5 JANUARY

1898 - Don Francisco Mercado, the  father of Filipino patriot and  polymath Jose Rizal, dies during the  Spanish colonial times; Don  Francisco's death comes a little more than a year after the execution of  their seventh child, Jose, in the grandstand of Bagumbayan, Manila, on charges of sedition, conspiracy, and rebellion against the Spanish  authorities based on his supposed connection with members of the Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan that launched the Philippine Revolution of 1896; Don Jose's family was affluent but they suffered oppression  from the Spaniards because of Rizal's propaganda activities that included  his authorship of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, two novels that  depict the oppression of the Filipinos under the colonizers. 


1899 - Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, leader of the fledgling Philippine  Republic, issues a counter-proclamation expressing how his government is "disposed to open hostilities if the American troops attempt to take forcible possession of the Visayan islands" in response to the imperialistic "Benevolent Assimilation" proclamation made by William McKinley, President of the  Bald Eagle nation; Aguinaldo had earlier stupidly allowed the free entry of G.I.s into the Southeast Asian archipelago after being conned by American officials into believing that the U.S. would respect Philippine independence and was an ally against colonizers, thus allowing the enemy Americans to  position themselves for the eventual invasion; a day before,  Aguinaldo discovered that the original proclamation issued by McKinley as  quoted by Gen. Otis deleted important phrases that shows the vile colonial  design of the imperialist United  States and should have read as:

...the future control, disposition, and government of the Philippine Islands are ceded to the United States...the actual occupation and administration of the entire group of the Philippine Islands becomes immediately necessary, and the military government heretofore maintained by the United States in the city, harbor, and bay of Manila is to be extended with all possible dispatch to the whole of the ceded territory.

Photo credit: http://joserizal.info/images/buhay_at_mga_gawa_rizal/francisco_mercado.jpg