The Commonwealth government of President Manuel L. Quezon prepared to evacuate the Philippine treasury at the onset of war. A few days after the fall of Manila on December 26, 1941, President Quezon sent telegrams to the Philippine National Bank (PNB) managers of Cebu, Iloilo, and Bacolod, and provincial treasurers where there were no PNB branches, authorizing Emergency Currency Boards and Committees in the free provinces of the Philippines to issue emergency circulating currencies. These notes also became known as pre-surrender banknotes.