<P> In 1898, the Philippines were ceded by Spain to the United States, which subsequently fought the Philippine--American War between 1899 and 1902 and established control over the Philippines . </P> <P> The ultimate goal for the Philippines was independence . U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt said as early as 1901, "We hope to do for them what has never been done for any people of the tropics--to make them fit for self - government after the fashion of really free nations ." The American public tended to view America's presence in the Philippines as unremunerative and expensive, so Roosevelt had concluded by 1907, "We shall have to be prepared for giving the islands independence of a more or less complete type much sooner than I think advisable ." </P> <P> Woodrow Wilson said, during the 1912 election campaign which made him US President, "The Philippines are at present our frontier but I hope we presently are to deprive ourselves of that frontier ." Even before the 1912 elections, U.S. House Committee on Insular Affairs Chairman William Atkinson Jones attempted to launch a bill which set a fixed date for Philippine independence . Manuel L. Quezon was one of the Philippines' two resident commissioners to the US House of Representatives . Jones delayed to launch his bill, so Quezon drafted the first of two "Jones Bills ." He drafted a second Jones Bill in early 1914 after the election of Wilson as president and his appointment of Francis Burton Harrison as President of the Philippine Commission and Governor General of the Philippines . </P> <P> Wilson had informed Quezon of his hostility to any fixed timetable for independence, and Quezon believed that the draft bill contained enough flexibility to suit Wilson . </P>

Who proposed the idea of the philippine autonomy act