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Achievements and Failures of Sergio Osmeña, List and Discussions.
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7/16/2019 Achievements and Failures of Sergio Osmeña
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Achievements and Failures of Sergio Osmeña
Osmeña, Sergio (1878-1961), Philippine independence leader and statesman, born on Cebu.
Trained as a lawyer, he was elected to the first Philippine assembly, became its speaker (1907-
1916), and later served as senator from Cebu. Osmeña headed several missions to the United
States to argue for Philippine independence and was instrumental in gaining commonwealthstatus for the Philippines in 1935. Twice elected vice-president of the commonwealth (1935 and
1941), he became president of the government in exile when President Manuel Quezon died in
1944. He was, however, defeated (1946) in the first elections of an independent Philippines.
He was the founder of the Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista) and president of thePhilippines from 1944 to 1946. Osmeña received a law degree from the University of SantoTomás, Manila, in 1903. He was also editor of a Spanish newspaper, El Nuevo Día, in Cebu
City. In 1904 the U.S. colonial administration appointed him governor of the province of Cebu
and fiscal (district attorney) for the provinces of Cebu and Negros Oriental. Two years later he
was elected governor of Cebu. In 1907 he was elected delegate to the Philippine NationalAssembly and founded the Nationalist Party, which came to dominate Philippine political life.
Osmeña remained leader of the Nationalists until 1921, when he was succeeded by Manuel
Quezon, who had joined him in a coalition. Made speaker of the House of Representatives in
1916, he served until his election to the Senate in 1923. In 1933 he went to Washington, D.C., tosecure passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting independence bill, but Quezon differed with Osmeña
over the bill's provision to retain U.S. military bases after independence. The bill, vetoed by the
Philippine Assembly, was superseded by the Tydings-McDuffie Act of March 1934, making the
Philippines a commonwealth with a large measure of independence. The following year Osmeña became vice president, with Quezon as president. He remained vice president during the
Japanese occupation, when the government was in exile in Washington, D.C. On the death of
Quezon in August 1944, Osmeña became president. He served as president until the elections of
April 1946, when he was defeated by Manuel Roxas, who became the first president of theindependent Republic of the Philippines.
He was elected Vice President of the Philippines in 1935 and succeeded Quezon to the
Presidency in-exile.
Osmena was a notable figure in the struggle for independence. A lawyer, he espoused the cause
of independence through peaceful means as editor of the Cebu newspaper El Nuevo Dia (NewDay), which he founded in 1900. He served as fiscal of Cebu and Negros Oriental. He was
appointed governor of Cebu in 1904 and elected to the same post in 1906. In 1907, he was
elected as representative of Cebu and later became speaker of the first Philippine Assembly. In
1922, he was elected as senator. He headed important government missions to the U. S.Osmena returned to the Philippines on October 20, 1944, together with Gen. Douglas
MacArthur. In February 1945, he took the reins of government.
On 30 April 1946, the United States Congress, at last approved the Bell Act, which as early as 20
January had been reported to the Ways and Means Committee of the lower house, having been
already passed by the Senate. President Osmeña and Resident Commissioner Ramulo had urged
7/16/2019 Achievements and Failures of Sergio Osmeña
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the passage of this bill, with United States High Commissioner, Paul V. McNutt, exerting similar
pressure.
The Act gave the Philippines eight years of free trade with the United States, then twenty years
during which tariffs would be upped gradually until they were in line with the rest of the
American tariff policy. The law also fixed some quotas for certain products: sugar – 850,000
long tons; cordage –
6,000,000 pounds; coconut oil –
200,000 long tons; cigars –
200,000,000
pounds. This aid was coupled with that to be obtained from the recently passed Tydings Damage
bill, which provided some nine hundred million dollars for payment of war damages, of which
one million was earmarked to compensate for church losses. The sum of two hundred and forty
million dollars was to be periodically allocated by the United States President as good will. Also,
sixty million pieces of surplus property were transferred to the Philippines government.
He refused to campaign during the election of 1946, and lost it to Manuel Roxas. He
recommended arresting and trying Filipino leaders who collaborated with the Japanese during
the war. Roxas, who also served in the Japanese puppet government during the war, rejected therecommendation, citing that re-arresting those already pardoned would place them in double
jeopardy. After his failure to bring collaborationists to court, David Bernstein, an Osmeña
partisan, wrote that the "whitewash had succeeded.... The French executed Laval, while the
Filipinos elected Roxas as President." While the analogy might be unfair, it did reflect the power
of the old boys club of Manila politics.
Osmeña became president of the Commonwealth on Quezon's death in 1944. He returned to the
Philippines the same year withGeneral Douglas MacArthur and the liberation forces. After the war,
Osmeña restored the Commonwealth government and the various executive departments. He continued
the fight for Philippine independence. For the presidential election of 1946, Osmeña refused to campaign,saying that the Filipino people knew of his record of 40 years of honest and faithful service. He lost
to Manuel Roxas, who won 54 percent of the vote and became president of the independent Republic of
the Philippines.