Philippine–American War
In 1902, the United States Congress passed the Philippine Organic Act, which provided for the creation of the Philippine Assembly, with members to be elected by Filipino males. (Women did not have suffrage in the US or the Philippines.) This act was superseded by the 1916 Philippine Autonomy Act, which contained the first formal and official declaration of the United States government's commitment to eventually grant independence to the Philippines. The 1934 Philippine Independence Act created the Commonwealth of the Philippines the following year, a limited form of independence, and established a process ending in Philippine independence (originally scheduled for 1944, but interrupted and delayed by World War II). The United States granted independence in 1946, following World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, through the Treaty of Manila.
Maura Law
Nu’ain Bin Abdulhaqq, an official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), contends that a proclamation by President Diosdado Macapagal changing the celebration date for Philippine independence June 12, 1898 (a date earlier than the December 10, 1898 signing date of the Treaty of Paris) as the date of Philippine independence provides the pretext for Moro independence by redefining the geographical extent of the country to its pre-treaty boundaries under Maura law.