17 JANUARY

Librada M. Avelino

1873- Librada Avelino y Mangali, future Filipino educator and co-founder of Centro Escolar University, is born in Pandacan Manila during the Spanish colonial period; when the successful flames of the Philippine Revolution against Spain is quickly snuffed out by the imperialist United States of America, Avelino will found a private school that will not prosper because of the developing hegemony of the newly imposed English language; Avelino will cross the language barrier by learning the colonial American language at a school designed by the North American invaders for Spanish-trained Filipino teachers; along with Carmen de Luna and Fernando Salas, Avelino will establish the Centro Escolar de Senoritas that will later be known as the Centro Escolar University; a future recipient of Master of Pedagogy, honoris causa, University of the Philippines, Avelino will be noted for her defiant retort to her American history teacher, Prescott F. Jernegan, who will claim that Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo is the Cavite bandit chieftain, as follows: “Mr. Jernegan, Aguinaldo was not a bandit chieftain. Our revolutionists were not bandits. They were patriots just like the  Americans who revolted against England in 1776.”

1901 - Emilio F. Aguinaldo, Philippine  President on-the-guerrilla-run, issues  a manifesto condemning the atrocities  committed by the forces of the  imperialist Bald Eagle nation nearly  two years into the bloody and  protracted Filipino-American War  (1899-1914); the manifesto comes some  two months before Aguinaldo would be  traitorously captured by the enemy  Americans with help from Macabebe  scouts; Aguinaldo, who earlier  stupidly allowed the free entry of  American soldiers in the Southeast  Asian archipelago in the belief that  the United States was Filipinos' ally  against colonial Spain, particularly  condemned the barbaric execution style  of the imperialist Americans, to wit:

The heart-breaking sighs of the  oppressed and of their families, and  the energetic protests of all the  Filipino people reach me in my distant  camp, because of the unequalled  cruelties and the cynical violations  of the most elemental laws of war  perpetrated by the imperialists, who,  on the pretext that the unfortunate  victims have killed an American, hang  the prisoners of war in a way which is  repugnant to humanity, the agony  lasting fifteen minutes, according to  the Manila press which is under  censorship; or else inflict upon them  unheard-of tortures, according to the  testimony of my commanding generals;  and as if all these were not enough,  the military governor of the invading,  out of the jurisdiction of the law,  not only the Filipinos who are in arms  protest, but also the peaceful non- combatants, who are made prisoners or  deported without being tried, almost  always with no other purpose than to  ransack their houses and treasures, or  to hope for indemnity or bribe for  their freedom.

Photo credits:

http://www.collectibles-articles.com/antique/Philippine-American-War-EXECUTION-Hanging-Bilibid-priso_330508238144.html
http://dreamcatcherrye.blogspot.com/2010/03/leading-filipino-women_236.html