ON APRIL 23, 1946, Manuel A. Roxas was elected President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Senators Manuel Roxas and Elpidio Quirino as Vice president, running under the Liberal Wing of the Nacionalista Party, prevailed over incumbent President Sergio Osmeña with Senator Eulogio Rodriguez for the vice presidency running under the Nacionalista Party. A third party, Partido Modernista (Hilario Moncado and Luis Salvador for president and vice president respectively), was also in the race.
Inaugurated on May 28, 1946 as last President of the Commonwealth, Roxas continued in office as first President of the Republic which was proclaimed on the morning of July 4, 1946, this was when the Philippines was granted independence by the United States.
The term of Roxas is the shortest so far among the country’s presidents — one year, 10 months and 18 days. He had barely outlined his rehabilitation and reconstruction programs when death took him while taking a rest after delivering a speech at Clark Field in Pampanga on April 15, 1948.
Roxas entered college at the University of Manila and took up law at the University of the Philippines College of Law, becoming a member of the college’s first-ever graduating class in 1913. He placed first in the Bar examinations held later that year.
After his death, Roxas was replaced by his vice president, Elpidio Quirino, who also became full-term president after winning the 1949 presidential election.
