The following is a list of firsts attained by various presidents of the Philippines. Distinctions were achieved while at office unless otherwise stated.
Emilio Aguinaldo (1899–1901)
First president of the Philippines, officially recognized as such. (See also: List of unofficial presidents of the Philippines) First president to declare martial law (May 1898). First president to be a Freemason. First president to be a member of the military. First and only president to be below the age of 30. First president to live to the age of 90. First president who became a widower following the death of his first wife Hilaria on March 6, 1921. First president to remarry when he married María Agoncillo in 1930. First president from Luzon (Cavite). First president to outlive a successor upon the death of Manuel Quezon. First president to outlive more than one successor, namely Manuel Quezon, Jose Laurel, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino and Ramon Magsaysay.
Manuel L. Quezon (1935–1944)
First president to be a lawyer. First president to have held the positions of councilor, provincial governor, representative, senator, and Senate President. First officially recognized president to be a member of a political party while in office. First president who is a member of the Nacionalista Party. First president to run against a former president. (Emilio Aguinaldo) First president to win the presidency by direct election. (1935) First president to ride an aircraft while in office. First president to use Filipino on the State of the Nation Address. (Mainly delivered in English, Quezon mentioned the word kasamas (tenants) in his 1936 State of the Nation Address.) First president to celebrate his 60th birthday while in office, turning 60 on August 19, 1938. First and only president to concurrently serve as mayor, serving as the acting mayor of the newly-established Quezon City in 1939. First president to have secured a second term in office. (1941) First president to concurrently serve as a department secretary (Secretary of National Defense). First president to die in office. First president to die outside the Philippines, dying in New York on August 1, 1944. First president to die before the age of 70 as he died at the age of 65. First president to meet a US president in the person of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. First president to die before his predecessor. First president to be internationally recognized (Aguinaldo's First Philippine Republic was an unrecognized state). First president to be buried at the Manila North Cemetery (His remains were later exhumed from the cemetery in 1979 to be transferred to the Quezon Memorial Shrine).
Jose P. Laurel (1943–1945)
First president from Batangas. First president to have previously served in the Supreme Court of the Philippines as Associate Justice (1936–1942). First president to be a father to a vice president and a Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. First president to be elected to another government position in his post-presidency upon winning his second term in the Senate in 1951 (he first served in the Senate during the Philippine Commonwealth). First president whose term in office was first ruled unofficial and was legitimized later. He was recognized as a legitimate Philippine president during the administration of Diosdado Macapagal. First president to be buried outside Metro Manila. He was buried in his hometown of Tanauan, Batangas.
Sergio Osmeña (1944–1946)
First president from Visayas (Cebu). First president to have previously served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and president pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippines. First president to have held the position of vice president. First president to have assumed the presidency upon the death of his predecessor (Manuel L. Quezon). First president to be sworn in as president overseas (United States). First president to be defeated in a presidential election in his incumbency (1946). First and only president who is an illegitimate child. First president to have a child who also ran for president (Sergio Osmeña Jr. in the 1969 Philippine presidential election).
Manuel Roxas (1946–1948)