Sergio Osmeña

Sergio Osmeña
4th President of the Philippines
In office August 1, 1944 – May 28, 1946
Vice President	None
Preceded by	José Laurel (De facto)
Succeeded by	Manuel Roxas
2nd Vice President of the Philippines
In office November 15, 1935 – August 1, 1944
President	Manuel Quezon
Preceded by	Mariano Trías
Succeeded by	Elpidio Quirino
1st Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives
In office 1907–1922
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	Manuel Roxas
Born	September 9, 1878(1878-09-09) Cebu City, Philippines
Died	October 19, 1961(1961-10-19) (aged 83) Quezon City, Philippines
Political party	Nacionalista Party
Spouse(s)	Estefania Veloso (1901–1918) Esperanza Limjap (1920–1961)
Alma mater	University of San Carlos San Juan de Letran College University of Santo Tomas
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Sergio Osmeña y Suico (September 9, 1878 – October 19, 1961) was 4th and the second President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He was Vice President under Manuel L. Quezon, and rose to the presidency upon Quezon's death in 1944. He was a founder of Nacionalista Party.

Osmeña is the patriarch of the prominent Osmeña family, which includes his son (former Senator Sergio Osmeña, Jr.) and his grandsons (senators Sergio Osmeña III and John Henry Osmeña), ex-governor (Lito Osmeña and Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña).

Early life and career

Osmeña was born in Cebu to Juana Osmeña y Suico. Juana was only 14 years old when she gave birth to him. Owing to the circumstances of his birth, the identity of his father had been a closely guarded family secret. Though an illegitimate child — Juana never married his father — he didn't allow this aspect to affect his standing in society. The Osmeñas, a rich and prominent clan of Chinese-mestizo heritage^[1] with vast business interests in Cebu, slowly warmed up to him as he established himself as a prominent figure in local society.

He took his elementary education in the University of San Carlos and graduated in 1892. Osmeña continued his education in Manila, studying in San Juan de Letran College where he first met Manuel L. Quezon, a classmate of his. He took up law at the University of Santo Tomas and was second place in the bar examination in 1903.

Osmeña served on the war staff of General Emilio Aguinaldo as a courier and journalist. In 1900, he founded the Cebu newspaper, El Nuevo Día which lasted for three years.

Personal Life

Family

• On April 10, 1901, he married Estefania Chiong Veloso, with whom he had eight children, namely, Vicente, Edilberto, Nicasio, Milagros, Emilio, Teodoro, José, and Sergio, Jr. (former Senator)
• In 1920, two years after the death of his first wife, Osmeña married Esperanza Limjap, and had three more children, namely, Ramón, Rosalina, and Victor.

Descendants

Several of Osmeña's descendants became prominent political figures in their own right:

• Sergio Osmeña, Jr., son of former President and former Senator
• Sergio Osmeña III, grandson of former President and Senator
• John Henry Osmeña, grandson of former President and former Congressman/former Senator
• John Gregory Osmeña, Jr., great-grandson of former President and former Vice Governor of Cebu
• Tomas Osmeña, grandson of former President and former Mayor of Cebu turned Congressman of 2nd District
• Emilio Osmeña, brother of former President and doctor
• Emilio Osmeña, Jr., grandson of former President and former Governor of Cebu
• Annie Osmeña-Aboitiz, granddaughter of former President and real estate developer
• Manny Osmeña, great-grandson of former President and owner of wine company (Manny O.)

Early Political career

Speaker of the House

In 1904, the American colonial administration appointed him governor of Cebu. Two years later he was elected governor of Cebu. While governor, he ran for election to the first Philippine Assembly of 1907 and was elected Speaker of that body. Osmeña was only 29 and already the highest-ranking Filipino official.

He and another provincial politician, Manuel L. Quezon of Tayabas, set up the Nacionalista Party as a foil to the Partido Federalista of Manila-based politicians. The two would engage in a rivalry for political dominance ever since.

Senator

Osmeña was elected an assemblyman, in 1907, and remained a member of the lower house until 1922. In 1922 he was elected to the senate. He went to the US, in 1933, to secure passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Independence Bill which was superseded by the Tydings-McDuffie Act in March 1934.

Vice-Presidency

With Quezon as president, Osmeña was elected vice-president; they were inaugurated on November 15, 1935. Re-elected in 1941, he remained vice president during the Japanese occupation when the government was in exile. Osmeña agreed to the extension of Quezon's term for the duration of the war, as provided for in a US congressional resolution. ^[2]

Presidency

Osmeña became president of the Commonwealth on Quezon's death in 1944. He returned to the Philippines the same year with General 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. Nevertheless, who won 54 percent of the vote and becamedent of the independent Republic of the Philippines.

Administration and Cabinet

War Cabinet 1944-45

On August 8, 1944, President Osmeña issued Executive Order 15-W reorganizing and consolidating the Executive Departments of the Commonwealth government. The reorganization of the government after it was reestablished on Philippine soil was undertaken with Executive Order No. 27, February 27, 1945.

Cabinet and Judicial Appointments 1945-46

Executive Order No. 27, February 27, 1945 was issued upon the restoration of civilian authority to the government of the Commonwealth, and members of the new cabinet appointed on March 8, 1945. Subsequent renaming and mergers of departments have separate listings.

Liberation

Osmeña accompanied U.S. General Douglas MacArthur during the landing of U.S. forces in Leyte on 20 October 1944, starting the liberation of the Philippines during the Second World War was both the combined Filipino and American soldiers including the recognized guerrilla units was fought to the Japanese Imperial forces. Upon establishing the beachhead, MacArthur immediately transferred authority to Osmeña, the successor of Manuel Quezon, as Philippine Commonwealth president.

Government Reorganization

President Osmeña proceeded with the immediate reorganization of the government and its diverse dependencies.

On April 8, 1945, he formed his Cabinet, administering the oath of office to its component members. Later, President Osmeña received the Council of State to help him solve the major problems confronting the nation. Government offices and bureaus were gradually reestablished. A number of new ones were created to meet needs then current. Also restored were the Supreme Court of the Philippines and the inferior courts. The Court of Appeals was abolished and its appellate jurisdiction was transferred to the Supreme Court, the members of which were increased to eleven - one Chief Justice and ten Associate Justice - in order to attend to the new responsibilities.

Slowly but steadily, as the liberating forces freed the other portions of the country, provincial and municipal governments were established by the Commonwealth to take over from the military authorities.^[3]

Bell Trade Act

On April 30, 1946, the United States Congress, at last approved the Bell Act, which as early as January 20, 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 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.

The great aid this legislation meant for the Philippines 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 had been 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 a manifestation of good will to the Filipino people. Additionally, sixty million pieces of surplus property were also transferred to the Philippine Government.^[4]

1946 Presidential Elections

Main Article: Philippine general election, 1946

Soon after the reconstitution of the Commonwealth Government in 1945 Senators Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino and their allies called for the holding on an early national election to choose the president and vice president of the Philippines and members of the Congress. In December, 1945 the House Insular Affairs of the United States Congress approved the joint resolution setting the election date at not later than April 30, 1946.

Prompted by this congressional action, President Sergio Osmeña called the Philippine Congress to a three-day special session. Congress enacted Commonwealth Act No. 725, setting the election on April 23, 1946, and was approved by President Osmeña on January 5, 1946.

Three parties presented their respective candidates for the different national elective positions. These were the Nacionalista Party- Conservative (Osmeña) Wing, the Liberal Wing of the Nacionalista Party, and the Partido Modernista. The Nacionalistas had Osmeña and Senator Eulogio Rodriguez as their candidates for president and vice president, respectively. The Modernistas chose Hilario Camino Moncado and Luis Salvador for the same positions. On the other hand, the standard bearers of the Liberals were Senators Manuel Roxas and Elpidio Quirino.

On January 3, 1946 President Osmeña announced candidacy for President. On January 22, 1946 Eulogio Rodriguez was nominated as Osmeña's running mate for Vice President, in a convention held at Ciro's Club in Manila. According to the Manila Chronicle:

The convention opened at 10:15 in the morning when the acting secretary of the party, Vicente Farmoso, called the confab to order.

Congressman José C. Romero, who delivered the keynote speech accused Senate President Manuel Roxas and his followers of fanning the flames of discontent among the people, of capitalizing on the people's hardship, and of minimizing the accomplishment of the [Osmeña] Administration. These men with the Messiah complex have been the bane of the country and of the world. This is the mentality that produces Hitlers and the Mussolinis, and their desire to climb to power. they even want to destroy the party which placed them where they are today.

Senator Carlos P. Garcia, who delivered the nomination speech for President Sergio Osmeña, made a long recital of Osmeña's achievements, his virtues as public official and as private citizen.

Entering the convention hall at about 7:30 p.m, President Osmeña, accompanied by the committee on notification, was greeted with rounds of cheer and applause as he ascended the platform. President Osmeña delivered his speech which was a general outline of his future plans once elected. He emphasized that as far as his party is concerned, independence is a close issue. It is definitely coming on July 4, 1946^[5]

On January 19, 1946, Senator Roxas announced his candidacy for President in a convention held in Santa Ana Cabaret in Manila. According to Manila Chronicle:

...more than three thousand (by conservative estimate there were only 1,000 plus) delegates, party members and hero worshipers jammed into suburban, well known Santa Ana Cabaret (biggest in the world) to acclaim ex-katipunero and Bagong Katipunan organizer Manuel Acuña Roxas as the guidon bearer of the Nacionalista Party's Liberal Wing.

The delegates, who came from all over the Islands, met in formal convention from 10:50 am and did not break up till about 5:30 pm.

They elected 1. Mariano J. Cuenco, professional Osmeñaphobe, as temporary chairman; 2. José Avelino and ex-pharmacist Antonio Zacarias permanent chairman and secretary, respectively; 3. nominated forty-four candidates for senators; 4. heard the generalissimo himself deliver an oratorical masterpiece consisting of 50 per cent attacks against the (Osmeña) Administration, 50 per cent promises, pledges. Rabid Roxasites greeted the Roxas acceptance speech with hysterical applause.^[6]

President Osmeña tried to prevent the split in the Nacionalista Party by offering Senator Roxas the position of Philippine Regent Commissioner to the United States but the latter turned down the offer.

As a result of the split among the members of the Nacionalista Party, owing to marked differences of opinion on certain vital issues of which no settlement had been reached, a new political organization was born and named the Liberal Wing of the Nacionalista Party, which would later become the Liberal Party.

The election was generally peaceful and orderly except in some places where passions ran high, especially in the province of Pampanga. According to the controversial decision of the Electoral Tribunal of the House of Representatives on Meliton Soliman vs. Luis Taruc, Pampanga was under the terroristic clutches and control of the Hukbalahaps.So terrorized were the people of Arayat, at one time, 200 persons abandoned their homes, their work, and their food, all their belongings in a mass evacuation to the poblacion due to fear and terror.

A total of 2,218,847 voters went to the polls to elect their President and Vice President who was to be the Commonwealth's last and the Republic's first.

Four days after election day, the Liberal party candidates were proclaimed victors. Roxas registered an overwhelming majority of votes in 34 provinces and 9 cities: Abra, Agusan, Albay, Antique, Bataan, Batanes, Batangas, Bukidnon, Bulacan, Cagayan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Capiz, Cavite, Cotabato, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Laguna, La Union, Leyte, Marinduque, Mindoro, Misamis Oriental, Negros Occidental, Nueva Vizcaya, Palawan, Pangasinan, Rizal, Romblon, Samar, Sorsogon, Sulu, Surigao, Tayabas, Zambales, Manila, Quezon City, Bacolod City (Negros Occidental), Iloilo City (Iloilo), Baguio City (Mountain Province), Zamboanga City (Zamboanga), Tagaytay City (Cavite), Cavite City (Cavite) and San Pablo City (Laguna)

Likewise, the Liberal Party won nine out of 16 contested senatorial seats.

In the House of Representatives, the Liberals won an overwhelming majority with 50 seats while the Nacionalistas and the Democratic Alliance only got 33 and 6 seats, respectively.

Post-presidency and death

Gravesite of Sergio Osmeña

After his defeat in the election, Osmeña retired to his home in Cebu. He died of both liver failure and breast cancer at the age of 83 on October 19, 1961 at the Veteran's Memorial Hospital in Quezon City. He is buried in the Manila North Cemetery in Manila.

Notes

References

• Cullinane, Michael, Ilustrado Politics: Filipino Elite Responses to American Rule, 1898-1908, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2004, ISBN 971-550-439-6

External links

• The Philippine Presidency Project
• Philippines-Archipelago (Sergio Osmeña)

References

• Zaide, Gregorio F. (1984). Philippine History and Government. National Bookstore Printing Press.