The Philippine Independence Act, or Tydings–McDuffie Act (), is an

Act of Congress An act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...

that established the process for the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, then a US territory, to become an independent country after a ten-year transition period. Under the act, the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines was written and the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, with the first directly elected

president of the Philippines The president of the Philippines (, sometimes referred to as ) is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-ch ...

. (Direct elections to the Philippine Legislature had been held since 1907.) It also established limitations on Filipino immigration to the United States. The act was authored in the

73rd United States Congress The 73rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1933, ...

by Senator Millard E. Tydings ( Dem.) of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and Representative

John McDuffie John McDuffie (September 25, 1883 – November 1, 1950) was a United States representative from Alabama and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Education and career Born on ...

( Dem.) of

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, and signed into law by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

Provisions

The Tydings–McDuffie Act specified a procedural framework for the drafting of a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

for the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines within two years of its enactment. The act specified a number of mandatory constitutional provisions, and required approval of the constitution by the U.S. president and by Filipinos. The act mandated U.S. recognition of independence of the Philippine Islands as a separate and self-governing nation after a ten-year transition period. Prior to independence, the act allowed the U.S. to maintain military forces in the Philippines and to call all military forces of the Philippine government into U.S. military service. The act empowered the U.S. president, within two years following independence, to negotiate matters relating to U.S. naval reservations and fueling stations of in the Philippine Islands.

Immigration

The act reclassified all Filipinos, including those who were living in the United States, as aliens for the purposes of immigration to the United States. A quota of 50 immigrants per year was established. Before this act, Filipinos were classified as United States nationals, but not United States citizens, and while they were allowed to migrate relatively freely, they were denied naturalization rights within the US unless they were citizens by birth in the mainland US.

History

An attempt to set a final date for Philippine independence was first manifested in the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act of 1933. Though Congress passed it, overriding President Hoover's veto, it failed to create a concrete timeline for independence. Requiring the consent of the Philippine Senate for it to be implemented, the bill failed after the then-President of the Senate

Manuel L. Quezon Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (, , , ; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino people, Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who was president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1 ...

convinced it to reject the bill because of the act's provision that would have allowed for the U.S. to station military bases in the islands permanently. Thus, it was necessary for Congress to draft a new bill to address these complaints and finally establish a timeline for the colony's independence. In 1934, Quezon headed a "Philippine Independence mission" to Washington, D.C. It lobbied Congress and secured the act's passage. In 1935, under the provisions of the act, the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines was drafted and became law, establishing the Commonwealth of the Philippines with an elected executive, the

. The Commonwealth was to be a transitional government lasting for a period of ten years, with independence to be granted on July 4, 1946. Accordingly, President Harry S. Truman issued Proclamation 2695 of July 4, 1946, officially recognizing the independence of the Philippines.

Immigration

The immigration quota under the act was low, and immigration continued at levels much higher than the legal quota. This was due to the strength of agricultural lobbies, such as the Hawaiian sugar planters, which were able to successfully lobby the federal government to allow more male Filipino agricultural workers provided that they demonstrated a need. This further increased the Filipino population in Hawaii which had at one point been 25% of agricultural workers on the islands. The act also led to the Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935. This act extended the Asian-exclusion policy of the

Immigration Act of 1924 The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from every count ...

to the soon-to-be-former territory. This policy hampered the domestic lives of many Filipinos within the US because any Filipino who wished to go to the Philippines and then return to the United States would be subject to the restrictions on Asian immigration to America and would likely never be allowed to return. In 1946, the US decreased the tight restrictions of the Tydings–McDuffie Act with the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, which increased the quota of Filipino immigrants to 100 per year and gave Filipinos the right to become naturalized American citizens. Filipinos would have been barred from immigrating to the U.S. without the Act. Two days later, on July 4, 1946, the Philippines became independent with the signing of the Treaty of Manila.

References

External links

Text of the Tydings–McDuffie Act
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tydings-Mcduffie Act 1934 in American law 1934 in international relations 1934 in the Philippines Filipino-American history Law of the Philippines Philippines–United States relations United States federal territory and statehood legislation Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt Independence acts

Provisions

Immigration

History

Immigration

See also

References

External links