07 August, 1943
TODAY IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY:
The 1943 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation is drafted.
The constitution created a Republican state with a powerful executive branch, the President to be elected by the National Assembly from among themselves, and subordinate legislative and judicial branches and requiring for, among others, the development of Tagalog as the national language.
Drafted by the Preparatory Commission for Philippine Independence (PCPI) headed by Jose P. Laurel in a manner conforming with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the 1943 Charter will not be recognized by the American colonial Commonwealth government in-exile during World War II.
(Ref: Philippine-islands-lemuria; Photo caption: Surrender of U.S. forces on Corregidor Island, May 1942, at the entrance to the Malinta Tunnel http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter3.htm)
