Sergio Osmeña
President - Philippine Commonwealth
On August 1st, 1944, at a medical retreat in upstate New York, Manuel Quezon, the President of the Philippines, died of tuberculosis. Thus, mere months before the campaign to liberate his homeland began, Vice President Sergio Osmeña took office as head of the Philippine Commonwealth’s government in exile.
Born in Cebu City on the island of Cebu in 1878, the 66 year old Osmeña had met Quezon while studying law at the de Letran College, where he graduated second in his class in 1903. During this time, he had also served as a courier on the staff of Revolutionary President Emilio Aguinaldo during the 1900 revolution against the new American administration, but he was still able to enter politics after the failure of that insurrection, quickly rising to become Governor of Cebu by 1906. A year later, he was elected to the National Assembly, becoming Speaker at the same time. At this point, he began working with Quezon, forming the Nacionalista Party as a counterweight to the political power held by Manila over the provincial territories. He would remain in this position for several years, and when the Philippine Senate was created in 1916 his friend Quezon became Senate President, and replaced him as party leader. This would lead to a rift between the two, and the weakening of the party as a whole.
President Quezon signs legislation, with Vice President Osmeña observing
Quezon and Osmeña would reconcile later, in light of mutual opposition to the unpopular US Governor-General Leonard Wood, and in the early 1930s Osmeña would take a leading role in the push for independence, leading the mission of Washington that resulted in the passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, overriding a veto by President Hoover, allowing the Philippines to prepare for independence, with a ten year transitional period. This was blocked in the Philippines by Quezon, as it had provisions considered unacceptable, but laid the groundwork for the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, which was essentially the same terms without the restrictions that made the first act unacceptable.
As a result of this, the Philippine Commonwealth was created, and Osmeña became Quezon’s Vice president, a role in which he was still serving in 1941, when the Japanese attacked his homeland. He had just secured reelection alongside Quezon to a second term, and had to be sworn in after the evacuation to Corregidor, as Manila fell to the Japanese and the fortress entered a state of siege. After some time, the government was evacuated to the island of Negros, and after the evacuation of MacArthur from Corregidor, they were also taken to Australia as resistance in the archipelago collapsed.
President Osmeña is sworn in during the government’s exile in Washington DC
The government then moved to Washington, DC in the United States, where it remained for the next two years, and during this time, Osmeña would even acquiesce to the desire of Quezon to remain in office after the expiration of his term due to the emergency, rather than transferring power to Osmeña. Thus Quezon remained President until his death in the late summer of 194, wherupon Osmeña took the Presidency, just as preparations for the American and Commonwealth return to the Philippines were about to be set in motion.
President Osmeña (center, holding pith helmet) after after returning to Leyte with MacArthur
On October 20, 1944 Osmeña waded ashore beside MacArthur as US forces landed on Leyte, finally returning to the Philippines. Shortly afterward, MacArthur formally transferred authority to Osmeña and the Commonwealth Government, which in turn transferred its power back onto Filipino soil, with the capitol in Tacloban pending the liberation of Luzon and Manila. Osmeña made a broadcast over local radio, although his was eclipsed by the famous message of MacArthur’s return, as was the man himself, in many ways. President Osmeña was left in the Tacloban Commonwealth Building after a short ceremony, without transportation or even a solid idea where he would be spending the night.
After the landings on Luzon, President Osmeña dictated a message to the people of Luzon, which was printed and dropped as a leaflet across the island, announcing the imminent liberation of the island and the capitol. MacArthur expected Manila to be declared an open city as it had in 1941, and was already preparing for a triumphal parade into the city, with President Osmeña at his side.
