1ST PRESIDENT

EMILIO AGUINALDO
January 23, 2013 marks the 114th
Anniversary of the First Republic of the
Philippines that was inaugurated in
Malolos, Bulacan. It also marks the
anniversary of the start of the
Presidency of Emilio Aguinaldo, the first
President of the Philippines. The
Malolos Republic was the culmination
of the Philippine Revolution, which
began with the Katipunan and led to
the creation of the First Constitution
and Republican Government of Asia. To
commemorate this, President Benigno
S. Aquino III, by virtue of Proclamation
No. 533, s. 2013, declared January 23 of
every year as “Araw ng Republikang
Filipino, 1899.”
On March 22, 1897 the Tejeros Convention was held in order to reconcile the differences
between the two factions of the Katipunan: the Magdalo, which viewed Emilio Aguinaldo y
Famy as its leader, and the Magdiwang, which gravitated towards Andres Bonifacio. The
outcome was a decision that the Katipunan should be dissolved and a revolutionary
government established. Elections were held for its officers: Emilio Aguinaldo was elected
President and Andres Bonifacio, the former leader of the Katipunan, was elected Director of
the Interior. Initially, Bonifacio accepted his position, but was insulted when Daniel Tirona
objected. Bonifacio declared the proceedings of the Tejeros Convention null and void and
established a new government. This was seen as an act of treason by the others and
Bonifacio was charged with refusing to recognize newly established Revolutionary
Government. He was arrested and sentenced to death in Maragondon, Cavite. On November
1, 1897, Aguinaldo, along with several revolutionaries, convened a citizen’s assembly in order
to draft a provisional constitution for the Philippines, which has come to be known as the
Constitution of Biak-na-Bato. The government established was to be headed by a Supreme
Council composed of a President, Vice President, and four Secretaries empowered to
govern. However, this plan never materialized because Aguinaldo entered into negotiations
with the Spanish government. This resulted in an agreement under which Philippine
Revolutionaries would go into exile in Hong Kong and surrender their arms in exchange for
financial indemnities and pardons. The Pact of Biak-na-Bato, as it would later be called, was
signed on December 15, 1897. Aguinaldo and the revolutionaries departed for Hong Kong on
December 24, 1897. In Hong Kong, Aguinaldo and his companions established a Junta, which
worked toward continuing the revolution and gaining freedom from the Spaniards. 9
 4TH PRESIDENT
SERGIO OSMENA SR.
Osmeña received a law degree from
the University of Santo Tomás, Manila,
in 1903. He was also editor of a
Spanish newspaper, El Nuevo Día, in
Cebu City. In 1904 the U.S. colonial
administration appointed him
governor of the province of Cebu and
fiscal (district attorney) for the
provinces of Cebu and Negros
Oriental. Two years later he was
elected governor of Cebu. In 1907 he
was elected delegate to the
Philippine National Assembly and
founded the Nationalist Party, which
came to dominate Philippine political
life.

Osmeña remained leader of the Nationalists until 1921, when he was succeeded
by Manuel Quezon, who had joined him in a coalition. Made speaker of the
House of Representatives in 1916, he served until his election to the Senate in
1923. In 1933 he went to Washington, D.C., to secure passage of the Hare–
Hawes–Cutting independence bill, but Quezon differed with Osmeña over the
bill’s provision to retain U.S. military bases after independence. The bill, vetoed
by the Philippine Assembly, was superseded by the Tydings–McDuffie Act of
March 1934, making the Philippines a commonwealth with a large measure of
independence. The following year Osmeña became vice president, with Quezon
as president. He remained vice president during the Japanese occupation,
when the government was in exile in Washington, D.C. On the death of Quezon
in August 1944, Osmeña became president. He served as president until the
elections of April 1946, when he was defeated by Manuel Roxas, who became
the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines.

9
 5TH PRESIDENT
MANUEL ACUNA ROXAS
Roxas received his early education
in the public schools of Capiz and
attended St. Joseph's College in
Hong Kong at age 12, but due to
homesickness, he went back to
Capiz. He eventually transferred to
Manila High School, graduating
with honors in 1909.
Roxas began his law studies at a
private law school established by
George A. Malcolm, the first dean
of the University of the Philippines
College of Law. On his second
year, he enrolled at University of
the Philippines, ]

where he was elected president of his class and the student council. In
1913, Roxas obtained his law degree, graduated class valedictorian, and
subsequently topped the bar examinations with a grade of 92% that same
year. He then became professor of law at the Philippine Law School and
National University.[6] He served as secretary to Judge Cayetano Arellano
of the Supreme CourtRoxas was elected to the Philippine House of
Representatives in 1922, and for twelve consecutive years was Speaker of
the House. He served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of
1934, secretary of finance, chairman of the National Economic Council,
chairman of the National Development Company, and served in many
other government corporations and agencies. He also served as a
brigadier general in the United States Army Forces in the Far East
(USAFFE), was a recognized guerrilla leader and military leader of the
Philippine Commonwealth Army. Roxas became one of the leaders of the
Nacionalista Party

9
 7TH PRESIDENT
RAMON DEL FIERRO
MAGSAYSAY SR.
Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay, of
mixed Filipino Spanish, and
Chinese[3] descent, was born in
Iba, Zambales on August 31, 1907,
to Exequiel Magsaysay y de los
Santos (April 18, 1874 in San
Marcelino, Zambales – January 24,
1969 in Manila), a blacksmith, and
Perfecta del Fierro y Quimson
(April 18, 1886 in Castillejos,
Zambales – May 5, 1981 in Manila), a
Chinese mestizo schoolteacher,
nurse.
He spent his grade school life somewhere in Castillejos and his high
school life at Zambales Academy in San Narciso, Zambales.[5] After
college, Magsaysay entered the University of the Philippines in 1927,
[5] where he enrolled in a Mechanical Engineering course. He first
worked as a chauffeur to support himself as he studied engineering;
and later, he transferred to the Institute of Commerce at José Rizal
College (now José Rizal University) from 1928 to 1932,[5] where he
received a baccalaureate in commerce. He then worked as an
automobile mechanic for a busWhen Bataan surrendered in 1942,
Magsaysay escaped to the hills, narrowly evading Japanese arrest on
at least four occasions. There he organised the Western Luzon
Guerrilla Forces, and was commissioned captain on April 5, 1942. For
three years, Magsaysay operated under Col. Frank Merrill's famed
guerrilla outfit and saw action at Sawang, San Marcelino, Zambales,
first as a supply officer codenamed Chow and later as commander of
a 10,000-strong force

9
 8TH PRESIDENT
CARLOS POLESTICO
GARCIA KR
Garcia grew up with politics, with
his father serving as a municipal
mayor for four terms. He acquired
his primary education in his native
town Talibon, then took his
secondary education in Cebu
Provincial High School, now
Abellana National School, both at
the top of his class. Initially, he
pursued his college education at
Silliman University in Dumaguete,
Negros Oriental,

and later studied at the Philippine Law School, then the College of
Law of National University, where he earned his law degree in 1923
and later, where he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of
Humanities, Honoris Causa from the National University in 1961. He
also received an honorary doctorate degree from Tokyo University in
Japan.[2] He was among the top ten law students in the 1923 bar
examination.Garcia entered politics in 1925, scoring an impressive
victory to become representative of the third district of Bohol. He
was elected for another term in 1928 and served until 1931. He was
elected governor of Bohol in 1933, but served only until 1941 when he
successfully ran for Senate, but he was unable to serve due to the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. He
assumed the office when Congress re-convened in 1945 after Allied
liberation and the end of the war. When he resumed duties as
senator after the war, he was chosen Senate majority floor leader.[4]
The press consistently voted him as one of the most outstanding
senators. Simultaneously, he occupied a position in the Nacionalista
9
Party.
 9TH PRESIDENT
DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL
Known as "the poor boy from
Lubao," he was a native of Lubao,
Pampanga. Macapagal graduated
from the University of the
Philippines and University of Santo
Tomas, both in Manila, after which
he worked as a lawyer for the
government. He first won the
election in 1949 to the House of
Representatives, representing the
1st district in his home province of
Pampanga. In 1957, he became vice
president under the rule of
President Carlos P. Garcia,

As president, Macapagal worked to suppress graft and corruption

and to stimulate the growth of the Philippine economy. He
introduced the country's first land reform law, placed the peso on the
free currency exchange market, and liberalized foreign exchange
and import controls. Many of his reforms, however, were crippled by
a Congress dominated by the rival Nacionalista Party. He is also
known for shifting the country's observance of Independence Day
from July 4 to June 12, commemorating the day President Emilio
Aguinaldo unilaterally declared the independence of the First
Philippine Republic from the Spanish Empire in 1898. He stood for re-
election in 1965, and was defeated by Ferdinand Marcos.
Under Marcos, Macapagal was elected president of the 1970
constitutional convention that would later draft what became the
1973 Constitution, though the manner in which the charter was
ratified and modified led him to later question its legitimacy. He died
of heart failure, pneumonia, and renal complications, in 1997, at the
age of 86. 9
 10TH PRESIDENT
FERDINAND MARCOS
Marcos ran a populist campaign
emphasizing that he was a
bemedalled war hero emerging
from World War II. In 1962, Marcos
would claim to be the most
decorated war hero of the
Philippines by garnering almost
every medal and decoration that
the Filipino and American
governments could give to a
soldier.[113] Included in his claim of
27 war medals and decorations are
that of the Distinguished Service
Cross and the Medal of Honor

According to Primitivo Mijares, author of the book The Conjugal

Dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos, the opposition
Liberal Party would later confirm that many of his war medals were
only acquired in 1962 to aid in his reelection campaign for the Senate,
not for his presidential campaign.[60] Marcos won the presidency in
1965.Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated to his first term as the 10th
president of the Philippines on December 30, 1965, after winning the
Philippine presidential election of 1965 against the incumbent
president, Diosdado Macapagal. His inauguration marked the
beginning of his two-decade long stay in power, even though the
1935 Philippine Constitution had set a limit of only two four-year
terms of office.

9
 11TH PRESIDENT
CORAZON AQUINO
January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009)
was a Filipino politician who served as
the eleventh president of the
Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She
was the most prominent figure of the
1986 People Power Revolution, which
ended the two-decade rule of
President Ferdinand Marcos and led
to the establishment of the current
democratic Fifth Philippine Republic.

According to Primitivo Mijares, author of the book The Conjugal

Dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos, the opposition
Liberal Party would later confirm that many of his war medals were
only acquired in 1962 to aid in his reelection campaign for the Senate,
not for his presidential campaign.[60] Marcos won the presidency in
1965.Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated to his first term as the 10th
president of the Philippines on December 30, 1965, after winning the
Philippine presidential election of 1965 against the incumbent
president, Diosdado Macapagal. His inauguration marked the
beginning of his two-decade long stay in power, even though the
1935 Philippine Constitution had set a limit of only two four-year
terms of office.

9
 12TH PRESIDENT
FIDEL VALDEZ RAMOS
He was the only career military
officer who reached the rank of
five-star general/admiral de jure.
Rising from second lieutenant to
commander-in-chief of the
armed forces, Ramos is credited
for revitalizing and renewing
international confidence in the
Philippine economy during his six
years in office.

Ramos rose through the ranks in the Philippine military early in his
career and became Chief of the Philippine Constabulary and Vice
Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the term
of President Ferdinand Marcos. During the 1986 EDSA People Power
Revolution, Ramos was hailed as a hero by many Filipinos for his
decision to break away from the administration of Marcos, and
pledge allegiance and loyalty to the newly established government of
President Corazon Aquino. Prior to his election as president, Ramos
served in the cabinet of President Aquino, first as chief-of-staff of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and later as Secretary of
National Defense from 1986 to 1991.[3] He was credited with the
creation of the Philippine Army's Special Forces and the Philippine
National Police Special Action Force. After his retirement, he
remained active in politics, serving as adviser to his successors. He
died at the age of 94 from complications of COVID-19.

9
 13TH PRESIDENT
JOSEPH ESTRADA
Joseph Estrada was born as Jose
Marcelo Ejercito at 8:25 pm on
April 19, 1937 in Tondo, an urban
district of Manila.[6] His family
later moved to the wealthy
suburb of San Juan, then a
municipality in the province of
Rizal. He belonged to a wealthy
family and was the eighth of ten
children of Emilio Ejercito Sr.
(1899–1977) and his wife, Maria
Marcelo (1906–2009).
After graduating from the Ateneo Elementary School in 1951, he was
expelled during his second year of secondary studies at the Ateneo
High School for disciplinary conduct. Later during college, he enrolled
in a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering course at the Mapúa
Institute of Technology to please his father. He would leave once
again and later transferred to Central Colleges of the Philippines
College of Engineering but dropped out.
In his twenties, he began a career as a drama actor, usually playing
the role of the villain/antagonist. He adopted the stage name "Joseph
Estrada", as his mother objected to his chosen career and his
decision to quit schooling multiple times. He also acquired the
nickname "Erap" (a play on the Tagalog slang "pare", meaning
'buddy') from his friend, fellow actor Fernando Poe Jr.

9
 14TH PRESIDENT
MARIA GLORIA
MACARAEG MACAPAGAL
She is the longest serving
president of the Philippines since
Ferdinand Marcos. Before her
accession to the presidency, she
served as the 10th vice president
of the Philippines from 1998 to
2001 under President Joseph
Estrada, making her the
country's first female vice
president, despite having run on
an opposing ticket.
The daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal, she studied
economics at Georgetown University in the United States, where she
began a lasting friendly relationship with her classmate and future
U.S. president Bill Clinton.[5] She then became a professor of
economics at Ateneo de Manila University, where her eventual
successor, President Benigno Aquino III, was one of her students. She
entered government in 1987, serving as the assistant secretary and
undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry upon the
invitation of President Corazon Aquino, Benigno's mother.

9
 15TH PRESIDENT
BENIGNO SIMEON AUINO
Benigno Aquino III previously served
as a member of the House of
Representatives and Senate from
1998 to 2010, and also as a deputy
speaker of the House of
Representatives from 2004 to 2006.
On September 9, 2009, shortly after
the death of his mother, he
announced his candidacy in the 2010
presidential election, which he
eventually won. He was sworn into
office as the 15th president of the
Philippines on June 30, 2010,
succeeding Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Under Aquino's presidency, the nation's economy grew at the highest

rates in decades, and the country was dubbed a "Rising Tiger"
economy.[15] Known for his confrontational foreign policy, his
administration filed an arbitration case, Philippines v. China, before
the Permanent Court of Arbitration in an attempt to invalidate
China's claims in the South China Sea and assert the Philippines'
claims in the area; the court ruled in favor of the Philippines.[16] His
term ended on June 30, 2016, and he was succeeded by Rodrigo
Duterte.

9
 16TH PRESIDENT
RODRIGO DUTERTE
Rodrigo Duterte's six-year tenure as
the 16th President of the Philippines
began on June 30, 2016, succeeding
Benigno Aquino III. He was the first
president from Mindanao, the first
president to have worked in all three
branches of government, and the
oldest to be elected.[1] He won the
election amid growing frustration
with post-EDSA governance that
favored elites over ordinary Filipinos.
[2][3] His tenure ended on June 30,
2022.

Duterte began a crackdown on illegal drugs and corruption,[4][5]

leading to a reduction in drug proliferation[6] but also causing the
deaths of 6,600 people.[7] His administration withdrew the
Philippines from the International Criminal Court after the court
launched a preliminary examination into alleged crimes against
humanity committed during the crackdown.Duterte increased
infrastructure spending and launched Build! Build! Build!, an
ambitious building program. He initiated liberal economic reforms,
including reforming the country's tax system. He also established
freedom of information under the executive branch to eliminate
corruption and red tape. Additionally, he granted free irrigation to
small farmers and liberalized rice imports with the Rice Tariffication
Law.

9
 17TH PRESIDENT
FERDINAND ROMUALDEZ
MARCOS (BONGBONG
MARCOS)
n 1980, Marcos became Vice Governor
of Ilocos Norte, running unopposed with
the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party of
his father, who was ruling the
Philippines under martial law at the
time.[11] He then became Governor of
Ilocos Norte in 1983, holding that office
until his family was ousted from power
by the People Power Revolution and fled
into exile in Hawaii in February 1986.[12]
After the death of his father in 1989,

President Corazon Aquino eventually allowed his family to return to

the Philippines to face various charges.[13] Marcos and his mother,
Imelda, are currently facing arrest in the United States for defying a
court order to pay US$353 million (₱17,385,250,000 in 2024) in
restitution to human rights abuse victims during his father's
dictatorship.Marcos was elected as Representative of Ilocos Norte's
2nd congressional district from 1992 to 1995. He was elected
Governor of Ilocos Norte again in 1998. After nine years, he returned
to his previous position as Representative from 2007 to 2010, then
became senator under the Nacionalista Party from 2010 to 2016.[15]
Marcos unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the 2016 election,
losing to Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo by a difference
of 263,473 votes;[16] in response, Marcos filed an electoral protest at
the Presidential Electoral Tribunal but his petition was unanimously
dismissed after the pilot recount resulted in Robredo widening her
9
lead by 15,093 additional votes.
 17TH PRESIDENT

FERDINAND ROMUALDEZ
MARCOS (BONGBONG
MARCOS)

Marcos ran for President of the Philippines in the 2022 election under
the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas,[19] which he won by a landslide[7]
with nearly 59% of the vote.[20][21] His win was the largest since 1981,
when his father won 88% of the votes due to a boycott by the
opposition who protested the prior election.[22][23][24]
Marcos's presidential campaign received criticism from fact-
checkers and disinformation scholars, who found his campaign to be
driven by historical negationism aimed at revamping the Marcos
brand and smearing his rivals.[25] His campaign has also been
accused of whitewashing the human rights abuses and plunder,
estimated at 5 to 13 billion dollars, that took place during his father's
presidency.[25] The Washington Post has noted how the historical
distortionism of the Marcoses has been underway since the 2000s,
while The New York Times cited his convictions of tax fraud, including
his refusal to pay his family's estate taxes, and misrepresentation of
9
his education at the University of Oxford
 16TH PRESIDENT

RODRIGO DUTERTE

Duterte implemented a campaign against terrorism and signed the

controversial Anti-Terrorism Act. He declared martial law in Mindanao
during the five-month Battle of Marawi and extended it for two years,
the longest period of martial law in the Philippines since Ferdinand
Marcos' 14-year rule. He pursued peace talks with the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) but cancelled them in February 2017
using supposed New Peoples Army (NPA) attacks on AFP soldiers as
justification and declared the CPP-NPA a terrorist group.[8] He
created task forces to end local communist armed conflict and for
the reintegration of former communist rebels, and enacted a law
establishing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and granting
amnesty to former rebels.

9
 6TH PRESIDENT
ELPIDIO QUIRINO
A lawyer by profession, Quirino
entered politics when he
became a representative of
Ilocos Sur from 1919 to 1925. He
was then elected as a senator
from 1925 to 1935. In 1934, he
became a member of the
Philippine Independence
Commission that was sent to
Washington, D.C., which
secured the passage of
Tydings–McDuffie Act to the
United States Congress. In 1935,

he was also elected to the 1935 Constitutional Convention that drafted

the 1935 Philippine Constitution for the newly established Philippine
Commonwealth. In the new government, he served as secretary of the
interior and finance under the cabinet of President Manuel L.
Quezon.After World War II, Quirino was elected vice-president in the April
1946 presidential election, consequently the second and last for the
Commonwealth and first for the Third Republic. After the death of
incumbent President Manuel Roxas in April 1948, he succeeded to the
presidency. He won a full term under the Liberal Party ticket, defeating
Nacionalista former president José P. Laurel as well as fellow Liberalista
and former Senate President José Dira Avelino.
The Quirino administration was generally challenged by the HukBaLaHap,
who ransacked towns and barrios. Quirino ran for president again in
November 1953 but was defeated by Ramon Magsaysay in a landslide.

9
 2ND PRESIDENT
MANUEL L, QUEZON
A major figure during Philippine fight
for independence, Quezon first
joined the Aguinaldo-led anti US
resistance in 1899. By 1909 he was
serving as commissioner to the US
Senate for the Philippines.
After being elected to the Senate
and becoming its President he was
instrumental in getting the Tydings-
McDuffie Independence Law passed
in the US in 1934. This gave the
Philippines independence after a 10
year period.

Queron was elected the Philippines 2nd President in 1935 as its first Filippino
President and the first to be nationally elected. In government Quezon
addressed the issue of landless peasants, and reorganized much of the
government.

Quezon also worked with General MacArthur to strengthen the Philippines

militarily, but it was in vain and when the Japanese invaded in 1941 Quezon fled
to the US. There he formed a government in exile. He died in the US in 1944.

Quezon City, part of Greater Manilia, which Quezon founded, is named after him,
as is Quezon province. He is also known as the "Father of the National Language"
for advocating Filipino-language amendments to the 1935 Constitution.

9
 3RD PRESIDENT
JOSE P, LAUREL
Laurel was born and raised in a town
south of Manila. His father served in the
cabinet of Emilio Aguinaldo in the late
1890s. The younger Laurel received a
law degree from the University of the
Philippines in 1915 and an advanced
jurisprudence degree in 1919 before
earning a doctorate in civil law from
Yale University in the United States in
1920. He entered politics and was
elected to the Philippine Senate in 1925,
serving there until he was appointed an
associate justice of the Supreme Court
in 1936.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

(December 1941), and the subsequent Japanese assault
on the Philippines, Laurel stayed in Manila; President
Manuel Quezon had escaped, first to the Bataan
Peninsula and then to the United States. Laurel offered
his services to the Japanese, and, because of his
criticism of U.S. rule of the Philippines, he held a series
of high posts in 1942–43, climaxing in his selection as
president in 1943. Twice in that year he was shot by
Philippine guerrillas, but each time he recovered. In July
1946 he was charged with dozens of counts of treason,
but he never stood trial; he shared in a general amnesty
declared by President Manuel Roxas in April 1948. 9