29 February

Katipunan initiation rites

1848 - Ramon Basa, future Filipino revolutionary martyr and second president of the underground society-turned-revolutionary-government Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), is born; while a clerk at the marina comandancia, he will be recuited by townmate Ladislaw Diwa and be initiated into the Katipunan on November 9, 1892;  Basa will succeed Deodato Arellano as head of the KKK  around February 1893 when Katipunan co-founder and future "Father of the Philippine Revolution," Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, realizing the need for a more effectual leader, decides to intervene and forge a reorganization within the anti-colonial movement; Basa himself will be replaced around 1894, yielding the Katipunan leadership to Bonifacio supposedly over his disagreements with the latter on the matter of having initiation rites, Bonifacio's handling of the society's funds wherein money is lent to needy members no matter that they come complete with promissory notes, and his refusal to have his son inducted into the Katipunan; Basa, native of San Roque, Cavite, will be arrested following the outbreak of the Himagsikan and become one of the so-called 13 Martyrs of Bagumbayan that the colonial authorities will forcibly march to and publicly execute in Bagumbayan (future Luneta) in Manila during the waning years of the despised Spanish rule in the Philippine archipelago.

Photo credit:

http://homebodyhubby.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/katipunan-initiation-rites-1892.gif

28 FEBRUARY

1903 - Filipino patriot, revolutionary, and Filipino-American War (1899-1914) Gen. Artemio Ricarte y Garcia returns from exile in Guam but still admiringly refuses to take the oath of fealty to the enemy United States; Ricarte, who was aboard USS Thomas with the a a number of captured officials of the what will be considered the First Philippine Republic including the ailing former Prime Minister Apolinario, will be banned by the imperialist American government and made to sail to Hong Kong where he will remain for ten months before secretly sailing back to the Philippines in the hope of reviving the revolutionary spirit but would be arrested anew and imprisoned until 1910; after his release from jail, Ricarte would be exiled again by the colonial American authorities owing to his adamant refusal to to swear fealty to the imperialist Bald Eagle flag; between 1911-1914 and while surrounded by traitors including Ignacio Velasco, Ricarte will plot a revolutionary uprising against the American colonial government which would be foiled by secret agents in Japan; for many years, Ricarte and his wife will live in Japan in obscurity until the breakout of World War II as the Japanese brings him back to his motherland to try to help pacify the Filipinos.

Photo credit: http://www.freshlinkjuice.info/wiki/Artemio_Ricarte

27 FEBRUARY

1870 - Future Filipino revolutionary, governor and senator Daniel Maramba y Bautista is born in Santa Barbara, Pangasinan during the Spanish colonial times; he would be inducted into the secret revolutionary society Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK)) in 1893 and in 1897, will begin protecting his town from the Katipongos, a group masquerading as Katipunan but with members engaging in looting during the interim period between the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 and its official resumption in 1898 after the camp of Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo, who earlier seized revolutionary leadership from Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, returned from truce-related exile and resumed  military aggression against the Spaniards; during the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), however, following his imprisonment and capture by the invading Bald Eagle forces,  Maramba will rather quickly swear fealty to the enemy  flag on May 1, 1901 a few weeks after Aguinaldo himself was captured and subsequently decided to swear allegiance to the imperialist United States; during the colonial American period, Maramba will become become governor of Pangasinan, member of the Committee on National Defense (along with Felipe Buencamino, Jr. Benigno S. Aquino, Maximo M. Kalaw, etc.) and will also be elected Senator in November 1941, about a month before succumbing to tuberculosis.


Photo credit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Daniel-Maramba/275674867074?sk=info

26 FEBRUARY

1893 - Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, co-founder of the Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), the secret society aimed at toppling Spanish colonial rule on the Philippine islands, enjoins all the district heads to collect the required fees from all member Katipuneros in the earliest possible time, with the collection to be sent to the KKK treasurer; the Katipunan was officially founded by Bonifacio and other radically inclined leaders in July 1892 after foremost reformist patriot Jose Mercado Rizal was arrested by the colonial authorities; the KKK will transform itself into a revolutionary government just before the launch of the Himagsikan in about three and a half years; Bonifacio, then the fiscal and comptroller of the KKK, will rise to be Katipunan Supremo, be instrumental in enlarging KKK membership, and will lead the Filipinos in the initial phase of the valiant Revolution against Spain.

25 FEBRUARY

1986 - Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco Aquino is sworn in as the new President of the Philippines under street protest circumstances, helping put an end to nearly 14 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand E. Marcos who is flown by a United States helicopter to Hawaii; the installation of "Cory" into the presidency followed four days of peaceful "People Power" street protests after Defense Chief Juan Ponce Enrile and Vice-Chief-of-Staff Fidel Ramos holed themselves up in mutiny against Marcos; Cory, who ran against Marcos during the February 7 'Snap Polls' but officially lost, with her camp claiming poll fraud,  is the widow of opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy"Aquino whose assassination in 1983 has been widely blamed on the administration of the ailing strongman; Marcos, who would die years later while in Hawaii, and his family would later tell of how the imperialist U.S., long-time supporter of the Marcos' regime , deceived them into thinking that they were being airlifted to their home province of Ilocos Norte instead of outside the country; that the Bald Eagle government decided to surreptitiously ditch Marcos in recent years will later be revealed amidst information that the dreaded U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has, through  the CIA-linked  National Endowment for Democracy, heavily funded the National Movement for Free Elections the "citizen's arm" that  trended in favor of Aquino (in contrast to the official Commission on Elections count that showed Marcos as the leading candidate) before abruptly stopping its quick count; the legacy of EDSA I would also be a subject of controversy--whether it truly restored democracy and improved the plight of the Filipinos or whether  it even set back the Philippines' economic development, lowered the living standard, and undermined or worsened the state of national independence in favor of compradors co-opted by the imperialist America.


Photo credit: http://www.prepys.com/

24 FEBRUARY

1862 - Filipino revolutionary General Edilberto T. Evangelista, is born in Santa Cruz, Manila during the Spanish colonial times; a civil engineering graduate from Belgium's University of Ghent, he would be responsible for ably directing all the entrenchment and defense works of the Filipino revolutionaries during the initial phase of the Philippine Revolution of 1896, thus giving the Spanish colonial forces considerable trouble in many battles; Evangelista will heroically perish during a battle defending the Sapote river in Cavite on February 17, 1897; in December 1896, Evangelista will suggest to Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, Supremo of the underground-society-turned-revolutionary government Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), that the revolutionary body adopt a constitution but his proposal will be rejected on grounds that the draft he would be presenting is largely plagiarized from the Spanish Maura Law.


Photo credit: http://jeanrojas.tripod.com/id27.html

23 FEBRUARY

Gen. Douglas MacArthur - Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita

1945 - American colonial authorities in the Philippines hang Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese forces during World War II, in Los Banos, Laguna after a swift, 'kangaroo court trial'; United States Gen. Douglas McArthur had appointed a military commission whose rules he himself set and the charges he also himself drew up, with the body unsurprisingly finding Yamashita guilty of failure to discharge the duty 'to control the operations of the members of his command' and for supposedly even allowing them to 'commit brutal atrocities and other high crimes' against Americans and people from its ally and dependent countries; Yamashita denied knowing and permitting the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese in Manila, with evidence even suggesting that members of the Japanese Naval Force had refused to heed his command to move out of Manila and that he really had no command over the same during the February 3, 1945 battle in Manila; it is said that MacArthur aimed at turning Yamashita's trial into a showcase in the bid, apparently to cover up the fact that he fled Manila soon after the Japanese invasion in 1941; while Yamashita's case will be appealed before the U.S. High Court, the decision of McArthur's War Crimes Board will be upheld in a split vote, with Justice Ruthledge opining that it is  "the worst in the Supreme Court's history, not even barring Dred Scott".

Pres. Manuel Roxas- Mons. Michael O’Doherty

1947 - Philippine President Manuel A. Roxas and Manila Archbishop Michael O’Doherty formally sign an agreement whereby the government will acquired a total of eight estates owned by the Roman Catholic Church for the price of P5,630,000, with such estates to be sold later in small lots and at reasonable prices to the tenants; the agreement comes six months after the Philippines was granted "independence" by the imperialist United States following World War II;  Monsignor O'Doherty will be the last foreigner and the second and last American to occupy the post of Manila Archbishop, having been assigned in September 1916, some two years after the last shots of the Filipino-American War (1899-1914) were fired and the  Philippines "pacified" [Read: completely subdued] by the Bald Eagle nation. 



Photo credits:

http://ngayonsakasaysayan.blogspot.com/2010_02_23_archive.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14117283@N03/2259583597/
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Douglas_MacArthur
http://oli1985.blogspot.com/

22 FEBRUARY

Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. de Pilar

1889 - In a correspondence between Philippine reformist and patriots Jose Mercado Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, the former writes a long message in Tagalog entitled "To the Young Women of Malolos" during the Spanish colonial period; in the letter, Rizal lauds the lasses--daughters of the elites from Malolos, Bulakan-- for their extraordinary courage in petitioning for a language school, having dared ask the  colonial Governor-General Valeriano Weyler earlier in December last year to authorize them to open a night school for them to learn the Spanish language; del Pilar, who would be known as the "Great Propagandist," has prodded Rizal to write the young Bulakenas in the Tagalog langugage in the bid to boost their reformist cause; earlier, Lopez Jaena praised the Malolos Women for their desire to "learn the beautiful language of the mother country" and for which they deserve "devoted support" in the column "Ecos de Ultramarr" in the reformists' organ, La Solidaridad; Rizal, del Pilar, and Lopez-Jaena formed the great triumvirate of the reformist-assimilationist Propaganda movement that  aimed to awaken the Spanish monarch/government as to the needs of its colony, the Philippines, and to make for a closer and more equal association of the archipelago and  supposed motherland, Spain.

21 FEBRUARY

1896 - The Supreme Council of the secret revolutionary organization, Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), holds elections for the various positions of secretary, warden, guard and patroller, writer or recorder, and assistant writers or recorders; the KKK was officially founded by Andres Bonifacio y de Castro and several other radical Filipinos in on July 7, 1892 with the aim of liberating the Philippines from the yoke of Spanish  rule a few days after reformist patriot and polymath was arrested by the colonial authorities;  within around six months after this meeting, the KKK will transform into a revolutionary government with Bonifacio as President/Supremo and the Himagsikan (Revolution) against colonial Spain will break out in Manila and surrounding provinces in Luzon before spreading like wildfire to other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Imperialist 20th Kansas Infantry Regiment advancing

1899 - The fledgling First Philippine Republic establishes universal conscription of all able-bodied Filipinos between the ages of 18 and 35, nearly three weeks into the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914); the conscription comes amidst the need for Filipinos to defend the independence they gained following the Revolution against Spain, this time against the enemy invading forces of the imperialist United States; American forces triggered the outbreak of the Phil-Am War on February 4 as part of the wicked pre-arranged plan of Bald Eagle President William McKinley in the aim of tricking  the Senate into approving the controversial  Treaty of Paris and thus secure approval and funding for his policy of annexing [translation: invading] the Philippines; the Treaty of Paris, forged by the Bald Eagle nation nearly six months after Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo declared Philippine Independence from Spain and after the Filipino revolutionary leader was conned through verbal assurances by the vile Americans into forming an 'alliance' to fight Spain, supposedly formalizes the 'cession' of the Philippines to the US after the very brief, seemingly almost token, Spanish-American War.

Photo credits:

http://www.yonip.com/archives/history/20th%20Kansas%20Volunteer%20Inf%20Rgt%20advancing%20across%20open%20field%20be.jpg

Jesusa Bernardo. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150098413761692&set=a.410784916691.182885.249283126691

20 FEBRUARY

1899 - The town of Manduriao, Iloilo, in the Philippines falls to the invading American forces three weeks into the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914) despite the valiant resistance of Ilongo Bermejo soldiers under General Martin Delgado y Bermejo; following the occupation of Iloilo by the imperialist forces, Delgado as politico-military governor of the province and army's general-in-chief will engage in efforts aimed at harassing the pale-skinned invaders with the support of combatants and non-combatants alike; the enemy Bald Eagle soldiers are said to have met heavy resistance in the province, with Delgado choosing to gallantly fight rather than surrender--as demanded by the pale-skinned invaders--to the marauding United States mercenaries;  the enemy also takes Jaro and, a few days earlier, Iloilo City, Sta. Barbaro and Oton; the Fil-Am War erupted on February 4, 1899 after imperialist American President William McKinley secretly ordered the US military to instigate hostilities in the bid to push the American Congress into funding and approving the "annexation" [translation: imperialist invasion] of the Philippines by way of ratifying the controversial Treaty of Paris wherein the expelled colonial Spaniards are supposed to have "ceded" the Southeast Asian islands to the US six months after the Filipinos declared Independence from Spain


Photo credit: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=426655&page=24

19 FEBRUARY

Delfina Herbosa-Natividad assists in sewing the Filipino flag

1898 - Filipina revolutionary and patriot Delfina Herbosa y Rizal marries fellow Katipunero Jose Salvador Natividad;  Delfina is a niece of polymath and patriot Jose Rizal whom the Spanish colonial authorities executed  in December 1896 in connection with the Philippine Revolution launched in August of the same year; one of the first women members of the Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK), Delfina, together with her future revolutionary general husband, will fight various battles against the Spaniards; Delfina will help assist Marcella Agoncillo sew the Philippine national flag around May 1898 while in self-exile in Hong Kong with her husband and other generals in accordance with the Biak-na-Bato truce agreement with the Spaniards; to be completed within five days, the original Filipino flag would be made of satin with gold embroidery and would be unfurled on June 12, 1898 when Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo declares Philippine Independence weeks after the self-exiled generals resume the revolution against Spain.


Photo credit:  http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Image:Constructionofflag.jpg

18 FEBRUARY

Tiburcio Hilario y Tuason

1903 - Tiburcio Hilario y Tuason, patriot during the Philippine Revolution and for a time, the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), dies from scarlet fever, a rare disease in the Southeast Asian country; elected in absentia as military/revolutionary governor of  the province of Pampanga and known as the 'Brains of the Revolution in the same,' Hilario, a cousin of the "Great Propagandist," Marcelo H. del Pilar, was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court under Apolinario M. Mabini in August 1899, six months into the Fil-Am War when the first Philippine Republic was on the run and under siege by the invading enemy United States forces; while in Dagupan to try to save Col. Vicente Prado from execution by the enemy Americans, Bald Eagle forces learned that he was Pampanga's governor and Tiburcio was forced to take his allegiance to the imperialist U.S. flag; Tiburcio later practiced law in Pangasinan where he helped handle the "rebellion" cases of compatriots Modesto Joaquin, Benito Vergara, Manuel Ruiz, Macario Goma, and Cristino Ongton and with the help of other lawyers, were able to successfully had them acquitted by the courts of the colonial American period.



Photo credit: http://www.andropampanga.com/governors.htm

17 FEBRUARY

1872 - Three Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose G. Burgos, and Jacinto  R. Zamora, are executed by garrote at Bagumbayan, Manila two days after  being found guilty of the trumped-up charge of treason in connection with  the Cavite Mutiny during the Spanish colonial rule; the martyr priests who would later be dubbed the GOMBURZA (based on their combined last names), had agitated for the secularization of the clergy in the  Philippines but actually were actually not connected with the Cavite Mutiny; their execution would help make Filipinos realize that they would always be considered second class residents of their own archipelago by the colonial Spaniards, eventually paving the way for the Propaganda period of sustained campaign for reforms in their bid to awaken the Spanish monarchy/government as to the needs of its colony and to make for a closer and more equal association of the archipelago between the Philippines and the supposed motherland, Spain.

 

1945 - The eastern side of the Spanish wall of Intramuros in Manila, Philippines is bombed as the American forces continue to take over the Japanese positions in the Battle for Manila during World War II; the battle will end by March 3, with the American forces routing the Japanese and reclaiming the capital city of its Southeast Asian colony; more than three years earlier,  Japanese planes attacked United States  military installations in Pearl Harbor and in Baguio, Davao, and Clark Field in the American colony, the Philippines, sparking the Pacific theater of the Second World War, with the retreating Bald Eagle forces surrendering to the Japanese in Bataan in 1942.

Photo credits:

http://escuelactivities.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.htmlhttp://www.flickriver.com/photos/johntewell/sets/72157622715038247/

16 FEBRUARY

Gat Andres Bonifacio monument

1921 - The day November 30, the birthday of Andres Bonifacio y de  Castro, the "Father of Philippine Revolution" is declared legal holiday under Act No. 2946 during the American colonial period; the declaration comes some 24 1/2 years  after Gat Andres, Generalissimo of the secret-turned-society-turned-revolutionary-government Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) was ousted from revolutionary leadership through the  controversial Tejeros Convention and then executed by the same mutineer camp of Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo; Act No. 2946 effectively makes Bonifacio a national hero, although in an unofficial sense, in contrast to the imperialist American government's official declaration of Jose P. Rizal as national hero in the early 1900s; the law making every November 30th of each year Araw ni Bonifacio [Bonifacio Day] began as a bill sponsored by Senator Lope K. Santos.

World War II comes to the U.S. colony, the  Philippines

1945 - United States troops land on the Bataan Peninsula, Philippines in the bid to recapture the former American colony during World War II; the Southeast Asian country, invaded by the Bald Eagle nation at the turn of the 19th century when it declared itself independent of Spain, fell to the Japanese Imperial forces in 1941; over three years earlier,  Japanese planes attacked United States  military installations in Pearl Harbor and in Baguio, Davao, and Clark Field in the American colony, the  Philippines, leading to the Pacific Theatre of World War II; the Japanese landed in Pangasinan and headed towards Manila, prompting the escape of the  colonial Commonwealth government leaders President Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina and Vice-President Sergio Osmena y Suico towards  Corregidor fortress in Bataan and later towards the Visayan Islands and  Mindanao before being  picked up by U.S. B-17 bombers that eventually flew them to Washington.


Photo credit: http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/axis-conquers-philippines.htm/printable

Photo art (Bonifacio monument):
Jesusa Bernardo

15 FEBRUARY

1872 - The "GOMBURZA" Filipino priest-martyrs are tried by the colonial Spanish military tribunal at the Fort Santiago on trumped-up charges of instigating the Cavite Mutiny during the Spanish colonial period; Fathers Mariano G. Gomez, Jose Apolonio G. Burgos, and Jacinto R. Zamora, who have advocated the secularization of the clergy in the Philippines, will be found guilty practically without defense and  and sentenced to die by garrote; Future first Philippine Prime Minister Apolinario M. Mabini would describe the impact of the Gomburza execution on the development of the revolutionary spirit as being responsible for making Filipinos "realize their condition for the first time. Conscious of pain, and thus conscious of life, they asked themselves what kind of a life they lived."

1904 - Miguel  Logarta y Ceniza, first Filipino lawyer and judge in Cebu province, suddenly dies at the young age of 41 during the colonial American period, five years into the protracted and bloody Philippine-American War (1899-1914); Logarta became  a member of a committee created by Governor-General Diego de los Rios designed to form a government of an organized Visayas and Mindanao islands to disengage from Luzon and resist the imperialist Americans even after the departure of the Spaniards following the Mock Battle of Manila in accordance with the Peace Protocol  forged between the colonial powers;  Logarta also became Justice Secretary of the fledgling Philippine Republic before collaborating with the enemy United States invaders in the supposed aim to restore "peace" [translation: subjugation before the Bald Eagle invaders]; a law graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, Logarta had gained a number of positions during the Spanish colonial period, becoming a fiscal of Tarlac and then of Samar and later founded the Colegio Logarta that counted as students future Philippine President Sergio Osmena; during the early years of the imperialist rule at the height of the Fil-Am War, Logarta served the American colonial civil government and became Cebu's Provincial Fiscal and Court of First Instance of Cebu judge in which capacity he was said to have exhibited moral stature as pillar of both justice and order in the province.


Photo credit:  http://shambolicamalgam.wordpress.com/2010/02/

14 FEBRUARY

Fil-Am War freedom-fighter Simeon A. Ol

1952 - Simeon Ola y Arboleda, revolutionary leader from Albay and said to be the last First Philippine Republic General to surrender to the enemy imperialists during the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914), dies at a ripe old age of 86; Ola figured in the battle of Camalig in the Bicol Region during the Philippine Revolution against Spain, leading to his promotion as Captain; during the Philippine-American War, he was promoted as Major after successfully effecting the ambush and capture of three enemy Bald Eagle soldiers; he battled the imperialist forces in Arimbay, Legaspi and proved to be a fervent freedom-fighter who persisted in defending Philippine Independence despite the superior firepower and combat training of the forces of the invading United States--thus inspiring more patriots to join his army during the Fil-Am War for a few years even after President Emilio F. Aguinaldo and most of his officials and military officers have already sworn allegiance to the enemy American flag; the Bicolano patriot surrendered only on September 25, 1903 after the vile American invaders employed the horrible reconcentration system to stop his resistance activities, for which he would be charged and sentenced by the colonial court with "sedition"; he was subsequently pardoned, allowing him to run as town mayor of Guinobatan for two terms until 1919.


Photo credit: http://fil.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Simeon_Ola

13 FEBRUARY

Filipino patriot Isabelo de los Reyes

1897 - Filipino journalist, patriot, labor activist, and churchman Isabelo de los Reyes known for his stirring and pungent articles critical of the Spanish colonial friars, is jailed at the Bilibid Prison for supposed complicity in the Philippine Revolution that broke out in 1896; while in prison, he will write his Sensecional Memoria addressed to the Spanish Governor and wherein he points out that the friars are the ones responsible for sowing the seeds of discontent and revolution in the Philippines; during the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), de los Reyes will condemn the imperialist United States for invading the fledgling Philippine Republic in his book Independencia y Revolucion; in 1902, he will found the Philippine Independent Church and will nominate former Catholic priest Gregorio Aglipay y Labayan as Supreme Bishop; de los Reyes would be imprisoned in 1902 by the colonial American authorities for organizing a union that supposedly forces wage increase and upon his release, will leave for China and Japan in early 1903, giving him the chance to meet exiled Philippine Republic Gen. Artemio Ricarte y Garcia and apprise him of the situation back home; returning to the Philippines during the colonial American era, he would be elected senator of  Ilocos from 1922-1928, after which he will devote his time to his church and to writing, including most of Aglipayan literature and the landmark historical novel and classic love story rolled in one, "Ang Singsing ng Dalagang Marmol," the story of love born and thwarted during the bloody and protracted Phil-Am War. 



Photo credit: http://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladawan:Isabelo_de_los_Reyes,_Sr..jpg

12 FEBRUARY

1901 -  Former Filipino Prime Minister Apolinario Mabini y Maranan, Gen. Artemio Ricarte and other defiant revolutionary leaders who have been deported by the imperialist United States invaders begin their exile in Guam; refusing to swear fealty to the enemy Americans, they form part of the handful of proud survivors of the revolutionaries of the Philippine Revolution (Himagsikan) against the Spanish colonial government and  the freedom-fighters who have battled the invading Bald Eagle forces during the Filipino-American War (1899-1914); Mabini, et al. stand out against the not so few officials of the Philippine Republic who have given up the cause of independence for their native country, with some collaborating early on with the new foreign invaders.



Photo credits:

http://www.letranalumni.org/index.php?option=com_awiki&view=mediawiki&article=Artemio_Ricarte?qsrc=3044

http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com/2007/10/13/filipino-heroes-series/apolinariomabini/

11 FEBRUARY

1860 - Vicente R. Lukban, future Filipino revolutionary leader and patriot, is born in Labo, Camarines Norte during the Spanish colonial period; Lukban will join the underground society aiming to topple Spanish rule, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) , and will be arrested and tortured by the Spaniards, in the process squealing his other associates, a number of whom will be executed as part  of the so-called "Bicol Martyrs"; he will become the military governor of Samar during the Revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American War (1899-1914), and be responsible for organizing the natives and effectively using guerilla warfare, turning Samar into "one of the few centers of the Republic's success" against the invading imperialist American forces; he will report about an important Fil-Am War occurrence under his Samar-Leyte jurisdiction, the Balangiga Incident wherein the townspeople of Balanginga, Samar will kill many of the enemy imperialist American soldiers headquartered inside a church; for a time, he will continue to fight the imperialist invaders even after President Emilio Aguinaldo swears loyalty to the United States flag, with Lukban even issuing a proclamation exhorting Filipinos to continue fighting because "we are worthy of independence and of universal respect, because we know our rights and how to die in their defense."

1899 - The seaport and city of Iloilo are captured by the imperialist United States forces one week into the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914); enemy American Gen. Marcus Miller, with reinforcements from the warships of the squadron of Admiral George Dewey, has led the attack on Iloilo, with Gen. Aniano Diokno and "Henerala" Teresa Magbanua leading the battle against the enemy forces; earlier on December 25, 1898, three days after the Filipinos drove out the Spanish colonial forces in the province, the Bald Eagle forces occupied the nearby Panay island even before the Fil-Am War formally began.


Photo credit: http://www.lukban.org/vicente-lukban.php

10 FEBRUARY

1945 - Manuel C. Colayco, Filipino "liberation hero" dies after an enemy hand grenade explodes in front of the University of Santo Tomas' main gate where he was pointing out to his fellow guerrilla soldiers the strategic spots and important buildings in the campus; Colayco's group was leading the rescue operations to free Filipino and Americans being held captive by the Japanese in UST during World War II; a lawyer, faculty member and editor, Colayco enlisted in the Philippine Army during the imperialist American colonial era and volunteered to serve in the first line of defense of Bataan when the Japanese occupied the Philippines when Pacific theater of WW II broke out; he survived the brutal Death March and was later released by the Japanese in Capaz enabling him to reestablish and head the 7th Manila Unit of  the Allied Intelligence Bureau in October 1942, and to publish the guerrilla newspaper "Freedom"; the guerrilla operation that caused him his life involved leading forces to Manila and through the gate of UST, with the prisoners in the University eventually liberated.


Photo credit:  http://nemoto2009.blog73.fc2.com/blog-date-20100308.html

9 FEBRUARY

1926 - Teodoro M. Kalaw, nationalist Filipino scholar, legislator, and historian, composes his report on the Philippine Independence campaign in the United States during the American colonial rule; Kalaw will present the report to the Commission on Independence, a body created by the colonial Philippine Legislature in November 1918 aimed at working for "independence, for its external guarantees, and for the internal organization" in the U.S.; the report of Kalaw who was part of the staff of Senator Sergio Osmeña selected to be the country’s special envoy to the US, came 27 years after the Bald Eagle nation invaded and triggered the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914) following the imperialist American President William McKinley's declaration of "Benevolent Assimilation" [translation: invasion] policy towards the Philippines; earlier in 1904, Kalaw wrote in the nationalist newspsper El Renacimiento about his paper's campaign against the abuses of the Constabulary, corruption, banditry, illiteracy, and "the slow disappearance of the 'Filipino Soul' under the seductive wiles of Anglo-Saxonism." 



Photo credit: http://vincemd.blogspot.com/2010/04/teodoro-kalaw-on-stamps.html

8 FEBRUARY

1890 - Claro Recto y Mayo, future Filipino nationalist statesman and president of the 1934 Constitutional Convention is born; Recto will be one of the sternest critics of American colonial rule, advocating Philippine autonomy and removal of the United States military bases, and the controversial parity rights that gives imperialist Americans the right to exploit Philippine natural resources; he will ran for president against then Vice-President Carlos P. Garcia but will lose, with his candidacy suffering from the dirty tricks department of the Bald Eagle's Central Intelligence Agency that will distribute holed condoms labeled  "Courtesy of Claro M. Recto--the People's Friend"; dubbed one of the 'finest minds of his generation,' Recto, who had no known heart disease, will officially die from heart attack in October 1960 but suspicions on his death will be cast on the CIA because prior to his death, he would meet with two mysterious "Caucasians" in business suits before his death, and with US government documents later showing CIA Chief of Station Ralph Lovett and US Ambassador to the Philippines Admiral Raymond Spruance having earlier discussed plan to murder Recto with a vial of poison.

Photo credit: http://lipatourism.wordpress.com/culture/lipas-famous-families/

7 FEBRUARY

1986 - Philippine snap elections for the presidency and vice-presidency are held after  two years of  apparent instability and months of unrest following the assassination of former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983, and  reports of poor health of strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos; incumbent President Marcos, who declared Martial Law in September 1972, has apparently succumbed to pressure from the international community to prove to the world that he still holds the mandate from the Filipinos; Marcos will officially win the snap polls but the opposition will claim massive cheating and the EDSA I "People Power" revolution will install Aquino's widow, Corazon Cojuanco Aquino, as President and her running mate, Salvador "Doy" Laurel as Vice-President two weeks later; some writers will later cast doubts as to whether Aquino is the real winner of the snap elections amidst future reports that in the 1980s, the United States, through the CIA-linked  National Endowment for Democracy (NED), heavily funded the National Movement for Free Elections, the "citizen's arm" that  trended in favor of Aquino (in contrast to the official Commission on Elections count led by Marcos) before abruptly stopping its quick count; the legacy of EDSA I would also be a subject of controversy--whether it truly restored democracy and improved the plight of the Filipinos or whether  it even set back the Philippines' economic development, lowered the living standard, and undermined or worsened the state of national independence in favor of compradors co opted by the United States.

Photo credits:

http://www.beda7882.com/Philippine_History.htm

http://ninoyaquino.50webs.com/
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_Default_files/Philippine_Culture/remembering_the_1986_people_power_revolution.htm

6 FEBRUARY

1899 - The Congress of the imperialist United States ratifies the Treaty of Paris two days after the administration of William McKinley successfully managed to provoke  hostilities of what would be the protracted and bloody Philippine-American War (1899-1914); the ratification came following false reports in the American press that the Filipinos were responsible for the February 4 hostilities, which were in fact triggered by U.S. Pvt. William Grayson who fired on a Filipino patrol in the 'neutral zone' of Sta. Mesa, Manila following the secret orders given by a number of regimental commanders to bring about conflict;  as would later be discovered by historians, the U.S. military itself vilely orchestrated the initial Filipino-American conflict, with McKinley manipulating news about it to deceive the U.S. Senate and win support for American invasion/annexation of the Philippines through the ratification (as occurred, by a margin of one vote) of the December 10 1898 Paris Treaty wherein Spain supposedly "cedes" its former colony, the Philippines, to the Bald Eagle nation.

1964 - Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, revolutionary leader and first officially recognized President of the Philippines, dies from a heart attack at the old age of 95; Aguinaldo has been a controversial figure during the Revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American War (1899-1914), being held responsible for the deaths of two revolutionary heroes,  Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro and Gen. Antonio Luna y Novicio, and for his swift allegiance of fealty to the American imperialists soon after being captured in 1901; after grabbing power from, and ordering the execution of Bonifacio in 1897, Aguinaldo dissolved the underground-society-turned-revolutionary-government Katipunan, led the battles against the Spaniards, retreated to the mountain area of San Miguel, Bulakan, and forged the Pact of Biak-na-Bato Truce before returning from exile and leading the second phase of the Revolution; by June 1898, the same month Aguinaldo made the Declaration of Philippine Independence, Filipino revolutionaries  have already seized control of most of the islands from the Spaniards; Aguinaldo, who was conned into believing the Bald Eagle nation was a ally against Spain, stupidly allowed the free entry of  U.S. forces into the islands, thus allowing the vile Americans to position themselves for the Mock Battle of Manila and eventual invasion of the Southeast Asian archipelago.


Photo credit: http://philippine-revolution.110mb.com/aguinaldo_detailed.htm

5 FEBRUARY

Feb. 5, 1899 - Filipinos dead in Sta. Ana trench

1899 - Philippine President Emilio F. Aguinaldo  sends Gen. Isidoro Torres to  Gen. Elwell S. Otis, in charge of the imperialist American troops, to try to  bring about the cessation of  hostilities that erupted the day earlier (first day of the Philippine-American War, 1899-1914) when Pvt. William Grayson killed Filipino Corp. Anastacio Felix while attempting to cross the line Sta. Mesa bridge; Otis, who earlier reported to his superiors that Aguinaldo's government was "very anxious for peaceful relations," will brutally respond that since the  fighting had begun, it had to go to its grim end; unknown at that time to the  Filipinos, on February 2, several regimental U.S. commanders secretly ordered their men to bring about a conflict if possible as part of the filthy plan of imperialist President William McKinley to push the US Senate into ratifying the Treaty of Paris that "annexes" the fledgling Southeast Asian republic to effectively approve military operations against the Filipinos; some 3,000 Filipinos will die during only the first two days of the Filipino-American War and on February 6, the US Senate will approve the controversial Treaty.

 1861 - Future Filipino revolutionary Simon Tecson y Ocampo is born in San Miguel de Mayumo (San Miguel), Bulacan province during the Spanish colonial period; Tecson will join the Philippine Revolution when it breaks out in August 1896 and will rise to the rank of brigadier-general by June 1897 during the Mt. Puray Assembly; he will become a signatory of the so-called Biak-na-Bato Constitution framed just prior to the Truce of Biak-na-Bato following the retreat of the troops of revolutionary Emilio F. Aguinaldo to San Miguel de Mayumo; Tecson will also be a signatory to the capitulation of Spaniards to the Filipinos following the Siege of Baler;  during the Philippine-American War (1899-1914), Tecson will fight the enemy Americans but will surrender in February 1901 although he will refuse to swear allegiance to the imperialist United States flag, causing his deportation to Guam in mid-1902; in September of the same year, Tecson will finally pledge allegiance to the imperialist Bald Eagle, allowing him to return to his hometown about a year before his death.


Photo credits:

https://traveleronfoot.wordpress.com/tag/simon-tecson-house/
http://philippineamericanwar.webs.com/filamwarbreaksout.htm