TYDINGS-MCDUFFIE LAW

TYDINGS-MCDUFFIE LAW

$1.25

Saturday, March 24, 1934

Vol XCIII, No. 311

PROVISIONS

TYDINGS-MCDUFFIE ACT

The Tydings–McDuffie Act specified a procedural framework for the drafting of a constitution for the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines within two years of its enactment. The act specified a number of mandatory constitutional provisions, and required approval of the constitution by the U.S. President and by Filipinos. The act mandated U.S. recognition of independence of the Philippine Islands as a separate and self-governing nation after a ten-year transition period.

Prior to independence, the act allowed the U.S to maintain military forces in the Philippines and to call all military forces of the Philippine government into U.S. military service. The act empowered the U.S. President, within two years following independence, to negotiate matters relating to U.S. naval reservations and fueling stations of in the Philippine Islands.

Immigration

Tydings-McDuffie Act, also called Philippine Commonwealth and Independence Act (1934), the U.S. statute that provided for Philippine independence, to take effect on July 4, 1946, after a 10-year transitional period of Commonwealth government. The bill was signed by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 24, 1934, and was sent to the Philippine Senate for approval. Although that body had previously rejected the similar Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, it approved the Tydings-McDuffie Act on May 1

The act was authored in the 73rd United States Congress by Senator Millard E. Tydings (Dem.) of Maryland and Representative John McDuffie (Dem.) of Alabama, and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The act reclassified all Filipinos, including those who were living in the United States, as aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. A quota of 50 immigrants per year was established.

Before this act, Filipinos were classified as United States nationals, but not United States citizens, and while they were allowed to migrate relatively freely, they were denied naturalization rights within the US, unless they were citizens by birth in the mainland US

The Philippine Independence Act

(Tydings-McDuffie Law)

In 1934, Manuel L. Quezon, the President of the Senate of the Philippines, headed a "Philippine Independence mission" to Washington, D.C. It successfully lobbied Congress and secured the act's passage.[1]

In 1935, under the provisions of the act, the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines was drafted and became law, establishing the Commonwealth of the Philippines with an elected executive, the President of the Philippines.

The Philippine Independence Act is a U.S. law that provided for Philippine independence. It is a slightly revised version of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Bill passed by the U.S. Congress in 1933 but was vetoed by U.S. President Hoover. The U.S. Congress overrode the veto but was rejected by the Philippine Senate upon urgings of Manuel L. Quezon. Quezon wanted an amended bill. The new bill named, The Philippine Independence Act was authored by Senator Milliard Tydings (Democrat) and Representative John McDuffie (Democrat). The new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed it into law on March 24, 1934.

Milliard Tydings

John McDuffie