PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES Manuel L. Quezon Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (August 19, 1878 - August 1, 1944) was the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He is considered the second President of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo (whose administration did not receive international recognition at the time and is not considered the first president in international circles).
Manuel L. Quezon was born in Baler, Tayabas province (now Aurora Province), Philippines. He fought with Filipino nationalists in the Philippine-American War, serving as an aide of President Emilio Aguinaldo.
He received his primary education from his mother and tutors, then became a boarder at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where he finished his secondary schooling. He studied law at the University of Santo Tomas and passed the bar examinations in 1903, placing fourth. He worked for a time as a clerk and surveyor, entering government service as an appointed fiscal for Mindoro and then Tayabas. He became a councilor and was elected governor of Tayabas in 1906 as an independent. In 1907 he was elected to the first Philippine Assembly, where he served as majority floor leader and chairman of the committee on appropriations. From 1909-1916 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.
He was elected senator in 1916 and became Senate President, serving continuously as such until 1935. He headed the first Independence Mission to the U.S. Congress in 1919, and brought home the Tydings-McDuffie Independence Law in 1934.
In the United States, he personally met Napoleon Hill. He was inspired to stop at nothing to work for the independence of the Philippines.
In 1935 Manuel L. Quezon won the Philippine's first national presidential election against Emilio Aguinaldo and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay. His original six year term without reelection was extended by constitutional amendment, allowing him to serve two additional years for a total of eight. He was reelected in November, 1941.
After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II he fled to the United States of America.
Quezon suffered from tuberculosis and died in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. He was initially buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Later his body was carried by the USS Princeton (CV-37) and re-interred in Manila, at the Manila North Cemetery and then moved to Quezon City within the monument at the Quezon Memorial Circle.
Quezon was married to his first cousin Aurora Aragon and had four children: Maria Aurora, Maria Zeneida, Luisa Corazon Paz and Manuel Jr.
Books by Manuel L. Quezon
External links The Philippine Presidency Project: Manuel L. Quezon (http://www.pangulo.ph/prexy_mlq.php)
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