Philippine Commonwealth[edit]

In October 1935, Manuel L. Quezon was elected the first President of the Commonwealth of the
Philippines, which had been established, still under United States sovereignty, under
a constitution ratified on 14 May of that year. During its first five years, the President could serve for
an unrenewable six-year term. It was later amended in 1940 to limit a President to serving no more
than two four-year terms. When President Quezon exiled himself to the United States after the
Philippines fell to the Empire of Japan in World War II, he appointed Chief Justice Jos Abad
Santos as Acting President. Abad Santos was subsequently executed by the Imperial Japanese
Army on May 2, 1942.