30 MAY

1901 - The local chief of Balangiga, Samar informs Gen. Vicente Lukban that the Principales of his town have agreed that they will maintain a policy of contrived friendship with the imperialist enemy [American] troops during the early stage of the Philippine-American War; the seething desire of the Balangiga residents to fight for the preservation of Philippine Independence the Filipinos earlier gained against the Spanish colonizers will ultimately be quelled by the fierce brutality of United States Gen. Jake Smith's "kill and burn" policy that will soon turn Samar into a "howling wilderness."

29 MAY

1992 - Ex-Sen. Lorenzo M. Tanada, Filipino nationalist crusader and civil rights defender dubbed the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics," dies at the ripe old age of 94; a pensionado who earned his law degree from Harvard University during the American colonial rule, he became a relentless crusader against American interference in Philippine affairs, eventually seeing some light on September 16, 1991  with the rejection of the Philippine-US Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security that was supposed to take the place of the expiring RP-US Military Bases Agreement.

28 MAY

1906 -The Philippine leper colony in Cebu province, Philippines, is established during the American colonial rule, as the savage Philippine-American War rages on some seven years and three months after it first began; some 365 lepers land at the colony to form the nucleus of what is named the Culion Leper Colony, which would supposedly become known as the largest and one of the best institutions of its kind in the world. 

1898 -  The Battle of Alapan in Imus Cavite marks the Second Phase of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, waged under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo as his camp returned from exile following the Truce of Biak na Bato earlier forged by the Filipino revolutionary leaders with colonial authorities.

27 MAY

1898 - The camp of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the Philippine Revolution against Spain (since May 1897) receives the first consignment of arms in Cavite from American consul Rounseville Wildman as part of the parties' unwritten deal forged in Hong Kong during the former's unsuccessful trip to meet United States Commodore George Dewey; Wildman will never deliver the second arms shipment to Aguinaldo, paid for with P67,000, and within nine months, the US will embark on its imperialistic invasion of the Philippines.

26 MAY

1609 - A law during the early period of the Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines regulates the services of the Indians (natives/filipinos) by prioritizing the hiring of Chinese and Japanese for public works; however, the Augustinian Recollects will attempt to thwart this order by later asking the king that they be released from such restrictions on the use of natives for work only under certain conditions, claiming that such law will ruin their work in the archipelago. 

25 MAY

1898 - During the Philippine Revolution against Spain, in the  Battle of San Miguel in Bulacan, a band of revolutionaries under Pablo Tecson attacks the troops of Spanish commander Telesforo Carrasco on the day of the baptism of the son of Carrasco, who will eventually surrender to the Filipinos in seven days; Tecson's band has been reinforced by Filipino members of Carrasco's detachment who had earlier defected to the revolutionaries' side following the return of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo from exile in Hong Kong as part of the so-called Biak-na-Bato truce with the Spanish colonial government.

24 MAY

1943 - The Director-General of the Japanese Military Administration of the Philippines during World War II addresses the graduating class of the Institute  for Former [Filipino] USAFF, or United States Army Forces in the Far East; the Director-General urges the graduates of a  cultural training and spiritual reorientation course to play active roles in reconstructing and regenerating their native country and further asks them to strive for the benefit and welfare of their countrymen.

23 MAY

1979 - Muslim Tausug leader Princess Tarhata Kiram, a strong-willed and liberal-minded early Filipina feminist, dies of heart failure at age 75 at the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Quezon City, Metro Manila; a heir of the original rulers of the island of Sabah (now part of Malaysia) and the first woman pensionado (educated in the imperialist United States) during the American colonial period, she became known in local politics for finding ways to plug the laws disadvantageous to the Muslims.

22 MAY

1867 - Julio Nakpil, Filipino patriot, revolutionary, musician, and composer who will become the second husband of Gregoria de Jesus following the murder-by-execution of Supremo Andres Bonifacio, founder/leader of the revolutionary Katipunan movement,  is born in Quiapo, Manila during the Spanish colonial period; Nakpil, who will be a member of Jose Rizal's La Liga Filipina and, subsequently, become Katipunan's Minister of National Development (fomento), will compose patriotic musical pieces, including Pasig Pantaynin (1897) and Kabanatuan (1903) in honor of Gen. Antonio Luna.

21 May

1909- While the Philippine-American War continues (on until 1915, including the part of the Moro resistance), the first session of the First Philippine Assembly, the colonial legislative body in the Philippine Islands during the United States'  imperialist rule, is concluded; the body that serves as the lower house of the mostly-American Philippine Commission passes a resolution declaring that the Filipino people's constant desire is to attain independence.

20 May

1865 - A royal decree from the Spain's Queen Isabella II reorganizes secondary education in its Southeast Asian colony, the Philippines, 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; 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.

19 MAY

1898 - Some 10 months before American imperialist forces invaded the Philippines, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the Philippine revolutionary forces fighting to overthrow Spanish colonial rule, arrives at Cavite province aboard the revenue cutter McCulloch; Aguinaldo will soon confer with Admiral George Dewey to forge an alliance against Spain, and later saying that the American admiral  has categorically stated that the United States will recognize Philippine Independence as it has no need for colonies.

18 MAY

1571 - Philippine tribal chief Rahaj Sulayman belatedly appears before Spanish conquistadore Miguel Lopez de Legazpi  to make peace folllowing the Second Conquest of Manila;  following a short period of peace and after prodding by other tribes outside Manila, Rajah Sulayman (if not another ["Torik"] Sulayman) would later lead thousands of warriors from Manila, Bulacan, and Pampanga in a fierce but unsuccessful battle against the formidably armed colonizing Castillians.

17 May

1975 - Future National Artist Gerardo de Leon receives his Filipino Academy of Movie, Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Hall of Fame for winning the best director award seven times, including for "Bagong Umaga" (1952) and will, in his lifetime, win every possible major Filipino film industry award; de Leon is the only Filipino filmmaker cited in the Petit Larousse du Cinema Mondial  and will become the first filmmaker to be recognised as a Philippine National Artist shortly after his death in 1981.

16 MAY

1903 - Apolinario Mabini, the former Prime Minister  of the short-lived Philippine Republic, is buried under the auspices of civic and labor organizations during the American colonial period when the Philippine-American War was still being waged; following his capture by invading American soldiers, Mabini had refused to swear fealty to the imperialist United States flag and did so only when he felt he was already very sick and weak in the bid to be allowed to return to the Philippines from imposed exile.