Manuel L. Quezon, the second Filipino president, was born in this simple hut on 18 August 1878 in the town of Baler in what was then Tayabas (now Quezon) province. His father is a Spanish mestizo who was executed by Katipuneros for allegedly assisting Spanish soldiers who were then under siege in the church of Baler. (Another account claims that Quezon's father is actually a disgraced Franciscan priest). Quezon fought in the Philippine-American War, was elected as councilor, governor, a member of the Philippine Assembly, and a senator before winning the Philippines' first national presidential election in 1935. He died of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, New York on 1 August 1944 without seeing the Philippines liberated from Japanese occupation.