21 MAY

Imperialist Gov. Taft addressing the "Philippine Assembly"

1909- While the Philippine-American War (1899-1914) continues, particularly 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 has served as the lower house of the mostly American-in-composition Philippine Commission [translation: Bald Eagle body of colonial control] passes a resolution declaring that the Filipino people's constant desire is to attain independence; genuine democratic Filipino representation to the Philippine Assembly, which for a time was effectively the lower house to the appointive, all-American Philippine Commission, is however dubious because at least during the first elections in 1907, only less than 1.5% of the Filipinos were able to vote their representatives to the Assembly, because of the severe qualification requirements (real estate ownership worth at least P500; able to read and write; and could speak in Spanish or English)

Photo credit: http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Philippine%20Assembly/

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

19 MAY

1898 - Some 10 months before imperialist United States forces formally invade the Philippines, Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo, leader of the Philippine revolutionary forces fighting to overthrow Spanish colonial rule, ends his exile following American invitation for him to rally Filipinos against Spain; arriving at Cavite province aboard the revenue cutter USRC McCulloch, Aguinaldo will soon confer with Admiral George Dewey to forge an alliance against Spain, later saying that the Bald Eagle admiral has categorically stated that the United States will recognize Philippine Independence supposedly because "America is exceedingly well off as regards territory, revenue, and resources and therefore needs no colonies;" earlier in Hong Kong on April 22--three days before the U.S. declared war on Spain--the American consul general to Singapore, E. Spencer Pratt, conferred with Aguinaldo to discuss strategy against Spain, with Pratt promising Philippine independence under their protection; U.S. consul Rounsenville Wildman also told Aguinaldo that Dewey wanted the latter to return from exile and resume the fight for independence; earlier, a few months after eliminating Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the former head of the revolutionary forces, Aguinaldo forged a truce with the Spaniards in the December 1897 Pact of Biak-na-Bato.

 

Raw photo credit: http://www.uscg.mil/history/img/USRC_2.jpg

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 the fierce but failed battle against the formidably armed colonizing Castillians, the Battle of Bangkusay; nearly exactly a year earlier in May 1570, the tribal chief waged a battle against the Spaniards-- even as other kingdoms in the Southeast Asian archipelago accepted the foreigners--when Sulayman learned that "friendship" with the pale-skinned foreigners meant vassalage; while this initial (Filipino) battle for freedom was unsuccessful, they nonetheless gave a hard time to the more equipped forces of the Spanish invaders, thanks to the superior-quality cannons Sulayman had commissioned from Panday Pira, a blacksmith from the archipelago's southern islands.

Raw photo credit: http://www.myfourthirds.com/files/1097/1P3023658.jpg

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 recognized as a Philippine National Artist shortly after his death in 1981;  de Leon will also win a Gawad Urian Lifetime Achievement Award (1978), already received the 1952 Maria Clara Award and adjudged Best Director for the 1951 film "Sisa"; he would become the first National Artist in Cinema, winning the award in 1982 in recognition of his great contribution to Philippine movies; in May 2002, his films will be showcased during the Filipino film festival at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), a news article of which describes de Leon as "the master filmmaker of the 1950s and 1960s," who counts as among his best films: “Sisa,” 1951; “Ifugao,” 1954; “El Filibusterismo” (Subversion), 1962 and “Ang Daigdig Ng Mga Api” (The World of the Oppressed), 1965"; the movie legend will be able to work on just about every available genre of films during his lifetime, with many of his projects being re-released and imported to the United States and the United Kingdom, including the Day of the Trumpet, Terror is a Man, “'Intramuros,”' “'Ibulong Mo sa Hangin,'” Women in Cages, and even a vampire film,“'Kulay Dugo ang Gabi'”;  in his lifetime, his directorial work will list a total of some 67 films, his acting stint will number about  15, as he will be credited for writing five (5)  and producing two (2) movies.



Photo credit: http://fil.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Imahen:Gerry.jpg

16 MAY

1903 - Apolinario Mabini y Maranan, 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 (1899-1914) was still being waged; following his capture by invading American soldiers, Mabini refused to swear fealty to the imperialist United States flag, causing his and other defiant compatriots' exile to Guam in 1901, 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; born in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas to Dionisia Maranan and  Inocencio in 1864,  Mabini is regarded the "Brains" of the second phase of the Philippine Revolution and became Prime Minister of what would be the short-lived  Philippine Republic under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo; one of Mabini's works published posthomously is the "La Revolucion Filipina" (later translated into English, The Philippine Revolution), his account of the first and second phases of the 1896 Himagsikan, including how Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the Supreme President of the secret-society-turned-revolutionary-government  Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan, was 'assassinated' on orders of Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, describing the act as a "crime" that was  the "first victory of personal ambition over true patriotism."

15 MAY

1889 - Filipino reformist Graciano Lopez Jaena's  article, "How to deceive the motherland," is published in La Solidaridad, the publication of illustrados who aim at representing and advocating the colonial cause of the Philippines before Spain's parliament, during the Spanish colonial period; Jaena counters the La Voz de Espana's editorial declaring religion and traditionalism—to the exclusion of the Spanish language or government reforms—as the only things that unite the Spanish colony with the metropolis; Jaena's article castigates the editorial of La Voz de Espana not only for defending the friars but also for impairing the "national decorum" and destroying the plans of Spain's Minister of Colonies with regards the diffusion of the Castillian language in the Philippine Islands; Jaena writes:

   

Neither obscurantism and fanaticism nor oppression nor superstitions ever united nor have united peoples; on the other hand, liberty, rights, love draw distinct races round the same standard, one aspiration, one destiny.

Finally, La Voz de España lies when it says that the monastic orders preserve the Philippines for Spain. It is a calumny to say that the Filipinos love Spain because of the friars. The Filipinos do not need selfish wet nurses in order to throw themselves into the arms of the mother country and unburden themselves in her maternal lap of their troubles, their complaints and their afflictions. He is a despicable person who would say that because the Filipinos are anti-friar, they are therefore subversives.

14 May

1935 - The colonial-era Constitution of the Philippines during the imperialist American ("Commonwealth") period is ratified by a plebiscite held after United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt certified it as conforming with Public Act No. 127 earlier passed by the US Congress; the 1935 Charter will serve as the fundamental law of the Philippines from 1935 and will be amended in 1940 and in 1947, two years after neo-imperialist America grants its colony "independence"; Claro M. Recto, who will be one of sternest critics of American colonial rule, advocating Philippine autonomy and removal of the US military bases, and the controversial parity rights that gives Americans the right to exploit Philippine natural resources, served as the president of the 1934 Constitutional Convention that drafted the said Charter; the Philippines fell under the Bald Eagle's imperialistic rule following the breakout of the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914) when the vile North Americans reneged on their promise to respect the independence of the Filipinos who already de facto won the Revolution against Spain and with Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy declaring Philippine Independence on June 12, 1899--developments that intersected with the Spanish-American War.


Photo credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/1935Constitution.jpg

13 MAY

1943 - The Director-General, Japanese Military Administration, gives instructions during the Second Oath-Taking Ceremony of former USAFFE officers and men eighteen months into Japan's Occupation of the Philippines in World War II; the three cardinal requirements for the attainment of Philippine independence are spelled out, with the Director-General concluding his address by encouraging the Filipinos to serve as the foundation for the creation of  Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, an anti-Western master plan/vision of Japanese hegemonic leadership over a modernizing and united Asia that is rid of Western imperialism, Japan being the strongest Asian nation; the Director-General's words seek to receive the loyalty of Filipinos and stresses the Japanese policy of granting the Filipinos independence:

All of you who have solemnly taken the oath of allegiance to the Imperial Japanese Forces are herewith granted the status of provisional release... Formerly, you were all regular members of the USAFFE and in that capacity actively took up arms against the Imperial Japanese Forces...This generosity to former Filipino combatants is due entirely to the magnanimity of the Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines which is acting in strict accordance with the basic national policy of the Imperial Japanese Government which considers only the Americans as enemies and looks upon the Filipinos as friends and brothers and not as hostile foes.

xxx The Philippines at the present moment is in a position which is quite opposite to what you faced at the time you took up arms against Japan. On January 21 of last year and again on January 28 of this year the Imperial Japanese Government enunciated to the entire world its basic policy of granting independence to the Philippines should the Filipinos come to understand the true intentions of the Japanese nation in waging the War of Greater East Asia and cooperate actively in the establishment of the Co-Prosperity Sphere of Oriental people.

 Photo credits: http://jibrael.blogspot.com/2009/10/images-during-japanese-sneak-attack-of.html

12 MAY

Pres. Diosdado Macapagal y Pangan

1962 - Philippine Independence Day is moved from July 4 to June 12 by President Diosdado Macapagal y Pangan through Republic Act No. 4166 in a rare show of nationalism by Filipinos who have long observed the American-dictated post-World War II July 4 (1946) as Independence Day; Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, revolutionary leader during the Philippine Revolution against Spain, declared the country's independence on June 12, 1898 and established the Philippine Republic on January 23, 1899 before the Bald Eagle imperialists under President William McKinley began its war of invasion of the Southeast Asian archipelago a month later, with the bloody and savage Philippine-American War (1899-1914) erupting on February 4, 1899 and raging for about a decade; Macapagal stated that the June 12 1898 Proclamation by Aguinaldo, who grabbed revolutionary leadership from Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, was a legitimate assertion of the Filipinos' inherent and inalienable right to claim independence and freedom; Macapagal laudably pointed out that any celebration of independence should be made on the basis of the people's declaration of it and not on the recognition of a foreign power; for the change of Independence Day to become permanent, Congress acted on the proclamation by passing Republic Act 4166 in 1964, thus confirming the change of the country's Independence Day from July 4 to June 12. 

Photo credit: http://books.google.com/books?id=vqKsKUUSNNQC&dq=diosdado+macapagal+independence+day&source=gbs_navlinks_s

11 MAY

1897 - A day after Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy sealed tightly his revolutionary power grab by the elimination of Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the former loses pitched battles against the Spanish colonial forces under Governor-General Primo de Rivera in Indang, Cavite, enabling the enemy colonizers to recapture a number of upland towns including Mendez, Nunez, Alfonso, Baileng, Magallanes, and Maragondon, the mountain site of Bonifacio's murder; Apolinario Mabini y Maranan, Aguinaldo's future trusted adviser and Prime Minister, will write decades later that Aguinaldo's power-grab against and assassination-cum-execution of Supremo Bonifacio was a tragedy that "smothered the enthusiasm for the revolutionary cause," with many revolutionaries from "Manila, Laguna, and Batangas, who were fighting for the province (of Cavite)" being demoralized and subsequently quitting.


Photo credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTip4K9u_0-CCInzvFPwFRvN8cTisISJ-wdPsHHs5jBBJCiWbUR7nUybxQvAComiAXIcsj_4TYlyRJXBvWVqoHngTs25_JR_1u9xEsfMOfq-HOzxLSBSBmNnmn4Tq3q4PpoMiWyB42kV9h/s1600/Filipino+artillery+firing+in+Cavite+1897+or+1898.jpg

10 MAY

1897 - The "execution" of Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the Supremo and co-founder of the secret-society-turned-revolutionary-government Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan, along with his brother Procopio, is carried out under rather surreptitious circumstances by men of power-grabber Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy in the mountains of Maragondon, either Mt. Buntis or Mt. Tala; the tragic murder-by-execution of Bonifacio, the revolutionary leader until the fraudulent and anomalous Tejeros Convention subsequently led to his abduction and 'kangaroo court' trial (with his own lawyer, Placido Martinez attacking him for this 'guilt' before asking the court for clemency), and sentence of "guilty" for treason, sedition, and attempt to assassinate Aguinaldo, came one day after the 22nd birthday of his wife, Gregoria de Jesus; upon orders of Aguinaldo for Agapito Bonzon and Ignacio Paua to abduct and bring the Supremo before him dead or alive, the Bonifacio brothers were treacherously attacked during around April 27/28, causing the instant death of Ciriaco and the serious wounding of the Supremo before he and surviving brother Procopio, along with de Jesus (who was later raped by Yntong) were forcibly brought to Naic and made to stand 'trial' before a court martial council formed under supposed authority of the revolutionary "government" that purportedly superseded the Katipunan; Bonifacio, who was seditiously charged with contriving to supposedly overthrow the newly formed revolutionary government of Aguinaldo formed on the basis of the Tejeros Convention, but which was nullified by the Supremo and 40 other Katipuneros through the Acta de Tejeros, Bonifacio testified that he did not know of the existence of any other revolutionary government (other than the Katipunan), apparently referring to his earlier expressed belief that  Aguinaldo was not validly elected, as partly based on the declaration of Artemio Ricarte, and that he was unaware if any oath-taking has taken place;  historical accounts will differ as to the manner of the Supremo's death, with some claiming that his death done by hacking while in a hammock, having been too weak to offer any resistance or attempt to flee, as he was shot in the arm and then stabbed in the throat during their abduction; Apolinario Mabini y Maranan, Aguinaldo's own future adviser and Prime Minister, will dub the 'execution' as an act of "assassination," further castigating Aguinaldo for his insubordination to the Katipunan Supremo and describing his power-grab against, and subsequent elimination of, the Bonifacio as the "the first victory of personal ambition over true patriotism." 


 Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150885675761692&set=a.439468911691.238651.249283126691&type=3&permPage=1

9 MAY

1875 - Gregoria de Jesus, future Filipina patriot and first woman initiated in the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak , the secret revolutionary organization aimed at overthrowing Spanish colonial rule, is born in Caloocan, Manila; nicknamed Oriang, she will become the wife of Gat Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the revolutionary movement’s co-founder, Supremo and soul of the 1896 Revolution—to be wedded first under Catholic Church rites in Binondo and later, under Katipunan rites in the house of their sponsors; to be dubbed the “Lakambini” of the Katipunan, she will be elected vice-president of the Katipunan's women's chapter called "La Semilla";  Oriang will early on become a widow when Bonifacio is deposed fraudulently, ordered seized dead or alive, subjected to kangaroo court martial trial and ordered executed by the power-grabbing Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy; during the attack and seizure of the Supremo who was shot and then stabbed at the throat, Oriang will be raped by one of Aguinaldo’s men but following the Supremo’s killing, the Lakambini will marry a second time to Julio Nakpil, a close friend of the Supremo.

Photo credit: http://bahaynakpil.org/images/lola_gorya_invite.png

8 MAY

1897 - Baldomero Aguinaldo, Auditor of the 'kangaroo court' Council of War formed by his power-grabbing cousin, Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, upholds the decision declaring Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, co-founder and Supreme President of the secret-society-turned-revolutionary-government Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan as"guilty", along with his younger brother Procopio, of trumped-up charges of trying to assassinate and depose Aguinaldo who claims to be the new revolutionary leader on the basis of what is really the fraudulent and scandalous Tejeros Convention; the camp of the Katipunan leader had been treacherously attacked, with the Bonifacio brothers being shot at and Andres' wife, Gregoria de Jesus, subsequently raped by Col. Agapito Bonzon, alias "Yntong" who was among those ordered by Aguinaldo to seize the Supremo dead or alive on the last week of April; the Supremo, who was almost fatally stabbed at the throat by Col. Ignacio Paua and his surviving brother, Procopio, were brought to Naic, with the former being carried in a hammock, imprisoned without visit and negligibly fed, to stand "trial"in Aguinaldo's effort to eliminate the Supremo and seal his power grab the co-founder and soul of the Philippine revolution against Spain; amidst the (1) Acta de Tejeros, issued by Bonifaco and signed by some 40 other Katipuneros, which nullified the Tejeros Convention; (2) Gen. Artemio Ricarte's earlier statement declaring the Tejeros fraudulent; (3) the surreptitious oath-taking of Aguinaldo and his Magdalo camp kept hidden from both the Magdiwang KKK chapter and from Bonifacio (who won as Interior Secretary, (4) the fact that the Bonifacio camp actually cordially and warmly welcomed Bonzon as "capatid" the night before and just before the attack, and (5) the kangaroo-court character of the trial where the Supremo's defense lawyer Placido Martinez was not only a part of the tribunal but also condemned Bonifacio as guilty (and then enters plea of clemency), Baldomero, head of the Katipunan Magdalo faction, ridiculously upholds the decision to shoot the Bonifacio brothers to death based on council's findings that they were guilty of supposedly having:

...enlisted soldiers with guns and swords without proper authority from this government of the Tagalog provinces; that Andres Bonifacio, with his brothers, Procopio and Ciriaco, often held secret meetings with Diego Mojica, Silvestre Domingo, and Santos Nocom, and that it was their design to overthrow the government and kill the president.

7 MAY

1943 - Lt. Gen. Sizuiti Tanaka, the highest Commander of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Philippines, gives instructions during the First Anniversary of the Fall of Corregidor and Peace and Order Day at Luneta, Manila; Tanaka hails the Fall of Corregidor during World War II as  "a momentous date in Philippine history because it stands for the end of the 40 odd years of American domination and the birthday of the New Philippines," claiming that 18 million Filipinos stand united in marking "the great day with jubilation and thanksgiving or their happy deliverance from the age-long tentacles of Western imperialism"; Tanaka highlights the military, spiritual, and economic ties of the Oriental people under the Co-Prosperity Sphere while castigating Anglo-American imperialism:

To all of us in the East, the Fall of Corregidor is significant because it represents the final expulsion and decisive uprooting of Anglo-American power and influence from the sacred soil of the Orient. For the Philippines, this day is significantly a day of great rejoicing because it marks the first progressive stage in your march towards the goal of independence. Your complete liberation from American influence and domination in political, economic, and spiritual existence could never have been accomplished so thoroughly or so speedily except by the armed intervention of the Japanese Empire. This is the basic reason for the sincere and overwhelming jubilation permeating thruout [sic] the Philippines today and the basis of the increasing understanding and collaboration between and among the Japanese and Filipinos in pursuit of their common cause.

Photo credit: http://s1.hubimg.com/u/3440584_f520.jpg