4 SEPTEMBER

1943 - In the thick of World War II, the Philippine Constitution under Japanese Occupation is adopted by the Preparatory Committee on Philippine Independence lad by President Jose P. Laurel; the 1943 Constitution of the Second Philippine Republic creating a Republican state with a 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.

Barasoain Church, circa 1898

1898 - Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy issues an executive proclamation summoning the Filipinos to send delagates to what will be the First Philippine Congress to be assembled in Malolos, Bulakan on September 15; the proclamation--made more than three months following the Declaration of Philippine Independence against Spain--comes amidst the realization of the officers and soldiers of the fledgling Philippine Republic that the Americans whom Aguinaldo stupidly trusted and cooperated with in battling colonial Spain have stolen the country's independence and have begun imperialist efforts at occupying the islands; some three weeks earlier, the emerging imperialist Bald Eagle nation and the dying colonial power that was Spain waged the infamous Mock Battle of Manila that falsely made it appear that the Americans--instead of the Filipinos--defeated the Spaniards in Manila, and come February of the following year, the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914) will break out upon deliberate, secret instigation ordered by the imperialist President William McKinley.