After the return of the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, with General MacArthur, to Leyte, on 20 October, 1944 President Osmena went about organizing his government. Much of the task fell upon the Chief of Staff, Carlos P. Romulo and the Commonwealth Treasurer, Andres Soriano.

The re-establishment of the Post Office was a priority because of it's long range propaganda potential, and the Bureau of Posts building in Tacloban was selected as the logical site to start from. Pre-occupation stamps were retrieved from storage, some were overprinted "COMMONWEALTH" and some were not. A simple rubber hand stamping device was made, and the stamps were handstamped with the word "VICTORY". The first of these handstamped stamps went on sale in the Tacloban Post Office on 8 November 1944.

After the initial group of overprints went on sale, the Post Office allowed anyone who had pre-occupation stamps to bring them in and sell them to the postal authorities. This may account for the large variety of issues overprinted and the limited quantity of some items. Subsequent issues were released on 3,14 and 28 December 1944. During the early handstamping the device was broken and repaired, leaving a slightly different overprint for the later issues. The stamping device in its original condition produced overprints with the letters in a straight line, designated as Type 1, see Fig. 5.1. After the break was repaired the first three letters were not aligned with the rest and the "T" had a "bite" out of the stem, it is designated as Type 2, see Figs. 5.2. The Type 1 handstamp is much scarcer than the Type 2 handstamp.

The only major error occurs on the 8c violet, one multiple piece is known with one stamp without handstamp. A few copies of the 2c apple green with O.B. overprint are known on cover with the "VICTORY" handstamp on the stamp and some on the envelope. This happened when officials of the commonwealth were sent outside of Tacloban, they were given franked envelopes to send reports back. The stamps were affixed to the envelopes prior to the handstamping.

The "VICTORY" handstamped issues were superceded by the "VICTORY" overprints on 19 January 1945. The handstamped issues were not used much after that date except for the O.B.s which were used up about six months later.
 

Fig 5.1: Type I Genuine "VICTORY" Handstamp	Fig 5.2 : Type II Genuine "VICTORY" Handstamp