FILIPINO GRIEVANCES

(APPROVED BY THE COMMISSION ON

INDEPENDENCE ON NOVEMBER 17, 1926)
 Gregorio F. Zaide
Education;

Studied in the Univetsity of

the Philippines (M.A. 1931)
and University of Santo Tomas
(B.A. and PhD of Philosophy,
1934)

Background of the Author:

FiIipino historian, author,
politician from town of
Pagsanjan, Laguna
Born: May 25, 1907
Died: October 31, 1988
Contribution to the Grand
Scheme of Philippine History
Filipino Grievances Against
Governor Wood
 The document as a form of protest (Zaide writes
for the constitutional representatives of the
Filipino people) The document served as an
impeachment request for Governor Wood
 The document was approved by the Commission
on Independence on November 17, 1926
(Appointed: October 14, 1921 until August 7,
1927)
 A year after this document was approved,
Governor Leonard Wood died due to surgery
failure.
General Leonard Wood
• Major-General Leonard
Wood arrived in the
Philippine islands in 1903
after his services in
Cuba.

• He was appointed
governor of the Moro
Province, comprising
the southern islands and
Mindanao.
• Aside from being the head of the
civil government, he is also
responsible for Five districts, and
the commanding general of the
troops in the department of
Mindanao and Sulu as well.
General Wood was asked what he thinks
would happen if he left His response was
”Strife, disorder, bloodshed. They might not
come instantly, but they would come soon.
Moros, whom we have disarmed and who
want us to stay and protect them, and
Christian Filipinos would fight. Industry,
trade, and credit would be ruined, with the
inevitable concomitants of idleness,
hunger, and anarchy.”
 Philippines and America
• Promised that our country would be
conserved and developed for the
benefit of people.

• FiIipinos were patient & diligent to the

task of meeting the conditions given to
them because they TRUST in the
Americans.
 Calvin Coolidge
• The President of the USA
Advised Congress of
America to fulfill their
promise since the goal
has been reached
(loyalty from Philippines).

• He sent Major-General
Leonard Wood to
Philippines as Governor-
General.
 EXPECTATION
• Cognizant of General Wood's
participation in the liberation of
Cuba, Filipinos expected that spirit
of cooperation would be
maintained. Political
emancipation would be
complete.
 REALITY
• There was a train of usurpation
& arbitrary acts Resulted in
curtailment of our autonomy &
destruction of our constitutional
system Reversal of America's
Philippine Policy
ARBITRARY

-based on random choice

or personal whim, rather
than any reason or system
 ARBITRARY ACTS
1. He has refused his assent to laws which were
the most wholesome & necessary heads of
department.

2. He has set at naught both the legal

authority and responsibility for the Philippine
heads of departments.

3. He has substituted his constitutional advisers

for a group of military attaches without legal
standing in the government and not responsible
to the people.
4. He has reversed the policy of
Filipinizing the service of the government
by appointing Americans even when
Filipinos of proven capacity were
available.

5. He has obstructed the carrying out of

national economic policies duty
adopted by the Legislature, merely
because they are in conflict with his
personal views.
6. He has rendered merely perfunctory
the power of the Legislature to pass the
annual appropriation law by reviving
items in the law of the preceding year,
after vetoing the co responding items of
the current appropriation act, in the
flagrant violation for Organic Law.

7. He has made appointments to

positions and authorized the payment of
salaries therefore after having vetoed
the appropriations of such salaries.
8. He has used certain public funds to grant
additional compensation to public officials in clear
violation of law.

9. He has arrogated unto himself the right of

exercising the powers granted by law to the
Emergency Board after abolishing said board on
the ground that its powers involved an unlawful
delegation of legislative authority.

10. He has unduly interfered in the administration of

justice.

11. He has refused to obtain the advice of the

Senate in making appointments where such advice
is required by the Organic Act.
12. He has refused to submit the Senate
appointment for vacancies occurring during the
recess of the Legislature in contravention of the
Organic Act.

13. He has continued in office nominees whose

appointments had been rejected by the Senate.

14. He has usurped legislative powers by imposing

conditions on legislative measures approved by him.

15. He has, in the administration of affairs in

Mindanao, brought about a condition which has
given rise to discord and dissension between certain
groups of Christian and Mohammedan Filipinos.
16. He has by his policies created strained
relations between resident Americans and
Filipinos.

17. He has endeavored, on the pretext of

getting the government out of business, to
dispose of all the companies capitalized by
the government worth many millions of the
people's money to powerful America
interests.

18. He has sanctioned the campaign of

insidious propaganda in the United States
against Filipino people and their aspirations.
19. He has attempted to close the Philippine
National Bank so necessary to the economic
development of the country.

20. He has adopted the practice of intervening

in, and controlling directly, to its minute details,
the affairs of the Philippine Government both
insular and local, in violation of self-government.

21. He has insistently sought the amendment of

our laws approved by the Congress of the United
States, which amendment would open up the
resources of our country to exploitation by
predatory interests.
 THE PROTEST
"In the face of this critical situation, we, the
constitutional representatives of the Filipino people,
met to deliberate upon the present difficulties
existing in the Government of the Philippine Islands
and to determine how best to preserve the
supremacy and majesty of the laws and to
safeguard the right and liberties of our people,
having faith in the sense of justice of the people of
the United States and inspired by her patriotic
example in the early days of her history, do hereby,
in our behalf and in the name of the Filipino people,
solemnly and publicly make known our most
vigorous protest against the arbitrary acts and
usurpations of the present Governor-General of the
Philippine Islands, particularly against Executive
Order No. 37."
LEARNING EXPERIENCE

• As far as majority of the

Filipinos, they are not aware
of who Governor Wood is.
People keep on generalizing
the idea that the whole
American nation deceived us.