Treaty of Manila (1946)

The Treaty of Manila of 1946, formally the Treaty of General Relations and Protocol, is a treaty of general relations signed on July 4, 1946 in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. It relinquished US sovereignty over the Philippines and recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines. The treaty was signed by High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt as a representative of the United States and President Manuel Roxas representing the Philippines.

It was signed by President Truman on 14 August 1946 after the US Senate gave its advice and consent on 31 July 1946 by ratifiication of the treaty. It was ratified by the Philippines on 30 September 1946. The treaty entered into force on October 22, 1946, when ratifications were exchanged. The treaty was accompanied by a "provisional agreement concerning friendly relations and diplomatic and consular representation" (60 Stat. 1800, TIAS 1539, 6 UNTS 335) until the treaty was ratified.

Background
Commodore Dewey's decisive victory in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898 marked the fall of Spanish inshore defenses in the Philippines and the alliance between American troops and the Philippine Revolutionary Army, commanded by General Emilio Aguinaldo. By then, the Filipino rebels have already gained control of the entire Philippine archipelago, with the exception of Intramuros, the walled city center of Manila and the colonial seat of government. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence in Cavite and formed the First Philippine Republic, ending 333 years of Spanish colonial rule. Aguinaldo's Proclamation of Independence was never recognized by either Spain or the U.S.

At the time of Aguinaldo's proclamation, Filipino troops were set on taking down the last of the Spaniards. By the end of July, an estimated total of 12,000 US troops have arrived to join the force. Tensions in the alliance surfaced during this period. To begin with, the American and Filipino troops were said to have "lacked that camaraderie usually present between military associates". In Major Cornelius Gardner's words:"'Almost without exception, soldiers and also many officers refer to the natives in their presence as 'niggers' and natives are beginning to understand what the word 'nigger' means.'"The "painful discrepancy in interests" became increasingly obvious to Aguinaldo, who once declined to attend a Fourth of July ceremony in Cavite after he was addressed "general" instead of "president" in the written invitation .The intentionality behind the alliance was directly addressed in conversations between Aguinaldo, Dewey, and other US generals. In a meeting, Aguinaldo was reported to have bluntly asked, "Does the United States intend to hold the Philippines as dependencies?" Brigadier General Thomas Anderson dismissed Aguinaldo's speculations, saying "I cannot answer that, but in 122 years we have established no colonies... I leave you to draw your own inference."

Mock Battle of Manila (1898)
When Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines Basilio Augustín refused Aguinaldo's terms of surrender, it was only a matter of time before Intramuros fell. The living standards inside the walled city have become unbearable due to depleting resources and overpopulation. Governor Augustin suggested surrendering Intramuros to the Americans by staging a "mock" battle. Dewey initially rejected the idea, believing his troops won't be able to hold off the Philippine forces. When General Merritt's troops arrived, Dewey reconsidered.

On July 24, the Spanish colony replaced Augustin with Governor-General Fermín Jáudenes upon discovering that the former made attempts to negotiate the surrender of Intramuros to the Philippine government. On August 4, Dewey and Merritt announced that Jáudenes has 48 hours to surrender. This was later extended by five days. At that time, Jáudenes, Merritt and Dewey covertly negotiated as they crafted a bloodless solution that would effectively turn over Intramuros to the Americans without intervention by Aguinaldo's army.

From Battle of Manila (1898) - Wikipedia page:

The plan agreed to was that Dewey would begin a bombardment at 09:00 on 13 August, shelling only Fort San Antonio Abad, a decrepit structure on the southern outskirts of Manila, and the impregnable walls of Intramuros. Simultaneously, Spanish forces would withdraw, Filipino revolutionaries would be checked, and U.S. forces would advance. Once a sufficient show of battle had been made, Dewey would hoist the signal "D.W.H.B." (meaning "Do you surrender? ), whereupon the Spanish would hoist a white flag and Manila would formally surrender to U.S. forces. Though a bloodless mock battle had been planned, Spanish troops had opened fire in a skirmish which left six Americans and forty-nine Spaniards dead when Filipino revolutionaries, thinking that the attack was genuine, joined advancing U.S. troops. Except for the unplanned casualties, the battle had gone according to plan.

The covert alliance succeeded in its primary goal of preventing the Filipino revolutionaries from gaining control over the seat of government. This created the conditions for the 1899 Battle of Manila, which marked the beginning of the Philippine-American War.

Treaty of Paris (1898)
The Mock Battle of Manila culminated in the formal transfer of power over the Philippines. The Philippine Proclamation of Independence on June 12, 1898 was neglected by both Spain and the US. Instead, they agreed on a set of terms provided by the Treaty of Paris, to which the First Philippine Republic objected, marking the start of the Philippine-American war.

From Treaty of Paris (1898) - Wikipedia page:

The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was an agreement made in 1898 that involved Spain relinquishing nearly all of the remaining Spanish Empire, especially Cuba, and ceding Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. The cession of the Philippines involved a payment of $20 million from the United States to Spain. The treaty was signed on December 10, 1898, and ended the Spanish–American War. The Treaty of Paris came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the documents of ratification were exchanged.

The Treaty of Paris marked the end of the Spanish Empire (apart from some small holdings in North Africa). It marked the beginning of the age of the United States as a world power.

Initial considerations of independence (1899)
United States control of the Philippines was never intended to be permanent. From the beginning, the colonial mission was seen as one of paternalistic "tutelage"—of preparing the nation for eventual independence—and aside from a few "retentionists", the question was generally not if, but when, independence would occur. In 1899, President McKinley appointed the First Philippine Commission to investigate and make recommendations on the islands. Although it concluded "the Filipinos are wholly unprepared for independence ... there being no Philippine nation, but only a collection of different peoples," it acknowledged Philippine desires for independence and recommended measures such as public education and a bicameral legislature to create an "advancement to a position among the most civilized peoples of the world" and thus to "an enlightened system of government under which the Philippine people may enjoy the largest measure of home rule and the amplest liberty."

Increasing autonomy (1902–1934)
President McKinley heeded the Commission's recommendations, establishing the Second Philippine Commission (the Taft Commission) and granting it legislative and limited executive powers. At first it was the sole legislative body of the Philippines, but after the passage of the Philippine Organic Act in 1902, the Commission functioned as a house of a bicameral legislature. However in 1916, Congress passed the Jones Law, which served as the new organic act (or constitution) for the Philippines. Its preamble stated that the eventual independence of the Philippines would be American policy, subject to the establishment of a stable government. The law removed the Commission from the upper house of the legislature, replacing it with an elected senate, thus changing the Philippine Legislature into the Philippines' first fully elected body and making it more autonomous of the U.S. Government. However, the executive branch continued to be headed by an appointed Governor-General of the Philippines, always an American.

Despite U.S. imperial ambitions, the ideals of the country made it harder to unapologetically colonize like its European counterparts, creating a tension with its imperial actions that would be hard to avoid. Thus by the end of his term, President Theodore Roosevelt "came to believe that the United States could not sustain long-term imperialism because of its ideals of self-government and its party system." Furthermore, around the same time many Republicans and most Democrats started to demand that the U.S. immediately promise eventual independence, contributing to the slow U.S. embrace of eventual Filipino independence.

Commonwealth of the Philippines (1934–1942, 1945–1946)
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 led to the passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act (officially the Philippine Independence Act), setting into motion the process for the Philippines to become an independent country after a ten-year transition period. Under the act, the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines was written and the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, with the first directly elected President of the Philippines (direct elections to the Philippine Legislature have been held since 1907). The Commonwealth as established in 1935 featured a very strong executive, a unicameral national assembly, and a supreme court composed entirely of Filipinos for the first time since 1901.

In 1935, Quezon won the election to fill the newly created office of President and a Filipino government was formed on the basis of principles superficially similar to the U.S. Constitution. The new government embarked on an ambitious agenda of establishing the basis for national defense, greater control over the economy, reforms in education, improvement of transport, the colonization of the island of Mindanao, and the promotion of local capital and industrialization. The Commonwealth however, was also faced with agrarian unrest, an uncertain diplomatic and military situation in South East Asia, and uncertainty about the level of United States commitment to the future Republic of the Philippines.

In 1939–40, the Philippine Constitution was amended to restore a bicameral Congress, and permit the reelection of President Quezon, previously restricted to a single, six-year term.

During the Commonwealth years, Philippines sent one elected Resident Commissioner to the United States House of Representatives, as Puerto Rico currently does today.

Japanese occupation (1942–1945)
The Japanese invaded the Philippines in late 1941, gaining full control of the islands by May 1942. The occupation continued for three years, until the surrender of Japan, and the Commonwealth government went into exile from 1942 to 1945.

On one hand, the war put a hold on Philippine independence from the U.S. Yet one scholar, Austro-Hungarian professor and close friend of several Filipino revolutionaries, Ferdinand Blumentritt, commented in 1910 that U.S. would never actually grant the Philippines independence except through "a war of separation or of a conflict between Japan and the United States." Thus the Japanese occupation may have aided the post-war move towards independence.

Independence (1946)
The Commonwealth ended when the U.S. recognized Philippine independence through the Treaty of Manila on July 4, 1946, as scheduled per the Tyding-McDuffie Act and Article XVIII of the 1935 Constitution. However, the economy remained dependent on the U.S. This was due to the Bell Trade Act, otherwise known as the Philippine Trade Act, which was a precondition for receiving war rehabilitation grants from the United States.

Treaty provisions
The Treaty of Manila relinquished US possession of the Philippines and recognized the Republic of the Philippines. It contained several provisions which established but also limited full Philippine sovereignty.

The treaty contains several key provisions.
 * Recognition of sovereignty: The US recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines and acknowledged the control of the government by the Filipino people.
 * Military base retention: The US retained military bases and related assets and rights, to seek "the mutual protection of the United States of America and of the Republic of the Philippines" as agreed upon by the Philippine government.
 * Diplomatic representation: The US would provide temporary diplomatic representation on behalf of the Philippines when requested by its government and agreed upon by the US.
 * Temporary judicial influence: Decisions on all cases pending before the US Supreme Court prior to independence regarding the Philippine government and people would take effect. No new cases originating in the Philippines could be filed in the Court.
 * Adherence to all continuing US obligations of the Treaty of Paris (1898): The Philippines had to adhere to any continuing obligations of that treaty, which included:
 * Freedom of religion for all Filipinos
 * Right of Spanish citizens within the Philippines to appear before courts and receive equal treatment before the law
 * Maintaining the validity of Spanish patents and copyrights

Limitations of the 1946 Treaty
From History of the Philippines (1946 - 65) - Wikipedia page:

On July 4, 1946, representatives of the United States of America and of the Republic of the Philippines signed a Treaty of General Relations between the two governments. The treaty provided for the recognition of the independence of the Republic of the Philippines as of July 4, 1946, and the relinquishment of American sovereignty over the Philippine Islands.

However, before the 1946 Treaty was authorized, a secret agreement was signed between Philippine President Osmena and US President Truman. President Osmena “supported U.S. rights to bases in his country by backing them publicly and by signing a secret agreement”. This culminated in the Military Bases Agreement, which was signed and submitted for Senate approval in the Philippines by Osmena’s successor, President Manuel Roxas.

From History of the Philippines (1946 - 65) - Wikipedia page:

For this reason, “the U.S. retained dozens of military bases, including a few major ones. In addition, independence was qualified by legislation passed by the U.S. Congress. For example, the Bell Trade Act provided a mechanism whereby U.S. import quotas might be established on Philippine articles which "are coming, or are likely to come, into substantial competition with like articles the product of the United States". It further required U.S. citizens and corporations be granted equal access to Philippine minerals, forests, and other natural resources. In hearings before the Senate Committee on Finance, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs William L. Clayton described the law as "clearly inconsistent with the basic foreign economic policy of this country" and "clearly inconsistent with our promise to grant the Philippines genuine independence.

Philippine Government’s Response to US-Philippines Military Bases Agreement of 1947
Despite these inconsistencies, President Roxas did not have objections to most of the United States’ proposed military bases agreement in 1947. Below are some of the demands Roxas approved. However, there were two instances when even Roxas “felt politically unable to accept the U.S. position”. First, the US proposed to have its own large-scale military facility in Manila even though it would have intervened with urban growth as well as lead to “serious friction between U.S. soldiers and local citizens” given the hostile post-war environment. That time, Manila-based US military personnel were already prone to altercations with the locals, so having an extensive US military base will only exacerbate the hostility. Second, the US demanded criminal jurisdiction over all members of the US military bases in the Philippines “regardless of who the victim was and whether the offense was committed on or off base, on or off duty” which was essentially a “revival of extraterritoriality”.
 * 1) The United States would acquire the military bases for ninety-nine years (Article 29)
 * 2) Clark Air Base would cover 130,000 acres, Olongapo City will be integrated into the Subic Naval Base, and areas surrounding the bases will be under US authority (Article 3)
 * 3) The United States will have access to public utilities and other facilities under the same conditions as the Philippine armed forces (Article 7)
 * 4) The Philippines should seek U.S. approval before granting base rights to third nations (Article 25)

The US State Department viewed the Philippines’ objections as reasonable and urged the War and Navy Departments to reconsider their excessive demands. After a month of negotiation, the US only sought navy and air bases in the Philippines which removed the need for facility construction in Manila. Roxas praised the US for their decision to reconsider, stating that “on every major matter, the essential interests of the United States and the Philippines were ‘identical’ ”.

On March 17, Roxas submitted the Military Bases Agreement to the Philippine Senate for approval. Senator Tomas Confesor stated that the military bases were "established here by the United States, not so much for the benefit of the Philippines as for their own". He cautioned his fellow senators: "We are within the orbit of expansion of the American empire. Imperialism is not yet dead."

The Military Bases Agreement was approved by the Philippine Senate on March 26, 1947, with all eighteen present senators in favor. Three senators did not attend the session in protest while three others were barred due to allegations of vote fraud.