The procedures for appointment of the resident commissioners were ambiguous and a source of friction. Under the
Philippine Organic Act of 1902, the two resident commissioners were to be elected by the
Philippine Legislature, with each chamber (the entirely-appointed, American-majority
Philippine Commission and the fully-elected and all-Filipino
Philippine Assembly) voting separately. The resident commissioners were to be elected biennially from the time of the first meeting of the
Philippine Legislature in 1907.
Benito Legarda and
Pablo Ocampo became the first two resident commissioners. Upon the passage of the
Jones Law in 1916, the resident commissioners were still selected in the same way, but by this time now had three-year terms.
Jaime C. de Veyra and
Teodoro R. Yangco were the first resident commissioners under the Jones Law. The
Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934 reduced the number of resident commissioners to one, and ordered the enactment of a new constitution. Upon the passage of the 1935 Constitution, it tasked the
National Assembly (the successor of the Philippine Legislature) to legislate how the resident commissioner shall be selected. The National Assembly enacted Commonwealth Act No. 10 late in 1935, which stated how the next resident commissioner shall be selected; it stated that the resident commissioner would now be appointed by the president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines with the consent of the
Commission on Appointments. and that the resident commissioner holds office at the
pleasure of the president, therefore there was no fixed term. The two resident commissioners serving under the Jones Law,
Pedro Guevara and
Francisco Afan Delgado, were replaced when President
Manuel L. Quezon appointed
Quintin Paredes as their successor in February 1936. The resident commissioner was never elected via
direct election unlike its
Puerto Rican counterpart. ==List of resident commissioners==