Мануэль Кесон: Первый президент Филиппин и его наследие

President of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944

Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (/UK/'/k//eɪ//z//ɒ//n/, /US/'/k//eɪ//s//ɒ//n//, // //s//ɔː//n//, // //s//oʊ//n/, , maˈnwel ˈlwis ˈkeson i moˈlina; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who was president of the Commonwealth 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. 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 U. S. 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 died of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, New York, during his exile. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery until the end of World War II, when his remains were moved to Manila. and interred at Manila North Cemetery in 1946. His remains were finally transferred to his final resting place in 1979 inside the Quezon Memorial Circle. In 2015, the Board of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation bestowed a posthumous Wallenberg Medal on Quezon and the people of the Philippines for reaching out to victims of the Holocaust from 1937 to 1941. President Benigno Aquino III and then 94 year old Maria Zenaida Quezon Avanceña, the daughter of the former president, were informed of this recognition.

Quezon was born on 19 August 1878 in Baler in the district of El Príncipe, then the capital of Nueva Ecija (now Baler, Aurora). His parents were Lucio Quezon y Vélez (1850–1898) and María Dolores Molina (1840–1893). Both were primary school teachers, although his father was a retired sargento de Guardia Civil (sergeant of the Civil Guard). 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, who was a Spanish mestiza born of Spanish priest Jose Urbina de Esparragosa; Urbina arrived in Baler from Esparragosa de la Serena, Cáceres Province, Spain in 1847 as the parish priest. 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. He later boarded at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, where he graduated from secondary school in 1894. In 1899, Quezon left his law studies at the University of Santo Tomas to join the independence movement. 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 bar examination in 1903. Quezon worked for a time as a clerk and surveyor, entering government service as treasurer for Mindoro and (later) Tayabas. He became a municipal councilor of Lucena, and was elected governor of Tayabas in 1906.

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. 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. Serving two terms from 1909 to 1916, he lobbied for the passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act (the Jones Law).

In 1935, Quezon won the Philippines' first national presidential election under the Nacionalista Party. He received nearly 68 percent of the vote against his two main rivals, Emilio Aguinaldo and Gregorio Aglipay. Quezon, inaugurated in November 1935, is recognized as the second President of the Philippines. In January 2008, however, House Representative Rodolfo Valencia of Oriental Mindoro filed a bill seeking to declare General Miguel Malvar the second Philippine President; Malvar succeeded Aguinaldo in 1901.

To meet the demands of the newly established government and comply with the Tydings McDuffie Act and the Constitution, Quezon true to his pledge of "more government and less politics"initiated a reorganization of the government. He established a Government Survey Board to study existing institutions and, in light of changed circumstances, make necessary recommendations. the Board of National Relief, the Mindanao and Sulu Commission, and the Civil Service Board of Appeals.

Pledging to improve the conditions of the Philippine working class and inspired by the social doctrines of Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI and treatises by the world's leading sociologists, Quezon began a program of social justice introduced with executive measures and legislation by the National Assembly. Quezon desired to follow the constitutional mandate on the promotion of social justice. Attention was paid to soil surveying and the disposition of public land. The act provided a better tenant landlord relationship, a 50–50 sharing of the crop, regulation of interest at 10 percent per agricultural year, and protected against arbitrary dismissal by the landlord. Funds from the early Residence Certificate Law were devoted to maintaining public schools throughout the country and opening many more. There were 6,511 primary schools, 1,039 intermediate schools, 133 secondary and special schools, and five junior colleges by this time. Total enrollment was 1,262,353, with 28,485 teachers. The 1936 appropriation was As a result of prolonged debate between proponents and opponents of women's suffrage, the constitution provided that the issue be resolved by women in a plebiscite. If at least 300,000 women voted for the right to vote, it would be granted. The plebiscite was held on 3 April 1937; there were 447,725 affirmative votes, and 44,307 opposition votes.

In 1938, Quezon expanded the Council of State in Executive Order No. 144. This highest of advisory bodies to the president would be composed of the President, Vice President, Senate President, House Speaker, Senate President pro tempore, House Speaker pro tempore, the majority floor leaders of both chambers of Congress, former presidents, and three to five prominent citizens. and favored the governing Nacionalista Party. As expected, all 98 assembly seats went to the Nacionalistas. José Yulo, Quezon's Secretary of Justice from 1934 to 1938, was elected speaker. The Second National Assembly intended to pass legislation strengthening the economy, but the Second World War clouded the horizon; laws passed by the First National Assembly were modified or repealed to meet existing realities. A controversial immigration law which set an annual limit of 50 immigrants per country, primarily affecting Chinese and Japanese nationals escaping the Sino Japanese War, was passed in 1940. Since the law affected foreign relations, it required the approval of the U. S. president. When the 1939 census was published, the National Assembly updated the apportionment of legislative districts; this became the basis for the 1941 elections.

On 7 August 1939, the United States Congress enacted a law in accordance with the recommendations of the Joint Preparatory Commission on Philippine Affairs. Because the new law required an amendment of the Ordinance appended to the Constitution, a plebiscite was held on 24 August 1939. The amendment received 1,339,453 votes in favor, and 49,633 against.

With the 1940 local elections, plebiscites were held for proposed amendments to the constitution about a bicameral legislature, the presidential term (four years, with one re election, and the establishment of an independent Commission on Elections. The amendments were overwhelmingly ratified. Speaker José Yulo and Assemblyman Dominador Tan traveled to the United States to obtain President Franklin D. Roosevelt's approval, which they received on 2 December 1940. Two days later, Quezon proclaimed the amendments.

Quezon was originally barred by the Philippine constitution from seeking re election. In 1940, however, a constitutional amendment was ratified which allowed him to serve a second term ending in 1943. In the 1941 presidential election, Quezon was re elected over former Senator Juan Sumulong with nearly 82 percent of the vote.

As crises mounted in the Pacific, the Philippines prepared for war. Youth military training under General Douglas MacArthur was intensified. The first blackout practice was held on the night of 10 July 1941 in Manila. First aid was taught in all schools and social clubs. Quezon established the Civilian Emergency Administration (CEA) on 1 April 1941, with branches in provinces and towns. Air raid drills were also held.

In cooperation with U. S. High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, Quezon facilitated the entry into the Philippines of Jewish refugees fleeing fascist regimes in Europe and took on critics who were convinced by propaganda that Jewish settlement was a threat to the country. Quezon and McNutt proposed 30,000 refugee families on Mindanao and 30,000 40,000 refugees on Polillo. Quezon made a 10 year loan to Manila's Jewish Refugee Committee of land adjacent to his family home in Marikina to house homeless refugees in Marikina Hall (the present day Philippine School of Business Administration), which was dedicated on 23 April 1940.

After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II, Quezon evacuated to Corregidor (where he was inaugurated for his second term) and then to the Visayas and Mindanao. At the invitation of the U. S. government, he was evacuated to Australia, and then to the United States. Quezon established the Commonwealth government in exile, with its headquarters in Washington, D. C. He was a member of the Pacific War Council, signed the United Nations declaration against the Axis powers and wrote The Good Fight, his autobiography. Quezon then heard another broadcast by former president Emilio Aguinaldo urging him and his fellow Filipino officials to yield to superior Japanese forces. Quezon wrote a message to Roosevelt saying that he and his people had been abandoned by the U. S. and it was Quezon's duty as president to stop fighting. MacArthur learned about the message, and ordered Major General Richard Marshall to counterbalance it with American propaganda whose purpose was the "glorification of Filipino loyalty and heroism". On 2 June 1942, Quezon addressed the United States House of Representatives about the necessity of relieving the Philippine front. He did the same to the Senate, urging the senators to adopt the slogan "Remember Bataan". Despite his declining health, Quezon traveled across the U. S. to remind the American people about the Philippine war. That summer, he was at a cure cottage in Saranac Lake, New York. Quezon died there at 10:05 a. m. ET on 1 August 1944, at age 65. His remains were initially buried in Arlington National Cemetery, but his body was brought by former Governor General and High Commissioner Frank Murphy aboard the Princeton and re interred in the Manila North Cemetery on 17 July 1946. Those were then moved to a miniature copy of Napoleon's tomb at the Quezon Memorial Shrine in Quezon City, on 1 August 1979.

Quezon was married to his first cousin, Aurora Aragón Quezon, on 17 December 1918. They had four children: María Aurora "Baby" Quezon (23 September 1919 – 28 April 1949), María Zenaida "Nini" Quezon Avanceña (9 April 1921 – 12 July 2021), Luisa Corazón Paz "Nenita" Quezon (17 February – 14 December 1924) and Manuel L. "Nonong" Quezon, Jr. (23 June 1926 – 18 September 1998). His grandson, Manuel L. "Manolo" Quezon III (born 30 May 1970), a writer and former undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, was named after him.

Quezon City, the province of Quezon, Quezon Bridge in Manila, Manuel L. Quezon University, and many streets are named after him. The Quezon Service Cross is the Philippines' highest honor. Quezon is memorialized on Philippine currency, appearing on the Philippine twenty peso note and two commemorative 1936 one peso coins: one with Frank Murphy and another with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Open Doors, a Holocaust memorial in Rishon LeZion, Israel, is a sculpture designed by Filipino artist Luis Lee Jr. It was erected in honor of Quezon and the Filipinos who saved over 1,200 Jews from Nazi Germany. Municipalities in six provinces are named after Quezon: Quezon, Bukidnon; Quezon, Isabela; Quezon, Nueva Ecija; Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya; Quezon, Palawan; and Quezon, Quezon. The Presidential Papers of Manuel L. Quezon was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2011. Quezon Island is the most developed island in the Hundred Islands National Park.

Quezon was played by Richard Gutierrez in the 2010 music video of the Philippine national anthem produced and aired by GMA Network. Arnold Reyes played him in the musical MLQ: Ang Buhay ni Manuel Luis Quezon (2015). Quezon was played by Benjamin Alves in the film, Heneral Luna (2015). Alves and TJ Trinidad played him in the 2018 film Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral (2018), and he was played by Raymond Bagatsing in the film Quezon's Game (2019).

A sample of Quezon's voice is preserved in a recorded speech, "Message to My People", which he delivered in English and Spanish. According to Manuel L. Quezon III, his grandfather's speech was recorded when he was President of the Senate "in the 1920s, when he was first diagnosed with tuberculosis and assumed he didn't have much longer to live."