November 1941 Summary
A Provisional Government is formed under the leadership of Don Andres Soriano, which proceeds to root out remaining Macadandang loyalists and restore order across the nation. The authorities are very careful to proceed within the law, exposing the depths to which the former regime had fallen in corruption and peculation of public funds. On the international scene the Provisional Government quickly sends special envoys to explain the cause and results of what is quickly dubbed the October Revolution. Cayetano Arellano, hailed by many as the foremost opponent of the fallen regime, leaves Manila in early November to visit the United States to restart negotiations on the Philippine-American treaty, which Macadandang had allowed to fall into disuse. Don Ramon Fernandez is sent first to Batavia, to open discussions with the local Dutch authorities there, and thence to Europe. Late in the month the trial of the Macadandang regime’s foreign minister, Alfonso Enrile, gets under way; charged with numerous counts of embezzlement, peculation, bribery and conspiracy to levy war against the people of the Philippines, Enrile pleads guilty to all charges and is sentenced to twenty years penal servitude; in exchange, he agrees to testify for the prosecution in the forthcoming trials of other adherents of the former regime, including Macadandang himself.