30 MAY

Hen. Vicente R. Lukban

1901 - P. Abayan, the local chief of Balangiga, Samar informs Gen. Vicente Lukban y Rilles that the Principales of his town have agreed that they will maintain a policy of contrived friendship with the enemy troops of the imperialist United States during the early stage of the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914); the seething desire of the Balangiga residents to fight for the preservation of Philippine Independence the Filipinos earlier gained following the Revolution against the Spanish colonizers will ultimately be quelled by the fierce brutality of American Gen. Jacob Smith's "kill and burn" policy that will soon turn Samar into a "howling wilderness"; the Filipino freedom-fighters in Samar have engaged in guerrilla-style offensive to defend the fledgling Southeast Asian nation's dignity and independence against the pale-skinned North American enemies, including the surprise Balanginga incident/attack in their church headquarters four months later, prompting the gruesomely barbaric 'retaliatory' order of the invading Bald Eagle army's Gen. Smith to "kill everyone over ten"; the U.S. decided to invade the Philippines  for its rich natural resources, including its "mountains of coal" and its strategic importance to American commercial interests; the Filipino-American War  was secretly precipitated  under the vile pre-arranged plan of  Bald Eagle President William McKinley who schemed to push the American Congress into approving the ridiculous Treaty of Paris  wherein Spain supposedly 'cedes' its former colony to the US following the infamous August 13, 1898 Mock Battle of Manila that falsely showed to the world that it is their forces--instead of the Filipino revolutionaries-- who defeated the Spanish colonizers.

29 MAY

Sen. Lorenzo Tanada y Martinez
1967 Free Press photo

1992 - Ex-Sen. Lorenzo Tanada, y Martinez, Filipino nationalist crusader and civil rights defender dubbed the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics," dies at the ripe old age of 94; the son of the last gobernardorcillo of Gumaca, Quezon during the Spanish colonial rule, he lived a life guided by a philosophy that led him to develop a principled nationalist resolve, as early on seen in his exhortation to fellow University of the Philippines Reserved Officer’s Training Course (ROTC) cadets to take their training seriously in case such would be needed to fight the Americans in case independence is not granted; a pensionado who earned his law degree from Harvard University during the American colonial rule, he became a relentless crusader against imperialist United States' interference in Philippine affairs even after the Bald Eagle's arguable granting of "independence" to the Southeast Asian nation; Tanada's vision and crusade will  eventually see some light several months before his death with the September 16, 1991  rejection of the Philippine-US Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security [read: American imperialist military right to Philippine territory] that was supposed to take the place of the expiring RP-US Military Bases Agreement]; Tanada, already old and sickly, attended the Senate discussions on the Bases Treaty, mustering all his breath in shouting "Mabuhay" upon the reading of the Senate vote rejecting the said military agreement.





Raw photo credit: http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/7071/wik1d300.jpg

28 MAY

1898 -  The Battle of Alapan in Imus Cavite marks the Second Phase of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, waged under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy as his camp returned from exile following the Truce of Biak na Bato earlier forged by him and other Filipino revolutionary leaders with the colonial authorities; more than a year earlier, Aguinaldo's camp was  accused by President Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, leader of the secret-society-turned-revolutionary-government  Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan of secretly negotiating with the enemy Spaniards before the former, a relatively new Katipunero, ordered the abduction and killing of the latter; within seven months from Bonifacio's assassination-cum-execution, Aguinaldo would sign the Biak-na-Bato truce and go into self-exile in Hong Kong;  in about five months, Aguinaldo would return to continue the second phase of the Revolution after imperialist-in-the-making United States convinced  Aguinaldo to resume the fight against Spain as part of what would be a short-lived alliance between the Filipinos and Americans, with Admiral George Dewey deceptively promising the Filipino revolutionary leader that the U.S. will honor Philippine independence; the Battle of Alapan will mark the first time the Philippine flag commissioned by Aguinaldo will be flown.


1906 - The Philippine leper colony in Cebu province, Philippines, is established during the American colonial rule amidst the continuing struggle against the imperialist Bald Eagles by the still un-co-opted Filipino freedom-fighters to protect their land and independence; as the bloody and protracted  Philippine-American War (1899-1914) 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. 



Photo credits:

http://philippine-revolution.110mb.com/alapan.htm
http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p341/manilagalleontrade/culion.jpg?t=1251403264

27 MAY

Bald Eagle consul Rounseville Wildman

1898 - The camp of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, leader of the so-called Second Phase 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 initial unsuccessful trip to meet imperialist 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; the Americans will soon deceptively begin positioning  themselves as "ally" to the  cause of Philippine  independence against the yoke of Spanish  colonization, which will eventually lead Aguinaldo to stupidly permit the Bald Eagle soldiers to freely enter the archipelago, thus inadvertently allowing the infamous Mock Battle of Manila that will falsely show  to the world that it is the United States forces and not the Filipinos that have defeated the colonial Spaniards  in the Southeast Asian islands; on February 4, 1899, the North Americans will formally begin its invasion by deliberately triggering the Philippine-American War (1899-1914) following U.S. regimental commanders' secret orders  to provoke hostilities with Filipino soldiers as part of Bald Eagle President William McKinley's 'pre-arranged plan'   to push their Senate into approving the Treaty of Paris and, thus, allow the annexation [translation: invasion] of the fledgling Southeast Asian Republic.


Photo credit: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27784/27784-h/images/wildman.jpg

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; Spanish colonization of the Southeast Asian archipelago began in 1565 after establishing  settlements in Cebu following a series of expeditions commissioned by the Spanish crown;  the Philippine islands were first "discovered" [translation: first learned about]  by Spain following  the ill-fated 1521 expedition of Ferdinand Magellan who was killed by Mactan island chieftain Lapu-Lapu and his forces during the Battle of Mactan, and then followed up with several other expeditions, with the 1565 expedition by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi as signalling the beginning of the actual or successful Spanish colonization of the Philippines.  

Photo credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGtGajySMbWogAXF4Ox8MMo4akWf9K1vxVjKfhcIazcmOQPvKGzPycLvGZYM6IKkq-8tVrK6rNb_1dfZnV4i9kQ94SbAH6zSAHxEiGF8b9aUogGe_AwtUkm7oQH0jEJ2zsPp-45L0x7-P9/s1600/chinese_chow-chow.jpg

25 MAY

Pablo Tecson y Ocampo

1898 - During the Philippine Revolution against Spain, in the Battle of San Miguel in Bulacan, a band of revolutionaries under Pablo Tecson y Ocampo 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; a Katipunero by the time of the 1896 Himagsikan against Spain, Tecson was among the founders of Balangay Arao, a chapter of the secret society-turned-revolutionary government, Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan, in San Miguel, Bulacan; he became a Brigadier General under Brigada del Pilar and in June 1898 (during the so-called second phase of the Revolution), he led successive attacks against the garrisons of the enemy Spaniards in different parts of Bulacan, yielding much guns and ammunition; his leadership in battles also involved coordination with other revolutionary leaders, including with Gen. Manuel Tinio whose troops he greatly helped in their march from Nueva Ecija to northernmost Luzon and with Gen. Francisco Makabulos to whom he allocated some of the guns he seized from the enemy; Tecson's bravery and effectiveness was later recognized by Gen. Gregorio del Pilar who promoted him to the rank of colonel; Tecson became a delegate to the Malolos Congress which drafted the Charter of the Philippine Republic under Aguinaldo a few months before the imperialist Americans deliberately triggered the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914); in 1902, Tecson served under the Bald Eagle's colonial government as Bulacan governor and later, as Secretary of Agriculture.

Photo credit: http://www.bulacan.gov.ph/generalinfo/governor.php?id=36

24 MAY

1943 - The Director-General of the Japanese Military Administration of the Philippines during World War II congratulates the graduating class of the Institute  for Former [Filipino] USAFFE, 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, the Philippines, and further asks them to strive for the benefit and welfare of their countrymen; the Asian power invaded a host of Oriental lands during the War, driven in part by its 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 earlier invaded the Philippines, which has been a colony of the imperialist Unites States for some four (4) decades, during their so-called December 1941-May 1942 Philippine Campaign, with the  numerically superior defenders able to hold out for months but still succumbing to the Japanese might during the Pacific theatre of the Second World War.


Raw photo credit: http://www.akiraifukube.org/japanese_army.jpg

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 because the British failed to return the leased island), Tarhata became known in local politics for her efforts and resourcefulness in finding ways to plug certain laws that are disadvantageous to the Muslims; as the first woman pensionado (educated in the University of Illinois in the imperialist United States mainland) during the American colonial period her early show of feminist--seeking education thousands of miles away from home--is remarkable during a time when, and in a culture wherein, women were expected to be mere homemakers; she is also noted for helping avert greater bloodshed during her people's revolt in Jolo (led by her husband Datu Tahil, veteran of the 1913 Philippne-American War battle of Bud Bagsak) when she set out to talk with imperialist Governor-General Leonard Wood in January 1927 to try to ask for a Moro governor for their province of Sulu.


Photo credit: http://asakiyume.livejournal.com/466854.html

22 MAY

1867 - Julio Nakpil y Garcia, Filipino patriot, future revolutionary, musician, and composer who will become the second husband of Gregoria de Jesus, future widow of  Supremo Andres Bonifacio of the secret society-turned-revolutionary government, Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan, is born in Quiapo, Manila during the Spanish colonial period; Nakpil, who will be a member of patriot and polymath 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 who would be assassinated based on  what he will later write as orders of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo; perhaps, Nakpil's work that would command most patriotic reverence is the national anthem Bonifacio would ask him to make, the "Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan," which unfortunately would not be used after the Supremo's assassination-by-execution in May 1897, also on fatal orders of Aguinaldo.


Raw photo credit: http://julionakpil.blogspot.com/

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."