Presidents of the Philippines

Emilio Aguinaldo (1898)
Manuel L. Quezon (1935-1944)
José P. Laurel (1943-1945)
Sergio Osmeña (1944-1946)
Manuel Roxas y Acuña (1946-1948)
Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953)
Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957)
Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961)
Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965)
Ferdinand E. MarcosA0831745 (1965-1986)
Corazon Aquino (1986-1992)
Fidel V. Ramos (1992-1998)
Joseph Estrada (1998-2001)
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001- )

Emilio Aguinaldo (1898) is widely acknowledged as the first president of the Philippines, being the leader of the revolutionary republic during the Spanish-American war. It was in Hong Kong where General Aguinaldo discussed with US Commodore George Dewey a battle plan to takeover the Philippines from Spanish forces. On June 12, 1898, he declared the country's independence in Kawit, Cavite. Unknown to Aguinaldo, the US and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris which involved an agreement for the purchase of the Philippines for US$20 million. When the US refused to recognize the Filipino government, Aguinaldo and his men waged a revolutionary resistance that ended with his capture in March 1901.

Manuel L. Quezon (1935-1944) first served as the Philippine resident commissioner to Washington from 1909 to 1916 before rising to become the Senate president in 1918. With the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934, Filipinos had their first taste of self-rule through the Philippine Commonwealth, a transitional government designed to prepare the Filipinos over a ten-year period for independence. In 1934, Quezon returned to the US as chairman of the Philippine
Delegation that negotiated for the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act which set the date of independence in 1946. By 1935, the Commonwealth was in place with Quezon as its first president. The Philippines also approved a new constitution in the same year. He became president of the Commonwealth until the war broke out. He sought refuge in the US where he died of tuberculosis in August 1944.

Jose P. Laurel (1943-1945) served as the president of the Japanese "puppet" government during the war. Laurel, a graduate of Yale University and Tokyo International University, earned the ire of the Filipino guerrillas fighting the Japanese army. He ran for president in the 1949 election but lost to the more popular Elpidio Quirino.

Sergio Osmena (1944-1946) When Quezon died in New York in 1944, Vice President Osmena automatically became the second president of the Commonwealth. He focused on the rehabilitation of the Philippines after the War. However, his term was cut short by the 1946 presidential election, won by Manuel Roxas, in time for the declaration of an independent Philippine republic, by the US on July 4, 1946.

Manuel A. Roxas (1946-1948) With newfound freedom in 1946, Filipinos elected Manuel A. Roxas, leader of the Liberal Party and one of the seven members of the Constitutional Convention who drafted the 1935 Constitution, as the first president of the independent republic in April 1946. His presidency was focused on rebuilding the cities and municipalities torn by the war, redistributing lands as wealthy landowners returned to reclaim their estates, and confronting the Hukbalahap, which by this time was tagged as a socialist-communist organization. The economy grew at a rapid pace, immediately after the war. He died of a heart attack at Clark Air Force Base in Pampanga on April 15, 1948.

Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953) succeeded Roxas as president in April 1948 and defeated Laurel to keep his post in the 1949 presidential race. It was during Quirino's term that the Minimum Wage Law was enacted and the Central Bank was established to stabilize the peso and consumer prices. The country's gross national product grew by an average of 7.7 percent annually in the early 1960s, on the back of the double-digit increase in the manufacturing sector.

Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957) was a highly popular president who initiated peace talks with the guerillas. He opened the gates of Malacanang Palace to ordinary people. Among his many reforms were the acquisition of land settlements for the poor, lowering the price of consumer goods, and breaking up the big landed estates. He died in a plane crash on Mount Manunggal in Cebu in March 1957, which to this day remains a mystery to many Filipinos.

Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961) was the vice president when Magsaysay died in a plane crash. He became famous for his First Filipino Policy and Austerity Program, which put the interests of Filipinos ahead those of foreigners. Under his austerity measures, he encouraged temperate spending, which resulted in less imports and more exports. His nationalist policies, however, perpetuated the business interests of the ruling elite in the country and did not encourage local businesses to be competitive. Garcia lost to his vice-president in the 1961 presidential poll. Protectionist policies allowed local manufacturers to control the economy from 1949 to 1962, discouraging them from becoming competitive.

Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965) was vice president when he ran for the 1961 presidential election and defeated President Garcia. Under his term, he declared June 12 as the national Independence Day in memory of General Aguinaldo's declaration of freedom from Spain in 1898.
As president, Macapagal began a five-year socio-economic program by removing imports control and liberalizing foreign exchange. In 1962, he began devaluing the peso by half to around 3.90 to the US dollar. He also initiated a shift in investments from the light industries to chemicals, steel and industrial equipment. Macapagal was also a founding leader of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965-1986) defeated Macapagal in the 1965 presidential election. He began military campaigns against insurgents including the communist guerrillas and Moro rebels. With his reelection in 1969, Marcos had to contend with worsening civil strife. Marcos declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972, following a series of bombings in Metro Manila. He abolished Congress, curtailed freedom of the press, imposed curfews, ordered the arrest of his political enemies, prohibited labour unions, and controlled the economy with the help of his cronies. Although he lifted Martial Law in 1981, student activism and violent demonstrations continued. This was exacerbated by the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino in 1983. A snap presidential election in 1986 pitted Marcos against the senator's widow, Corazon Aquino. When Marcos was declared the winner of the election, thought to be widely rigged, a people power uprising ousted his government. He fled to Hawaii where he died in 1989.

Corazon C. Aquino (1986-1992) was the first woman president of the Philippines. A military-backed people power uprising installed her as the 11th president. She ordered the drafting of the 1987 Constitution, which restored the presidential system of government with a bicameral legislature composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives and an independent judiciary headed by the Supreme Court chief justice. To avoid a replication of Marcos' excesses, the Constitution limited the president's stay in office to one six-year term. Although the economy was revived in the first year of the Aquino administration, the series of failed coup attempts against her presidency created a perception of political instability, discouraging foreign investments. Her term ended in a dark period literally, because of the 1992 power crisis. Aquino chose her defense secretary General Fidel Ramos as her preferred successor.

Fidel V. Ramos (1992-1998) began his term by resolving the power shortage. This he was able to resolve by inviting foreign investors to take part in the so-called build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme, which would later serve as a model of private sector participation in government projects. In 1995, the Ramos administration also had to contend with a rice shortage, as a result of low agricultural production and poorly managed importation program. Since then, the government has authorised the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice at will in order to prepare for any shortage in domestic stock. Among the economic reforms initiated under his term were the privatisation of government assets, trade and banking liberalisation and deregulation. By 1996, the Philippines was described as a newly industrialising economy along with the likes of Thailand and Malaysia. The economy would have achieved higher growth in 1997 and 1998, when the Asian financial crisis caught up with the Philippines.

Joseph E. Estrada (1998-2001) was a popular actor before he became a politician. He sold his government as "pro-poor", although most of his allies were rich Chinese businessmen. His government actually benefited from the economic reforms initiated by the Ramos administration. But rumours of "midnight deals" at Malacanang Palace during his term dampened investor confidence. Analysts believed that what brought down the Estrada administration was not his economic policies, seen by many as not substantially different from those of Ramos, but the perception of wide corruption in his administration. In October 2000, a former ally implicated Estrada in illegal gambling payoffs and kickbacks. Reports that he has many wives housed in different mansions also got Estrada indifferent treatment from the Church, which was a force behind the 1986 People's Power Revolution. Although an impeachment trial in December 2000 failed to prove his guilt, Estrada was forced to leave his post in January 2001, when his vice president, Gloria Arroyo, joined forces with his political enemies.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001 - ) was a daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal. A holder of a PhD in economics from the University of the Philippines, Arroyo replaced Joseph Estrada with a promise to clean the government of corrupt officials and bring down the number of poor Filipinos. She faced numerous challenges starting with the May 1 rebellion in 2001, instigated by the Estrada camp to regain the presidency. The rebellion proved futile, as the highly politicised military and the police remained loyal to Arroyo. While she kept her post in the 2004 presidential election, accusation that she cheated her way to the presidency, would be used in an impeachment case against her. She barely survived the political turbulence in June and July 2005. On the economic front, her administration actually made headway in promoting growth, arresting the fiscal crisis, and curbing inflation amid soaring crude oil prices. As this was being written, President Arroyo faces pressures to step down from her post or call for a snap presidential election. She remains tough against such calls, with suggestions that her political opponents join her instead in pushing for the amendments to the 1987 Constitution to allow a shift in the form of government into a federal, parliamentary system.