Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina GCGH KGCR (19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who served as the second president of the Philippines from 1935 until his death in 1944. He was the first Filipino to head a government of the entire Philippines and is considered the second president of the Philippines after Emilio Aguinaldo (1899–1901), whom Quezon defeated in the 1935 presidential election. Quezon City, a city in Metro Manila and Quezon Province, are named after him.
During his presidency, Quezon tackled the problem of landless peasants. Other major decisions included 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 United States with the outbreak of World War II and the threat of Japanese invasion. Scholars have described Quezon's leadership as a "de facto dictatorship" and described him as "the first Filipino politician to integrate all levels of politics into a synergy of power" after removing his term limits as president and turning the Senate into an extension of the executive through constitutional amendments.
Quezon was born on 19 August 1878 in Baler in the district of El Príncipe, then part of Nueva Écija (now Baler, Aurora). His parents were Lucio Quezon Urbina (1850–1898) and María Dolores Molina (1840–1893). Both were primary-school teachers, although his father was a retired sargento of the Guardia Civil (sergeant of the colonial gendarmerie).
According to historian Augusto de Viana in his timeline of Baler, Quezon's father was a Chinese mestizo who came from the Parián (a Chinatown outside Intramuros) in Paco, Manila. He spoke Spanish in the Civil Guard and married María, a Spanish mestiza sired by the Spanish priest José Urbina de Esparragosa. Urbina had come to Baler to serve as its parish priest in 1847 from Esparragosa de la Serena, Cáceres Province, Spain. Quezon is Chinese mestizo surname originally from Hokkien Chinese spelled in Spanish orthography used in the colonial period, possibly from the Chinese: 雞孫; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ke-sun, with Chinese: 雞; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ke and Chinese: 孫; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sun; lit. 'grandson'; many Filipino surnames that end with "-zon", "-son", and "-chon" as the Hispancised form of the Hokkien Chinese: 孫; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sun; lit. 'grandson'.
He later boarded at the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán, where he graduated from secondary school in 1894. Lucio and Quezon's brother Pedro were later killed in 1898 by road bandits disguised as government officials on the way to Baler.
In 1899, Quezon left his law studies at the University of Santo Tomas to join the Filipino war effort, and joined the Republican army during the Philippine–American War. He was an aide-de-camp to Emilio Aguinaldo. Quezon became a major, and fought in the Bataan sector. After surrendering in 1900, he returned to university and passed the 1903 bar examinations.
Quezon worked for a time as a clerk and surveyor, entering government service as treasurer for Mindoro and (later) his home province of Tayabas. He became a municipal councilor of Lucena, and was elected governor of Tayabas in 1906.
House of Representatives (1907–1916)
Quezon was elected in 1907 to represent Tayabas's 1st district in the first Philippine Assembly (which later became the House of Representatives) during the 1st Philippine Legislature, where he was majority floor leader and chairman of the committees on rules and appropriations. Quezon told the U.S. House of Representatives during a 1914 discussion of the Jones Bill that he received most of his primary education at the village school established by the Spanish government as part of the Philippines' free public-education system. Months before his term ended, he gave up his seat at the Philippine Assembly upon being appointed as one of the Philippines' two resident commissioners. Quezon aimed for the Resident Commissioner seat in 1909, which was held by Nacionalista Pablo Ocampo. He won decisively with 61 out of 71 votes, while Ocampo received four votes, and a third candidate got none.
Quezon arrived in Washington, D.C., in December 1909 and made his residence in Champlain Apartment House. Due to him not being well-versed in the English language, he hired a tutor and self-studied a Spanish–English dictionary. During his time in the US, he received the nickname "Casey" among his American friends.
He served two terms as resident commissioner from 1909 to 1916, he lobbied for the passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act (the Jones Law).
Controversy with Benito Legarda
In the fall of 1910, disagreements between Benito Legarda and Quezon, and between the Philippine Commission and the Philippine Assembly, caused issues for their re-elections as resident commissioners. The assembly did not certify Legarda's nomination because he was against immediate independence of the Philippines, leading the commission to reject Quezon's candidacy. After months of failed attempts to resolve the problem, the House extended their terms until October 1912. In November 1912, Quezon suggested Manuel Earnshaw to replace retiring Legarda, and Quezon was re-elected.
On 14 October 1916, Quezon received the highest number of votes for the Fifth Senatorial District and was confirmed Senator-elect by Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison under Executive Order No. 73. Due to the passage of the Jones Law, he resigned as resident commissioner on 15 October 1916. A farewell banquet was organized for him at the Willard Hotel by his friends and acquaintances in Washington. He then returned to Manila. On 16 October 1916, the new Philippine Legislature under the Jones Law was inaugurated. That same day, the new bicameral legislature convened with Quezon being elected Senate President. He served continuously until 1935 (19 years), the longest tenure in history until Senator Lorenzo Tañada's four consecutive terms (24 years, from 1947 to 1972). Quezon headed the first independent mission to the U.S. Congress in 1919, and secured passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act in 1934.
In 1921, Quezon made a public campaign against House Speaker Sergio Osmeña accusing him of being an autocratic leader and blamed him for the Philippine National Bank's financial mess. Both Osmeña and Quezon debated on this until 1922. As a result, the Nationalista Party was split into two. Quezon also resigned as Senate President that same year in January.
In 1922, he became leader of the Nacionalista Party alliance Partido Nacionalista-Colectivista. As Osmeña joined the 1922 Senate elections, Quezon's faction won. The party once again reunited with Quezon as senate president and Osmeña as senate president pro tempore.
In 1933, both Quezon and Osmeña clashed regarding the ratification of the Hare–Hawes–Cutting bill in the Philippine Legislature. As a result of the HHC controversy, Quezon's faction gained more support and won against Osmeña's faction in the 1934 senate elections.
On 9 July 1927, Quezon made his visit to Shanghai where he met with the wealthy elites. In his banquet speech: "I believe that the cause of Nationalist China is the cause of humanity. I think that it is only through the recognition of the fundamental principles of the rights of every nation to be free and independent and on an equal footing with other nations on earth that real peace and universal prosperity throughout the world can be established."