Official Program

of the

INAUGURATION

of the

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES

and the induction into office of

Manuel L. Quezon

First President of the Philippines

and

Sergio Osmeña

First Vice President of the Philippines

Friday, November 15, 1935

Legislative Building

Manila

咸

CROSS THE FORBIDDING Sierra Madre Mountains lay, in 1889, forty miles of tortuous trails between the obscure village of Baler, Tayabas, and the nearest road to Manila. Along these, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on foot, struggled a boy of eleven years and his father, Lucio Quezon. The purpose of their journey was to enter young Manuel in the College of San Juan de Letran, situated in the capital city.

Symbolic of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles which he has since then overcome must be, in the mind of MANUEL L. QUEZON to-day, that first momentous journey of his childhood. His was a heritage of poverty and constant struggle, but also of inflexible purpose, a brilliant mind, and dauntless courage. He graduated from the College of San Juan de Letran and from the University of Santo Tomas with highest honors. As an officer in the Filipino Army during the Filipino-American War, he rose swiftly from lieutenant of infantry to major. In the three years between 1903 and 1906 his ability and force of character carried him from the level of an almost unknown lawyer to the governorship of Tayabas, one of the richest provinces of the Archipelago.

Election to the first Philippine Assembly in 1907 was the next logical step in his career, to be followed, in 1909, by his selection as one of the two Resident Commissioners to the Congress of the United States, where he succeeded in obtaining for his country three vitally important concessions: in 1913, a Filipino majority in the Philippine Commission; in 1916, the surrender of all legislative rights to Filipinos by the establishment of the Philippine Senate, of which he became the president; and the solemn pledge of independence for the Philippines from the Congress of the United States.

The independence of the Philippines, possibly within the lifetime of MANUEL L. QUEZON, was now clearly assured as the result of the unceasing efforts which he had made toward this great national aspiration during those eight years in Washington. On May 1, 1934, the valiant battle which he had waged for nearly thirty years was crowned with glorious success when the Philippine Legislature accepted the Tydings-McDuffie Law, granting the Islands complete liberty ten years hence.

Then, on September 17, 1935, the Filipino people bestowed upon him their greatest gift in electing him first President of the Philippines. From the obscurity of humble circumstances which attended his birth on August 19, 1878, he had risen, in 57 years, to a preeminence immortal in the hearts of his countrymen.

O THE SERVICE of his country SERGIO OSMEÑA has brought two sterling gifts of the pioneer-breadth and nobility of vision and steadfast, indomitable courage.

In 1900, before his admission to the bar, he was editor of the newspaper Nuevo Día. New day! How prophetic of the future and symbolic of his vision were those words!

His brilliant personality and outstanding ability as a constructive, sagacious leader early attracted the favorable attention of American administrators, and, in 1904, Luke E. Wright appointed him governor of his home province, Cebu. Two years later, in 1906, he was designated fiscal for Cebu and Negros Oriental, and in the same year was elected Governor of Cebu. In October, 1906, although the youngest of all provincial executives in the Archipelago, he presided over the assembly of provincial governors held in Manila, and was elected chairman of that body.

For a young man scarcely 28 years of age these were indeed distinctive achievements. Nevertheless, his public career had only just begun, for, in 1907, he was elected Delegate to the first Philippine Assembly, and it was in the Assembly, as Speaker from 1907 until 1916, that he performed, perhaps, his greatest patriotic service in so conducting this legislative body as to make good the claim of the Filipino people to self-government.

After the creation of the Philippine Senate in 1916 SERGIO OSMEÑA was urged by his friends to seek election as Senator, but this he could not bring himself to do until six years later, so great was his interest in the work of the Lower House and his loyalty to it, which he regarded in the light of a continuation, practically at least, of the Philippine Assembly. In 1922, however, after remaining continuously in the House of Representatives as Speaker, he was elected Senator from the Tenth District, and has consistently served in this capacity until the present date, November 15, 1935.

To-day he enters, in his 57th year, upon a new career of service to his country as Vice President of the Philippines, his early vision of the future of this nation almost realized, and the courage and faith that have sustained him throughout the long struggle toward national selfdetermination rewarded.