At the time, the Americans had just granted the Filipino people several civil and political rights, including freedom of the press, which encourage several enterprising individuals to establish various newspapers in English and the local languages.

However, the newspaper temporarily ceased publication in 1934 after Paulino was elected as Cebu's delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention from July 30, 1934, to February 8, 1935, that created the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

[7] With Paulino's death during the American bombardment of Cebu in 1945, The Freeman would not return to newsstands until 1965 when his nephew Jose "Dodong'" Gullas revived the periodical as a weekly magazine, and then as a daily English newspaper in 1969.

[6][13] After dictator Ferdinand Marcos placed the entire Philippines under Martial Law in 1972, The Freeman and its printing press were shut down for a month, and one of its columnists, Resil Mojares (who would eventually be recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines for Literature) was jailed for several months because he had published columns which criticized the administration of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

[14][15] The Freeman was able to return to publication after a month,[14] and was among the few Philippine community newspapers that remained in circulation and dared to publish news and accounts about the excesses and abuses of the regime.

[6] On August 23, 1994, The Freeman began publishing the Cebuano-language tabloid Banat as demand for printed news and content in the local language surged.

[6][13] The Freeman is currently owned and operated by the Philstar Media Group, publisher of the Manila-based, nationally circulated broadsheet The Philippine STAR.

[1][6][8] In 2014, Philstar Media Group was acquired by Mediaquest Holdings Inc., the media conglomerate of PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan, making The Freeman and Banat part of the MVP Group of Companies along with other publications such as The Philippine STAR, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Pang-Masa, Starweek and BusinessWorld.