EVOLUTION OF
PHILIPPINE POLITICS
AND GOVERNANCE
The Development of Philippine
Government
1. Precolonial period (before 1565)
2. Spanish period (1565–1898)
3. Revolutionary period (1868–1898)
4. American period (1898–1941)
5. Japanese occupation (1941–1945)
6. Postwar era or the Third Philippine Republic (1946–1971)
7. Martial Law era (1972–1981) and the Fourth Republic (1981–
1986)
8. Post-EDSA or the Fifth Republic (1986–present)
AMERICAN
Period
(1898–1941)
The Development of Philippine Government
•American period (1898–1941)
The signing of the Treaty of
Paris signaled the end of the
Spanish-American War.
•American period (1898–1941)
The treaty involved United
States’ payment of $20 million
to Spain after the latter ceded
all its imperial possessions,
including Puerto Rico, Guam,
and the Philippines.
Filipino-American war
•American period (1898–1941)
In 1898, after America’s
capture of Manila, the United
States forces established a
military government in the
Philippines.
•American period (1898–1941)
It was led by a military
governor, who exercised all
powers of the government.
•American period (1898–1941)
The military governor
administered the Philippines
through the authority of the US
President, who was also the
Commander in Chief of the US
Armed Forces.
•American period (1898–1941)
Military Governors:
Gen. Wesley Merritt (1898),
Gen. Elwell Otis (1898–1900),
and
Maj. Gen. Arthur MacArthur,
Jr. (1900–1901).
•American period (1898–1941)
The Spooner Amendment
eventually ended the military
regime. A civilian governor
replaced the military
governor.
•American period (1898–1941)
The Americans established the
Insular Government of the
Philippine Islands under the
authority of the Bureau of Insular
Affairs, a division which oversaw
the civil affairs of some US foreign
territories
•American period (1898–1941)
William H. Taft (in office 1901–
1904) became the first civil
governor of the Philippines.
•American period (1898–1941)
The civil governor
head of the executive branch
exercised legislative powers as the
head of the Philippine Commission,
a lawmaking body, whose
members were all appointed
•American period (1898–1941)
In 1902, the Philippine
Organic Act (Cooper Act)
was enacted, which provided
for the creation of a Philippine
legislature.
•American period (1898–1941)
The legislature would be
bicameral, with the allappointed Philippine
Commission as the upper house;
and the Philippine Assembly,
whose members were to be
elected, as the lower house.
•American period (1898–1941)
Until in 1934, the TydingsMcDuffie Act (Philippine
Independence Act) was
ratified by the US Congress
•American period (1898–1941)
It established the Philippine
Commonwealth, which
provided for a 10-year transition
period that would prepare the
Filipinos for self-governance.
•American period (1898–1941)
The 1935 Constitution was
promulgated, which paved the
way for a presidential and
unicameral legislative system
called the National Assembly of
the Philippines.
•American period (1898–1941)
The legislature was later
restored to bicameral after an
amendment in the
Commonwealth Constitution
•American period (1898–1941)
An independent judiciary was
also established, with judicial
power vested in a supreme
court and such other inferior
courts as provided by law.
•American period (1898–1941)
President Manuel Quezon
and Vice President Sergio
Osmeña headed the first
Commonwealth government.
•Influence of American Occupation
DEMOCRACY
•Influence of American Occupation
The democratic political institutions
established
including electoral and party politics
constitutional law
the secret ballot
and the legislature
Remember….
If “god, gold, and glory” guided the
Spaniards’ conquest of the
Philippines, the Americans’ was
founded on the belief in democracy.
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain.
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly!) to the light:
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?”
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less—
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers