Implementation
The act was enacted into law on July 1, 1902 and the Philippine Commission executed its provisions. A census was conducted in 1903, and published on March 25, 1905. The Philippine Assembly elections of 1907 were held on July 30, 1907 for 80 seats, and on October 16, 1907, the 1st Philippine Legislature was inaugurated at the Manila Grand Opera House.
As a result of the act, the Catholic Church agreed to gradually substitute Spanish priests with Filipinos and to sell its land. It refused however to send the friars immediately back to Spain. In 1904, the American administration bought 166,000 hectares, a major part of the friars' holding, over half of which was in the Manila area, and the land was resold to Filipinos—some of them tenants but the majority of them estate owners.
Read more about this topic: Philippine Organic Act (1902)