16 NOVEMBER

Pres. Elpidio R. Quirino

1890 - Elpidio Quirino y Rivera, the future sixth officially recognized President of the Philippines, is born in Vigan, Ilocos Sur; a lawyer by profession, he  would be elected as member of the Philippine House  of Representatives before becoming senator during  the American colonial era; Quirino would become the  first Vice-President , before becoming the second  President, of the Southeast Asian nation  following the  United States' "granting" of Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946;  Quirino would serve as President as a widower, with  her surviving eldest daughter, Vicky, serving as official hostess and performing the traditional functions of the First  Lady.


1898 - This day's issue of the  La Independencia, the official  organ of the fledgling Philippine Republic, carries a story about rifle arms shipment from Japan that landed at Naic, Cavite the past month; La Independencia was established by Gen. Antonio Luna some two months earlier during the second phase of the Philippine Revolution against Spain when the Filipino revolutionaries already declared independence on June 12, 1898 after having defeated the Spanish colonizers in most parts of the archipelago, but with Spain and the emerging 20th century imperialist nation, the United States, having staged in August  the infamous Mock Battle of Manila where the two powers falsely made it appear before the world that the Spaniards were overcame not by the Filipinos but by the Americans.


1904 - The American colonial government establishes the Iwahig Penal Colony, orignally name Iuhuit Penal settlement, through the imperialist body Philippine Commission [translation: United States colonial commission to help colonize the Philippines]; the establishment of the Iwahig colony comes nearly six years into the protracted and bloody Philippine-American War (1899 - 1914) but more than three years after the United States President falsely declared the end of the conflict.