examinations in 1903, achieving fourth place.
He worked for a time as a clerk and surveyor, entering government service as an appointed fiscal
(treasurer) for Mindoro and later Tayabas. He became a councilor and was elected governor of
Tayabas in 1906 after a hard-fought election.

Congressional career[edit]
House of Representatives[edit]
In 1907, he was elected to the first Philippine Assembly – later became the House of
Representatives – where he served as majority floor leader and chairman of the committee on rules
as well as the chairman also of the committee on appropriations. From 1909 to 1916, he served as
one of the Philippines' two resident commissioners to the U.S. House of Representatives, lobbying
for the passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act or Jones Law.
Senate[edit]
Quezon returned to Manila in 1916 to be elected into the Philippine Senate as Senator and later
elected by his peers as Senate President, serving continuously until 1935 (19 years), becoming the
longest serving. He headed the first Independent Mission to the U.S. Congress in 1919 and secured
the passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act in 1934. In 1922, Quezon became the leader of
the Nacionalista Party alliance Partido Nacionalista-Colectivista.[6]

Presidency[edit]

Presidential styles of
Manuel L. Quezon

Reference style His Excellency[7]

Spoken style Your Excellency

Alternative style Mr. President

First term (1935–1941)[edit]

First inauguration of Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon at the steps of the Legislative
Building in Manila on November 15, 1935.

Official car of Quezon, a 1937 Chrysler Airflow (restored by Alfred Motorworks & Alfred Nobel R. Peres),
at Baler, Aurora[1].

In 1935, Quezon won the Philippines' first national presidential election under the banner of
the Nacionalista Party. He obtained nearly 68% of the vote against his two main rivals, Emilio
Aguinaldo and Gregorio Aglipay. Quezon was inaugurated in November 1935. He is recognized as
the second President of the Philippines. However, in January 2008, House Representative Rodolfo
Valencia of Oriental Mindoro filed a bill seeking instead to declare General Miguel Malvar as the
second Philippine President, having directly succeeded Aguinaldo in 1901.[8]