4 APRIL

1899 - Two months into the protracted and very bloody Philippine-American War (1899-1914), the presumptuous administration of imperialist United States President William McKinley, through the Schurman Commission, issues a proclamation promising self-government to Filipinos; the Schurman Commission, formed by McKinley as a fact-finding civilian mission “to facilitate the most humane, pacific, and effective extension of authority" throughout the Southeast Asian archipelago  on January 30, 1899, which was five days  before the breakout of the Fil-Am War, serves as a proof that the US all along had imperialistic design on the Philippines; in fact the Phil-Am War was deliberately triggered by the imperialist American military under the vile pre-arranged plan of McKinley to precipitate a war so as to push the U.S. Senate into approving the Treaty of Paris and thus secure funding for invasion operations to annex the the Southeast Asian archipelago; as part of the secret orders made some two days earlier by American regimental commanders to bring about conflict, U.S. soldier Pvt. William Grayson ruthlessly fired the first shots at Filipino soldiers trying to cross Sta. Mesa  bridge on February 4, killing Filipino Corporal Anastacio Felix of the 4th Company, Morong Battalion under Captain Serapio Narvaez, with Col. Luciano S. San Miguel as battalion commander.

Photo credit: http://www.princeton.edu/~bsimpson/2008%20History%20102/2008springweek5.htm