20 MAY

1899 - Filipino representatives Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, Lt.-Col. Alberto Barreto, Capt. Lorenzo Zialcita, and Gracio Gonzaga arrive in Manila by special train from Malolos to negotiate peace terms with the United States Philippine Commission [read: imperialist commission], three months after the Bald Eagle President William McKinley deliberately triggered the Philippine-American War (1899-1914); with the two parties conferring at the Ayuntamiento in Intramuros district, Manila, the imperialist Bald Eagle commission headed by Jacob Schurman rejects the armistice sought by the local freedom-fighters, insisting instead that the Filipino army surrender unconditionally to  American sovereignty; in two days' time, the cabinet of President Emilio F. Aguinaldo will exhort the Filipinos to continue the fight to defend Philippine independence.

 

 

Representatives of the Philippine Government under siege: Capt. Zialcita, Lt. Col. Barreto, Gen. Del Pilar  & Gonzaga negotiating with the imperialist invading Americans for some independence

-- on the same day, Admiral George Dewey, the United States military official who earlier forged alliance against Spain, and deceptively promised, then-revolutionary leader Aguinaldo that the U.S. would supposedly honor Filipino independence, leaves the Philippines for the U.S. on board his flagship, the USS Olympia; over a period of several months, Dewey, along with consul generals to Singapore, E. Spencer Pratt, and to Hong Kong, Rounsenville Wildman, respectively took turns making Aguinaldo believe that the Bald Eagle only had good intentions; thus Aguinaldo stupidly allowed the free entry of the G.I.'s in the archipelago, eventually permitting the foreign 'allies' that-would-turn-invaders to position themselves for the Mock Battle of Manila that deceived the world into believing that it is the Americans and not the Filipinos who overcame the Spaniards.

 

Spanish Queen Isabella II

1865 - A royal decree from Spain's Queen Isabella II reorganizes secondary education in its Southeast Asian colony, the Philippine Islands (Las Islas Filipinas), by dividing schools into public and private, with the University of Santo Tomas being considered public and Colegio de San Juan de Letran being classified as College of the First Class; San Juan de Letran is grouped with the Ateneo Municipal, the College of Bacolor and other secondary schools under the category which is of two kinds, including the kind that offers a complete course leading to the bachelor of arts degree; the colonial-era decree gives gives the rector of UST the responsibility of supervising and inspecting secondary schools as it becomes the ex-oficio head of the secondary and higher education in the Philippines.

Photo credits:

http://i2.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/590/draft_lens2386777module14943982photo_1234145295IsabellaII.png;  http://philippineamericanwar.webs.com/filipinosnegotiate.htm