21 APRIL

1897 - Mariano Marcos y Rubio, educator, lawyer, lawmaker and father of future Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, is born in Batac, Ilocos Norte, 1 1/2 years into the Philippine Revolution against Spain;  raised as militant follower of Gregorio Aglipay and the Philippine Independent Church, he will be elected a congressman under the Nacionalista Party but, following his lost in the 1935 elections for the National Assembly, will be accused, tried, but acquitted of killing of Rep. Julio Nalundasan three days after the polls; the prosecution will charge that Mariano Marcos, along with brother Pio Marcos, son Ferdinand Marcos, and brother-in-law Quirino Lizardo,  has been pushed to conspire against the life of Nalundasan by the latter's poll victory;  his son, Ferdinand Marcos, along with his brother-in-law, will be convicted  but later acquitted of the crime on appeal to the Supreme Court in a celebrated case where the young Marcos who will soon graduate magna cum laude in law from the University of the Philippines, will begin to organize his own defense and eventually win in a decision a short while after making history with the highest score ever garnered in the Bar examinations

 
Photo credit: http://library.thinkquest.org/15816/thetwoleaders.article1.html

20 April

1572 - "Relation of the Conquest of the Island of Luzon," which narrates the Spanish conquest of Luzon island in the Philippine Islands, is published in Manila; authored anonymously, it describes how the colonizing Spanish forces captured Manila from the Moros, discussing the campaigns that led to the subjugation of the Southeast Asian island -- from the experiences of the Spaniards in Panay to Luzon's eventual exploration and pacification [read:colonial subjugation]; the book disputes many 'fables' about the Philippine Moros, including the supposed presence of Moors similar to those of Barberia and how the this island's Muslims are supposed to fight like the Turks; writing from a pathetic condescending perspective of superior religious complex, the author refers to how the natives call their "chief idol" as "Batala" or "Diobata" and describes healing rites participated by aged women priestesses as a feast where everyone "eat and drink to the point of losing their senses"; the book also insists that only a few Muslims practice abstinence from pork, claiming that the practice was limited to "villages nearest the sea" and was done by the people not because they understand the "nefarious doctrine of Mahoma" because they supposedly "do not know the commandment or anything" about the Muslim prophet.

Photo credit: http://jibraelangel2blog.blogspot.com/2010/06/relation-of-voyage-to-luzon-1570.html

19 APRIL

KKK Flag, with art rendering
Photo art: JB

1897 - The Naik Military Agreement declares that several Filipino revolutionaries (referring to but not naming the camp of Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy) had committed treason against the nation and the revolution by trying to forge a peace pact with the Spanish colonial forces; signed by Generallissimo Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro and other Katipuneros; the signatories resolve that they are no longer bound to recognize the authority of the traitors and that all revolutionary forces shall be unified under the command of Gen. Pio del Pilar , who, ironically, will later betray Bonifacio and supposedly advise the latter's nemesis, Aguinaldo, to have the Supremo executed; three days earlier, the Supremo reported to Northern Manila chief commander, Emilio Jacinto, about how the Magdalo faction led by Aguinaldo has negotiated with the enemy Spaniards to abandon the Revolution and explained that he needed to nullify all the resolutions that were adopted in the fraudulent and scandalously anomalous Tejeros Convention; many of the signatories of the Naic Military Agreement also earlier signed the “Acta de Tejeros” that nullified the outcome of the Tejeros convention, thereby denying that a republic, or a new revolutionary government, had just been created and repudiating Aguinaldo’s election as president of the (new) revolutionary body that would supersede the Katipunan.

KKK Council/Supreme Council seal

1896 - The Supreme Council of the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), the secret revolutionary society devoted to terminating Spanish colonial hold on the Philippine Islands, holds a meeting wherein the number of its members (kasangguni or councilors) is increased to twelve, some four months before the Philippine Revolution erupts; what could possibly have been the last change of membership in the Kataastaasang Sanggunian before the Himagsikan is marked by the presence of a number of non-Supreme Council activist members, indicating that attendance in the governing bodies of the Katipunan was not rigidly and preclusively circumscribed, and thus shows the democratic character of the KKK; the Kataastaasang Sangunian members now include the Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, Emilio Jacinto y Dizon, Dr. Pio Valenzuela, new member Enrique Pacheco, and also Francisco Carreon, future Vice-President of the Katagalugan Republic that would continue the aspirations of the Supremo and the Katipunan during the
bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914).


Raw photo credit: http://kasaysayan-kkk.info/gallery.selyos.htm

18 APRIL

1947 - The Treaty of Amity between the Philippines and China (pre-communism) is signed at Manila by Vice-President Elpidio Quirino and concurrent Foreign Affairs Secretary and Minister Plenipotentiary Chen Chih-Ping in the bid to maintain and strengthen the good relations between them; the treaty renounces the use of force in settling disputes and referring them instead to the International Court of Justice; the Treaty is interpreted to exclude alien registration and immigration and other fees from its scope; also notable is how the Treaty is interpreted by Quirino to define the term "nationals" under Article IX as including American corporations and associations--this, when the Philippines has supposedly been 'granted' independence by the imperialist United States more than ten months earlier on July 4, 1946; the Philippines was invaded by the Bald Eagle nation. via the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914) essentially for its "mountains of coal" and others and its strategic market in the Pacific; despite the 1946 granting of "independence," the Southeast Asian country has continued to be under American neo-colonial domination owing to the US-RP Treaty of General Relations and the Parity Amendment that has allowed U.S. access to 22 military, naval, and air bases in the Philippines and gives Americans the oppressive right to exploit Philippine resources; specifically, the non-discrimination principle stated in the Amity treaty between the two Asian countries excludes:

...treatment, benefits or advantages that are now or may hereafter be granted by the Republic of the Philippines to the United States of America or to its citizens, corporations or associations.

17 APRIL

1897 - Filipino revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy names his all-Caviteno cabinet members following his supposed election in the fraudulent and scandalously anomalous Tejeros Convention as President of a new revolutionary body less than a month earlier and some three weeks before he will order the assassination-cum-execution of Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK) Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro during the Philippine Revolution against Spain; earlier, the Supremo issued the Acta de Tejeros that  nullified the Tejeros Convention  on grounds that it was marked by fraud, even as the "brains" of Katipunan, Emilio Jacinto y Dizon, had reiterated that Bonifacio is still the leader of the Philippine revolution in a letter dated April 11, 1897; Gen. Artemio Ricarte, one of those elected in the Convention, has declared the elections to have been marked by fraud and initially hesitated to take his oath as as General-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army in a clandestine ceremony surreptitiously kept hidden from the Magdiwang chapter of the KKK on March 24; Bonifacio co-founded the Katipunan in 1892 and under his presidency beginning December 1895, will be instrumental in increasing Katipunan membership to thousands by the time he and fellow Katipuneros turned the underground society into a revolutionary government and launched the Himagsikan in August 1896.

16 APRIL

Signature of Supremo Andres Bonifacio as Maypagasa
(reflection as art rendering)

1897 - Philippine revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio y de Castro ascribes the failure of the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK) forces in defending Cavite against Spanish troops to factionalism within the movement; in a letter to Emilio Jacinto y Dizon, newly appointed Supreme Commander of all revolutionary forces in Manila, Supremo Andres Bonifacio relays how the Magdalo faction led by Capitan Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy has negotiated with the Spaniards to abandon the Revolution and explains that he needed to nullify all the resolutions that were adopted in the fraudulent and scandalously anomalous Tejeros Convention owing to the dirty tactics of Magdalo in the bid to discredit him and the Katipunan; Generallissimo Bonifacio also reports about the deceitfulness of Aguinaldo and Magdalo in apparently scheming to abandon the Revolution and forge a deal with the enemy Spaniards:

Ang nasabing Capitan Emilio [Aguinaldo] ay mag ginawang Condiciones na ibig na hingin sa kaaway na gaya ng paalisin ang mga fraile, diputados a Cortes at iba pang mga bagaybagay, at itoy ipinahatid sa kay M. Mariano Alvarez at hinihingi ang kanyang pag ayon, itoy isinanguni sa akin at ng hindi namin sang ayunan ay ang ginawa ng taga Imus, ay sinulatan ng lihim ni Cap. Emilio ang mga Pangulo sa Bayang sakop ng Magdiwang.

1899 - Emilio Jacinto y Dizon, young Filipino patriot, revolutionary, and freedom-fighting leader dubbed the "Brains of the Revolution," dies from malaria and/or a gunshot wound in the mountains/forests of Majayjay, Laguna at the age of 24 during the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914); considered one of the greatest, noblest of Filipino heroes, Jacinto became a key revolutionary official during the first phase of the Revolution against Spain (1896-1898) when he became a confidante and trusted official of Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, leader of the underground-society-turned-revolutionary-government Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK);  Jacinto embraced with conviction and enthusiasm the Katipunan that sought the liberation of the Philippine archipelago from the yoke of Spanish rule when he was only a pre-law student, eventually occupying several posts including being Fiscal, KKK Secretary of State, and military leader;  when Generallissimo Bonifacio fell victim to the virtual coup of the fraudulent Tejeros Convention and eventual execution-cum-assassination perpetrated by the forces of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, Jacinto gravely grieved, refused the offer to join the new government, while continuing to fight the Spaniards and, later, the imperialist Americans, separate from the forces of Aguinaldo;  an ethical and very intelligent and cunning militant leader who escaped arrest  and death during several bloody encounters with the enemies in Laguna, Jacinto managed the Katipunan printing press,  also supervised the gunpowder, and would be noted in history for his important editorship of the revolutionary organ Kalayaan, authorship of the ten-point ethical code/primer of the KKK, the Kartilya, A La Patria, A Mi Madre and "Liwanag at Dilim," a series of articles dealing with liberty, human rights, equality, patriotism, and labor;  Jacinto's death came exactly a day and two years after his last Katipunan government appointment--Commanding General of the Northern District of Manila--less than a month before Bonifacio was eliminated by the camp of Aguinaldo.




Jacinto photo cropped from P20, English series:  http://images03.olx.com.ph/ui/11/00/74/1295415909_158839674_1-Pictures-of--PHILIPPINES-20-PESOS-1949-Bonifacio-and-Jacinto.jpg



Raw photo image: http://kasaysayan-kkk.info/gallery.kkk.htm

 Photo art: JB

15 APRIL

1897 - Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, leader and co-founder of the underground-society-turned-revolutionary government Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), appoints Emilio Jacinto y Dizon as Supreme Commander of all revolutionary forces in Manila during the Philippine Revolution against Spain; the appointment comes some three weeks after the infamous and anomalous Tejeros Convention that fraudulently and scandalously dislodged the Supremo from revolutionary power but which Supremo Bonifacio's camp nullified by way of the Acta de Tejeros; in less than three weeks' time, Generallissimo Bonifacio, along with his brothers, would be successfully seized, subjected to kangaroo court martial, and executed on orders of his revolutionary nemesis and perceived virtual coup plotter, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy; the appointment of Jacinto, "Brains of the Katipunan" and Bonifacio's trusted friend and adviser says in Tagalog:

"SA PAGKAKILALA sa tapat na paglilingkod at pagtatangol sa Bayang tinubuan ni M. Emilio Jacinto Pingkian itong Kataastaasang Panguluhan sa pag-ganap nang kaniyang kapagyarihang tungkol, minarapat na inihalal ang nasabing kapatid sa katungkulang Pang-ulong hukbo sa dakong Hilagaan ng Maynila."

Photo scan credit: Dnvzs Zjzllg

14 APRIL

1900 - Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, President of the fledgling Philippine Republic under siege from imperialist American forces, congratulates Capt. Galicano Calvo, a guerrilla force commander in Ilocos province, for victories scored against the enemy United States 2 1/2 months into the Filipino-American War (1899-1914); Aguinaldo also congratulates the patriotic stance of the Ilocanos for their role in the victories they scored in the guerrilla warfare the province has staged against the forces of the imperialist Bald Eagle nation and at the same time exhorts the Ilocano freedom-fighters to implement effective guerrilla strategies with minimal use of ammunition as much as possible against the superior enemy forces; the congratulation came amidst Aguinaldo's feeling of dejection when two Filipino generals surrendered to the enemy earlier during the Philippine-American War; the Fil-Am War would launch the North America's imperialist course, becoming the first of many Vietnams; the U.S. decided to invade the Southeast Asian nation, a former Spanish colony that revolted and declared independence, over its rich natural resources, including "mountains of coal" and its strategic importance to American commercial domination; the Fil-Am War was deliberately and secretly precipitated by the imperialist American military under the vile pre-arranged plan of US President William McKinley in the bid to push the American Senate into approving the ridiculous Treaty of Paris wherein Spain supposedly 'cedes' its former colony to the US  following the Peace Protocol forged a day before the infamous Mock Battle of Manila on August 13, 1898 as part of the two powers' imperialistic, shoddy and detestably anti-democratic deal.

Photo credit: http://philippineamericanwar.webs.com/ilocosandcagayan1899.htm

13 APRIL

Filipino soldiers in the plaza of Malolos

1899 - Two months after the breakout of the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914), the victories of the Philippine Army in intense gunbattles in Malolos, Marilao, Polo, Novaliches and Mariquina and the great losses suffered by the imperialist American invaders are communicated to the local chief of Gerona, Tarlac; the communique mentions about the Filipinos' positive expectations of their triumph in the Phil-Am War, including how the vile Bald Eagle invaders will supposedly be unable to advance to Marilao in Bulacan; the assessment is based on the analysis of the war defense by the Gen. Antonio Luna y Novicio, Philippine Republic's military leader said to have the greatest capacity for war, two months before members of the Kawit company assassinate Luna on orders of President Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy; the Phil-Am War was deliberately triggered by the imperialist American military under the vile pre-arranged plan of US President William McKinley so as to precipitate a war in the bid to push the American. Senate into approving the ridiculous Treaty of Paris and thus secure funding for invasion operations to annex the Philippines, former Spanish colony that launched the Himagsikan (Revolution) under Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro in late 1896.

12 APRIL

1899 - Gen. Licerio Geronimo y Imaya appoints a foreigner, Arthur Howard, as a Captain of Infantry of the Philippine army and orders his forces, as well as civil and military authorities, to accord the new captain the respect due his rank 21/1 months into the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914), Geronimo's division, his Tiradores de la Muerte (Sharpshooters of Death) troop in particular, will be responsible for felling imperialist American Gen. Henry Ware Lawton eight months later during a historic battle in San Mateo, then wholly part of Rizal province; Howard, said to have been a  deserter from the enemy American ranks (1st California Volunteers),  supposedly trained the Filipino snipers that will tenaciously and courageously kill Lawton, the highest-ranking Bald Eagle military officer killed in action by freedom-fighting Filipinos;  the invading Americans would later appoint Geronimo to the Philippine Constabulary [read:imperialist police force] after a number of U.S. officers found Lawton's killer to be "the most honest, straightforward native that they have ever known"; the Phil-Am War was precipitated by the vile  American soldiers' shooting at some Filipino soldiers crossing the Sta. Ana bridge in Manila on secret orders from  U.S. regimental commanders who were implementing imperialist U.S. President William McKinley's 'pre-arranged plan' to blame the hostilities on the Filipinos so as to push their Senate into approving the Treaty of Paris and, thus, allow the military funding for the annexation of the Philippines; the army and guerrilla forces of the fledgling Philippine Republic will eventually lose to the North American imperialist and future superpower U.S. that set its sights on the Southeast Asian nation for its rich natural resources, including very fertile plains and valleys and "mountains of coal," projected potential markets and its strategic position in the Pacific. 


 Raw photo credit: Macky Hosalla

11 APRIL

1899 - The rather ridiculous Treaty of Paris by which Spain supposedly 'cedes' its former colony that launched a revolution against its rule, the Philippines, to the imperialist United States is ratified by the US Senate two months after the Philippines-American War (1899-1914) was deliberately precipitated by the American military; historians would later learn that the United States Congress decided to go to war based on a fraudulent claim that Filipinos began attacking American soldiers in Manila as part of the vile secret prearranged plan by the U.S. military to instigate a war by implementing the secret orders made by regimental commanders to bring about conflict by firing the first shots at native soldiers trying to cross Sta. Ana bridge in the bid to trick the U.S. Senate into approving the Treaty and, thus, secure funding for military operations to annex the Southeast Asian country; less than a year earlier, the combination of Filipino revolutionary forces and, to an extent, the resulting Manila blockade (following the Spanish-American War), had effectively wrested control of the archipelago from the Spain; most unfortunately, the Republican administration of William McKinley has begun steering the US towards an imperialist course of overseas expansion that would victimize not only the Philippines but, as well, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and, for a time, Cuba, during the early part of the 20th century.


Photo credit: http://www.revolutionintheair.com/histstrategy/forbidbk.html

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

9 APRIL

World War II Bataan (Death) March

1961 - "Bataan Day" is proclaimed as legal holiday in the Philippines under Republic Act No. 3022 to commemorate the start of the Bataan Death March, the World War II atrocity in which some 75,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war were forcibly and often fatally made to march by their Japanese captors from Bataan peninsula towards prison camps; the 1942 event came after the retreating American forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese who earlier made victorious surprise attacks against the imperialist United States Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor and subsequently the air base at Clark Field in Luzon island, the Philippines that was then an American colony; "Bataan Day" would later be changed to the euphemistic "Araw ng Kagitingan" by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1979 following anti-American criticisms and arguments that war defeats should not be celebrated; the inhumane treatment and experience met by the approximately 63,000 Filipino and 12,000 Americans during the march is said to have been caused by the big number of prisoners overwhelming the Japanese whose operation plan was only for 25,000 prisoners of war; the original text of the Philippine law proclaiming April 9 as "Bataan Day" reads:

Section 1. The ninth day of April is hereby proclaimed as Bataan Day, and all public officials and citizens of the Philippines are enjoined to observe such day with a one-minute silence at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon, and to hold appropriate rites in honor of the heroic defenders of Bataan and their parents, wives and/or widows.

Photo credit: http://naturalhealth.ph/fitness/why-im-running-the-bataan-life-march-this-weekend/

8 APRIL

Gen. Antonio Luna - Gen. Baldomero Aguinaldo

1899 - Apolinario Mabini y Maranan, Prime Minister of the fledgling Philippine Republic, writes to President Emilio  Aguinaldo y Famy informing him that the latter's first cousin, Gen. Baldomero Aguinaldo, is willing to be relieved from the Department of War to avoid trouble with Gen. Antonio Luna y Novicio, Chief of Operations; some five months before the imperialist Bald Eagle soldiers precipitated the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), Luna was designated in charge of the war department prior to becoming assistant secretary of war and, nominally, director of war but his plans would continually be revised or rejected by the war secretary, within the context of  President Aguinaldo refusing to give him direct superior command in the field; writing from San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Mabini adds in the report that  “It is the government and not the Chief of Operations [Luna] that is responsible for the war policy; that is why the Chief of Operations should obey";  within two months and even as the Philippine-American War rages on, Gen Luna, thought to be one with the greatest capacity for war among the Filipino leaders, would  be assassinated by members of the Kawit company  apparently upon orders of Pres. Aguinaldo who viewed him as his looming rival in the military hierarchy. 




Raw Photo Credits: http://www.yonip.com/archives/history/history-000051.html

7 APRIL

Bald Eagle imperialism
Photo art: JB

1900 - One year and two months into the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914), imperialist United States President William McKinley instructs the colonial body "Philippine Commission"  (read: Bald Eagle  commission to help colonize the Philippines) to reiterate US intention to establish and organize government – essentially popular in form – in the municipal and provincial administrative divisions of the Philippine Islands; the instructions given to the Philippine Commission that essentially aspires to impose American imperialistic rule through the establishment of a colonial administration teaching local-level governance patterned after that of Washington, comes as a long battle breaks out between Filipino and American forces in Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental on the very same day; the Bald Eagle nation had decided to invade and annex the Philippines for the projected market of processed goods and its rich natural resources that pro-imperialism Sen. Alfred J. Beveridge describes as so rich that:

No land in America surpasses in fertility the plains and valleys of Luzon. Rice and coffee, sugar and coconuts, hemp and tobacco, and many products of the temperate as well as the tropic zone grow in various sections of the archipelago....The wood of the Philippines can supply the furniture of the world for a century to come. At Cebu the best informed man in the island told me that 40 miles of Cebu's mountain chain are practically mountains of coal...

Raw Photo Credit: http://paideia3.blogspot.com/2010/02/ame

rican-imperialism-and-brown.html