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 This act was superseded by the 1916 Philippine Autonomy Act, which contained the first formal and official declaration of the United States government's commitment to eventually grant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
In April 1898, the Spanish–American War broke out, and the Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy sailed for the Philippines. At the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898 the American Navy decisively defeated the Spanish Navy effectively ending Spanish rule in the Philippines. Aquinaldo subsequently returned to the Philippines aboard a U.S. Navy vessel and renewed the revolution. He formed a dictatorial government on May 24, 1898 and issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898. On June 23, 1898, Aguinaldo transformed his dictatorial government into a revolutionary government. On January 23, 1899, he was then elected President of the First Philippine Republic, a government constituted by the Malolos Congress under the Malolos Constitution. Consequently, this government is also called the Malolos Republic.