Pangulo ng Commonwealth, si Manuel L. Quezon y Molina ay anak nina Lucio Quezon at Maria Dolores Molina. Siya’y ipinanganak sa Baler, Tayabas (ngayon ay Quezon), noong ika-19 ng Agosto, 1878. Isa lamang ang kanyang kapatid — si Pedro.
Manuel Quezon was the first Filipino president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines under American rule. He was president of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944. For advocating Filipino-language amendments to the 1935 Constitution, he is known as the “Father of the National Language.”
Born August 19, 1878.
Birthplace: Baler, Tayabas Province (now named Quezon Province)
Short Biography of Manuel Quezon
Resident Commissioner of the Philippine Islands who later became president of the islands in 1935, a position he held until his death in exile in 1944.
He was educated in public schools. He studied law at the University of Santo Tomas and served in the Philippine Army.
After military service, he turned to politics. Elected as a Resident Commissioner to the 61st Congress (1909–1911), Quezon lobbied Congress for immediate independence for the Philippines. He also advocated greater participation of Filipinos in the colonial government.
In his maiden speech to Congress, Quezon submitted a petition requesting Philippine sovereignty. He asked Members to support legislation that endorsed Philippine independence. One of those acts was the Philippine Autonomy Act.
Sponsored by William Jones of Virginia, the Philippine Autonomy Act officially committed the United States toward granting independence to the Philippines. The act also ensured broader autonomy for Filipinos within the colonial government.
Toward the end of his service in the House, Quezon remarked, “I came with a mandate to work for the immediate independence of the Philippine Islands…to the best of my ability, I have done everything I could to carry out that mandate.”
After resigning from Congress, Quezon served in the Philippine senate from 1916 to 1935. He was elected president of the commonwealth in 1935. Forced to flee to the United States because of the Japanese takeover of the Philippines in 1942, Quezon died in exile on August 1, 1944. He died from tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, New York His body was initially buried at Arlington National Cemetery in the United States before being moved to the Manila North Cemetery in the Philippines.
In the 1930s, President Quezon allowed the entry into the Philippines of approximately 1,200 Jews, mostly from Germany, Austria, and Poland, just as they were being rounded up in ghettos and placed in Nazi death camps.
Quezon did this when no other country would allow them in, not even the United States. The Philippines was still under U.S. control at the time, as a Commonwealth country, like what Puerto Rico is today.
It required political skill and maneuvering from Quezon. His political opponents, led by Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo, were critical of this plan, accusing Quezon of giving jobs to foreigners instead of prioritizing his own countrymen. But Quezon believed so much in his ‘game’ to save the Jews from Hitler’s ‘final solution’ that he offered his personal land to house the refugees who arrived.
In a speech he gave to welcome the refugees who had settled in his property in Marikina, the president said, “Let it be forever said that when it came to your time of need, we provided aid… In the ancient scriptures of the Torah, it is written: You save one life, you save humanity.”
The nation of Israel that emerged after the war and the Holocaust was so grateful to the Philippines that to this day no visas are required of Filipinos to enter Israel.
Si Manuel Quezon ay ang Unang Pangulo ng Komonwelt at sinasabing ikalawang Pangulo ng Republika ng Pilipinas (15 Nobyembre 1935 – 1 Agosto 1944). Siya ang kinilala bilang ikalawang pangulo ng Pilipinas, kasunod ni Emilio Aguinaldo (na ang administrasyon ay hindi kinilala ng ibang bansa sa mga panahong iyon at hindi kinilala bilang unang pangulo sa mga kapisanang internasyunal).
Noong 1935, nanalo si Manuel L. Quezon sa unang halalan ng pagkapangulo ng Pilipinas sa ilalim ng bagong Komonwelt ng Pilipinas, laban kina Emilio Aguinaldo at Obispo Gregorio Aglipay. Muli siyang nahalal noong 1941.
Pagkaraan ng pananakop ng Hapon sa Pilipinas sa panahon ng Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig, tumakas siya papuntang Australya, at pagkatapos ay nagtuloy sa Estados Unidos. Sa dalawang bansang ito niya pinamunuan ang pamahalaan ng Pilipinas habang malayo sa bansa.
Nagkasakit ng tuberkulosis si Quezon at namatay sa Saranac Lake sa estado ng New York sa Estados Unidos noong 1 Agosto 1944 sa edad na 66.
Unang inilibing ang kanyang labi sa Arlington National Cemetery. Pagkaraan, ang kanyang labi ay inilibing muli sa Maynila, sa Manila North Cemetery at inilipat sa Lungsod Quezon sa loob ng monumento sa Quezon Memorial Circle.
Ipinangalan sa kaniya ang Lungsod ng Quezon sa Kalakhang Maynila at ang lalawigan ng Quezon. Siya rin ay tinawag bilang ‘Ama ng Wikang Pambansa.’
Ano Ang Komonwelt?
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was the name of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946 when it was still controlled by the United States. The Philippine Commonwealth was created by the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which was approved by the U.S. Congress in 1934.
Kung ngayon ang opisyal na pangalan ng ating bansa ay Republika ng Pilipinas, noong 1935 hanggang 1946, ang opisyal na bansag nito ay Ang Komonwelt ng Pilipinas.
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was the administrative body that governed the Philippines from 1935 to 1946, aside from a period of exile in the Second World War from 1942 to 1945 when Japan occupied the country.
Ang ibig sabihin ng commonwealth sa Ingles ay “independent country or community, especially a democratic republic” bagaman alam natin na nasa ilalim ang ating bansa ng mga Amerikano noong panahong iyon.
Sa ngayon, ginagamit din ang salitang “commonwealth” sa Ingles para sa mga bansang dating sinakupan ng Britanya (Inglatera) at hanggang ngayon ay kumikilala pa rin sa hari o reyna ng Inglatera, bagaman ang mga bansang ito ay talagang hindi na pinangangasiwaan ng Britanya — feel lang ng mga commonwealth countries na may Queen Elizabeth sila.
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