Herbert Adams Gibbons
In the early 1930s, Gibbons argued that an American withdrawal from the Philippines would be futile, because Japan would immediately colonize the country if the United States were to pull out. In 1931, in a speech in Manila, Gibbons referred to the Philippine calls for independence as "claptrap." He said that if the United States were to withdraw, then it might as well negotiate with the League of Nations to hand the Philippines over to Japan as a mandate. The American business community roundly praised Gibbons' speech. However, Philippine nationalist leaders attacked Gibbons, saying that he was raising the "Japanese bogy" as a hurdle to Philippine independence. (Ultimately, the United States did not grant Philippine independence until 1946, after Japan was no longer a military threat to the former colony.)
Oath of Allegiance (Philippines)
With the independence of the Philippines on July 4, 1946, the oath was modified to remove references to the Commonwealth and the United States, although the language remained virtually the same as the original until 2003, when the Philippines legalized multiple citizenship and it no longer became mandatory to renounce foreign citizenship to obtain Filipino citizenship. These modifications were subsequently codified in Section 3 of Republic Act No. 9225, which mandates that former Filipino citizens reacquiring Filipino citizenship take an oath of allegiance to the Republic. The oath in its current form is as follows: