17 AUGUST

 President Jose P. Laurel delivering a 1943 speech during the
 inauguration of the Japanese-sponsored Republic of the Philippines

1945 - Two days after Japan surrendered unconditionally in World War II, President Jose P. Laurel announces the dissolution of the [Second] Republic of the Philippines established during the Japanese Occupation of the Southeast Asian archipelago; under Japanese sponsorship and in line with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere scheme, the 1943 Constitution of the Philippines creating a Republican state with a powerful executive branch, with the President to be elected from among members of the unicameral National assembly and with subordinate legislative and judicial branches, was drafted, approved and submitted for ratification during the Kalibapi  [Kapisanan sa Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas] convention in Manila; however, Filipino guerillas and the American colonial Commonwealth-in-exile led by President Sergio Osmena have refused to recognize the Japanese-sponsored Laurel government. 

1898  - Four days after the infamous Mock  Battle of Manila, the second expeditionary [translation:invasion] forces of the looming 20th century imperialist nation, the United States,  arrive and land at Parañaque, located midway between Manila and Cavite, and led by Gen. Francis V. Greene;  Greene's early show of Bald Eagle imperialist posturings and the the Mock Battle that falsely showed to the world that the Americans--instead of the Filipino revolutionaries--defeated the Spaniards in the Philippine archipelago would presage the absurdly baseless December 1898 Treaty of Paris wherein Spain had the gall to agree to supposedly  "cede" the newly independent-from-Spain Philippines to  imperialist U.S. that, for its part, months earlier conned Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo into cooperating to fight Spain, deceptively promising to honor Filipino Independence.



Photo credit: http://www.freewebs.com/philippineamericanwar/captureofaguinaldo1901.htm