National Assembly of the Philippines

The National Assembly of the Philippines (Kapulungáng Pambansâ ng Pilipinas, Asamblea Nacional de Filipinas) refers to the legislature of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1941, and of the Second Philippine Republic during the Japanese occupation. The National Assembly of the Commonwealth was created under the 1935 Constitution, which served as the Philippines' fundamental law to prepare it for its independence from the United States of America. The National Assembly during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War in the Pacific was created by the 1943 Constitution. With the invasion of the Philippines, the Commonwealth government had gone into exile to the United States. It left behind a skeletal bureaucracy whose officials formed a government under the Japanese Imperial Army. In an attempt to win the loyalty of Filipinos, the Japanese established a nominally independent Republic of the Philippines, with a National Assembly as its legislative body. The Second Philippine Republic was only recognized by the Axis powers. Prior to 1935, the Philippine Islands, an insular area of the United States had the bicameral Philippine Legislature as its legislative body. The Philippine Legislature was established in 1907 and reorganized in 1916, pursuant to a U.S. federal law known as the Jones Law. The Jones Law provided for a Senate and a House of Representatives, whose membership were elected except for a few, which were appointed by the U.S. Governor-General without the need for confirmation. The Governor-General, being the chief executive of the territory, also exercised the power to veto any of the Philippine Legislature's legislations. In 1934, Filipino politicians obtained the passage of a Philippine independence law known as the Tydings–McDuffie Act. It was crafted to prepare the Philippines for its eventual independence after a ten-year period. The Tydings–McDuffie Act also enabled them to draft and adopt a constitution, subject to the concurrence of the U.S. president.