GRIEVANCES

• Gregorio Zaide is an internationally known Filipino historian, author and politician from Pagsanjan, Laguna who authored 67 books used in secondary and college schools, and wrote over 500 published history articles
• Gregorio Zaide compiled and annotated the petition letter for the constitutional representatives of the Filipinos
• Leonard Wood


  A United States Army major general, physician (Harvard Medical School) and public official who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba and Governor General of the Philippines
• Leonard Wood came to the Philippines in 1923 after his administration in Cuba, and was authorized as governor of the Moro province, comprising Southern Island and Mindanao
• From the time of the American arrival in the Philippines in 1898


  • Filipinos persistently demanded their independence, but colonial officials could not say no as it would derail their effort for pacification
  • Instead, they appointed Filipino politicians to key government positions hoping that by doing so the Filipinos will slowly forget their desire for independence
• Jones Law in 1916 (Philippine Autonomy Law)

  • Filipinization of Government Positions, except for the Governor General, the Vice Governor, and a few more sensitive positions
  • Also created a bicameral Congress, with Manuel Quezon as Senate President and Sergio Osmena as House of Representatives Speaker
• After the 1920 US Presidential Elections, Republican President Warren Harding sent Leonard Wood and William Cameron Forbes (Wood-Forbes Mission) to the Philippines to observe if the Filipinos have already complied with the conditions of the Jones law
• The Wood-Forbes Mission exposed the corruption and patronage system, and concluded that Filipino leaders were corrupt and incompetent and therefore do not deserve yet to be given independence
• Leonard Wood retired from the U.S. Army in 1921, and US President Harding appointed him as Governor General of the Philippines
• After being sworn into office in October 1921, Filipino politicians welcomed Leonard Wood thinking he would return to U.S. anyway in a year to assume the presidency of University of Pennsylvania, but he stayed and remained governor general until his death in 1927
• As Governor General, Leonard Wood


  • Monitored closely the activities of local officials and checked their misconducts
  • Vetoed numerous bills that the Philippine legislature passed
  • Appointed American military men as officials under the executive branch (known as Khaki cabinet)
• Cabinet Crisis of 1923

  1. Governor General reinstated Ray Conley, chief of the vice squad of the Manila police force who was accused of receiving money from gambling lords

  2. Senate President Quezon and Speaker Manuel Roxas resigned as members of the Council of State in support of Laurel

  3. Various accusations were raised against Wood

  4. Quezon and his allies communicated with President Harding informing him of the reasons why they resigned en masse

  5. Gov. Wood tried to win back the Filipino officials who gave up their positions, but his gesture was not reciprocated and he accepted their resignations, replacing them with their deputies
• Filipino Grievances Against Governor Leonard Wood

  • Usurpation of power with the issuance of Executive Order No. 37
  • Refused assent to laws which were the most wholesome and necessary for the public good
  • Set at naught both the legal authority and responsibility for the Philippine heads of departments
  • Substituted his constitutional advisers for a group of military attaches without legal standing in the government and not responsible to the people
  • Reversed the policy of Filipinizing the service of the government by appointing Americans even when Filipinos of proven capacity were available
  • Obstructed the carrying out of national economic policies duly adopted by the Legislature, merely because they are in conflict with his personal views
  • Rendered merely perfunctory by the power of Legislature to pass the annual appropriation law by reviving items in the law of the preceding years, after vetoing the corresponding items of the current appropriation act, in flagrant violation of the Organic Law
  • Made appointments to position and authorized the payment of salaries therefore after having vetoed the appropriations for such salaries
  • Used certain public funds to grant additional compensation to public officials in clear violation of law
  • Arrogated unto himself the right of exercising the powers granted by law to the Emergency Board after abolishing said board on the ground that its powers involved an unlawful delegation of legislative authority
  • Unduly interfered in the administration of justice
  • Refused to obtain the advice of the Senate in making appointments where such advice is required by the Organic Act
  • Refused to submit to the Senate appointment for vacancies occurring during the recess of the Legislature in contravention of the Organic Act
  • Continued in office nominees whose appointments had been rejected by the Senate
  • Usurped legislative power by imposing conditions on legislative measures approved by him
  • In the administration of affairs in Mindanao, brought about the condition which has given rise to discord and dissension between certain groups of Christian and Mohammedan Filipinos
  • Created strained relations between resident Americans and Filipinos
  • Endeavored, on the pretext of getting the government out of business, to dispose of all the companies capitalized by the government worth many millions of the people's money to powerful American interest
  • Sanctioned the campaign of insidious propaganda in the United States against the Filipino people and their aspirations
  • Attempted to close the Philippine National Bank so necessary to the economic development of the country
  • Adopted the practice of intervening in, and controlling directly, to its minute details, the affairs of the Philippine Government, both insular and local, in violation of self-government
  • Insistently sought the amendment of our land laws approved by the Congress of the United States, which amendment would open up the resources of our country to exploitation by predatory interests
  • Destroyed the theory of separation of powers, when he recently promulgated Executive Order No.37, declaring that the laws creating and defining the powers of the Board of Control which is authorized to vote the stocks owned by the government in certain private corporations, are absolute nullities
  • Announced his purpose to exercise solely and by himself the powers and duties developing upon said board
• When former President Corazon Aquino spoke before a joint session of the United States Congress in September 18, 1986, the dust was only beginning to settle after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos had been deposed in February of the same year, and the Philippines was reckoning with everything his administration had inflicted
• The Philippines was facing $26 billion in total foreign debt, and a communist insurgency that grew, throughout the Marcos era, from 500 armed guerillas to 16,000
• Aquino lodged an appeal for help, and her speech written by the current ambassador to the United Nations that time Mr. Teddy Locsin, Jr. managed to sway the vote for an emergency $200-million aid appropriation
• House Speaker Tip O'Neill: 'Aquino's speech was the "finest speech I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress"'
• Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole: '"Cory, you hit a home run"'
• House Minority Whip Trent Lott: '"Let's just say the emotion of the moment saved the day"'
• Aquino spoke of her pain at losing a loving husband and a good parent to her family, and asserted that it was now her duty to keep giving the Filipino people a democratic alternative
• Aquino praised the Filipino population for its fortitude and unity in the face of injustice, and discussed her proposals for restoring democracy in the executive branch, beginning with a revision and reintroduction of the Philippine Constitution, as well as local reintegration programs and political initiatives for the various regions of the nation
• Aquino commended and thanked the American people for their contributions to the Filipino people's struggle for democracy