1907: The First Victory – Nacionalista Party
In the elections held in July 1907, the newly organized Nacionalista Party running on a platform of peaceful struggle for independence swamped its Federalista (now Progresista) opponents, winning 58 out of 80 seats, leaving 22 seats to the Progresistas and the rest to the independents. This Nacionalista Party victory decisively relegated the American-supported Federalista party thereafter into minority role in the Philippine politics. (The latter-day Democratas descended directly from the Federalista Party of 1901). Of the Nacionalistas elected, the most prominent were Sergio Osmeña of Cebu, Manuel L. Quezon of Tayabas, Pablo Ocampo of Manila, and Jayme de Veyra of Leyte. Of the Progresista winners, the most prominent was Vicente Singson Encarnacion of Ilocos Sur. Osmeña, editor of a nationalist newspaper in Cebu, was elected Speaker of the Philippine Assembly upon its inauguration on October 16, 1907. Quezon, a colonel of the Philippine Revolution under General Tomas Mascardo and a lawyer from Tayabas, became his close collaborator and ultimately, his foremost rival.
The Nacionalistas ran on a platform rejecting the policy of “American tutelage” under President William McKinley Instructions of April 7, 1900, on the ground that “the Filipino is as good as, if not better, than the American.” On August 11, 1907 the victorious party staged a rally at the Luneta during which demonstrators, “marching up and down by the thousands, pausing before several buildings occupied by the Americans, raised the emblem of the Filipino revolutionary forces and then tore down, trampled on and burned the American flag.” The American community rose in outrage. The Philippine Commission was obliged to pass the “Flag Law,” which forbade the public display of the Katipunan flag.
(It may be noted that in 1914, the leading radicals of the Nacionalista Party led by Teodoro Sandiko of Bulacan, a member of the Philippine Assembly, formed a third force, the Partido Democrata Nacional, some of whom openly urged the resumption of armed struggle for independence.)
source: http://www.nacionalistaparty.com