1916 U.S. law creating a fully elected legislature in the Philippines
Jones Law
Long title
An Act To declare the purpose of the people of the United States as to the future political status of the people of the Philippine Islands, and to provide a more autonomous government for those islands.
The law was enacted by the 64th United States Congress on August 29, 1916, and contained the first formal and official declaration of the United States federal government's commitment to grant independence to the Philippines.[1] It was a framework for a "more autonomous government", with certain privileges reserved to the United States to protect its sovereign rights and interests, in preparation for the grant of independence by the United States. The law provides that the grant of independence would come only "as soon as a stable government can be established", which was to be determined by the United States Government itself.
The ultimate goal for the Philippines was independence. U.S. PresidentTheodore Roosevelt said as early as 1901, "We hope to do for them what has never been done for any people of the tropics—to make them fit for self-government after the fashion of really free nations."[3] The American public tended to view America's presence in the Philippines as unremunerative and expensive, so Roosevelt had concluded by 1907, "We shall have to be prepared for giving the islands independence of a more or less complete type much sooner than I think advisable."[3]
Woodrow Wilson said, during the 1912 election campaign which made him U.S. President, "The Philippines are at present our frontier but I hope we presently are to deprive ourselves of that frontier."[3] Even before the 1912 elections, U.S. House Committee on Insular Affairs Chairman William Atkinson Jones attempted to launch a bill that would set a fixed date for Philippine independence.[4]Manuel L. Quezon was one of the Philippines' two resident commissioners to the U.S. House of Representatives. Jones delayed launching his bill, so Quezon drafted the first of two "Jones Bills". He drafted a second Jones Bill in early 1914 after the election of Wilson as U.S. president and his appointment of Francis Burton Harrison as president of the Philippine Commission and governor general of the Philippines.[citation needed]
Wilson had informed Quezon of his hostility to any fixed timetable for independence, and Quezon believed that the draft bill contained enough flexibility to suit Wilson.[5]
Passage into law
The bill passed the House of Representatives in October 1913 and went to the Senate, backed by Harrison, U.S. Secretary of WarLindley Garrison, and President Wilson. A final version of the bill was signed into U.S. law by President Wilson on August 29, 1916, after amendment by the Senate and further changes in a congressional conference committee.[5]
Among the provisions of the law was the creation of an all-Filipino legislature. It created the Philippine Senate to replace the Philippine Commission, which had served as the upper chamber of the legislature.[2]
^In the "Instructions of the President to the Philippine CommissionArchived 2009-02-27 at the Wayback Machine" dated April 7, 1900, PresidentWilliam McKinley reiterated the intentions of the United States Government to establish and organize governments, essentially popular in their form, in the municipal and provincial administrative divisions of the Philippine Islands. However, there was no official mention of any declaration of Philippine Independence.
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