2 March

Gen. MacArthur inspects Manila tunnel
after recapturing Corregidor

1945 - The United States forces retake from the Japanese the island fortress of Corregidor in the Philippines, American colony since the turn of the century; the American forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines in November 1944 with the plan to launch major attacks on the islands of Luzon and Mindanao; after Manila was captured away from Japanese hand, the 38th Division of the U.S. forces landed on Luzon's Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor recaptured using two attacks--parachute drop and amphibious landing; Corregidor had fallen to the Japanese Imperial Army on May 6, 1942 as World War II swept through the Pacific, with Japan pounding the American military bases as part of the campaign to invade the Southeast Asian archipelago and MacArthur fleeing to Australia. 



Photo credit: http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=854f468920b67806

1 MARCH

Katipunan Seal signed with blood

1896 -  Some five months before the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, the Supreme Council of the  Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), appoints a committee tasked with negotiating the purchase of arms and ammunition from Japan; the Katipunan is a secret society aimed at liberating the Southeast Asian archipelago from the yoke of over 300 years of Spanish colonization; the Katipunan committee members  were Jose Dizon, Mariano Crisostomo, and Jose Ma. Basa, and Emilio Jacinto,  described as the 'soul of the Katipunan'  by no less than Supremo Andres C. Bonifacio for his immense contributions to the philosophy (and tactics) of the revolutionary society. 


Photo credit: http://www.remonty-dkm.pl/ikc.php?q=katipunan-kkk

28 FEBRUARY

1903 - Filipino patriot, revolutionary, and Filipino-American War (1899-1914) Gen. Artemio Ricarte y Garcia returns from exile in Guam but still refuses to take the oath of fealty to the enemy United States; Ricarte, who was aboard USS Thomas with the ailing Apolinario Mabini, Prime Minister of the First Republic, will be banned by the colonial 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 U.S. 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

 Daniel B. Maramba

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 renewal in 1898 after the camp of Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo, who earlier seized revolutionary leadership from Supremo Andres C. Bonifacio, returned from truce-related exile and resumed the military aggression against the Spaniards; during the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), however, following his imprisonment and capture by the Maramba will rather quickly swear fealty to the enemy  flag on May 1, 1901 a few weeks after Aguinaldo himself was captured and swore 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 KKK, the secret society aimed at toppling Spanish colonial hold on the Philippine islands, enjoins all the district heads to collect the required fees from all member Katipuneros the earliest possible time; the collection will be sent to the treasurer of the Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK); Bonifacio, then the fiscal and comptroller of the KKK, will rise to be Katipunan Supremo and will lead the Filipinos in the Revolution against Spain within 3 1/2 years.

25 FEBRUARY

EDSA I, February 1986

1986 - Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco Aquino is sworn in as the new President of the Philippines, putting an end to nearly 14 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand 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 U.S. deceived them into thinking that they were being airlifted to their home province of Ilocos Norte instead of outside the country.


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, thus giving the Spanish colonial forces considerable trouble in the many battles during the Philippine Revolution of 1896; Evangelista will heroically perish during a battle defending the Sapote river in Cavite on February 17, 1897.


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 Rrizal and Marcelo H. de Pilar

1889 - In a correspondence between Philippine patriots Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, the former writes a long message in Tagalog "To the Young Women of Malolos" during the Spanish colonial period; 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.

21 FEBRUARY

1896 - The Supreme Council of the 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 founded by Andres Bonifacio y de Castro in 1892 with the aim of liberating the Philippines from the yoke of Spanish colonial rule, and within around six months after this meeting, the Revolution against colonial Spain will break out in Manila.

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 in 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 US President William McKinley in the aim of tricking  the Senate into approving the controversial the Treaty of Paris and thus secure funding for his policy of annexing the Philippines. 


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

Enemy imperialist American forces in Iloilo

1899 - The town of Manduriao, Iloilo, in the Philippines falls to the colonizing American forces 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 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.


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

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 his Pampanga and known as the 'Brains of the Revolution in Pampanga,' 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

GOMBURZA Martyrs

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; later to be dubbed the GOMBURZA (based on their combined last names) martyrs, the priests, had agitated for the secularization of the clergy in the  Philippines but had no connection with the Cavite Mutiny; their execution would help make Filipinos realize that they would always be considered second class by the Spaniards, thus paving the way for the Propaganda period of sustained campaign for reforms.

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.



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 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, colonized by America at the turn of the 19th century, was invaded by Japan in 1941.


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

Photo art (Bonifacio monument):
Jesusa Bernardo