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 This act was superseded by the 1916 Philippine Autonomy Act, which contained the first formal and official declaration of the United States government's commitment to eventually grant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.
President of the Philippines
As with many other Axis-occupied countries in the Second World War, the Philippines had at one point two presidents heading two governments. One was Quezon and the Commonwealth government-in-exile in Washington, D.C., and the other was Manila-based Laurel heading the Japanese-sponsored Second Republic. Notably, Laurel was himself instructed to remain in Manila by President Quezon. Laurel was not formally recognized as a President until the rule of Diosdado Macapagal. His inclusion in the official list coincided with the transfer of the official date of Independence Day from July 4 (the anniversary of the Philippines' independence from the United States) to June 12 (the anniversary of the 1898 Declaration of Independence).