Mendoza, Jessa Patricia Anne B.

KASPIL2A52

11436638

Dr. Torres

An act to provide for the complete independence of the Philippine Islands, to provide
for the adoption of a constitution and a form of government for the islands, and for other
purposes.
1.

The Tydings-Mcduffie Law was passed by the United States Congress on March

24, 1934. This law provided provisions for the Philippines to have and run its own
government. This law also granted the Philippine independence on July 4, 1946. The
government was called Commonwealth government which was run by President
Manuel Quezon and Vice President Sergio Osmea Sr. It operated on the basis of the
1935 Philippine Constitution that was created by the constitutional convention called for
by the Tydings-McDuffie Law.
There were several provisions set by the law. First is the construction of a
constitutional convention that draws up the principal law of the land. The law of the land
basically discusses that the United States should be at the paramount law. Second is
the election of the leaders of the Philippine Commonwealth. The people have the say on
who among the candidates should they elect therefore practicing democracy. As Ive
stated, the elected president and vice president were Manuel Quezon and Sergio
Osmea Sr., respectively. Third is the recognition of the Philippine independence on
July 4, 1946. The Tydings-Mcduffie law then stated that they will grant the
independence of the Philippines ten years after the law was passed. Fourth is the right
of the United States to establish military bases in the country. Even if the Philippines
was granted independence, it was stated in the law that there should still be military
bases of the United States in the Philippines and the United States were in control on

when their military will be in action in case of war or other global emergencies. Fifth is
granting the United States president the power to call on all military forces of the
Philippines into service. That says that the Philippines military forces can be controlled
by the United States. Lastly is reclassifying all Filipinos as aliens and limiting
immigration to the United States to 50 persons per year.
The political context between the United States and the Philippines can be
accustomed by knowing the essence on why the Tydings-Mcduffie law was created
firsthand. We can ask on what the agendas were, or even ask if it could be beneficial to
people (Filipinos in this case). In knowing the political context, we should be aware of
the complexion of the makers of the law. The political context between the United
States and the Philippines during the great depression definitely affected the creation of
the Tydings-Mcduffie law. The relationships between the two countries were
complicatedthe people didnt know what was really happening back then. The
Philippines supplies raw materials for the United States but it stopped when the great
depression came. The great depression made the United States government do
amendments to their constitution and laws, and then it affected United States
relationship with the Philippines.
During the great depression, the unemployment rate of the United States was at
25% and everyone suffered because of that. Also, during that time, Filipinos and other
Asian Americans began to migrate to the Philippines as a source of cheap labor. The
Filipinos were lucky during that time because they were the only Asian Americans who
were able to own lands and acquire American citizenship. The reason behind the
Philippines being the exception was because the Philippines was a colonial subject.

During the great depression, the Filipinos experienced racism. Asian Americans were
driven out of labors especially the Filipinos because the number of the Filipino
immigrants were constantly rising. To prevent the constant rising of Filipino immigrants
to the United States, the Tydings-Mcduffie law was passed. This law slowed the
immigration of Filipinos to United States because they werent allowed to go back and
forth freely because of the law. This law also changed the statuses of the Filipinos
already living in the United States. They were considered as aliens and were not
allowed to work legally. This law changed the quota of Filipino immigrants to 50 Filipinos
per year.
At first, the relations between the United States and the Philippines were fine
because of all the trades that were happening, the submissiveness of the Philippines to
the United States, etc. These made a great impact on why our culture is now more like
the culture of the Americansbecause the Filipinos somehow worship the Americans.
The relations between the two countries became delicate as the great depression was
experienced by the Americans for the reason that as more Filipinos came to the United
States as immigrants, many American laborers were disappointed and waged that the
Filipinos should stop coming to the United States because the unemployment rate of the
United States was rising. Also, the trade between the United States and the Philippines
suddenly stopped because the United States prioritized the materials coming from their
own country. Then came the Tydings-Mcduffie law that had provisions regarding the
issues stated. Because of the law, big changes affected the relations between the
United States and the Philippines which resulted to the stop of economic growth in the
Philippines because of the exporting of raw materials to the Unites States.

2.

In my opinion, the idea of self-government granted to us by the Americans was

misleading because it can have several operational definitions changing from one
perspective to another. According to Minor (2008), In general, self-governance of
nation-states relates to national sovereignty, a concept that is crucial in international
law. Its features include but is not limited to the following: (1) an ethical rule that
warrants the desirable behavior within the unit or group, (2) a set of criteria wherein an
external legal or political authority may be involved (unless the very group resists that
authority), (3) an instrument of guaranteeing that the external authority does not
intervene only until these criteria are met like a rule of silence concerning the outbound
communication of insiders, (4) a process for recording and resolving grievances, (5) the
capability to apply discipline to members, (5) an instrument in choosing leaders, and (6)
an instrument in regulating parties or renegade groups out to rival the existing
organization. In the case of the independence given to us by the Americans, they still
did intervene with the Commonwealth government because of the provisions given as
they passed the Tydings-Mcduffie law. It is truly unfair that given the fact that we were
already given the independence Filipinos hoped for, the united States would still be in
control of certain things that our own government should be in control of and the idea
that they wouldnt remove their military bases here in the Philippines. So for me, the
self-government was granted to the Philippines because the Americans got tired of the
Filipinos.