Philippine Commonwealth Army
| Philippine Army | |
|---|---|
| Active | December 21, 1935 – June 30, 1946 |
| Country |
 United States
|
| Allegiance |
 Philippines
|
| Type | Army |
| Role | Military ground force |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Field Marshal | General Douglas MacArthur (USAFFE) |
| Notable commanders |
Major General Jose J. Delos Reyes, AFP (1936) Major General Paulino Santos, AFP (1936) Major General Basilio J. Valdez, AFP (1939–1945) Major General Rafael Jalandoni, AFP (1945–1946) |
The Philippine Army was established in December 1935. It was founded on December 21, 1935 with a general headquarters in Manila, and units and formations based throughout the provinces of the Philippines.
The Philippine Army was initially organized under the National Defense Act of 1935 (Commonwealth Act No. 1) that formally created the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Certain components of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were under the control of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) from 1941 to 1946, after the entry of the U.S. into World War II.
Before the establishment of the Commonwealth Government in 1935, no effort was made for self-defense by Philippine forces since the United States assumed responsibility for the defense of the islands. An immediate concern of the commonwealth government was the defense of an emerging nation. President-elect Manuel L. Quezon convinced his friend, General Douglas MacArthur (Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army), to organize a national army with Franklin D. Roosevelt's agreement in the summer of 1935. MacArthur had unusually-broad authority to deal with the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff as military adviser to the commonwealth government to organize a Philippine national army.
MacArthur had broad authority to deal with the United States Secretary of War, his successor as the Army Chief of Staff, and the United States Army Philippine Department and its commander Major General Lucius R. Holbrook (who had been told that his most important peacetime mission was to assist MacArthur in forming a Philippine force capable of defending the islands). MacArthur selected Majors Dwight D. Eisenhower and James B. Ord as his assistants; they and a committee at the Army War College prepared plans for the defense of the Philippine Commonwealth, with a target of independence in 1946. The plan called for a small regular army with divisions of about 7,500 men, conscription of all men between twenty-one and fifty years of age and a ten-year training program to build a reserve army, a small air force and a fleet of torpedo boats capable of repelling an enemy.
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