Part 2
President Manuel Quezon’s speech on the creation of the quadruplet cities of Cebu, Davao, Iloilo and Zamboanga
It was during the first years of the presidency of Manuel Luis Quezon of the Commonwealth that the municipalities of Cebu (Commonwealth Act 58), Davao (Commonwealth Act 51), Iloilo (Commonwealth Act 57) and Zamboanga (Commonwealth Act 39) were enacted in 1936 and were inaugurated in 1937. Here is the speech of President Quezon delivered in Iloilo (Elpidio Quirino who was Secretary of the Interior represented Quezon in the inauguration of Cebu City on February 24, 1937):
“2. That the people of the city thus created have not lost control of their local government, because the city council is still elective, and retains the power to pass ordinances, impose municipal taxes, and appropriate municipal funds as before.
“3. That the idea of having an appointive city mayor and even an appointive municipal board is not original with the Filipinos. When the Insular Government was still entirely controlled by an American Commission, the city governments of Manila and Baguio were constituted exclusively of appointive, as distinguished from elective, officials. This is not to say that because a certain political institution is of American origin, it is necessarily a wise creation. But it is well to state this fact as an argument in case criticism against what has been done by the National Assembly should come from either local Americans or certain Filipino quarters.
“4. That the City of Washington, the capital of the United States, is governed by a board appointed by the President of the United States. As a matter of fact, the residents of that city are not even permitted to exercise the right to vote in any election, including the presidential election.
“5. That in the French Republic, for instance, which some people consider as leaning too much towards the extreme Left, the prefects (provincial governors) are appointive.
“6. That, under the constitution, ours is a unitarian—as contrasted from a federal—state. The duty to execute all laws is vested in the American governors-general, under legislation enacted by the former American Commission. The Chief Executive of the Philippines always has had, and has exercised, control and supervision over all the provincial and municipal officials. In making, therefore, the mayors of Iloilo, Cebu, Zamboanga and Davao appointive, instead of elective, officials, no substantial change has taken place in the ultimate control and administration of public affairs in these cities, since that ultimate control has always been placed in the hands of the American governors-general. In other words, the National Assembly simply made the form conform to the substance in the management of local governments.” (To be continued)
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