Sergio Osmeña - Fourth President

Second President of the Philippine Commonwealth

Sergio Osmeña was Vice President under Manuel L. Quezon, and rose to the Presidency upon Quezon's death in 1944.

While Manuel Quezon was aide-de-camp to Gen emilio Aguinaldo in 1898, Sergio Osmeña was a personal aide to the Spanish governor of Cebu in 1898. He later served as

Councilor, Municipality of Cebu (1903)
Provincial Fiscal of Cebu and Negros Oriental (1904)
Governor of Cebu (1906)
Assemblyman, then Representative, representing 2nd District of Cebu (1907-1922)
- 1st Legislature (1907-1910)
- 2nd Legislature (1910-1913)
- 3rd Legislature (1913-1916)
- 4th Legislature (1916-1919)
- 5th Legislature (1919-1921)
Speaker of the Philippine Assembly, (1907-1916)
Speaker of the House of Representatives (1916-1922)
Senator for the Tenth Senatorial District (Cebu) (1922-1935
- Sixth Legislature (1922-1925)
- Seventh Legislature (1925-1928)
- Eighth Legislature (1928-1931)
- 9th Legislature (1931-1934)
- 10th Legislature (1934-1935)
Senate President Pro Tempore (1922-1934)
Vice President of the Commonwealth (1935-1944)
Secretary of Public Instruction (1935-1938)

He ran for election to the first Philippine Assembly of 1907 and was elected Speaker of that body. Osmeña was only 29 and already the highest-ranking Filipino official.

Osmeña became president of the Commonwealth on Quezon's death in 1944. He returned to the Philippines the same year with General Douglas MacArthur and the liberation forces. After the war, Osmeña restored the Commonwealth government and the various executive departments.

He continued the fight for Philippine independence. His term as fourth President (of the Philippine Commonwealth) overlapped with that Jose P. Laurel, third President ( of the Second Republic under the Japanese ) until the end of World war II.

For the presidential election of 1946, Osmeña refused to campaign, saying that the Filipino people knew of his record of 40 years of honest and faithful service. He was defeated by Manuel Roxas, who won 54 percent of the vote and became the fifth President and first President of the independent Third Republic of the Philippines.

After his defeat in the 1946 election, Osmeña retired to his home in Cebu. He served in the Council of State of the Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay and Garcia administrations.

He died at the age of 83 on October 19, 1961, at the Veteran's Memorial Hospital in Quezon City. He is buried in the Manila North Cemetery in Manila.

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