President Manuel Quezon’s speech on the creation of the cities of Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, and Zamboanga - Part 3

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 inaugurated in 1937. Here is the speech of President Quezon delivered in Iloilo (it was Elpidio Quirino who was Secretary of the Interior who represented Quezon in the inauguration of Cebu City on February 24, 1937):

“7. In the United States, due to the corruption in the government of some of the great cities, there has developed a strong demand for what is called city management, and, at times, for the nomination of candidates to city offices by non-partisan leagues. This proves dates, even in America, a conviction is growing that in local governments partisan politics is absolutely unjustified and not conducive to the public good.

"Let me pause here and say that this is true in the United States, it is more so in the Philippines. What, may I ask, are the local issues in the Philippines? What can be the social issues here, considering the limited scope of powers possessed by the provincial and municipal governments? Only issues based on personalities rather than on principles.

“See the records of all provincial and municipal elections. Every political party seeking control of provincial and municipal governments has appeared before the electorate with the same slogan, namely, that it will build more schools, more roads, and will give a more honest and less partisan administration. With questions of national import, the provincial and municipal governments have no power whatsoever to deal; therefore, the discussion amongst provincial and municipal candidates of national issues is purely academic.

“Lastly, whether the measures creating these new cities with appointive mayors are, theoretically, a step forward or backward in local autonomy, there is one outstanding and undeniable fact, namely, that the assemblymen who sponsored these measures before the National Assembly are courageous men—men who, rightly or wrongly, have done what they honestly believed to be for the good of their people, regardless of the consequences to their politics fortunes of the enactment of those measures which they knew would be branded by their political opponents as undemocratic.

“These are the kind of assemblymen that we should elect and have—men capable of placing the interest of the people above their own.” (To be continued)