Second Philippine Republic

The Second Phillippine Republic
TAG = PHI
Politics
Capital	Manila
Ruling Party	Kapisanan ng Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas - Parliamentary Faction
Diplomacy
Sphere	Co-Prosperity Sphere
Foreign Alignment	Template:Fully Dependent Member of The Sphere

The Second Philippine Republic is a country in South East Asia. It is a Japanese client state and it is a member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. It is neighboured by the All-Filipino Revolutionary Socialist Republic to the north in Luzon and the Free Philippine Republic to the south in Mindanao.

Formed from the US territory of the Philippines, it faces struggle from resistance movements by the communists and remnants of US forces and resistance fighters in the south.

History

As part of Japan's Strike Southward Doctrine, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy would invade into European and American colonial holdings in Southeast Asia, with the Philippines was one of their main targets, due to it's strategic location and naval bases that could allow the Imperial Japanese Navy to strike quickly into the Pacific.

Ruled by the United States since 1898, the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese caught many members of the US garrison off guard. Despite their most valiant efforts to defend the island chain, the Battle for the Philippines was a crushing victory for the Empire of Japan, with most of the island's garrison surrendering in Bataan and Corregidor.

After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, President Manuel L. Quezon had declared the national capital Manila an "open city", and left it under the rule of Jorge B. Vargas, as mayor. The Japanese entered the city on January 2, 1942, and established it as the capital. Japan fully captured the Philippines on May 6, 1942, after the Battle of Corregidor.

Forming the Puppet State.

General Masaharu Homma of the Japanese 14th Army decreed the dissolution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and established the Philippine Executive Commission (Komisyong Tagapagpaganap ng Pilipinas), a caretaker government, with Vargas as its first chairman in January 1942. KALIBAPI — Kapisanan sa Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas (Tagalog for the "Association for Service to the New Philippines") — was formed by Proclamation No. 109 of the Philippine Executive Commission, a piece of legislation passed on December 8, 1942, banning all existing political parties and creating the new governing alliance. Its first director-general was Benigno Aquino, Sr.

The pro-Japanese Ganap Party, which saw the Japanese as the saviors of the archipelago, was absorbed into the KALIBAPI.

Before the formation of the Preparatory Commission, the Japanese gave an option to put the Philippines under the dictatorship of Artemio Ricarte, whom the Japanese returned from Yokohama to help bolster their propaganda movement. However, the Philippine Executive Commission refused this option and chose to make the Philippines a republic instead. During his first visit to the Philippines on May 6, 1943, Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō promised to return independence to the Philippines as part of its propaganda of Pan-Asianism (Asia for the Asians).

This prompted the KALIBAPI to create the Preparatory Committee for Philippine Independence on June 19, 1943. A draft constitution was formed by the Preparatory Commission for Independence, consisting of 20 members from the KALIBAPI. The Preparatory Commission, led by José P. Laurel, presented its draft Constitution on September 4, 1943, and three days later, the KALIBAPI general assembly ratified the draft Constitution.

By September 20, 1943, the KALIBAPI's representative groups in the country's provinces and cities elected from among themselves fifty-four members of the Philippine National Assembly, the legislature of the country, with fifty-four governors and city mayors as ex-officio members. Three days after establishing the National Assembly, its inaugural session was held at the pre-war Legislative Building and it elected by majority Benigno S. Aquino as its first Speaker and José P. Laurel as President of the Republic of the Philippines, who was inaugurated on October 14, 1943, at the foundation of the Republic, the Legislative Building. Former President Emilio Aguinaldo and General Artemio Ricarte raised the Philippine flag, the same one used during the Philippine–American War which featured an anthropomorphic sun, during the inauguration. This was the first time since the Japanese occupation that the flag was displayed and the anthem played.

On the same day, a Pact of Alliance was signed between the new Republic and the Japanese government that was ratified two days later by the National Assembly.

On December 13, 1943, a version of the Philippine flag with no markings on the sun was adopted as the Second Republic's flag through Executive Order 17. On September 23, 1944 at 10:00 in the morning, President Laurel proclaimed that a state of war existed between the Philippine Republic and both the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. By virtue of this proclamation the Philippine flag was inverted to signify that the Philippines was officially in a state of war. The (war) flag remained as the official flag until the formal dissolution of the Second Philippines Republic.

See Also

• Free Philippine Republic
• All-Filipino Revolutionary Socialist Republic
• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere