The Tydings-McDuffie Act also known as the Philippine Independence Act was enacted on March 24, 1934 by the US Senate authored by senators Milard Tydings of Maryland and John McDuffie of Alabama. The act paved the way for Philippine independence with the Constitutional Convention on July 10, 1934 as first step. Claro M. Recto was elected president and the Cebuano “Five-Star General” Hilario Moncado was elected as timekeeper.
After the passage of the 1935 Constitution, it set the holding of the country’s first presidential elections on September 16, 1935. At the head of the country’s leading political party were Senate President Pro Tempore Don Sergio S. Osmeña Sr. who also had the title as the country’s First Speaker of the National Assembly, and Don Manuel L. Quezon, the senate president at the time. Quezon was Osmeña’s majority floor leader when the country’s first legislative house was convened in 1907.
Don Sergio Osmeña, the founder of the Nacionalista Party, at that time had 70 members of the House of Representatives and two senators while Quezon had 19 members of the House of Representatives and 22 senators. The Osmeña Faction of the Nacionalista Party, claiming to be the on the original side, believed they could win against the Quezon’s faction as they had more members of the House of Representatives who had more influence over the voters as compared to the senators.
Then on June 15, 1935 during the Nacionalista Party’s convention, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., in order to save the party and the nation from division, humbly gave way and decided to run as vice president.
When election came, Osmeña overwhelmingly won against the co-aspirants for vice president. He earned 812,352 in votes converted in the percentage of 86.93 as compared to President Quezon’s vote of 695,332 or 67.99 percent. Osmeña routed his opponents Raymund Melleza of the National Socialist Party who only got 7.59 percent of the votes, and Norberto Nabang of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas who got 5.50 percent of the votes.
Quezon won against Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, the president of the 1st Philippine Republic who ran under the National Socialist Party with the help of Don Sergio Osmeña and that election is remembered as the most statesmanlike act of a candidate. He was considered the most formidable candidate for president but slid down to unite the party he founded, the Nacionalista Party.