The Jones Act

Philippines Table of Contents

The term of Governor General Francis Burton Harrison (1913-21) was one of particularly
harmonious collaboration between Americans and Filipinos. Harrison's attitudes (he is
described as having regarded himself as a "constitutional monarch" presiding over a
"government of Filipinos") reflected the relatively liberal stance of Woodrow Wilson's
Democratic Party administration. In 1913 Wilson had appointed five Filipinos to the
Philippine Commission of the legislature, giving it a Filipino majority for the first time.
Harrison undertook rapid "Filipinization" of the civil service, much to the anger and
distress of Americans in the islands, including superannuated officials. In 1913 there had
been 2,623 American and 6,363 Filipino officials; in 1921 there were 13,240 Filipino and
614 American administrators. Critics accused Harrison of transforming a "colonial
government of Americans aided by Filipinos" into a "government of Filipinos aided by
Americans" and of being the "plaything and catspaw of the leaders of the Nacionalista
Party."

A major step was taken in the direction of independence in 1916, when the United States
Congress passed a second organic law, commonly referred to as the Jones Act, which
replaced the 1902 law. Its preamble stated the intent to grant Philippine independence as
soon as a stable government was established. The Philippine Senate replaced the Philippine
Commission as the upper house of the legislature. Unlike the commission, all but two of
the Senate's twenty-four members (and all but nine of the ninety representatives in the
lower house, now renamed the House of Representatives) were popularly elected. The two
senators and nine representatives were appointed by the governor general to represent the
non-Christian peoples. The legislature's actions were subject to the veto of the governor
general, and it could not pass laws affecting the rights of United States citizens. The Jones
Act brought the legislative branch under Filipino control. The executive still was firmly
under the control of an appointed governor general, and most Supreme Court justices, who
were appointed by the United States president, still were Americans in 1916.

Elections were held for the two houses in 1916, and the Nacionalista Party made an almost
clean sweep. All but one elected seat in the Senate and eighty-three out of ninety elected
seats in the House were won by their candidates, leaving the National Progressive Party
(the former Federalista Party) a powerless opposition. Quezon was chosen president of the
Senate, and Osmeña continued as speaker of the House.

The Jones Act remained the basic legislation for the administration of the Philippines until
the United States Congress passed new legislation in 1934 which became effective in 1935,
establishing the Commonwealth of the Philippines. Provisions of the Jones Act were
differently interpreted, however, by the governors general. Harrison rarely challenged the
legislature by his use of the veto power. His successor, General Leonard Wood (1921-27),
was convinced that United States withdrawal from the islands would be as disastrous for
the Filipinos as it would be for the interests of the United States in the western Pacific. He
aroused the intense opposition of the Nacionalistas by his use of the veto power 126 times
in his six years in office. The Nacionalista Party created a political deadlock when ranking
Filipino officials resigned in 1923 leaving their positions vacant until Wood's term ended
with his death in 1927. His successors, however, reversed Wood's policies and
reestablished effective working relations with Filipino politicians.

Although the Jones Act did not transfer responsibility for the Moro regions (reorganized in
1914 under the Department of Mindanao and Sulu) from the American governor to the
Filipinocontrolled legislature, Muslims perceived the rapid Filipinization of the civil
service and United States commitment to eventual independence as serious threats. In the
view of the Moros, an independent Philippines would be dominated by Christians , their
traditional enemies. United States policy from 1903 had been to break down the historical
autonomy of the Muslim territories. Immigration of Christian settlers from Luzon and the
Visayan Islands to the relatively unsettled regions of Mindanao was encouraged, and the
new arrivals began supplanting the Moros in their own homeland. Large areas of the island
were opened to economic exploitation. There was no legal recognition of Muslim customs
and institutions. In March 1935, Muslim datu petitioned United States president Franklin
D. Roosevelt, asking that "the American people should not release us until we are educated
and become powerful because we are like a calf who, once abandoned by its mother, would
be devoured by a merciless lion." Any suggestion of special status for or continued United
States rule over the Moro regions, however, was vehemently opposed by Christian Filipino
leaders who, when the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, gained virtually
complete control over government institutions.