10 APRIL

1915 - "The Independent," a radical weekly periodical and the last of five major pro-Philippine Independence journalistic efforts by Vicente Yap Sotto, sees its maiden issue during the American colonial period; walking a thin line between resistance and collaboration with the imperialist Americans, future senator Sotto was earlier arrested and imprisoned in 1899 by the imperialist American military governor during the initial phase of the Filipino-American War (1899-1914) over his publication of "La Justicia," the Cebuano publication dedicated to espousing Philippine Independence but accepting "the fact of American military control"; as future Filipino solon during the  rule of the southeast Asian archipelago by the Bald Eagle nation, Sotto will author the pivotal  Press Freedom Law (later to be known as the Sotto Law, Republic Act No. 53).


Photo credit: http://senatorvicenteyapsotto.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html