MANUEL L.

QUEZON (1878-1944)

                                   "Father of the National Language"

-was the first president of the Commonwealth of

the Philippines. 

-he was born on August 19, 1878, to Lucio Quezon and Maria Molina,
both schoolteachers, in Baler, Tayabas (now Quezon) Province.
 
-was a Filipino statesman, soldier, and 
politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the
Philippines from 1935 to 1944.

        Manuel L. Quezon's Achievements and Contributions

 first Senate president elected as President of the Philippines
 first president elected through a national election
 first president under the Commonwealth
 created National Council of Education
 initiated women’s suffrage in the Philippines during the Commonwealth
 approved Tagalog/Filipino as the national language of the Philippines
 appears on the twenty-peso bill
 a province, a city, a bridge and a university in Manila are named after him
 his body lies within the special monument on Quezon Memorial Circle
                                  
15 Mesmerizing Facts About President Manuel Quezon
By FilipiKnow

Other than the national heroes, perhaps no other figure in Philippine history receives as much
reverence as Manuel Quezon. Loved by his supporters, criticized yet begrudgingly admired by
his rivals, Quezon undoubtedly stands as a Filipino leader of the highest caliber.

What better way then, as tribute to the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, than
to know more about his life and all (he was human after all). Read on and get to know the
man whose name would be forever etched in the annals of Philippine history (along with
countless streets and buildings).

15. He was a bright but lazy student.

14. He adopted someone’s name into his own.

13. He made his wife cry with a prank.

12. He was a gifted pianist.

11. He was a brilliant lawyer.

10. He initially refused to learn English.

9. He almost fought two duels…twice. 

 
8. He was a talented card player.

7. He made his own clothes.

6. He was an incorrigible playboy.

5. He paid MacArthur $500,000.

 
4. He tried to secure a neutrality pact with the Japanese.

3. He was a people’s president.

2. He was a bureaucrat’s worst nightmare.

 
1. He was a bonafide statesman.

     Did you know?

                    Manuel Quezon also played a major role in saving more than a thousand Jews.

Even if his rivals criticized him, he does not care at all. And because of his skills, knowledge and
his love for our country, those who criticized him also admire him. He made many contributions
that helps every Filipino in different ways. He approved Tagalog/Filipino as the national
language of the Philippines. And because of that, we understand each other. We can easily
express ourselves through our Mother Tongue.And we cannot easily forget Manuel
Quezon because his name would be forever etched in the annals of Philippine history
(along with countless streets and buildings).

"I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a county run like heaven by the
Americans, because however a bad Filipino government might be, we can always change it."
                                                                                 - Manuel L. Quezon
Everyone is simply shocked by the front-page news of the past two days regarding the
Binays. First we are told that the Binays and their associates maintain over 200 bank
accounts and have moved P600 million around. The next day the figure bloats from
P600 million to P11 billion! To do the math on all these requires a calculator
especially made for Indonesia, because its currency has more zeroes than ours. The
amount does challenge the imagination: How big a suitcase do you need to hold P1
billion in P1,000 bills? The reports are not new in our political history; only the cast
of characters and the amounts change. The family says the controversy is meant to
derail Vice President Jejomar Binay’s bid for the presidency in 2016.
Browsing through prewar periodicals recently made me realize how politics colors the
way in which we remember our heroes.
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On Jan. 13, 1927, officials of the Bureau of Lands announced the sale of agricultural
land in Dasmariñas, Cavite, at a public auction set on Feb. 28, 1927. This would not
have made news except that Emilio Aguinaldo was found to be squatting on 1,200
hectares of the government land known as the Paliparan estate. To regularize his
possession of the land, Aguinaldo had to pay the assessed value set at P200,000,
perhaps even more if someone bid against him at the auction. Aguinaldo claimed that
Manuel L. Quezon had allowed him to use the land, but then Quezon said he could not
give away land that did not belong to him.
According to records, Aguinaldo had been occupying and cultivating the land for 16
years since 1911 with nobody objecting, until a candidate for a seat in the House
whom Aguinaldo did not support made it public. Four letters were sent to Aguinaldo
by the Bureau of Lands from 1911 to 1927, advising him to legalize his occupancy of
the Paliparan estate that was part of the Imus friar hacienda measuring 1,175 hectares,
an area bigger than any held by Negros hacenderos. But Aguinaldo simply ignored the
letters, and since he could not produce legal title to the land or a contract allowing him
to settle on and cultivate it, the Bureau of Lands declared the Paliparan estate vacant.
The government could have made this arrangement legal in recognition of
Aguinaldo’s role in history, but as we know, he and Quezon did not get along, and
later ran against each other in the Commonwealth presidential election of 1935.
Aguinaldo asked for some time to settle the issue before the announced auction. Had
he executed sales contracts in 1911 when he first occupied the Paliparan estate, it
would have cost him P149,000 in cash. If he decided to pay on installment, the
government required a down payment of P7,000, with the balance payable in 20 years
at an interest rate of 4 percent per annum, which would have made the estate worth
P202,929.44. If he paid cash, the estate would have been worth P231,000; on
installment, it would have been P20,000 as down payment and roughly P18,000 a year
until the balance was fully paid.
With the Paliparan estate scheduled for public auction on Feb. 28, 1927, Aguinaldo
fought back on Feb. 6, during a meeting of the Veterans of the Philippine Revolution
in Palma de Mallorca, by expelling from the association: Generals Pantaleon Garcia
(who called Aguinaldo the “instrument of imperialism in the islands” during a
Veterans meeting in January), Aniceto Lacson and Tomas Mascardo, Col. Manuel
Sityar, Lt. Daniel Maramba, Sgt. Patricio Mariano, and a few others. The most
prominent person on the black list happened to be Major Quezon. In this period, when
Filipinos were opposed to the policies of US Governor-General Leonard Wood,
Aguinaldo said the way Quezon “has directed our public affairs has been disastrous
for the country, and therefore he should resign his leadership so that others may take
his place.”
Quezon replied through the press:
“My alleged expulsion from the Veterans Association is a farce. While I am a veteran
I have never affiliated myself with the association… The so-called veterans
association is misleading. The majority of the present membership are not veterans
and have never been veterans but politicians aspiring to get jobs from Governor-
General Wood through the influence of General Aguinaldo…”
Quezon even made a remark that many of the so-called veterans had not even smelled
gunpowder. He said he could not be expelled from an association he wasn’t associated
with, but Aguinaldo replied by providing the press with Quezon’s application for
membership dated Nov. 3, 1913, and another document signed by Aguinaldo
approving his application dated Nov. 23, 1913.
After the issue with the Bureau of Lands in 1927, Aguinaldo was hounded in 1929 for
a decade-long outstanding debt that, coupled with penalties and interest, amounted to
almost P80,000. In both cases his defense was that everything was political
persecution.
Reading up on this forgotten period in our history and comparing it with events today
make me wonder whether our political landscape has changed much since the
Commonwealth or even the First Republic.