Mandirigma.org» The Katipunan https://mandirigma.org Mandirigma Research Organization Fri, 23 May 2025 08:49:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 Photo: Members of “The Tinio Brigade”. Anti American Resistance in the Ilocos Provinces, 1899-190. https://mandirigma.org/?p=3760 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3760#respond Sat, 20 Jul 2019 21:14:44 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3760 Photo: Members of “The Tinio Brigade”. Anti American Resistance in the Ilocos Provinces, 1899-190.

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Staff: (to which Apolinario Querubin’s Guerilla 4 belonged) seated L to R: Captain Yldefonso Villareal, Brig. Gen. Benito Natividad, Brig. Gen. Manuel Tinio, Lt. Col. Joaquin Alejandrino and Maj. Joaquin Buencamino(son of Felipe Buencamino, a minister in the Aguinaldo cabinet); Standing L to R: 2lt. Francisco Natividad and two unidentified officers; Seated: the 15 year-old officer 2Lt. Pastor Alejandrino.

 

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Tinio

Manuel Tinio y Bundoc (June 17, 1877 – February 22, 1924) was the youngest General[2] of the Philippine Revolutionary Army, and was elected Governor[3] of the Province of Nueva Ecija, Republic of the Philippines in 1907. He is one of the three Fathers of the Cry of Nueva Ecija along with Pantaleon Valmonte and Mariano Llanera.

Manuel Tinio, then 18 years old, joined the Katipunan in April 1896. By August he had organized a company composed of friends, relatives and tenants. Personally leading his group of teenaged guerillas, he conducted raids and depredations against Spanish detachments and patrols in Nueva Ecija. Occasionally, he joined up with similar forces under other youthful leaders.

An Early flag of the Katipunan.

On September 2, 1896, Manuel Tinio and his men joined the combined forces of Mariano Llanera and Pantaleon Belmonte, capitanes municipales or mayors of Cabiao and Gapan, respectively, in the attack on San Isidro. Of 3,000 who volunteered, 500 determined men were chosen for the attack. Led by a bamboo orchestra or musikong bumbong of Cabiao, the force came in two separate columns from Cabiao and Gapan City and converged in Sitio Pulu, 5 km. from San Isidro. Despite the fact that they had only 100 rifles, they furiously fought the Spaniards holed up in the Casa Tribunal, the arsenal, other government buildings and in the houses of Spanish residents. Capt. Joaquin Machorro, commander of the Guardias Civiles, was killed on the first day of battle. According to Julio Tinio, Manuel’s cousin and a participant in the battle, Manuel had a conference in the arsenal with Antonio Luna and Eduardo Llanera, the general’s son, immediately after the battle.

The Spanish authorities hastily organized a company of 200 civilian Spaniards and mercenaries the following day and attacked the overconfident insurgents, driving the besiegers away from the government center. The next day more Spanish reinforcements arrived from Peñaranda, forcing the poorly armed rebels to retreat, leaving behind 60 dead. The Spaniards went in hot pursuit of the insurgents, forcing those from Cabiao to flee to Candaba, Pampanga, and those from Gapan to hide in San Miguel de Mayumo in Bulacan. The insurgents from San Isidro fled across the river to hide in Jaen. The relatives of those who were recognized were driven away from their homes by the colonial authorities. Manuel Tinio and his troop stayed to protect the mass of people from Calaba, San Isidro, who were all his kinfolk, hastening across the river to Jaen, Nueva Ecija.

The Spaniards’ relentless pursuit of the rebels forced them to disband and go into hiding until January 1897. Tinio was a special target. At 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) tall, he literally stood out among the attackers, whose average height was below 5 feet (150 cm). He fled to Licab. A platoon of cazadores (footsoldiers) was sent to arrest him, forcing Hilario Tinio Yango, his first cousin and the Capitan Municipal of the town, to lead them to him. Warned of the approaching soldiers, Manuel again escaped and fled on foot back to San Isidro, where, in the barrios of Calaba, Alua and Sto. Cristo, he hid with relatives in their various farms beside the Rio Gapan (now known as the Peñaranda River). Fear of arrest compelled him to be forever on the move. He never slept in the same place. Later on, he would attribute his ill health in his middle age to the privations he endured during those months of living exposed to the elements.

The passionate rebels reorganized their forces the moment Spanish pursuit died down. Tinio and his men marched with Gen. Llanera in his sorties against the Spaniards. Llanera eventually made Tinio a Captain.

The aggressive exploits of the teen-aged Manuel Tinio reached the ears of General Emilio Aguinaldo, whose forces were being driven out of Cavite and Laguna, Philippines. He evacuated to Mount Puray in Montalban, Rizal and called for an assembly of patriots in June 1897. In that assembly, Aguinaldo appointed Mamerto Natividad, Jr. as commanding general of the revolutionary army and Mariano Llanera as vice-commander with the rank of Lt.-General. Manuel Tinio was commissioned a Colonel and served under Gen. Natividad.

The constant pressure from the army of Gov. Gen. Primo de Rivera drove Aguinaldo to Central Luzon. In August, Gen. Aguinaldo decided to move his force of 500 men to the caves of Biac-na-Bato in San Miguel, Bulacan because the area was easier to defend. There, his forces joined up with those of Gen. Llanera. With the help of Pedro Paterno, a prominent Philippines lawyer, Aguinaldo began negotiating a truce with the Spanish government in exchange for reforms, an indemnity, and safe conduct.

On August 27, 1897, Gen. Mamerto Natividad and Col. Manuel Tinio conducted raids in Carmen, Zaragoza and Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija. Three days later, on the 30th, they stormed and captured Santor (now Bongabon) with the help of the townspeople. They stayed in that town till September 3.

On September 4, with the principal objective of acquiring provisions lacking in Biac-na-Bato, Gen. Natividad and Col. Manuel Tinio united their forces with those of Col. Casimiro Tinio, Gen. Pío del Pilar, Col. Jose Paua and Eduardo Llanera for a dawn attack on Aliaga. (Casimiro Tinio, popularly known as ‘Capitan Berong’, was an elder brother of Manuel through his father’s first marriage.)

Thus began the Battle of Aliaga, considered one of the most glorious battles of the rebellion. The rebel forces took the church and convent, the Casa Tribunal and other government buildings. The commander of the Spanish detachment died in the first moments of fighting, while those who survived were locked up in the thick-walled jail. The rebels then proceeded to entrench themselves and fortify several houses. The following day, Sunday the 5th, the church and convent as well as a group of houses were put to the torch due to exigencies of defense.

Spanish Governor General Primo de Rivera fielded 8,000 Spanish troops under the commands of Gen. Ricardo Monet and Gen. Nuñez in an effort to recapture the town. A column of reinforcements under the latter’s command arrived in the afternoon of September 6. They were met with such a tremendous hail of bullets that the general, two captains and many soldiers were wounded, forcing the Spaniards to retreat a kilometer away from the town to await the arrival of Gen. Monet and his men. Even with the reinforcements, the Spaniards were overly cautious in attacking the insurgents. When they did so the next day, they found the town already abandoned by the rebels who had gone back to Biac-na-Bato. Filipino casualties numbered 8 dead and 10 wounded.

Gen. Natividad and Col. Manuel Tinio shifted to guerrilla warfare. The following October with full force they attacked San Rafael, Bulacan to get much-needed provisions for Biac-na-Bato. The battle lasted several days and, after getting what they came for, they left a detachment in Bo. Kaingin to hold back the Spanish reinforcements from Baliwag, Bulacan. To divert Spanish forces from Nueva Ecija, Natividad and Tinio attacked Tayug, Pangasinan on Oct. 4, 1897, occupying the church in the heart of the poblacion.

Meanwhile, peace negotiations continued and in October Aguinaldo gathered together his generals to convene a constitutional assembly. On Nov. 1, 1897 the Constitution was unanimously approved and on that day the Biac-na-Bato Republic was established.

However, Gen. Natividad, who believed in the revolution, opposed the peace negotiations and continued to fight indefatigably from Biac-na-Bato. On Nov. 9, while leading a force of 200 men with Gen. Pío del Pilar and Col. Ignacio Paua, Natividad was killed in action in Entablado, Cabiao. Col. Manuel Tinio brought the corpse back to the general’s grieving wife in Biac-na-Bato. (Incidentally, Gen. Natividad’s widow, Trinidad, was the daughter of Casimiro Tinio–”Capitan Berong”.) With the death of the army’s commanding general, Col. Manuel Tinio was commissioned Brigadier General and designated as commanding general of operations on Nov. 20, 1897. Gen. Tinio, all of 20 years, became the youngest general of the Philippine Revolutionary Army. (Gregorio del Pilar, already 22, was only a Lt. Colonel at that time.)

On Dec. 20, 1897, the Pact of the Biac-na-Bato was ratified by the Assembly of Representatives. In accordance with the terms of the peace pact, Aguinaldo went to Sual, Pangasinan, where he and 26 members of the revolutionary government boarded a steamer to go into voluntary exile in Hongkong. The Novo-Ecijanos in the group were Manuel Tinio, Mariano and Eduardo Llanera, Benito and Joaquin Natividad, all signatories of the Constitution.

In Hongkong, the exiles agreed among themselves to live as a community and spend only the interest of the initial P400,000 the Spanish Government had paid in accordance with the Pact of the Biac-na-Bato. The principal was to be used for the purchase of arms for the continuation of the revolution at a future time. The Artacho faction, however, wanted to divide the funds of the Revolution among themselves. The Novo-Ecijanos did not vote with the opportunist Artacho ‘faction’, and, being relatively well off, thanks to a relative who provided them with funds (Trinidad Tinio vda. de Natividad), “they got a house where they lived like a republic”, as they said.

Would history have been different if the Spanish authorities had not reneged on the terms of the Pact and withheld the amount of P900,000 which was supposed to have been divided among non-combatants who had suffered in the fighting? Thus shortchanged, considering themselves no longer honor bound to lay down arms, the revolutionists rose again. Once again fighting broke out all over Luzon. In Nueva Ecija, the rebels captured the towns again one by one.

But American intervention was on the way. As early as February 1898 an American naval squadron had steamed into Manila Bay. On May 1, less than a week after the declaration of the Spanish–American War, the American naval squadron completely destroyed the Spanish fleet. Admiral Dewey of the United States of America immediately dispatched the revenue cutter “McCulloch” to Hongkong to fetch Aguinaldo, who returned to the Philippines on May 19. On May 21 Aguinaldo issued a proclamation asking the nation to rally behind him in a second attempt to obtain independence. Revolutionary leaders promptly stepped up their raids and ambuscades on Spanish garrisons in Central Luzon, capturing more than 5,000 prisoners. By the end of May, the whole of central and southern Luzon, except Manila, was practically in Filipino hands. Aguinaldo promptly established a Dictatorial Government on May 24, with himself as Supremo (supreme commander) and proclaimed Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898. Apolinario Mabini, however, prevailed upon Aguinaldo to decree the establishment of a Revolutionary Government on June 23.

Manuel Tinio and the rest of the revolutionists in Hongkong sailed for Cavite on June 6 on board the 60-ton contraband boat “Kwan Hoi” to join their Filipino leader. Upon his arrival in Cavite, Tinio was instructed to organize an expeditionary force to wrest the Ilocano provinces from Spanish hands. Thus would start the thrust into the North and its conquest by Novo-Ecijano General Manuel Tinio. First, he retrieved from Hagonoy, Bulacan 300 Mauser and Remington rifles that had been captured from the Spaniards and stored in that town. He then took the steamer to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. Upon his arrival on June 13 he immediately set up 3 companies of 108 men each under the commands of Captains Joaquin Alejandrino, Jose Tombo and 1st Lt. Joaquin Natividad who was given overall command. All the officers were Novo-Ecijanos, except for Celerino Mangahas who hailed from Paombong, Bulacan.

On July 7, 1898 Aguinaldo reorganized the provincial government of Nueva Ecija and appointed Felino Cajucom as governor. The province was divided into four military zones:

  • Zone 1 under Gen. Mariano Llanera with Gen. Tinio as deputy covered the towns of San Isidro, San Antonio, Jaén, Gapan and Peñaranda;
  • Zone 2 under Pablo Padilla and Angelo San Pedro covered the towns of Cabanatuan, San Leonardo, Sta. Rosa, Sto. Domingo and Talavera;
  • Zone 3 under Delfin Esquivel and Ambrosio Esteban covered the towns of Aliaga, Licab, Zaragoza, San Jose, San Juan de Guimba and Cuyapo;
  • Zone 4 under Manuel Natividad and Francisco Nuñez covered the towns of Rosales, Nampicuan, Umingan, Balungao and San Quintin.

On June 19, Gen. Tinio and his men proceeded to Pangasinan to assist Gen. Makabulos in the siege of Dagupan which was the most important of the three Spanish strongholds in the North at that time, the others being Tarlac, Tarlac and San Fernando, La Union. Dagupan was held by the Spaniards under the command of Col. Federico J. Ceballos. In Dagupan, Gen. Tinio met the force of Lt. Col. Casimiro Tinio, composed of Captains Feliciano Ramoso and Pascual Tinio, Lt. Severo Ortega, several other officers, and 300 Novo-Ecijano soldiers. Gen. Makabulos, who had taken over the Central Luzon Command the previous April, was optimistic that he had the situation well in hand and allowed Gen. Tinio and the combined Novo-Ecijano troops at Dagupan to proceed northward to liberate Ilocos from the Spaniards. This Ilocos Expeditionary Force would become the nucleus of the future Tinio Brigade.

The Novo-Ecijano troops, now over 600 strong, reached San Fernando, on July 22, the day that Dagupan surrendered to Gen. Makabulos. They found the capital of La Union already besieged by revolutionists under the command of Gen. Mauro Ortiz. The Spaniards, under the command of Col. Jose Garcia Herrero, were entrenched in the convent, the Casa Tribunal and the provincial jail and were waiting for succour. Gen. Tinio wanted a ceasefire and sent for Col. Ceballos in Dagupan to mediate a peaceful capitulation of the San Fernando garrison. But despite news that the Spaniards had already surrendered Central Luzon to the Revolutionists and the pleadings of Col. Ceballos, the besieged Spaniards refused to capitulate. On the morning of the eighth day, July 31, Gen. Tinio ordered the assault of the convent from the adjoining church. At a cost of 5 lives and 3 wounded, Capt. Alejandrino’s company occupied the kitchen and cut the water supply in the aljibe or cistern under the azotea, the terrace beside the kitchen. At 4 p.m. a 4″-cannon taken from the gunboat “Callao” moored in the harbor was fired against the left side of the convent. The deafening blast frightened the Spaniards who immediately called for a ceasefire and flew the white flag. Alejandrino received the saber of Lt. Col. Herrero as a token of surrender. 400 men, 8 officers, 377 rifles, 3 cannons and P 12,000 in government silver were turned over. Upon seeing his captors, the Spanish commander wept in rage and humiliation, for many of the Filipino officers and men were but mere youths. Gen. Tinio himself had just turned 21 the previous month!

From San Fernando the Tinio Brigade and its prisoners marched on to Balaoan, where they met stubborn resistance from the enemy who were again entrenched in the convent. The siege lasted for five days, and, despite the support of the populace, resulted in the deaths of more than 70 Filipinos, mostly townspeople. Camilo Osías, a witness to the event, wrote in his memoirs that after the siege, the Balaoan katipuneros were inducted en masse into the ranks of the Tinio Brigade. Meanwhile, the company of Capt. Alejandrino, dispatched earlier by Gen. Tinio to reconnoiter and clear the neighboring commandancia or military district of Benguet, had met no opposition for the small force of cazadores in La Trinidad had fled to Bontoc upon learning of their approach. Alejandrino immediately turned back and rejoined Gen. Tinio.

From Balaoan, the rebels marched on to Bangar, the northernmost town of La Union, where they laid siege to the Spaniards holed up, again, in the convent. They won a victory on Aug. 7 after four days of fighting at a cost of 2 casualties. 87 Spaniards surrendered in Bangar.

The Tinio Brigade then crossed the mighty Amburayan River that divides the province of La Union from Ilocos Sur. The colonial force occupying the strategic heights on the opposite bank was the last obstacle to Tinio’s advance to Vigan. Tinio stormed their positions, causing the enemy to withdraw to Tagudin,[5]:250 the first town of Ilocos Sur. There, the Spaniards consolidated all the available forces they could muster (1,500 men according to one source)[5]:250 and prepared to make a stand in the convent and surrounding buildings. However, their spirited defense the first three days turned into a rout, when the native volunteers in the Spanish army deserted their units to fight with the rebels. The Brigade suffered no casualties in that siege. The Spaniards fled north, but were intercepted in Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur by Ilocano and Abra revolutionists under Gen. Isabelo Abaya.

The Tinio Brigade, now over 2,000 strong, marched northward and encountered the Ilocano patriots in Sabuanan, Sta. Lucia. The latter escorted them to Candon, whose inhabitants jubilantly received the conquerors.

There, Isabelo Abaya, a native of the place and the initiator of the revolution in Ilocos, was given a regular rank of Captain of Infantry in the Tinio Brigade.

On August 13, 1898, the same day that the Spaniards surrendered Intramuros to the Americans, Gen. Tinio entered Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur and the citadel of Spanish power in the North.[5]:251 He found the capital already in rebel hands. Gov. Enrique Polo de Lara, newly appointed Spanish governor of both Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, had fled to Laoag, the capital of Ilocos Norte, with all the resident Spaniards of Vigan. There he spent five days at the beach of Diriqui, loading the civilians and friars, including Bishop Campomanes, on boats which would hazard the rough weather for the journey to Aparri. He then ordered the troops under Col. Mariano Arques, district commander of the Civil Guards and Jefe de Linea in Ilocos, to take the coastal road to Aparri, Cagayan.

Upon his arrival in Vigan, Gen. Tinio had immediately launched a two-pronged movement to capture the Spaniards fleeing northward and those escaping into the interior.[5]:251 He dispatched his brother, Casimiro, with a light cavalry column of 600 men to Ilocos Norte to pursue the fleeing enemy. Without encountering any opposition along the way, the Filipino column reached Laoag on August 17. They overtook some of the fleeing Spaniards at Bacarra, the next town, where, after exchanging a few token shots, more than 300 Spaniards surrendered. The Spaniards had heard of the humane treatment Gen. Tinio afforded prisoners and did not put up much of a fight.

Two companies were then dispatched to Bangui, the northernmost town of Ilocos Norte, and to Claveria, the first town in Cagayan. Capt. Vicente Salazar’s company pressed the northward pursuit with more tenacity, overtaking the enemy on the road to the Patapat Pass leading to Cagayan province. Right there and then, on August 22, Col. Arques and some 200 Spanish regulars, all tired and frustrated, surrendered almost willingly. In Patapat itself, the crack Regiment No. 70, composed of Ilocano and Visayan volunteers, stationed there to guard the pass, deserted their officers and joined the revolutionaries. The enemy was on the run, and even Aparri at the very end of Luzon was secured too by the detachment under the command of Col. Daniel Tirona.

Relentlessly, from Vigan, Capt. Alejandrino and 500 men, with Capt. Isabelo Abaya as guide, went to Bangued, Abra to track and capture the enemy who were retreating towards the rugged and mountainous interior towns of Cervantes, Lepanto and Bontoc. The Filipinos easily achieved their goal with only 3 casualties, the whole Ilocos and the Cordillera commandancias were now in Philippine hands.

Gen. Tinio is credited with capturing the most number of Spanish prisoners during the revolution, over 1.000 of them. The prisoners were brought to Vigan, their number later augmented by other prisoners sent over from the Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon during the last quarter of 1898. Gen. Tinio exercised both firmness and compassion in dealing with the prisoners. Fray Ulpiano Herrero y Sampedro, a Dominican who had been captured and sent over from Cavite, kept a journal of his 18-month imprisonment together with over a hundred other friars. He wrote that when they were imprisoned in Vigan, “Gen. Tinio wanted to improve the living conditions of the friar prisoners … sent us food, clothing, books, paper and writing implements.”

There was another group of prisoners. The revolucionarios’ anger against the friars extended even to their native mistresses, and these women were imprisoned in the girls’ school beside the Bishop’s Palace. Their properties were confiscated. One of the incarcerated women, a native of Sinait, had a 15-year-old daughter, Laureana Quijano, who pleaded with Gen. Tinio for her mother’s release and the restoration of their properties. The general, attracted to her beauty, forthwith acceded to her request, and then began to court her. Later, Laur, as she was called, also pleaded for the release of another prisoner, her mother’s first cousin, and introduced the daughter, Amelia Imperial Dancel. Again, the general gave in and released Amelia’s mother. Subsequently, Gen. Tinio also fell in love with Amelia.

Gen. Tinio set up his Command Headquarters in the Bishop’s Palace in Vigan. There he lived with 18 of his officers, all very young, mostly 16–20 years of age, the oldest being the 29-year-old Captain Pauil.

In accordance with Aguinaldo’s Dictatorial Decree of June 18, 1898 which set the guidelines for setting up a civil government in those towns liberated from the Spaniards, Gen. Tinio conducted elections for the whole region. First to be elected were the officials of each town. Under the revolutionary government, the mayor, instead of being called the capitan municipal, was now addressed as the presidente municipal. These mayors then elected the Provincial Governor and Board.

With the civil government in place, Gen. Tinio then reorganized the Tinio Brigade. The successful military exploits of the Brigada Tinio were heralded all over Luzon and attracted hundreds of volunteers. The Brigade swelled to over 3,400 men, with scores of officers and more than 1,000 non-commissioned officers and soldiers coming from Nueva Ecija. The rest consisted mostly of Ilocanos, Abreños, Igorots and Itnegs, with a few Bulakeños, Bicolanos and Visayans. There were also some Spaniards in the group.

The Brigade garrisoned the entire western portion of Northern Luzon which included the four genuine Ilocano provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra and La Union, and also the comandancias of Amburayan, Lepanto-Bontoc and Benguet. Gen. Tinio divided this territory into 3 zones, each under a military commander who commanded a regiment, as follows:

Zone 1 under Lt. Col. Casimiro Tinio covered La Union, Benguet and Amburayan;

Zone 2 under Lt. Col. Blas Villamor covered Southern Ilocos Sur from Tagudin to Bantay, Abra and Lepanto-Bontoc;

Zone 3 under Lt. Col. Irineo de Guzman covered Northern Ilocos Sur from Sto. Domingo to Sinait and Ilocos Norte.

Captains Vicente Salazar, Jose Tombo and Juan Villamor were the deputy commanders.

The establishment of the civil and military government in the Ilocos brought 15 months of peace in the region. The young general and his officers became social denizens sought after and regally entertained by the people. Being young, they caught the eyes of pretty señoritas of the best families in the region. The dashing Manuel Tinio, rich, handsome and a bachelor to boot, seized the moment with the many belles of Ilocandia. He was unforgettably charming and popular. In the 1950s, women reminiscing about their youth, and the Tinios, would look up and sigh, “how handsome they were.” A grandmother from Ilocos Norte living in Baguio City could still passionately say in the 1960s, “all the ladies in the province were in love with the general.” An old maid in Vigan proudly recalled in her twilight years of the 1970s the dashing general’s visits every Friday afternoon when she was 14.

With the Ilocos in stable condition, Gen. Tinio then went to Malolos to report to Gen. Aguinaldo and upon the request of Felipe Buencamino, Minister of Finance, turned over P120,000 that had been contributed by the citizens of Vigan. During his visit, everyone, particularly his fellow generals, admired and congratulated Gen. Tinio for having the largest and best-equipped army in the country!

In October 1898 Gen. Tinio received his appointment as Military Governor of the Ilocos provinces and Commanding General of all Filipino forces in Northern Luzon. His army was formally integrated as an armed unit of the Republic. Thus he became one of only four regional commanders in the Republican Army!

Upon his return to Vigan, Gen. Tinio marshalled his troops, all well equipped and completely in uniform. He assembled them in the town’s main Plaza and made them swear to defend the new Republic with their lives. The next month, on Nov. 11, 1898 Manuel Tinio was appointed Brigadier General of Infantry.

Group showing General Manuel Tinio (seated, center), General Benito Natividad (seated, 2nd from right), Lt. Col. Jose Alejandrino (seated, 2nd from left), and their aides-de-camp.

A shot fired at a Filipino in Sociego Street, Sta. Mesa District in the suburbs of Manila on February 4, 1899 triggered the Philippine–American War. (Contrary to popular belief that prevailed for over a century, the first shot of the Philippine–American War was not fired on San Juan bridge but on Sociego Street in Santa Mesa district, Manila. The Philippines’ National Historical Institute (NHI) recognized this fact through Board Resolution 7 Series of 2003. On Feb. 4, 2004 the marker on the bridge was removed and transferred to a site at the corner of Sociego and Silencio streets.) Soon after, when war with the Americans seemed imminent, Col. Casimiro Tinio and most of the Tagalog troops in the Tinio Brigade were sent back to Nueva Ecija. When the conflict became critical in Central Luzon, all the soldiers in the Brigade who had seen service in the Spanish army were ordered to report to the Luna Division.

The inactivity of the Tinio Brigade during the period of peace in the Ilocos region spawned problems. Boredom led to in-fighting among the soldiers and the perpetration of some abuses. Gen. Tinio adhered to his principles of discipline among his troops, even imprisoning Col. Estanislao de los Reyes, his personal aide-de-camp, who had slapped a fellow officer in an effort to rectify the situation, Tinio asked Gen. Aguinaldo for the assignment of his forces to the frontlines of the new battle at hand, but Aguinaldo paid no heed to Tinio’s request.

Ever keen in foresight and strategy, anticipating an invasion by the American aggressors, Gen. Tinio ordered the construction of 636 trenches, well designed and strategically placed for cross fire, to protect the principal roads and ports and to guard the entire coastline from Rosario, La Union to Cape Bojeador in Ilocos Norte.

At the start of the Philippine–American War, Gen. Tinio’s forces were 1,904 strong, with 68 officers, 200 sandatahanes or bolomen, 284 armorers, 37 medics, 22 telegraphers, 80 cavalrymen, 105 artillerymen and 2 Spanish engineers. (By April 1899, this would be reduced to 1,789 officers and men.)

On May 18, 1899, six months before his forces began battling the American invaders, he married Laureana Quijano.

On June 5, 1899 members of the Kawit Battalion assassinated Gen. Antonio Luna, the commanding general of the republican army. His death in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija created a lot of antipathy against the Tagalogs, particularly in Ilocos Norte, where Luna hailed from. The Luna assassination, however, did not diminish the love and admiration of the Ilocanos for Gen. Tinio, who referred to the former as ‘my Ilocanos’. Luna’s death resulted in a cooling off in Tinio’s attitude towards Aguinaldo. Tinio, however, never failed to obey the orders of his superior and never made a comment on the deaths of Bonifacio or Luna. Whenever he was asked, he would shrug his shoulders and say, “answering the question would mean a betrayal of my superior.”

Less than two weeks later, on the occasion of his 22nd birthday, delegations from the entire region congregated in the capital to give him an asalto or dawn serenade in the main plaza of Vigan. One of the highlights of the day-long festivities, which included a royal feast and a grand ball, was the dedication of a birthday hymn specially written for him, set to music and sung by the populace.

Towards the end of June, Aguinaldo recalled Gen. Tinio by telegram and ordered him to help in the reorganization of the forces in Nueva Ecija. In his place, Brigadier Gen. Benito Natividad, recently promoted (at age 24) and on leave because of wounds sustained in the Battle of Calumpit, Bulacan, took over as temporary commander of the Ilocos provinces.

Gen. Tinio, seeing the handwriting on the wall, began taking private English lessons from David Arnold, an American captive who had come over to the Filipino side. In anticipation of the coming of the Americans, he began the construction of a formidable bank of defenses in Tangadan Pass between Narvacan, Ilocos Sur and Bangued, Abra.

Late in September, Gen. Tinio and his northern army were finally called to the front line to guard the beaches of Pangasinan and La Union. The Brigade was diminished in size when Gen. Tinio marched with his general staff and several battalions to Bayambang, Pangasinan to cover President Aguinaldo’s retreat while the others were sent to Zambales under Col. Alejandrino.

Gen. Benito Natividad stayed behind as post commander in Vigan with some officers and 50 riflemen, 20 others in Bangued and a few others scattered in neighboring towns. They were the only armed forces that guarded the whole Ilocos region! At that time, there were 4,000 Spanish prisoners of war (including 1 general) and 26 Americans being held in Vigan, Bangued and Laoag, where the military hospitals were located. More than half of the prisoners had been sent from Central Luzon at the height of the hostilities. Despite their great number, the prisoners did not rise up against their guards, because, on instructions of Gen. Tinio, they were well fed and nicely treated. As early as June, American prisoners had begun arriving from the battlefields of Central Luzon. Among them were Navy Lt. Gillmore and the war correspondent Albert Sonnichsen.[5]:382–383 Gen. Tinio’s humane treatment of prisoners was legendary. Sonnichsen wrote:

“. . while in Vigan, Tinio learned that the captive friars were living well on money sent from Manila, while the poor Cazadores were obliged to subsist on their meager rations (as prisoners of war). Before they could hide it, the young Tagalog had their money seized and, having all the soldier prisoners assembled in the plaza, he divided the pesos of the friars equally among them, the Cazadores cheering the Tagalog General lustily.”[5]:252

Having abandoned his last capital in Tarlac, Tarlac, Pres. Aguinaldo decided to retreat to the north and went to Bayambang, Pangasinan. Unknown to him, the Americans had planned a pincer-like movement in the overall battle plan to cut off his northward escape route and capture him.

On November 7, the Americans bombarded San Fabian, Pangasinan and the 33rd Infantry landed, including a battalion commanded by Col. Luther R. Hare, an old cavalryman who had served 25 years before under Gen. Custer.[6]:138 But on Nov. 11, on their way to San Jacinto, the next town, the invaders came across the entrenched forces of Gen. Tinio. Maj. John Alexander Logan, Jr and 8 American soldiers died in the fierce 3.5-hour battle that ensued, but the Americans, armed with a Gatling gun, claimed the lives of 134 Filipino soldiers, wounding 160 more.[6]:144–146

On November 13 a national council of war held in Bayambang resolved to disband the Philippine Army and ordered the generals and their men to return to their own provinces and organize the people for general resistance by means of guerrilla warfare.[6]:146 Gen. Aguinaldo divided the country into zones, each under a general. Gen. Tinio was designated regional commander of the Ilocos provinces. The following evening, Gen. Aguinaldo, accompanied by his family, the cabinet, their aides and the Kawit Battalion, left Bayambang by special train for Calasiao, only 15 kilometers away from American Headquarters!

On November 14, early in the morning, the presidential party struggled through the knee-deep mud of backwoods trails towards Sta. Barbara, where they met with the Mixto Battalion under Lt. Jose Joven and the Del Pilar Brigade. The column, now with 1,200 armed men, managed to reach the forests of Manaoag and proceeded to Pozorrubio, where the party was greeted by Gen. Tinio. The evening before, Maj. Samuel M. Swiggert’s pursuing squadron had caught up with part of the Tinio Brigade in Manaoag, but on the morning of the 14th, failed to pursue Aguinaldo at Pozorrubio.[6]:147

Aguinaldo spent the night in Pozorrubio and was unaware of the proximity of the enemy. He only came to know about it when Gen. Tinio informed him that the Americans were in pursuit. The presidential party hurriedly left for Rosario, La Union, and then for Bauang. Fortunately, the encounters with the Tinio Brigade had delayed the American pincer movements and, by the time these closed, Aguinaldo was already far in the north.

On Nov. 18, 1899 Gen. Samuel B. M. Young with 80 men of the 3rd Cavalry plus 300 native scouts, made a forced march north through Pangasinan in pursuit of Aguinaldo.[6]:151 Ahead of them was Gen. Tinio, who caught up with Gen. Aguinaldo in Bauang, La Union on the 19th. The following day Gen. Tinio, upon Aguinaldo’s orders, accompanied Col. Simeon Villa to San Fernando, La Union, where most of Tinio’s troops were helping the townspeople with the rice harvest. Young’s troops made a surprise raid on the town at 3 in the morning, and, recognizing Tinio and Villa, pursued them. Luckily the two were able to flee into the mountains on foot and to make their way to San Juan, the next town. Gen. Tinio reassembled his men in San Juan and, in an orderly manner, marched with their wounded to Narvacan, only a day or two ahead of the pursuing Gen. Young. Tinio then set up his command headquarters in San Quintin, Abra and sent the wounded further ahead to the military hospital in Bangued.

On Nov. 26, 1899, Vigan became the hottest spot as the American battleship ‘Oregon’ and the former Spanish gunboats ‘Callao’ and ‘Samar’ anchored off it and started shelling Caoayan, Ilocos Sur.[6]:131 Vigan was immediately evacuated on orders of post commander Gen. Benito Natividad. The prisoners, both Spanish and American, together with his meager troops moved on to Abra and Bangued as early as Sept.[6]:120 When the Americans landed the following day, led by Commander McCracken and Lt. Col. James Parker, there were no Filipino soldiers in Vigan.[5]:358 A few days later, 225 American troops, mostly Texas volunteers forming a battalion of the 33rd Infantry under Major Peyton C. March,[6]:153 arrived from San Fabian, took up residence in the Archbishop’s Palace and stored their ammunition and supplies in the adjoining girls’ school.

On Nov. 27, the day the Americans occupied Vigan, Gen. Tinio sent orders for all active soldiers of the Brigade to concentrate along the shores of the Abra River towns of San Quintin, Piddigan and Bangued, beyond the Tangadan Pass. Gen. Young, who was chasing them relentlessly; had reached Candon on the 28th and, from seized documents, discovered that he was no longer trailing the enemy, but was right in their midst! He also learned that Aguinaldo was at Angaki, 25 km. away to the southeast, while Tinio was up north some 40 km. away.[6]:153 Young realized immediately that Gen. Tinio’s purpose in taking his forces to the north was, as he phrased it, “to lead us away from following Aguinaldo.” Unsure whether he should pursue Aguinaldo or go after Tinio, the decision was made for him when a battalion of the 34th Volunteer Infantry arrived under Lt. Col. Robert Howze. They had been sent by Gen. Arthur MacArthur to reinforce Gen. Young’s northern column.[6]:154 Forthwith, March’s battalion was sent in pursuit of Aguinaldo through Tirad Pass, while the bigger part of Young’s army, with Howze’s battalion, marched towards Tangadan Pass in an attempt to destroy the Tinio Battalion, the last remaining army of the Republic.[6]:156

From San Quentin, General Tinio ordered 400 riflemen and bolomen, led by Capt. Alejandrino, went down the Mestizo River in bancas and spread out on both sides of the plaza of Vigan.[6]:163 Just before 4 AM on 4 Dec., some of the attackers in the dark streets were challenged by an American patrol who then gave the alarm to the 250 Americans in the city.[6]:163 Although Filipino snipers were already in position in the buildings around the plaza, in the ensuing 4-hour battle at close range they were no match for the legendary Texas marksmanship and the inexhaustible supply of American ammunition. The rebels were routed, leaving over 40 dead and 32 captured, while 8 Americans were killed.[6]:165 The survivors fled to Tangadan.

By 3 Dec. 1899, Gen. Young and Lt. Col. Howze were at Tangadan Pass with his 260 men.[6]:165 The pass was defended by 1,060 men under Lt. Col. Blas Villamor, Tinio’s chielf of staff, in trench works constructed over the last year with the assistance of Spanish engineers.[6]:162 The Americans successfully scaled the steep, 200-foot cliffs flanking the entrenchments to gain a vantage position.[6]:168–169 The final assault came in the evening of Dec. 4, added by the arrival of Col. Luther Hare’s 270 men from the 33rd Infantry.[6]:168–169 Outflanked and outnumbered, Lt. Col. Villamor decided to save his men from carnage, and retreated, abandoning rifles and ammunition, and after losing 35 killed and 80 wounded to the American loss of 2 killed and 13 wounded.[6]:170Thus ended the Battle of Tangadan Pass.

Tinio, however, earned the admiration of Col. Howze who wrote glowingly on the Vauban-type Tangadan defenses:

“The trenches captured are the best field trenches that have ever come under my observation. They terrace the mountainside, cover the valley below in all directions, and thoroughly control the road for a distance of 3 miles. They are permanent in nature, with perfect approaches, bomb-proofs, living sheds, etc., with shapes and revetments sodded and supported by timbers. The complete terrace of trenches number 10 in all, well connected for support, defense and retreat.”

Gen. Young reported on the bravery of General Tinio and his men, that at the Battle of Tangadan,

“Some of their officers exposed themselves very gallantly on the parapets during heavy firing.”

The day after the Battle of Tangadan, December 5, the pursuing Americans invaded Tinio’s headquarters in San Quintin, five kilometers away from the pass.[6]:171 They continued upstream on the Abra River to Pidigan and Bangued, liberating 1,500 starving Spaniards, on 6 Dec.[6]:171, 173 The American prisoners and the Spanish general had been sent ahead to Ilocos Norte by Gen. Tinio for strategic reasons, with orders for them to be shot rather than be rescued by the Americans.[6]:172 But the capture of Bangued was a major setback for the Filipinos, because the Brigade arsenal was located there. Three tons of sheet brass, two tons of lead, as well as supplies of powder, saltpeter and sulphur were found by the Americans. General Benito Natvidad joined General Tinio at Tayum.[6]:193

The onslaught had started! Having captured Bangued, Gen. Young re-armed at Vigan and within a week made unopposed landings in Ilocos Norte at Pasuquin, Laoag and Bangui. He sent cavalry north from Vigan, destroying trenches and defense works around Magsingal, Sinait, Cabugao and Badoc.

Meanwhile, the rescue of the American prisoners from Bangued became the task of Col. Hare’s 220 men of the 33rd Infantry and Col. Howze’s 130 men of the 34th Infantry.[6]:172

In Abra, Gen. Tub had been roaming the farms disguised as a rich planter on a white horse. In this way he made regular daily visits to the various American outposts to chat with the enemy soldiers. He even went so far as to invite them to his house in Bangued for dinner. After gathering all the information that he could, Tinio went back to the hills each day to instruct his men on what to do that night. Unfortunately, one day his photograph was circulated among the Americans and the daring general had no choice but to take to the hills with Col. Hare and a picked group trailing him!

Howze caught up with the Brigade’s baggage train in Danglas on 8 Dec.[6]:182 and 750 more Spanish prisoners on 10 Dec. at Dingras[6]:188 This last group included General Leopoldo Garcia Pena, former commander of Cavite province.[6]:188 Hare’s column joined Howze at Maananteng, where they sent the freed Spanish and Chinese prisoners on to Laoag, and the remaining force of 151 men continued the pursuit into the Cordilleras on 13 Dec.[6]:189–192

When Gen. Tinio realized that the Americans were exerting all efforts to surround him, he had the American prisoners conducted to Cabugaoan in Apayao country as a diversion, spreading false rumors that he was with the group. (He had, in fact, on Dec. 12, though surrounded by the Americans in Solsona, Ilocos Norte, near the boundary of Apayao, managed to elude them dressed as a peasant woman.)[6]:189

After days of marching in the wild Cordillera Mountains, the Americans finally caught up with the abandoned prisoners on Dec.18 at the headwaters of the Apayao-Abulug River, having been abandoned by their Filipino guards in Isneg territory.[6]:207–208 On crudely constructed rafts, the Americans eventually reached the coast in Abulug, Cagayan, on 2 Jan. 1900, where the footsore and weary soldiers found the USS Princeton and USS Venus waiting to take them back to Vigan and Manila.[6]:217

Gen. Tinio spent the next couple of months in the mountains of Solsona, where he began fortifying the peak of Mt. Bimmauya, east of Lapog. It was also in the remote headwaters of the Bical River above Lapog that an arsenal had been set up to replace that captured at Bangued. This operated for a year. Rifles were repaired, cartridges refilled, gunpowder and homemade hand guns (paltik) manufactured with real feats of mechanical ingenuity. Twenty to thirty silversmiths and laborers could fashion 30-50 cartridges a day by hand!

The defenses constructed by Gen. Tinio were similar to those that he had put up in Tangadan the year before, but, having learned his lesson, he situated the defenses on a peak that Lt. J. C. Castner described as follows:

“one of the principal peaks (is) on the coast range of northwestern Luzon. Its altitude is between 2,500 and 3,000 feet above the Rio Cabugao that washes its western shore. By reason of standing more to the westward than its immediate neighbors and being bare of timber, it affords a view of the entire coastal plain from Vigan on the South to Laoag on the north. The lower part of Monte Bimmauya is wooded, but the upper three-fourths is bare of trees and bush, and, in certain places, even the grass has been burned off by the insurgents. Consequently, there is no cover for attacking troops ascending the western spur of the mountain. The slopes of the upper portion make angles of from 45-60 degrees with the horizon. The only trail in existence or even possible on this western spur… is so narrow that it is what is known among geographers as a ‘knife-edge’, hence the only formation admissible was a column of files, two men not being able to march abreast. The ascent is so steep and the footing so insecure that one has to watch continually where he plants his feet to avoid precipitation down the precipice-like slopes on either side.”

New Year’s Day 1900 signaled the outburst of guerilla warfare throughout the Ilocos region. On that day, Gen. Tinio engaged in a skirmish with American forces at Malabita, San Fernando, La Union. The disconcerted Gen. Young ordered daily patrols by all his units “to settle this insurgent business with the least possible delay.” The following day, he requested another battalion of veterans with which he promised “to drive these outlaws out or kill them and settle the savages before letting up.” The day after that he repeated the request:

“My belief is that by keeping up a constant hunt after these murderers, thieves and robbers, the country can be cleared of them within two months.” Needless to say, he did not receive any reinforcements, because he already had 3,500 men, more than thrice the number of Tinio’s troops!

On January 13 the Americans intercepted an order from Gen. Tinio to execute all Filipinos who surrender to the enemy.

The following day, January 14. the only artillery duel of the Fil-American War was fought in Bimmuaya between the Republicans and the combined forces of Maj. Steever and Lt. Col. Howze. The barrage lasted from noon until sundown. Despite holding the ‘strongest position in Luzon’, as Steever believed the Bimmuaya stronghold to be, the Filipinos, with their paltry stock of rifles and ammunition, succumbed in less than 24 hours to the mighty American forces. Steever’s two Maxim guns dominated the show. Although the Americans halted their fire at sunset, the Filipinos kept up desultory fire until midnight. The next day the Americans discovered that it was just to cover the withdrawal of Gen. Tinio and his men!

After the Battle of Bimmuaya, Gen. Tinio’s guerrilla forces continuously fought and harassed the American garrisons in the different towns of Ilocos for almost 1½ years. His command was probably the first to initiate guerrilla activities in Luzon in accordance with the Aguinaldo’s official proclamation at Bayambang on Nov. 12, 1899. Once again, he reorganized the Tinio Brigade, now greatly reduced by the casualties sustained in San Jacinto, Manaoag and other places. Discarding its inter-provincial designation of units, he reformed his forces as a guerrilla organization with overlapping territories and troops, Ilocos Sur being shared by other Ilocano provinces. The military commands came to be known as:

· Ilocos Norte-Vigan Line covering the province of Ilocos Norte south to northern Ilocos Sur down to Vigan, · Abra-Candon Line under Lt.-Col. Juan Villamor which covered the Province of Abra and Ilocos Sur south of Vigan down to Candon · La Union-Sta. Cruz Line covering the province of La Union north to southern Ilocos Sur as far as Sta. Cruz.

The battalion commanders came to be known as Jefes de Linea, while the company commanders were now called Jefes de Guerrilla. Companies of riflemen became numbered units of guerrillas, each ranging from 50-100 soldiers, depending on the number of fighters a unit could arm and equip. These troops were then divided further into destacamentos or detachments of 20 men, more or less, under a subaltern officer. These bands were virtually independent of each other in their operations. But they could function occasionally as a unit on rare instances of mass assaults, as in the raids on Laoag on April, Bangued in June and Candon in February 1901.

Col. Bias Villamor, now 2nd in command as a result of his good showing in the Pangasinan campaigns, gave the full count of the Tinio Brigade in January 1900 at 1,062 men, 64 of them officers. The high proportion of officers to men was due to the nature of guerrilla warfare with its small separate units and flying columns of 20-30 men that strike at their chosen times and places. The majority of the officers were Novo-Ecijanos and veterans of earlier campaigns, some even from the Revolution of 1896!

The use of guerrilla tactics by the Filipinos resulted in more American losses than they had previous to Nov. 14, 1899. The never-ending guerrilla raids forced Gen. Young to start garrisoning the towns, setting up 15 of them in January, 4 in March and a total of 36 by April. Detachments varied in size from 50 in San Quintin, 200 in Sinait to 1,000 in Cabugao and Candon. These garrison troops were under fire in one place or another for the next 18 months. Cabugao alone was attacked every Sunday for 7 consecutive weeks! Ambuscades of American patrols became almost a daily occurrence and resulted in so many casualties for the invaders, that by March 1900, no patrols were sent out unless they were 40-50 strong! Gen. Arthur MacArthur, in an official report, stated that:

“The extensive distribution of troops has strained the soldiers of the army to the full limit of endurance. Each little command has had to provide its own service of security and information by never ceasing patrols, explorations, escorts, outposts and regular guards. . . In all things requiring endurance, fortitude and patient diligence, the guerilla period has been pre-eminent.”

The “secret weapon” of these attacks was the Ilocano people. The whole population was an espionage network and developed a warning system to apprise the revolutionists of approaching invaders. Even priests would tap church bells as a warning of approaching American patrols. Pvt. James Lyons, a prisoner in Tinio’s camp, reported that “runners came in every few minutes” with information. It seemed that the whole Ilocos was now engaged in war, with trade and agriculture virtually at a standstill!

Gen. Tinio’s raids were so sporadic and simultaneous that many, including the Americans, believed that Tinio had the power of bilocation, appearing in several places at the same time! His personal movements indicated an energetic contact with his forces – organizing, inspecting, consulting, encouraging or commanding in action, and constantly eluding his would-be captors. He was everywhere.

On 31 January, Gen. Tinio and his men had a skirmish on the Candon-Salcedo road with American troops. Fortunately they did not suffer any casualties.

The next day, February 1, Tinio, visited Sto. Domingo, unescorted and dressed as a farmer.

On February 9, he ambushed a troop of 7 cavalry in Sabang, Bacnotan, but withdrew when American reinforcements arrived.

On 16 February, from Bacnotan, he ordered Capt. Galicano Calvo to apprehend certain American spies.

On February 19, he ambushed an enemy patrol in Kaguman and captured the equipment.

On February 26, he ambushed an American convoy between San Juan and Bacnotan, together with their supplies of food, medicine, shoes, mules, etc.

On March 5 the next month, he surprised and routed an American camp in San Francisco, Balaoan, capturing all the equipment. He then went north to Magsingal, but left the next day on an inspection trip.

On the 8th, a surprise search for him in Sto. Domingo and San Ildefonso was frustrated by warnings of church bells.

On the 10th, he issued a warning to the Mayor of Candon, prompting the American command there to request for a picture of Gen. Tinio.

On the 14th, while holding a meeting in Bacnotan, he was surprised by an American patrol. Fortunately, a troop of Filipino cavalry arrived, and, with the support of two guns in the house, the Filipinos were able to repulse the attackers and enable Tinio to escape.

Two days after, on the 16th, Tinio met with Mayor Almeida in Bacsayan, Bacnotan.

On March 29, Gen. Tinio and his escort had a skirmish with an American patrol and routed them. An escaping American was drowned in the river between San Esteban and Sta. Maria.

In April, Tinio reported to Aguinaldo in Lubuagan, Kalinga and in May conferred with Aglipay in Badoc and fought a battle in Quiom, Batac, Ilocos Norte. He then moved on to Piddig, Ilocos Norte and, in June he set up a camp at a remote peak called Paguined on the Badoc River east of Sinait. The last was near his arsenal in Barbar.

All this incessant movement did not detract from his love life. Although he was already married, he continued his various liaisons, even going to the extent of bringing Amelia Dancel into the mountains of Ilocos Norte with him in July. American military reports even mention Amelia as his wife! In disguise, he once visited a maiden in enemy-occupied Vigan. The Americans, hearing that he was in town, began to make a house-to-house search, but were unable to find him, even when they searched his ladyfriend’s house. The woman had hidden him under the voluminous layers of her Maria Clara skirt! That was probably the narrowest escape he ever made! The incident became the talk of the town and was always cited whenever the name of Gen. Tinio came up. (The quick-thinking “heroine” lived until the 1970s.)

By November 1900, the number of American forces in the Ilocos had increased to 5,700 men—plus 300 mercenaries. The number of garrisons also rose to 59, spread thinly over 250 kilometers from Aringay, La Union to Cape Bojeador, Ilocos Norte. Earlier, mercenaries had been brought in from Macabebe, Pampanga and were stationed in Vigan, Sta. Maria, and San Esteban. These mercenaries started recruiting fellow Filipinos and by April numbered over 200, half of them Ilocanos and a quarter of them Tagalogs. Attached to regular occupation troops, these mercenaries caused significant damage to the nationalists by leading the enemy to hidden food supplies and inducing many defections. Because of this, Gen. Tinio issued a proclamation on March 20, 1900 as follows:

First and last article. The following shall be tried by summary court martial and sentenced to death:

  • All local presidents and other civil authorities, both of towns and of the barrios, rancherias (settlements of Christianized tribesmen) and sitios or hamlets, of their respective jurisdictions, who do not give immediate notice of any plan, direction, movement or number of the enemy as soon as they learn of it.
  • Those who, regardless of age or sex, reveal the location of the camp, stopping places, movements or direction of the revolutionaries to the enemy.
  • Those who voluntarily offer to serve the enemy as guides, unless it be for the purpose of misleading them from the right road, and
  • Those who, whether of their own free will or not, capture revolutionary soldiers who are alone, or persuade them to surrender to the enemy.

The insidious guerrilla war saw such rules and warnings proclaimed from both parties. The American commands in Ilocos Norte were ordered to warn barrio officials that those who did not report ‘insurgents’ immediately (meaning, within an hour for every 5 km. from the nearest American troops) would be considered insurgents themselves, and their barrios ‘absolutely destroyed’. Theft of telegraph wires or ambuscades of American patrols resulted in the nearest villages being burned and the inhabitants killed. When 200 m. of telegraph wire was destroyed in Piddigan, Abra, the Bangued command reported the next day that, “There is not a single building standing out of Piddigan.”

Gen. Tinio, on the other hand, ordered all the towns to aid the revolutionaries. Pasuquin, a town in Ilocos Norte, refused to cooperate with Filipino forces, so Tinio threatened to burn the town “at his leisure” and did so on Nov. 3, 1900.

On Dec. 21, Gen. Tinio issued a proclamation against crimes by military forces. On Christmas Day, Tinio, with Maj. Reyes and ten officers celebrated the holiday in Lemerig near Asilang, Lapog. On Holy Innocents’ Day, Dec. 28, the Americans made a surprise raid on Lemerig. Fortunately, the general and his officers managed to escape.

The first month of 1901 began inauspiciously with the capture of Gen. Tinio’s arsenal at Barbar on January 29, 1901.

The following month, on February 19, 1901, Brigadier Gen. James Franklin Bell came into the picture. Gen. Young turned over the command of the First District, Department of Northern Luzon to him. It is this General Bell who would later gain notoriety for his ‘re-concentration’ methods in the southern Tagalog provinces right after his stint in the North.

Determined to continue the same policy of repression, Gen. Bell, with an additional 1,000 men, ordered his forces to pursue, kill and wipe out the insurrectos. Food supplies were destroyed to prevent them from reaching the guerrillas. Inasmuch as the barrios were supplying rice from the recent harvests to the guerrillas, whole populations were evacuated to town centers within 10 days of notification. Noncompliance resulted in the burning of the whole barrio. Even some interior towns were completely evacuated, while others, like Magsingal and Lapog were surrounded by stockades to prevent the revolutionaries from infesting them.

On February 26, Gen. Tinio attacked the Americans fortified in the convent of Sta. Maria. It was his last attack against American forces.

The whole Ilocos was being laid waste and was in danger of starvation due to Gen. Bell’s iron fisted policies. The lack of supplies eventually forced hundreds of patriots to lay down their arms and return to their homes. By March the Brigade only had a few hundred soldiers left.

On March 25, 1901, the top brass of the Tinio Brigade met in a council of war at Sagap, Bangued. In this meeting, Generals Tinio and Natividad, the two Villamors and Lt. Colonels Alejandrino, Gutierrez and Salazar resolved that “the final action of the Tinio Brigade should depend upon the decision of the Honorable President.”

Unknown to them, Aguinaldo had been captured in Palanan, Isabela on March 23, 1901. When word of Aguinaldo’s surrender reached Gen. Tinio on April 3, he only had two command-rank subordinates remaining, his former classmates Joaquin Alejandrino and Vicente Salazar.

On April 19, 1901 Aguinaldo proclaimed an end to hostilities and urged his generals to surrender and lay down their arms. In compliance with Gen. Aguinaldo’s proclamation, Gen. Tinio sent Col. Salazar to Sinait under a flag of truce to discuss terms of surrender. The following day, Salazar was sent back with the peace terms. On April 29, 1901, Gen. Manuel Tinio, whom the American military historian, William T. Sexton, called “the soul of the insurrection in the Ilocos provinces of Northern Luzon” and “a general of a different stamp from the majority of the insurgent leaders”, surrendered. The following day, April 30, he signed the Oath of Allegiance. When Tinio handed his revolver to Gen. Bell as a token of surrender, the latter immediately returned it to him – a token of great respect. Gen. Tinio was only 23 years old!

The Americans suspended all hostilities on May 1 and printed Tinio’s appeal for peace on the Regimental press on the 5th. On May 9 he surrendered his arms together with Gen. Benito Natividad, thirty-six of his officers and 350 riflemen.

While the Americans boasted that they eliminated 5 insurrecto generals within a month, it took them 11/2 years and 7,000 men to ‘civilize’ Manuel Tinio y Bundoc, the Tagalog boy-general of the Ilocanos!

The significance attached to Gen. Tinio’s surrender by the Americans was felt throughout the country. Gen. MacArthur said that the little war in the Ilocos was the “most troublesome and perplexing military problem in all Luzon.” On May 5, as Military Governor of the Philippines, MacArthur issued General Order No. 89 releasing 1,000 Filipino prisoners of war “to specially signalize the recent surrender of Gen. Manuel Tinio and other prominent military leaders in the provinces of Abra and Ilocos Norte.” La Fraternidad, a Manila newspaper, happily reported, “The 1st of May is now for 2 reasons an important date in contemporary Philippine history – 1898, the destruction of the Spanish squadron in Cavite; 1901, the surrender of Generals Tinio and Natividad and the complete pacification of Northern Luzon.

Manuel Tinio, surprisingly, never suffered any injury during his entire military career even as he was known to stand up and face a barrage of artillery fire! He attributed this to an amulet, anting-anting, that he always wore and which he kept in a safe after the cessation of hostilities.

Upon his release, Manuel Tinio went back to Nueva Ecija to rehabilitate his neglected farms in present-day Licab, Sto. Domingo and Talavera. He lived in a camarin or barn together with all the farming paraphernalia and livestock. A typical hacendero, he was very paternalistic and caring, extending his protection, not only on his family, but also to his friends and supporters. His men even compared him to a ‘hen’.

As a family man, he was very protective of his daughters. Being family-oriented, he took in all the children of his deceased sisters and half sisters (from his father’s previous marriages) when their widowers eventually remarried or played around. He treated all his nephews and nieces as if they were his children, giving them the same education and privileges. This resulted in the extremely close family ties of the Tinio Family. He was very loving and fatherly and would entertain his children with stories of his campaigns. Perhaps because he never finished high school, he believed in a good education and, in 1920, sent his two eldest sons to the United States to study in Cornell University.

Manuel Tinio treated everyone equally, rich and poor alike, so everyone looked up to him and respected him. In fact, he paid more attention to the poor than to the rich, because, according to him, the poor had nothing but their pride and were, for that reason, more sensitive. When rich relatives came to visit, his children had but to kiss their hand in greeting, but when a poor relation came, they had to greet their kin in the same manner, but on bended knees – the highest form of respect in those days!.

All his tenants idolized Manuel Tinio, who was not an absentee landlord, but lived with them in the farm with hardly any amenities. However, he always kept a good table and had flocks of sheep and dovecotes in every property he owned, so that he could have his favorite caldereta and pastel de pichon anytime he wanted. He also enjoyed his brandy, finishing off daily a bottle of Tres Cepes by Domecq. Wherever he lived, he received a constant stream of visitors, relatives and friends. Many veterans of the Tinio Brigade, often coming from the Ilocos, invariably came to reminisce and ask for his assistance. Later, as Governor, he would help them settle in Nueva Ecija.

Although he was but a civilian, the prominence he earned as a revolutionary general and his immense network of social and familial alliances eventually became the nucleus of a political machine that he controlled until his death. An ardent nationalist, he fought against the federalists who wanted the Philippines to become an American state. He did not run for any position, but any candidate he endorsed was sure to win the position. Dr. Benedicto Adorable, one of the richest and most prominent men in Gapan, was so fanatically loyal that he often said, “I would vote for a dog if Gen. Tinio asked me to.” Of course, he was fanatically loyal because Gen. Tinio had saved him from a Spanish firing squad in 1896!

When Gov. Gen. Henry C. Ide lifted the ban on independence parties in 1906, the political parties with similar ideology merged into the present Nacionalista Party. Manuel Tinio always supported Sergio Osmeña, the leader of the party, throughout his political career. Even during the split between Osmeña and Quezon in 1922, Tinio remained loyal to the former. As the founder and leader of the Nacionalista Party in Nueva Ecija, Tinio stressed the significance of a unified party, emphasizing in every local party convention that the winner will be supported wholly by each party member. Any party member who won an election could serve only one term in office to give the other party members a chance. Should the incumbent seek re-election, Tinio advised his colleagues to support the choice of the convention. As a party leader, he did not want warring factions within the party, and exerted every effort to make rival groups come to terms. Thus, during his lifetime, the Nacionalista Party in Nueva Ecija was unified.

On July 15, 1907 Gov. Gen. James F. Smith appointed Manuel Tinio as Governor of the Province of Nueva Ecija, to serve the remainder of the 3-year term of Gov. Isauro Gabaldon, who had resigned to run as a candidate for the 1st National Assembly. Incidentally, one of the first major bills Assemblyman Gabaldon proposed was the establishment of a school in every town in the archipelago. The Gabaldon-type schoolhouses and Gabaldon town in Nueva Ecija are named after him. Gabaldon’s wife, Bernarda, was the eldest daughter of Casimiro Tinio.

Manuel Tinio’s first term as governor was marked by the return of peace and order to the province. William Cameron Forbes, Commissioner of Commerce and Police under both Gov.-Generals Wright and Smith, wrote of Tinio:

“…we picked up the new Governor of Nueva Ecija at San Isidro, the capital, General Tinio. He used to be a celebrated insurecto General and Governor Smith has just made him Governor.. . We have more robbery and murders here than almost anywhere, one leading band being continually on the move. General Tinio informed me that he had most of the band in jail already, his guns captured, and the robberies stopped, and the principal outstanding ladron (the only one that I know by name in the whole of Luzon) driven from his borders and over to Pangasinan. I talked busily on road building and maintenance to him for a couple of hours while we sped up to Cabanatuan and went up to call on the local officials..

An anecdote on Gov. Tinio’s bravery has him negotiating with a dreaded tulisan or bandit who held a family hostage for days, threatening to kill them if the constables, policemen, tried to rush him. Unarmed, Tinio went into the house, talked to the bandit and went out after 30 minutes with the bandit peacefully in tow.

Gov. Tinio also brought about agricultural expansion. His Governor’s report for the fiscal year 1907–1908 stated that the area of cultivated land increased by 15%. The following year, this was augmented by an additional 40%. These lands, which were settled by over 5,000 homesteaders, mostly Ilocanos, were in the towns of Bongabon (then including Rizal), Talavera, Sto. Domingo, Guimba (which still included Muñoz) and San Jose. The influx of settlers from the north explains why many people speak Ilocano in those towns today.

It was also during his term as Governor that his wife, Laureana, died. The Provincial Board then passed a resolution naming the town Laur, after her. Soon after, he married Maura Quijano, the younger sister of Laureana, who had accompanied her from Ilocos after Gen. Tinio’s surrender to the Americans.

Gen. Tinio ran for reelection under the Nacionalista Party in 1908 and won. But there were other things in store for him. His executive ability and decisiveness had not gone unnoticed by the Americans, especially by Forbes who had become Acting Gov. Gen. on May 8, 1909. Months before Forbes assumed the office,

“Manila was being troubled by a series of strikes generally fomented by the shamelessly corrupt labor leader Dominador Gomez, who was taking a cut out of sums levied as blackmail against major American firms. Gomez had been arrested for threats, and some of the other unions collapsed when Gov.-Gen. Smith had questioned the legality of the unions’ use of their funds.”

To help settle labor problems, Forbes set up the Bureau of Labor and asked Manuel Tinio to head it. Forthwith, Tinio resigned as Governor of Nueva Ecija and became the first Director of Labor on July 1, 1909, thereby becoming the first Filipino Bureau Director! He quickly solved the strikes. Three weeks later, Forbes welcomed Director Tinio to his staff meeting and wrote in his diary:

“He’s a good man, and Col. Bandholtz says he’s got Gomez scared to death… Gomez had tried Tinio to employ him, but Tinio refused: “Why pay you to do the work the Government is paying me to do?”

“In a short time the condition of labor and industry in the region about Manila was vastly improved. In general, it may be said that, as a result of Gen. Tinio’s management of the bureau, strikes ceased, laborers went their way contented, employees readily corrected abuses brought to their attention, and the (union) leaders fell back into their proper role of caring for and representing the laborers.”

Manuel Tinio eventually became a close friend of the aristocratic Forbes, whom he invited to hunting parties in Pantabangan. The latter liked Tinio’s company, even offering to give him a hectare of land along Session Road in Baguio, (newly developed by Forbes) so that Tinio could build a house there and keep him company whenever he went up to the cool mountain resort. Tinio did not accept the offer. Gov.-Gen. Forbes also wrote in his journal:

“Tinio later became a great friend of mine. I made him Director of Labor and I rated him as one of the best Filipinos in the Islands. In fact, from the point of view of staunchness of character, and good judgement, and other good qualities, I liked Tinio best of all and wanted to make him Commissioner [member of the Philippine Commission].”

Gov.-Gen. Francis Burton Harrison succeeded Gov. Forbes. His term was characterized by increased Filipinization of the insular bureaucracy, and he appointed Tinio as the first Filipino Director of Lands on October 17, 1913. It was while he was Director of the Bureau of Lands that cadastral surveys for each municipality began to be made, and the area now covered by the towns of Rizal, Llanera, Gen. Natividad, Laur, Lupao and Muñoz were subdivided into homesteads. In the largest wave of migration ever experienced by the province, thousands of landless Tagalogs and Ilocanos came and settled in Nueva Ecija. But Tinio suffered intrigues sown by the American Assistant Director, who wanted to be appointed to the position. The intrigues came to the point that Tinio was even accused of manipulating the sale of the 6,000 hectare Sabani Estate that was subsequently rescinded. In disgust and for delicadeza, he resigned on September 13, 1914 and returned to Nueva Ecija to manage his landholdings. A subsequent investigation cleared him of all charges, but, disillusioned with the government system, he refused to go back to government service, preferring to live the quiet life of a landowner instead. The Sabani Estate, in present-day Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija and Dingalan, Aurora, never found another buyer and still belongs to the government and is administered by the National Development Corporation.

It was during his term as Director of Lands that his wife, Maura, died. He then married Basilia Pilares Huerta, a Bulakeña from Meycauayan.

After his resignation from the Bureau of Lands, Manuel Tinio went back to Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, and built his house on Burgos St. It was the largest house in town. He entertained and kept open house, which meant that anyone present at lunchtime was automatically invited to dine. Everyday was like an Election Day – with people coming to ask for assistance, financial or otherwise. A very generous man, he was not averse to using his personal financial resources to help those in need.

Manuel Tinio dedicated the remainder of his life to politics. The hold that Manuel Tinio had on the province was awesome. Even if he did not have any position, he maintained absolute control over the local government with the unchallenged power to make or unmake provincial leaders. In order to maintain and gain his political power, Manuel Tinio made it a practice to visit every voter during an election year, reserving for last those who were known to be against his party. A few days before the election, Tinio would visit them. He would sit where everyone who passed by the house could see him. After chatting with his host for an hour or two, without even discussing politics, the whole barrio would conclude that the fellow had been won over by Tinio! His credibility with his partymates shattered, the poor fellow had no choice but to move over eventually to the Nationalista Party!

Lewis Gleeck wrote of Manuel Tinio as “the supreme example of caciquism in the Philippines” and cited the case of one of Tinio’s most prominent political leaders who had shot and killed a man in front of many witnesses. The Americans, wanting to show that there was equality under American law, tried to make a big case out of it. However, they could not find a single lawyer in the whole province willing to act for the prosecution. After sending an American lawyer from Manila, the case had to be dismissed, because no witness came up to testify! J. Ralston Hayden, a high American official, said:

“Tinio controlled the entire government: the Courts of First Instance, the Justices of the Peace, the chiefs of police and police forces, the mayors and the councilors. These, together with a tremendous money power, were in his hands. No one dared to stand up against him.”

Manuel Tinio was also a very good friend of Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the most powerful Filipino in the political scene at that time. It was not surprising, therefore, that Manuel Tinio was included in the Independence Mission that went to Washington D. C. in 1921.

 

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3760 0 Agueda Kahabagan y Iniquinto the only woman in the roster of generals of the Army of the Philippine Republic. https://mandirigma.org/?p=3642 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3642#respond Fri, 14 Jun 2019 08:54:33 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3642 Agueda Kahabagan

 

 

Agueda Kahabagan y Iniquinto is referred to in the few sources that mention her as “Henerala Agueda”. Not so much is known about her but from snatches of information available, she was presumably a native of Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Henerala’s bravery in battle was legendary.

She was reportedly often seen in the battlefield dressed in white, armed with a rifle and brandishing a bolo. Apparently she was commissioned by General Miguel Malvar to lead a detachment of forces sometime in May 1897. Kahabagan was mentioned in connection with the attack led by General Artemio Ricarte on the Spanish garrison in San Pablo in October 1897. It was most probably General Pío del Pilar who recommended that she be granted the honorary title of Henerala. In March 1899, she was listed as the only woman in the roster of generals of the Army of the Philippine Republic.[1] She was appointed on January 4, 1899.

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agueda_Kahabagan

————————————-

More information about ”Henerala Agueda” here:

https://www.scoutmag.ph/culture/first-woman-general-agueda-kahabagan-paolov-20190329?fbclid=IwAR35yz5SEt-g4j9vSX-NcvInyRKAMzGj2gADzc8EFp3jxuWW0nMVgDOOXq0

 

Agueda Kahabagan was our first woman general. But do you know her?

by Paolo Vergara
It’s a great time for history buffs. Topics once deemed too nerdy now spill into the mainstream and into pop culture consciousness, through carefully-crafted and -researched movies like Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo (2014), Heneral Luna (2015) and Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral (2018).

Alongside Philippine folklore, history has been resurfacing here and there through articles, manga, or Twitter threads from professional researchers and passionate laypeople alike. Political awareness and once-forgotten issues from more than a hundred years (“Who killed Luna?”) add a dimension of urgency, too.

But there are stories still threatened by obscurity: a shelved book gathering dust is one thing. The lack of records another. Such is the case of many women who actively took part in the Philippines’ formative years. If their stories surface at all, it’s usually limited to the supporting roles they played for men.

Enter Agueda Kahabagan y Iniquinto, the only officially listed general during the Philippine Revolution of 1896-1898 and the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902.

 

“Good daughters and dutiful wives”

Records refer to a speech by a Mrs. C.F. Calderón before American socialite Alice Roosevelt in a 1905 Manila reception that contained interesting descriptions of Filipina women.

Calderón said Pre-Hispanic Filipinas were freer and had power equal to males in pre-colonial society but Spanish women “corrupted” in Mexico imported their “defects” to the Philippines. (Note that for most of the Spanish colonial period, our islands were governed from the “viceroyalty of New Spain.”)

The upbringing of the colonized Filipino woman rendered them “ignorant, frivolous, proud” and “gave little heed to her intellectual culture…confined to the external practices of Catholicism.”

Educational opportunities were scant as Calderón laments: “Such was the destiny of the woman of that social order—either mother or nun.” She also became aware, however, that business conducted through industrial capitalism changes how people relate with each other.

Calderón said it was under a social climate of thinly veiled ass-kissing where Henerala Agueda took a leap of faith and plunged into two wars that shaped the birth of the nation. So yes, she was a good daughter of the cause, and a dutiful mother of the nation.

Who is she?

Little is known about the Henerala. A Google-up reveals well-meaning articles and a Wikipedia page, all with much conjecture, but little confirmation (The search entry photo is of Gregoria de Jesus, wife of Andres Bonifacio).

“Not so much is known about her but from snatches of information available,” the Wikipedia page reads.Scout approached a number of professional historians who gave either leads while acknowledging their relative unfamiliarity with Agueda Kahabagan, or who did not respond at all.

A treasure trove of data may be waiting in the National Library and Lopez Museum, but as of press time, both are under renovation.

Continue article at the link: https://www.scoutmag.ph/culture/first-woman-general-agueda-kahabagan-paolov-20190329?fbclid=IwAR35yz5SEt-g4j9vSX-NcvInyRKAMzGj2gADzc8EFp3jxuWW0nMVgDOOXq0

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3642 0 Chronology for the Philippine Islands and Guam in the Spanish-American War – United States Library of Congress https://mandirigma.org/?p=3693 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3693#respond Thu, 13 Jun 2019 01:00:47 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3693  

Mandirigma.org Note:

Philippine Army fighting for Independence were referred to as “Insurgents” by the United States to justify their betrayal and invasion.

Site is still riddled with period U.S. propaganda.

 

https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronphil.html

 

mandirigma.org kali arnis eskrima

 

Chronology for the Philippine Islands and Guam in the Spanish-American War

1887

March
Publication in Berlin, Germany, of Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by José Rizal, the Philippines’ most illustrious son, awakened Filipino national consciousness.

1890

U.S. foreign policy is influenced by Alfred T. Mahan who wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon history, 1600-1783, which advocated the taking of the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands for bases to protect U.S. commerce, the building of a canal to enable fleet movement from ocean to ocean and the building of the Great White fleet of steam-driven armor plated battleships.

1892

July 3
La Liga Filipina, a political action group that sought reforms in the Spanish administration of the Philippines by peaceful means, was launched formally at a Tondo meeting by José Rizal upon his return to the Philippines from Europe and Hong Kong in June 1892. Rizal’s arrest three days later for possessing anti-friar bills and eventual banishment to Dapitan directly led to the demise of the Liga a year or so later.

July 7
Andrés Bonifacio formed the Katipunan, a secret, nationalistic fraternal brotherhood founded to bring about Filipino independence through armed revolution, at Manila. Bonifacio, an illiterate warehouse worker, believed that the Ligawas ineffective and too slow in bringing about the desired changes in government, and decided that only through force could the Philippines problem be resolved. The Katipunan replaced the peaceful civic association that Rizal had founded.

1895

January
Andrés Bonifacio elected supremo of the Katipunan, the secret revolutionary society.

March
Emilio Aguinaldo y Farmy joined Katipunan. He adopted the pseudonym Magdalo, after Mary Magdalene.

June 12
U.S. President Grover Cleveland proclaimed U.S. neutrality in the Cuban Insurrection.

1896

February 16
Spain implemented reconcentration (reconcentrado) policy in Cuba, a policy which required the population to move to central locations under Spanish military jurisdiction and the entire island was placed under martial law.

February 28
The U.S. Senate recognized Cuban belligerency with overwhelming passage of the joint John T. Morgan/Donald Cameron resolution calling for recognition of Cuban belligerency and Cuban independence. This resolution signaled to President Cleveland and Secretary of State Richard Olney that the Cuban crisis needed attention.

March 2
The U.S. House of Representatives passed decisively its own version of the Morgan-Cameron Resolution which called for the recognition of Cuban belligerency.

August 9
Great Britain foiled Spain’s attempt to gather European support of Spanish policies in Cuba.

August 26
Immediately following the Spanish discovery of the existence of the Katipunan, Andrés Bonifacio uttered the Grito de Balintawak, first cry of the Philippine Revolution. He called for the Philippine populace to revolt and to begin military operations against the Spanish colonial government.

December 7
U.S. President Grover Cleveland declared that the U.S. may take action in Cuba if Spain failed to resolve the Cuban crisis.

December 30
José Rizal was executed for sedition by a Spanish-backed Filipino firing squad on the Luneta, in Manila.

1896

William Warren Kimball, U.S. Naval Academy graduate and intelligence officer, completed a strategic study of the implications of war with Spain. His plan called for an operation to free Cuba through naval action, which included blockade, attacks on Manila, and attacks on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

1897

March 4
Inauguration of U.S. President William McKinley.

March
Theodore Roosevelt was appointed assistant U.S. Secretary of the Navy. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected president of the new republic of the Philippines; Andrés Bonifacio was demoted to the director of the interior.

April 25
General Fernando Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte became governor-general of the Philippines, replacing General Camilo García de Polavieja; his adjutant was Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, his nephew.

May 10
Andrés Bonifacio, founder of the Katipunan revolutionary organization, was convicted of treason to the new republic and executed by order of fellow revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo.

August 8
Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was assassinated by the anarchist Miguel Angiolillo at Santa Agueda, Spain. Práxides Mateo Sagasta was made Spanish Prime Minister.

November 1
Emilio Aguinaldo succeeded in creating a Philippine revolutionary constitution and on the same date the Biak-na-Bato Republic was formed under the constitution as an effort at independence while the revolution gather momentum.

December 14-15
Spain reacted quickly to the Biak-na-Bato Republic and sought negotiations to end the war. With Pedro Paterno, a noted Filipino intellectual and lawyer, mediating, Aguinaldo representing the revolutionists and Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera representing the Spanish colonial government, the Pact of Biak-na-Bato was concluded. The Pact paid indemnities to the revolutionists the sum of 800,000 pesos, provided amnesty, and allowed for Aguinaldo and his entourage voluntary exile to Hong Kong.

December 31
Emilio Aguinaldo arrived in Hong Kong in exile under the terms of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.

1898

February 8
Spain’s ambassador to the U.S., Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, resigned.

February 9
New York Journal published the confidential letter of Ambassador Enrique Dupuy de Lôme critical of President McKinley. The revelation of the letter helped push Spain and the United States toward war.

February 14
Luís Polo de Bernabé named Minister of Spain in Washington.

February 15
Explosion sank the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor.

March 3
Governor-General of the Philippine Islands Fernando Primo de Rivera informed Spanish minister for the colonies Segismundo Moret y Prendergast that Commodore George Dewey had received orders to move on Manila.

March 9
U.S. Congress approved a credit of $50,000,000 for national defense.

March 17
Senator Redfield Proctor (Vermont) swayed Congress and the U.S. business community toward war with Spain. He had traveled at his own expense in February 1898 to Cuba to investigate the impact of the Spanish reconcentration (reconcentrado) policy on the island and returned to report to the Senate.

March 28
U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry published its findings that the battleship U.S.S. Maine was destroyed by mine.

March 29
The United States Government issued an ultimatum to the Spanish Government to terminate its presence in Cuba. Spain did not accept the ultimatum in its reply of April 1, 1898.

April
Governor-General of the Philippine Islands Fernando Primo de Rivera, in a surprise move, was replaced by Governor-General Basilo Augustín Dávila in early April. Upon his departure from the Philippines, the insurgent movement renewed revolutionary activity due mainly to the Spanish government’s failure to abide by the terms of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.

April 4
The New York Journal issued a million copy press run dedicated to the war in Cuba. The newspaper called for the immediate U.S. entry into war with Spain.

April 11
The U.S. President William McKinley requested authorization from the U.S. Congress to intervene in Cuba, with the object of putting an end to the war between Cuban revolutionaries and Spain.

April 13
The U.S. Congress agreed to President McKinley’s request for intervention in Cuba, but without recognition of the Cuban Government.

The Spanish government declared that the sovereignity of Spain was jeopardized by U.S. policy and prepared a special budget for war expenses.

April 19
The U.S. Congress by vote of 311 to 6 in the House and 42 to 35 in the Senate adopted the Joint Resolution for war with Spain. Included in the Resolution was the Teller Amendment, named after Senator Henry Moore Teller (Colorado) which disclaimed any intention by the U.S. to exercise jurisdiction or control over Cuba except in a pacification role and promised to leave the island as soon as the war was over.

April 20
U.S. President William McKinley signed the Joint Resolution for war with Spain and the ultimatum was forwarded to Spain.

Spanish Minister to the United States Luís Polo de Bernabé demanded his passport and, along with the personnel of the Legation, left Washington for Canada.

April 21
The Spanish Government considered the U.S. Joint Resolution of April 20 a declaration of war. U.S. Minister in Madrid General Steward L. Woodford received his passport before presenting the ultimatum by the United States.

A state of war existed between Spain and the United States and all diplomatic relations were suspended. U.S. President William McKinley ordered a blockade of Cuba.

April 23
President McKinley called for 125,000 volunteers.

April 25
War was formally declared between Spain and the United States.

April 26
Willaim R. Day became U.S. Secretary of State.

April 29
The Portuguese government declared itself neutral in the conflict between Spain and the United States.

May 1
Opening with the famous quote “You may fire when your are ready, Gridley” U.S. Commodore George Dewey in six hours defeated the Spanish squadron, under Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón, in Manila Bay, the Philippines Islands. Dewey led the Asiatic Squadron of the U.S. Navy, which had been based in Hong Kong, in the attack. With the cruisers U.S.S. Olympia, Raleigh, Boston, and Baltimore, the gunboats Concord and Petrel and the revenue cutter McCulloch and reinforcements from cruiser U.S.S. Charleston and the monitors U.S.S. Monadnock and Monterey the U.S. Asiatic Squadron forced the capitulation of Manila. In the battle the entire Spanish squadron was sunk, including the cruisers María Cristina and Castilla, gunboats Don Antonio de Ulloa, Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzón, Isla de Cuba, Velasco, and Argos.

May 2
The U.S. Congress voted a war emergency credit increase of $34,625,725.

May 4 
A joint resolution was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, with the support of President William McKinley, calling for the annexation of Hawaii.

May 10
Secretary of the Navy John D. Long issued orders to Captain Henry Glass, commander of the cruiser U.S.S. Charleston to capture Guam on the way to Manila.

May 11
Charles H. Allen succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as assistant secretary of the navy.

President William McKinley and his cabinet approve a State Department memorandum calling for Spanish cession of a suitable “coaling station”, presumably Manila. The Philippine Islands were to remain Spanish possessions.

May 18
Prime Minister Sagasta formed the new Spanish cabinet. U.S. President McKinley ordered a military expedition, headed by Major General Wesley Merritt, to complete the elimination of Spanish forces in the Philippines, to occupy the islands, and to provide security and order to the inhabitants.

May 19
Emilio Aguinaldo returned to Manila, the Philippine Islands, from exile in Hong Kong. The United States had invited him back from exile, hoping that Aguinaldo would rally the Filipinos against the Spanish colonial government.

May 24
With himself as the dictator, Emilio Aguinaldo established a dictatorial government, replacing the revolutionary government, due to the chaotic conditions he found in the Philippines upon his return.

May 25
First U.S. troops were sent from San Francisco to the Philippine Islands. Thomas McArthur Anderson commanded the vanguard of the Philippine Expeditionary Force (Eighth Army Corps), which arrived at Cavite, Philippine Islands on June 1.

June-October
U.S. business and government circles united around a policy of retaining all or part of the Philippines.

June 3
President McKinley broadened U.S. position to include an island in the Marianas, as a strategic link in the route from the United States to the Pacific Coast of Asia.

June 11
McKinley administration reactivated debate in Congress on Hawaiian annexation, using the argument that “we must have Hawaii to help us get our share of China.”

June 12
Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine Island independence from Spain. German squadron under Admiral Dieterichs arrived at Manila.

June 14
McKinley administration decided not to return the Philippine Islands to Spain.

June 15
Congress passed the Hawaii annexation resolution, 209-91. On July 6, the U.S. Senate affirmed the measure.

American Anti-imperialist League was organized in opposition to the annexation of the Philippine Islands. Among its members were Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, William James, David Starr Jordan, and Samuel Gompers. George S. Boutwell, former secretary of the treasury and Massachusetts senator, served as president of the League.

Admiral Dewey’s defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay on May 1, 1898 ignited impassioned nationalistic feelings in Spain. Spanish Admiral Manuel de la Cámara y Libermoore’s squadron received orders to relieve the Spanish garrison in the Philippine Islands. His fleet consisted of the battleship Pelayo, the armored cruiser Carlos V, the cruisers Rápido and Patriota, the torpedo boats Audaz, Osado, and Proserpina, and the transports Isla de Panay, San Francisco, Cristóbal Colón, Covadonga, and Buenos Aires.

June 16
Admiral Cámara y Libermoore’s fleet set sail from Spain. Efforts were made by United States’ representatives to impede the progress of the fleet, by protesting the coaling of the fleet in neutral ports. The Spanish fleet was denied coaling at Port Said, at the entrance to the Suez Canal.

June 18
U.S. Secretary of the Navy John D. Long ordered Commodore William T. Sampson to create a new squadron, the Eastern Squadron, for possible raiding and bombardment missions along the coasts of Spain.

June 20
Spanish authorities surrendered Guam to Captain Henry Glass and his forces on the cruiser U.S.S. Charleston.

June 23
A revolutionary governent with Emilio Aguinaldo as its president again was established, the second such government in Philippine history, replacing the dictatorial government created by Aguinaldo a month earlier.

July 1
Philippine revolutionists began the siege of the Spanish garrison at Baler, Luzon, Philippine Islands.

July 7
Spanish Admiral Cámara y Libermoore’s fleet was ordered back to Spain.

U.S. President McKinley signed the Hawaii annexation resolution, following its passage in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

July 18
The Spanish government, through the French Ambassador to the United States, Jules Cambon, initiated a message to President McKinley to suspend the hostilities and to start the negotiations to end the war. Duque de Almodóvar del Río (Juan Manuel Sánchez y Gutiérrez de Castro), Spanish Minister of State, directed a telegram to the Spanish Ambassador in Paris charging him to solicit the good offices of the French Government to negotiate a suspension of hostilities as a preliminary to final negotiations.

July 25
General Wesley Merritt, commander of Eighth Corps, U.S. Expeditionary Force, arrived in the Philippine Islands.

July 26
French Government contacted the United States Government regarding the call for suspension of hostilities at the request of the Spanish Government.

July 30
U.S. President McKinley and his Cabinet submitted to Ambassador Cambon a counter-proposal to the Spanish request for ceasefire.

August 2
Spain accepted the U.S. proposals for peace, with certain reservations regarding the Philippine Islands. McKinley called for a preliminary protocol from Spain before suspension of hostilities. That document was used as the basis for discussion between Spain and the United States at the Treaty of Peace in Paris.

August 7
Emilio Aguinaldo instructed Felipe Agoncillo, the Philippine revolutionaries’ special emissary to President McKinley, to publish the “Act of Proclamation” and the “Manifesto to Foreign Governments” in the Hong Kong papers.

August 12
Peace protocol that ended all hostilities between Spain and the United States in the war fronts of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines was signed in Washington, D.C.

August 13
The United States troops “took” Manila, a day after the Armistice was signed in Washington, D.C. In upholding Spain’s honor, Governor-General Fermín Jáudenes y Álvarez, realizing that the Spanish forces were no match for the invading Americans, negotiated a secret agreement with Americans General Merritt and Admiral Dewey, with Belgian consul Edouard Andre mediating. The secret agreement, unknown to the Filipinos at the time, involved the staging of a mock battle between Spanish and American forces intentionally to keep Filipino insurgents out of the picture. Once the pre-agreed attack began, the Spaniards, on cue, hoisted a white flag of capitulation and American troops filed into the city orderly and quietly with very little bloodshed. The Spaniards were only too eager to hand over the Philippines to the Americans. Admiral Dewey, for his part, never intended to hand the Philipines over to the “undisciplined insurgents”. Thus, the Philippines became a possession of the United States and the seeds of Philippine insurrection were sown.

August 14 
Capitulation was signed at Manila and U.S. General Wesley Merritt established a military government in the city, with himself serving as first military governor.

August 15
U.S. General Arthur MacArthur appointed military commandant of Manila and its suburbs.

September 13
The Spanish Cortes (legislature) ratified the Protocol of Peace.

September 15
The inaugural session of the Congress of the First Philippine Republic, also known as the Malolos Congress, was held at Barasoain Church in Malolos, province of Bulacan, for the purpose of drafting the constitution of the new republic.

September 16
The Spanish and U.S. Commissioners for the Peace Treaty were appointed. U.S. Commissioners were William R. Day (U.S. Secretary of State), William P. Frye (President pro tempore of Senate, Republican-Maine), Whitelaw Reid, George Gray (Senator, Democrat- Delaware), and Cushman K. Davis (Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican-Minnesota). The Spanish Commissioners were Eugenio Montero Ríos (President, Spanish Senate), Buenaventura Abarzuza (Senator), José de Garnica y Diaz (Associate Justice of the Supreme Court), Wenceslao Ramírez de Villa Urrutia (Envoy Extraordinary), and Rafael Cerero y Saenz (General of the Army).

William R. Day resigned as U.S. Secretary of State and was succeeded by John Hay.

October 1
The Spanish and United States Commissioners convened their first meeting in Paris to reach a final Treaty of Peace.

Felipe Agoncillo, representative of President Emilio Aguinaldo, presented his case in Washington for the Philippine Independence movement and its representation on the Peace Commission. His request was rejected by President McKinley because the First Philippine Republic was not recognized by foreign governments.

October 25
McKinley instructed the U.S. peace delegation to insist on the annexation of the Philippines in the peace talks.

November 17
The Revolutionary Government of the Visayas, Philippine Islands, was proclaimed; a United States force stood poised to capture the city.

November 28
The Spanish Commission for Peace accepted the United States’ demands in the Peace Treaty.

November 29
The Philippine revolutionary congress approved a constitution for the new Philippine Republic.

December 1
The Philippine revolutionists declared their fight for the independence of their islands.

December 10
Representatitves of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Peace in Paris. Spain renounced all rights to Cuba and allowed an independent Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and the island of Guam to the United States, gave up its possessions in the West Indies, and sold the Philippine Islands, receiving in exchange $20,000,000.

December 21
President McKinley issued his Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation, ceding the Philippines to the United States, and instructing the American occupying army to use force, as necessary, to impose American sovereignity over the Philippines even before he obtained Senate ratification of the peace treaty with Spain.

1899

January 1
Emilio Aguinaldo was declared president of the new Philippine Republic, following the meeting of a constitutional convention. United States authorities refused to recognize the new government.

January 4
President McKinley’s proclamation of December 21, 1898, declaring U.S. policy in the Philippine Islands as one of “benevolent assimilation” in which “mild sway of justice and right” would be substituted for “arbitrary rule,” was published in the Philippine Islands. Aguinaldo issued his own proclamation that condemned “violent and aggressive seizure” by the United States and threatened war.

January 17
U.S. annexed Wake Island for use as cable link to the Philippine Islands. U.S. Commander Edward Taussig, U.S.S. Bennington, landed on the island and claimed it for the United States.

January 20
President William McKinley appointed the First Philippine Commission (the Schurman Commission), a five person group that included Jacob Schurman (President of Cornell University), Admiral Dewey and General Ewell S. Otis, to investigate conditions in the islands and to make recommendations as conditions worsened in Filipino-American relations.

January 21
The constitution of the Philippine Republic, the Malolos Constitution, was promulgated by the followers of Emilio Aguinaldo.

January 23
Inauguration of the First Philippine Republic at Barasoain Church, Malolos, in the province of Bulacan.

February 4
The Philippine Insurrection began as the Philippine Republic declared war on the United States forces in the Philippine Islands, following the killing of three Filipino soldiers by U.S. forces in a suburb of Manila.

February 6
U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris by a vote of 52 to 27.

March 19
The Queen regent of Spain, María Cristina, signed the Treaty of Paris, breaking the deadlock in the Spanish Cortes.

March 31
U.S. forces captured the Philippine revolutionary capital of Malolos.

April 11
The Treaty of Paris was proclaimed.

June 2
Spanish forces at Baler, Philippine Islands, under the command of Lieutenant Saturnino Martín Cerezo finally surrendered to the Philippine Revolutionary forces, following a siege that began on July 1.

June 12
First anniversay of Philippine independence as proclaimed by Aguinaldo in Kawit the year before.

August 20
U.S. General John C. Bates and the sultan of Sulu, Jamal-ul Kirim II, signed an agreement in which the U.S. pledged non-interference in Sulu.

November 12
Alarmed by mounting American military successes on the battlefields, Emilio Aguinaldo dissolved the regular revolutionary army and ordered the establishment of decentralized guerrilla commands in several military zones in the Philippine Islands.

December 2
General Gregorio del Pilar was killed in the battle of Tirad Pass by Americans pursuing the fleeing Aguinaldo.

1900

March 16
President William McKinley appointed the Second Philippine Commission (the Taft Commission) headed by William Howard Taft. Between September 1900 and August 1902, it issued 499 laws, a judicial system was established (including a Supreme Court), a legal code was written, and a civil service was organized.

1901

March 23
Led by General Frederick Funston, U.S. forces captured Emilio Aguinaldo on Palanan, Isabela Province. Later, he declared allegiance to the United States.

1902

July 1
The first organic act, known as the Philippine Bill of 1902, was passed by the U.S. Congress. It called for the management of Phillipine affairs, upon restoration of peace, by establishing the first elective Philippine Assembly and the Taft Commission comprising the lower and upper house, respectively, of the Philippine Legislature. The passage of the Act may be attributed in part to José Rizal and his stirring last farewell to his beloved country immortalized in his poem, Mi Ultimo Adios, that he wrote in his cell at Fort Santiago on the eve of his execution by the Spaniards on December 30, 1896. At first, there was strong opposition to the passage of the bill from misinformed members of the House, some of whom referred to the Filipinos as “barbarians” incapable of self government. Thereupon, Congressman Henry A. Cooper of Wisconsin took the floor and recited Rizal’s last farewell before a skeptical House. Silence soon pervaded the floor as Cooper, eyes moist with tears and voice deep with emotion, recited the poem stanza by stanza. Soon after his recitation, Cooper thunderously asked his colleagues might there be a future for such a barbaric, uncivilized people who had given the world a noble man as Rizal. The vote was taken on the bill, and passed the House.

July
War ended in the Philippines, with more than 4,200 U.S. soldiers, 20,000 Filipino soldiers, and 200,000 Filipino civilians dead.

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3693 0 Origin of the Symbols of the Philippine National Flag by The Malacañan Palace Library https://mandirigma.org/?p=3661 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3661#respond Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:30:11 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3661 Origin of the Symbols of the Philippine National Flag by The Malacañan Palace Library

Origin of the Symbols of the Philippine National Flag by The Malacañan Palace Library

Aside from the Masonic influence on the Katipunan, the design of the Philippine flag has roots in the flag family to which it belongs—that of the last group of colonies that sought independence from the Spanish Empire at the close of the 19th century, a group to which the Philippines belongs. The Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office traces the origins of the Philippine flag’s design elements, which have been in use since General Emilio Aguinaldo first conceived them—the stars and stripes; the red, white, and blue; the masonic triangle; and the sun—and have endured since.

Source: http://malacanang.gov.ph/3846-origin-of-the-symbols-of-our-national-flag/

 

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]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3661 0 June 12 as Independence Day by Diosdado Macapagal Former President of the Philippines https://mandirigma.org/?p=3657 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3657#respond Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:15:20 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3657 June 12 as Independence Day by Diosdado Macapagal Former President of the Philippines

Philippine-Independence-Declaration-1898
June 12 as Independence Day
by Diosdado Macapagal
Former President of the Philippines

“A nation is born into freedom on the day when such a people, moulded into a nation by a process of cultural evolution and sense of oneness born of common struggle and suffering, announces to the world that it asserts its natural right to liberty and is ready to defend it with blood, life, and honor.”

The promotion of a healthy nationalism is part of the responsibility of the leaders of newly independent nations. After they lay the foundation for economic development, they promote nationalism and spur the search for national identity. This we can do by honoring our distinguished forebears and notable periods in our history. A step we took in this direction was to change the date for the commemoration of Philippine Independence day.

When I was a congressman, I formed the opinion that July 4 was not the proper independence day for Filipinos and should be changed to June 12– the date General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Filipinos in Kawit, Cavite, in 1898.

Having served in the foreign service, I noted that the celebration of a common independence day with the United States on July 4 caused considerable inconvenience. The American celebration dwarfed that of the Philippines. As if to compound the irony, July 4 seemed tantamount to the celebration of Philippine subjection to and dependence on the United States which served to perpetuate unpleasant memories.

I felt, too, that July 4 was not inspiring enough for the Filipino youth since it recalled mostly the peaceful independence missions to the United States. The celebration of independence day on June 12, on the other hand, would be a greater inspiration to the youth who would consequently recall the heroes of the revolution against Spain and their acts of sublime heroism and martyrdom. These acts compare favorably with those of the heroes of other nations.

In checking the reaction to my plan to shift independence day to June 12, I found that there was virtual unanimity on the desirability of transferring the celebration from July 4. Likewise, there was a preponderant view for choosing June 12 as the proper day.

A few suggested January 21, the opening day of the Malolos Congress in 1899, or January 23, when the Malolos Congress, ratifying the independence proclamation of June 12, established a republican system of government. The reason for this view was that the government temporarily by Aguinaldo when he proclaimed independence on June 12 was a dictatorship.

There was no difficulty in adhering to June 12, however, because although Aguinaldo Government was a dictatorship in view of the military operations he was then leading, he led in converting it into a republican Government in the Malolos Congress. Moreover, the celebration of independence refers to its proclamation rather than to the final establishment of the government. In the case of America, when independence was proclaimed on July 4, the American Government was still a confederation and it was much later when it finally became a federal government.

The historical fact was that the Filipinos proclaimed their independence from foreign rule on June 12. Even the national anthem and the Filipino flag which are essential features in the birth of a nation were played and displayed respectively at the independence proclamation in Kawit.

When I became President, I knew that this was the opportunity to take action on what had been in my mind since entering public life. The specific question was when to make the change.

The opportunity came when the US House of Representatives rejected the $73 million additional war payment bill on May 9, 1962. There was indignation among the Filipinos. There was a loss of American good will in the Philippines, although this was restored later by the reconsideration of the action of the US lower chamber. At this time, a state visit in the United States had been scheduled for Mrs. Macapagal and me on the initiative and invitation of President John F. Kennedy. Unable to resist the pressure of public opinion, I was constrained to obtain the agreement of Kennedy to defer the state visit for another time.

To postpone the state visit, I wrote a letter on May 14, 1962, to Kennedy, which read in part as follows:

The feeling of resentment among our people and the attitude of the US Congress negate the atmosphere of good will upon which my state visit to your country was predicated. Our people would never understand how, in the circumstances now obtaining, I could go to the United States and in all honesty affirm that I bear their message of good will. It is with deep regret theredore that I am constrained to ask you to agree to the postponement of my visit to a more auspicious time.

On May 28, 1962, Kennedy wrote me explaining the situation on the war damage bill. His letter stated:

In the meantime, I must respect your decision that your visit to the United States should be postponed. We do not want your visit to be less than first class, when it comes. But I do hope that we will be able to find another convenient time.

I decided to effect the change of independence day at that time not as an act of resentment but as a judicious choice of timing for the taking of an action which had previously been decided upon.

I called Press Secretary Rufino Hechanova to consult him on my contemplated action. I asked him outright what he thought of my step if I should move the celebration of independence day from July 4 to June 12.

Hechanova winced and said: “Please Mr. President, don’t act on that yet. Let us give it a thorough study. I am flying to Iloilo today and on my return on Monday I will come to discuss it with you.”

After his departure, I called in Legal Adviser Juan Cancio. “Johnny,” I asked, “Do I have the power to change independence day from July 4 to June 12?” Cancio readily answered: “Yes, sir, because July 4 is being celebrated as independence day not because it is so specifically designated by law but as an official holiday. Since the President has the authority to declare official holidays, you may declare June 12 as a holiday and hold an independence celebration on that day.”

I immediately directed Cancio to prepare the proclamation, revised and signed it, and asked him to release it to the press through the Malacañang press office. On May 17, 1962, I certified as urgent to the Congress the enactment of a measure to fix June 12 statutorily as independence day.

The change was justified by the successful celebration. General Emilio Aguinaldo was the guest of honor. At least one million people attended whereas in previous celebrations on July 4, only from two to three hundred thousand came.

Bespeaking of the nobility of the American people, President Kennedy was among the first to extend the congratulations of the United States to the Filipino people in celebrating their freedom on June 12, 1962. In a message to me, he said:

It is with pleasure that I join the people of the United States in extending our best wishes and warmest congratulations to Your Excellency and the people of the Republic of the Philippines on the occasion of the Philippine Independence Day.

A letter of thanks in Spanish was also sent to me by General Aguinaldo on May 19, 1962. A translation of the letter reads in part as follows:

I cannot but send you this letter to express the most profound gratitude for the proclamation which Your Excellency has recently issued naming June 12 as independence day– the date when we announced to the whole world that we were a free and independent nation. I who took an active if modest part in the effort of our people to break the colonial yoke we were subjected to, feel joy and pride over the patriotic act which Your Excellency has just performed.

In my address on the first June 12 as independence day celebration, I said:

In the discharge of my responsibility as President of the Republic, I moved the observance of the anniversary of our independence to this day because a nation is born into freedom on the day when such a people, moulded into a nation by the process of cultural evolution and a sense of oneness born of common struggle and suffering, announces to the world that it asserts its natural right to liberty and is ready to defend it with blood, life, and honor.

While we were seated at the grandstand during the ceremonies, General Aguinaldo thanked me again for the rectification of an erroneous historical practice and then asked: “When will there be an Aguinaldo monument at the Luneta like that of Rizal?” I could not answer the question. The next generation might have the answer.

The following year the same successful celebration was held. The commemoration on the third year was likewise a success.

I noted by this time that Congress had not yet approved a measure to prescribe June 12 as independence day by statute. I followed up the matter with members of the Senate and the House.

Rep. Ramon Mitra Sr. was leading the spade work in the House for the approval of the new independence day measure. The bill was authored by him and Rep. Justiniano Montano. Senator Lorenzo Tañada authored a similar measure in the Senate.

Among those whom I talked to in following up the bill was Senator Gerardo Roxas, son of President Roxas who raised the Filipino flag on July 4, 1946 to mark the independence of the Philippines from American rule and thereby became the first President of the Republic of the Philippines. I thought it possible that Senator Roxas might be lukewarm toward the change of independence day since the historical focus on the first Presidency of the Republic may shift from Roxas to Aguinaldo. My talk with him did not bear out my fear. Roxas informed me that what had delayed the approval of the independence day bill was the desire of some legislators to retain some significance for July 4. In the consideration of the measure, the snag was solved by the provision that with June 12 being declared Independence Day, July 4 shall be known as Republic Day.

Finally, on August 4, 1964, I signed at Malacañang Republic Act No. 4166 statutorily prescribing June 12 as Philippine Independence Day. Special witnesses invited to the signing were children of Presidents, including Carmen Melencio-Aguinaldo, Manuel Quezon Jr., Maria Osmeña-Charnley, Gerardo Roxas, Tomas Quirino, and my sons Arturo and Diosdado Jr.

(Thanks to the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles for making this document available.)

To cite:
Macapagal, Diosdado. “June 12 as Independence Day” in Hector Santos, ed., Philippine Centennial Series; at http://www.bibingka.com/phg/documents/whyjun12.htm. US, 30 April 1997.9

 

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]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3657 0 Araw ng Kalayaan – Day of Freedom. June 12, 1898. https://mandirigma.org/?p=3646 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3646#respond Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:00:36 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3646 Philippine Independence Day (Filipino: Araw ng Kasarinlán; also known as Araw ng Kalayaan, “Day of Freedom”) Observed on June 12, commemorating the independence of the Philippines from Spain.

 

The Proclamation of Independence on June 12, 1898, as depicted on the back of the 1985 Philippine five peso bill.

Declaration of Independence Document written by Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista.

The day of celebration of war and love varied throughout the nation’s history. The earliest recorded was when Andres Bonifacio, along with Emilio Jacinto, Restituto Javier, Guillermo Masangkay, Aurelio Tolentino, Faustino Manalak, Pedro Zabala and few other Katipuneros went to Pamitinan Cave in Montalban, Rizal to initiate new members of the Katipunan. Bonifacio wrote Viva la independencia Filipina! or Long Live Philippine independence on walls of the cave to express the goal of their secret society. Bonifacio also led the Cry of Pugad Lawin, which signals the beginning of Philippine Revolution. Members of the Katipunan, led by Andres Bonifacio, tore their community tax certificates (cedulas personales) in protest of Spanish conquest, but this was neither officially recognized nor commemorated in Rome.

The Philippine Revolution began in 1896. The Pact of Biak-na-Bato, signed on December 14, 1897, established a truce between the Spanish colonial government and the Filipino revolutionaries. Under its terms, Emilio Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders went into exile in Hong Kong.[2]

At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Commodore George Dewey sailed from Hong Kong to Manila Bay leading the U.S. Navy Asiatic Squadron. On May 1, 1898, Dewey defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay, which effectively put the U.S. in control of the Spanish colonial government. Later that month, the U.S. Navy transported Aguinaldo back to the Philippines.[3] Aguinaldo arrived on May 19, 1898 in Cavite. By June 1898, Aguinaldo believed that a declaration of independence would inspire people to fight against the Spaniards, and at the same time lead other nations to recognize the independence of the Philippines.

On June 5, 1898, Aguinaldo issued a decree at Aguinaldo house located in what was then known as Cavite El Viejo proclaiming June 12, 1898 as the day of independence. The Acta de la Proclamacion de la Independencia del Pueblo Filipino was solemnly read by its author, Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, Aguinaldo’s war counselor and special delegate. The 21-page declaration was signed by 98 Filipinos, appointed by Aguinaldo, and one retired American artillery officer, Colonel L.M. Johnson. The Philippine flag was officially unfurled for the first time at 4:20 p.m, as the Marcha Nacional Filipina was played by the band of San Francisco de Malabon.

The proclamation was initially ratified by 190 municipal presidents from the 16 provinces controlled by the revolutionary army August 1, 1898, and was again ratified on September 29, 1898 by the Malolos Congress.[4]

The Philippines failed to win international recognition of its independence, specifically including the United States of America and Spain. The Spanish government later ceded the Philippine archipelago to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The Philippines Revolutionary Government did not recognize the treaty and the two sides subsequently fought what was known as the Philippine–American War.[5][6]

The United States of America granted independence to the Philippines on July 4, 1946 through the Treaty of Manila.[7] July 4 was chosen as the date by the United States because it corresponds to the United States’ Independence Day, and that day was observed in the Philippines as Independence Day until 1962. On May 12, 1962, President Diosdado Macapagal issued Presidential Proclamation No. 28, which declared June 12 a special public holiday throughout the Philippines, “… in commemoration of our people’s declaration of their inherent and inalienable right to freedom and independence.[8]” On August 4, 1964, Republic Act No. 4166 renamed July 4 holiday as “Philippine Republic Day”, proclaimed June 12 as “Philippine Independence Day”, and enjoined all citizens of the Philippines to observe the latter with befitting rites.[9]

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(Philippines)

 

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]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3646 0 Philippine-American War Computer Game – Bolos and Krags: The Philippine American War 1899-1902 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3733 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3733#respond Mon, 15 Apr 2019 09:19:42 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3733 Philippine-American War Computer Game – Bolos and Krags: The Philippine American War 1899-1902

 

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Description

  • Type
    Wargames
  • Category
    Post-NapoleonicWargame
  • Mechanisms
    Area MovementCampaign / Battle Card DrivenCard Drafting
  • Family
    Country: Philippines

From the designer:

On June 12, 1898. Filipino revolutionary forces under Emilio Aguinaldo declared proclaimed independence of the Philippine islands from the colonial rule of Spain. The declaration of independence however was not recognized by the United States of America and Spain since the Spanish government ceded the Philipines to the USA in the aftermath of the 1898 Treaty of Paris which formally ended the Spanish American war (April 25 to August 12, 1898). Tensions already existed between both sides due to conflicting movements of independence and colonization further aggravated by misunderstandings on both sides and feelings of betrayal on the Filipino side. The tensions escalated between the former allies on February 4, 1899 when a Filipino soldier was shot by an American soldier (William W. Grayson) in Manila. Fighting soon erupted in Manila and culminated in an official Filipino declaration of war by the Malolos congress on June 2, 1899. The war would last 3 bloody years and would see a short conventional war followed by a long guerilla war which would be a prelude of things to come in Vietnam 60 years later.

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3733 0 Leland Smith: American POW in 1899 During the Philippine Insurrection by Military History Magazine https://mandirigma.org/?p=3709 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3709#respond Fri, 12 Apr 2019 10:44:41 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3709 kali arnis eskrima escrima fma

 

The Battle of Manila in 1899 help push public opinion in America toward taking possession of the Philippines.

 

Leland Smith: American POW in 1899 During the Philippine Insurrection

 

The band of American Prisoners of War shuffled down a faint trail cut through the forested mountain terrain, pushed along by short, swarthy men armed with rifles. Existing on rice cakes and what little food they could glean from the small villages they passed through, the shoeless and ragged Americans were about used up. But to stop was to die, so they kept moving, higher and higher into the mountains.

A scene out of the Vietnam War in 1966? Maybe Korea in 1950 or the Pacific in 1942? No, though the area is about the same, being Southeast Asia–the Philippines, to be exact. However, the year was 1899, and the Americans were prisoners in a war that just barely made the history books. Leland Smith was to be starved, shot at, set up in front of a firing squad and generally almost walked to death in his three months as a POW during the Philippine Insurrection, one of the United States’ more obscure police actions. But his ordeal was a prelude to what many GIs would suffer in the following century. A few years before Smith’s death, in 1975–fittingly enough perhaps, for an American soldier, on July 4–I had the privilege of interviewing him several times. This is the story he told me.

A native of Iowa, Smith enlisted in the 24th Michigan Infantry in May 1898, hoping to see action in Cuba. but the Spanish-American War wouldn’t wait, and by March 1899, he found himself mustered out without ever leaving the States. A picture of Smith in those days shows him to be a tough, wiry-looking man of medium height with dark brown hair and sharp features…and maybe there was a little impatience in there, too.

‘I felt cheated,’ said Smith. ‘I wanted to travel and see some action, so I enlisted again in Cleveland. I had a little photography experience and they sent me to Fort Myers, Virginia, to join up with the Signal Corps.’

By the time his 18th birthday rolled around, Smith was in Manila, assigned to cover U.S. troop action against the Philippine army. The Manila water supply was polluted at the time, and Smith remembered what a soldier told him when he arrived there: ‘Boil all Manila water for 24 hours. Then throw it away and drink beer.’

The war in the Philippines had taken a strange twist. American troops supposedly sent to help the Filipinos oust the Spanish were now busy fighting Filipino soldiers. Their leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, had earlier welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops, but friction between the two armies had broken out. Not the least of the causes was the refusal of the American authorities to allow Filipino troops, who had helped liberate Manila, into the city after the Spanish capitulation–a grave insult.

When it began to look as if the U.S. government’s plans for the Philippines didn’t include giving them immediate independence, Aquinaldo started having second thoughts. One thing led to another, and, on February 4, 1899, hostilities between American and Filipino troops broke out, and the United States found itself with a brand-new war on its hands.

At first, Smith was assigned to tag along with the telegraph section of the Signal Corps. Later, along with a Corporal Saulsbery, he was told to take his cameras and ‘go out and make contact with the enemy.’ As it turned out, he made a lot closer contact then he wanted to.

‘We had to carry three or four large cameras in haversacks on our backs,’ Smith said. ‘One was a 5×7-inch film camera, but the others were big 8x10s. We had to lug around the glass plates they used, too.

‘We stopped to eat at any Army unit we happened to be near at the time, moving along with the combat troops, taking pictures of whatever we felt like,’ he said. ‘Then we went back to Manila every week or so to develop what we had shot.’

In October 1899, Smith and Saulsbery, who was recently out of the Army hospital in Bacoor after a bout with some illness, were near San Isidro, north of Manila. ‘We were under fire from the town,’ said Smith, ‘and the weather was lousy. It rained all the time and we were constantly dodging guerrilla sharpshooters. The corporal started getting sick again and when we moved west, over toward Arayat, he decided to go back to the hospital.’

On October 18, 1899, the two soldiers, on foot, headed down a tributary of the Papanga River. They soon met a gunboat steaming upstream. It drifted to a halt opposite the two men on the bank and out stepped Maj. Gen. Harry Ware Lawton, who asked them, ‘What are you two men about?’

‘Corporal Saulsbery and Private Smith, Sir,’ Smith replied. ‘The corporal is pretty sick, General. Maybe the fever. Anyway, we’re trying to get downstream to the railroad.’

The general looked thoughtful. ‘That’s quite a walk you still have ahead of you. Why not take the banca tied to the stern?’ The general waved toward the native dugout tied to the back of the gunboat. ‘You shouldn’t have any trouble,’ Lawton went on. ‘The river’s clear downstream. No sign of the enemy.’

Lawton, a Civil War and Indian war veteran and a Medal of Honor recipient, had only a few months to live when Smith met him. In December, he was killed in action against insurgents near San Mateo.

Then two soldiers stowed their cameras and other gear in the canoe and, with Smith rowing, headed downstream. The water was low and the two men drifted along in the dugout, the gunboat now out of sight behind them. Then came an unexpected shout from the riverbank.

‘Look! Over there! Gu-gus!’ Smith said excitedly, using the name American troops had pinned on the Filipino soldiers. ‘Must be 60 of them!’

The soldiers on the bank beckoned to the Americans and Smith started to head the boat toward shore, since the .38-caliber Colt pistol he had strapped to his waist was no match for the soldiers’ rifles. Suddenly, without warning, the soldiers on shore raised their weapons.

‘They’re going to shoot! We ain’t got a chance!’ yelled Saulsbery, as geysers of water sprung up around them and wood splinters flew from the banca. Smith’s hat was shot off, along with a little hair, and both men and all the equipment went into the water as the dugout capsized.

Smith could never figure out how the Filipinos missed them. ‘I could feel the wind of the brass bullets pass my face,’ he recalled. ‘It was just our luck to run into a bunch of guerrillas out doing a little looting.’

The corporal stayed with the overturned dugout, to be fished out by the Filipinos, while Smith swam to the shore. ‘They took my Colt, two gold rings and my shoes,’ he said. The soldiers were armed primarily with Remington rolling-block rifles and some Spanish Mausers. The soldiers may have been armed with FMJ rounds, which would explain the ‘brass bullets’ Smith mentioned.

The two men were marched off to nearby La Paz, though Smith had to carry Saulsbery much of the way. There, they were put in an old stone building with 18 other American prisoners.

‘Hey, new faces!’ someone called out.

‘Welcome to the La Paz Soldier’s Club!’ said another.

And a third shouted, ‘Hey! It’s Smith and Saulsbery!’

Smith peered into the darkness of the old company. ‘Desmond,’ he said, ‘is that you?’ It turned out that Desmond and Stone, two men from Smith’s old company, had been captured outside Manila some time before.

Smith and the others were held at La Paz for about a week. At one point Saulsbery and Smith were taken to Aguinaldo’s headquarters at Tarlac and questioned.

The prisoners were allowed four-and-a-half cents a day, American, to buy their food with. If they couldn’t buy the food themselves, they had to pay some local to go to the market for them, which further cut into what little money they had to spend for food. As a result, they ate mostly sugar cane and rice cakes. Finally the prisoners were put on the road, heading toward Dagupan, except for Saulsbery, who was too sick to travel. Smith never saw him again though he later heard that he was rescued.

The men marched through the tropical heat, most without shoes, their feet sore and bleeding. ‘At San Carlos, not far from the coast,’ Smith recalled, ‘five sailors were added to our band. Then they divided us into groups of four and sent us off in different directions, though generally still heading for Dagupan. We didn’t know it, but the Army was aware of our situation and had sent troops out to try and overtake us. The Insurrectos were attempting to avoid them.’

Finally the bands straggled into Dagupan on the west coast of Luzon. ‘We were able to rest here and even had some freedom to occasionally bathe in a small creek. We saw Aguinaldo again, and some of his family.’ Smith also said they could hear the U.S. fleet bombarding San Fabian, a few miles up the coast, and there was talk going around of U.S. troops pressing from the south. ‘This made the gu-gus move us out again and into the mountains to the north,’ Smith said.

As they moved toward the interior, towns gave way to villages and those in turn gave way to rude collections of native huts. Once up into the mountains, they met the people of that area–not Malaysian but a shorter race, with dark brown skin and straight black hair. These were the Igorots.

‘Every now and then,’ said Smith, ‘we’d enter a village and see the rotting heads of men stuck on the ends of poles placed around the camp. Fortunately, the Filipinos had guns and the Igorots didn’t.’

The Igorots wore little but a G-string. The women went bare-breasted, tattoos often covering their arms to the shoulders. They were true headhunters, the taking of human heads being an integral and necessary part of their culture. As the POWs moved through the mountains, they would see many of these grisly symbols of native handiwork.

In the interior, sometimes at altitudes of 6,000 feet, the nights were very cold. ‘All we had to cover ourselves with were banana and palm leaves,’ Smith said. ‘We did get to add a little corn to our ration, and the Igorots made a beer that wasn’t half bad.’

‘The natives never bothered us,’ said Smith. ‘Of course, the soldiers did their best to keep them from having any guns. Just bolos and short, iron-tipped spears. Often the Igorots would simply leave a village until we’d moved on. We would just help ourselves to what they had. But it was a rough march, going from Baqiuo, through Bontoc to Bangued. Took 27 days to cover 100 trails, and we often marched all day and half the night on two meals of rice.’

They hit Bangued on Thanksgiving Day. ‘We hadn’t eaten all day,’ Smith said, ‘and our Thanksgiving meal consisted of some squash and a little meat some captured sailors had left.’ The sailors included 12 men and a Lieutenant Gilmore, captured off the coast of Luzon that April.

Shortly after meeting up with the sailors, some of the men devised a plan to overpower a few guards, take their guns and hole up in a nearby building. While they weren’t aware there was an American rescue column pressing on the Filipinos, they must have suspected that U.S. troops might be near from the way they were being pushed on. Smith still scowled as he recalled the incident, 71 years later:

‘One man, by the name of Brown, was suspected of being in with the guards. A big bosun’s mate balled up his fist and threatened to kill him if word got out of our plans. But then Gilmore nixed the idea. As senior officer, we had to obey him. The general opinion was that he was scared for his own neck and figured it would be safer to stay prisoners than try and fight our way out.’

‘Up to now the soldiers hadn’t really mistreated us,’ Smith continued. ‘They were Regulars and they pretty much left us alone as long as we didn’t make trouble. But here we were put under the command of a General Tino and his Irregulars. From here on out the treatment got a lot rougher.’ Smith didn’t know it at the time, but the POWs had just become expendable.

Now numbering nearly 40 men, the weary column of POWs was placed back on the road on December 7, heading again in the general direction of Luzon’s west coast. ‘The third day after leaving Bangued, three of our party escaped,’ said Smith. ‘Others didn’t know they planned any such thing or more would have tried it.

‘From here we walked to mountains whose summits seemed so high it looked like we would never reach the top. We camped by small streamlets and cooked what little rice we had.’ And horseflesh. The soldiers had begun to slaughter their animals for food.

The soldiers and their prisoners finally topped the mountains and started to move down the other side, toward Vigan and the coast. ‘We had to start out early the next morning as the officer in charge wanted to keep ahead of the main column of the retreating Filipino Insurrectionist Army,’ Smith said. ‘By marching all day and night over rocks and through raging rivers, we were able to make a valley the next day at noon. Here we stopped at a farmer’s place and got a little more rice. Then all the rest of the day and that night we kept marching through marshes and rivers. Gilmore was about done up and they were talking about shooting us because he wanted to stop and rest.’

At Vigan the party reached the sea again and turned northward. There, one POW named Charlie Baker, sick with fever and unable to keep up, was killed by soldiers using bayonets and bolos. Now the POWs knew they were expendable.

Four days later, still along the Luzon coast, the column was halted for a rest near a small schoolhouse. ‘We knew some of the Filipino officers were grousing about how we were slowing up the march,’ said Smith. ‘Suddenly, one of them walked out and ordered us into a long column along one side of the road. A rank of soldiers with rifles was quickly formed and I damn near fainted when I heard the officer call out the ‘ready’ command. And then he yelled ‘aim.’ The man next to me said, ‘This is it!’ and I looked around for someplace to run to. But there wasn’t any place.

‘Just then another officer came galloping up on horseback and stopped the whole thing.’ Smith continued. ‘He and the first officer had a quick talk. Then they placed us back on the march again. We learned later that U.S. troops weren’t too far behind and they were afraid of reprisals if they killed us and were found out. But morale hit bottom because now we knew they would kill us anytime they thought they could get away with it.’

By this time, the POWs were going without food for days at a time. At Laoag they turned east, the pace quickening as they headed back into the mountains. What little the POWs ate was mostly what they could glean from the villages along the way–sugar cane and occasionally, bassi, a fermented drink made from the cane. The soldiers were almost as desperate for food as the POWs, and an officer finally killed his horse. The beast was hacked apart and eaten raw, brute hunger not waiting for the niceties of a cook fire.

‘We were pushed up some awfully steep canyon trails,’ Smith said. ‘I was pretty weak from lack of food and I’d go about 50 feet and then fall down. Everything would get black, my heart would race like a triphammer and I could hardly breathe.’

At that point, however, the feeling that God was with him came to Smith. He thought, ‘God is my life. He will see me through this trial.’ Gospel hymns began to come to him and he sang them to himself, softly. Before long he was able to get up and go on a little farther. And, of course, in the back of every POW’s mind, was the memory of little Charlie Baker. To stop for long was to die.

‘At one point, an officer told Lieutenant Gilmore that he was under orders to kill us as soon as he felt it was safe to do so,’ said Smith. ‘But he also said he didn’t have the heart to do it. Gilmore tried to talk him into giving us a few rifles to hunt food with and letting us go, but the officer refused.

‘On the night of December 15, the Filipino officers held a pow-wow,’ Smith continued. ‘That really had us worried. But the next morning when we awoke, they were all gone. During the night they had all pulled out.’

Smith said they were still pretty worried. The area was headhunter country and in the past the Filipino soldiers had given the natives orders to kill escaped American prisoners.The POWs held a hasty conference and decided to build rafts and head down the Abulug River, whose headwaters were nearby.

‘We started building rafts out of bamboo,’ said Smith. ‘Suddenly one of the men yelled ‘Headhunters!’ and we all looked up to see a lone figure upstream. There was a general panic until someone realized that the man we saw was an American soldier. We had been caught up with by a rescue column made up of part of the 33rd and 34th Infantry Brigades.’

Many of the men wept openly. It was this column, pressing hard on the Filipino troops, that had kept the POWs from being killed. The three men who had escaped earlier were with the column. But the rescuing column wasn’t much better off than the POWs. Some were without shoes–and also without the benefit of several months of sole-toughening barefoot marches that the prisoners had been subject to. At one point a soldier, careless of where he put his foot on the trail, stepped on a sharpened stake that went through his shoe and foot. And their haversacks were almost empty of food.

The two colonels in charge of the column had expected a fight, not realizing the Filipino troops had departed. Once everyone had a chance to get acquainted, and the officers had a chance to evaluate things, it was decided the idea to float down to the coast was a good one.

‘We used poles 6 or 7 inches thick and about 18 feet long, cut and bound with vines,’ said Smith. The Abulug was a dangerous river at that elevation, almost a mile above sea level. It would drop 6,000 feet to the ocean in the next 50 miles.

‘I was a pretty good swimmer, and a few other men and I were put in charge of the rafts with the sick and injured. Each raft held about a dozen men. We ferried the disabled from sandbar to sandbar, trying not to shake them up too much.’

The nights were still frosty near the river, and the cold added to the hunger, disease and general fatigue from which almost all the troops were suffering. The two-week trip was one of constant danger, and for men already worn out by lack of food, rest and medical care, it was a nightmare. Often a raging torrent, the Abulug could suddenly narrow between sheer cliffs that rose more than 500 feet on either side. In a matter of seconds a raft would be caught by the edge of a whirlpool and swung around to smash against rocks, tearing bamboo poles from the vines. Men and equipment would slide into the foaming water, the gear never to be seen again, the men scrambling wildly toward shallow water or to another raft while others strained to reach out and pull them to safety.

Smith shook his head. ‘We lost a lot of equipment and food,’ he said. ‘Of 37 rafts we started with, only 13 made it to the coast. But,’ he added proudly, ‘not one man was lost.’

On Christmas Day, the men ate nothing. That night a little unsalted rice was passed around. The river widened as it neared the foothills, and the soldiers heard a strange new sound. It was the pounding of the surf on the northernmost coast of Luzon, still several days away. On New Year’s Day there was nothing left to eat at all, and on January 2, 1900, the weary column, 40-odd POWs and their rescuers, about 180 men in all, stumbled into the coastal town of Abulug. Almost 80 of them were virtual stretcher cases. Learning that the coastal steamer Venus was waiting for them at Aparri, a few miles east of Abulug, the little band marched on and finally had their first decent meal in three months.

The steamer stopped the next day, at Vigan, where the sailors went aboard naval vessels. The men of the 33rd and 34th Infantry went ashore while the POWs, still in their rags, went on to Manila aboard Venus, arriving on January 5. Several men from Smith’s old outfit were there, but they could hardly recognize him. The men were issued new clothes, but Smith couldn’t wear the shoes. His feet were two sizes larger from the months of marching.

It would be two months before Smith recuperated sufficiently from malaria, dengue fever, dysentery and malnutrition to be reassigned to new duties, working on a cable repair ship that worked between the islands. He later served in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion as an official photographer, covering U.S. troop action. He finally mustered out in 1907.

One thing seemed to stick out in Smith’s mind about his experience in the Philippines, something that happened after he had been rescued.

‘Shortly after getting back to Manila, Maj. Gen. Elwel S. Otis, commander of the Department of the Pacific, had all us POWs assembled before him,’ said Smith. ‘We supposed he was going to make a speech commemorating all our suffering and making note of our devotion to duty. He came out and stood before us, his retinue gathered behind him. He looked us over for a minute, then he said:

‘Well, you fellows have had a pretty good time. You’ve had a vacation and haven’t suffered any. I think you can go back to your outfits.’

‘Then the general turned on his heel and walked out,’ Smith said, a disgusted look on his face, ‘leaving us with our mouths open, speechless.’

To the day he died, I think those callous words, uttered by a high-ranking officer serving safely in the rear, hurt Leland Smith more than his blistered feet ever did.

This article was written by Brad Prowse and originally published in the February 1999 issue of Military History magazine.

For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Military History magazine today!

Source: https://www.historynet.com/leland-smith-american-pow-in-1899-during-the-philippine-insurrection.htm

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3709 0 U.S. WAR CRIMES IN THE PHILIPPINES, (1898-1899). By World Future Fund https://mandirigma.org/?p=3145 https://mandirigma.org/?p=3145#respond Thu, 01 Sep 2016 18:29:51 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=3145  U.S. WAR CRIMES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Courtesy of: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/war.crimes/US/U.S.Philippines.htm .
 

The U.S. occupation of the Philippine Islands came about as a result of military operations against the Spanish Empire during the Spanish-American war of 1898-99.  The seizure of the Philippines by the United States, however, was not unplanned.  American eyes had been set on the Philippines since before the outbreak of war.  To many prominent Americans, establishing a colony in the Philippines was a logical extension of the nation’s “manifest destiny” to play a leading role on the world stage.  An expanded American presence in Asia was also thought to have significant commercial advantages for the nation, since American companies could then participate directly in large Asian markets.

For all the alleged advantages to possessing the Philippines, no thought was given to whether or not native Filipinos would welcome American as opposed to Spanish rule.  The Filipinos were of course never informed of American intentions to stay in the Philippines.  This turned out to be a serious error.  By 1898 Filipinos had already shed a considerable amount of blood since rising up in 1896 to free themselves from Spanish domination.  They would not take kindly to a change in colonial administration from Spain to the United States.

The First Philippine Republic and the End of Spanish Rule

On May 1, 1898, an American fleet under Dewey sailed into Manila harbor and quickly destroyed a small force of Spanish ships anchored there.  Plans for Dewey to commence offensive operations against the Spanish in the Philippines had originated several months before, in February, when Assistant Secretary for the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, had cabled Dewey to say “Your duty will be to see that the Spanish squadron does not leave the Asiatic coast … start offensive operations in Philippine Islands.”[1]

Because a considerable number of Spanish troops remained stationed throughout the Philippines, including a large force in Manila itself, American diplomats urged resistance leader Emilio Aguinaldo to return to the Philippines from exile in Hong Kong.  Before journeying to his homeland, Aguinaldo, who was overjoyed at the American declaration of war on Spain, cabled resistance members the following message, which clearly expresses his belief that the Americans had come to liberate his people:

“Divine Providence is about to place independence within our reach.  The Americans, not from mercenary motives, but for the sake of humanity and the lamentations of so many persecuted people have considered it opportune to extend their protecting mantle to our beloved country. … At the present moment an American squadron is preparing to sail to the Philippines. The Americans will attack by sea and prevent any re-enforcements coming from Spain. … We insurgents must attack by land. … There where you see the American flag flying, assemble in number; they are our redeemers!”[2]

Aguinaldo sent another message several days later expressing the same confidence in American altruism:

“Filipinos, the great nation, North America, cradle of liberty and friendly on that account to the liberty of our people … has come to manifest a protection … which is disinterested towards us, considering us with sufficient civilization to govern by ourselves this our unhappy land.“[3]

Energized by the seemingly fortunate turn of events, the Filipinos immediately went on the offensive.  Within weeks Aguinaldo’s insurgents had pushed the Spanish back to Manila.  Fighting would continue for another two months, until American forces arrived in enough numbers to complete the defeat of Spanish troops holed up in Manila.  Aguinaldo and his men were ecstatic with their victory and on June 12, 1898 they proclaimed Filipino independence.  The First Philippine Republic had been founded.

What the Americans Promised the Filipinos

The declaration of a Philippine Republic should not have come as a shock to the Americans.  No American military commander or politician had formally promised the Filipinos independence after the end of fighting, but this is not the impression that motivated Emilio Aguinaldo and his men.  Statements made by several of the participants in these events suggest that by supporting the armed resistance of Filipinos to the Spanish, the United States was de facto guaranteeing the Filipinos their independence.  For example, American Consul Wildman in Hong Kong wrote at the time, “the United States undertook this war [against Spain] for the sole purpose of relieving the Cubans from the cruelties under which they were suffering and not for the love of conquests or the hope of gain.  They are actuated by precisely the same feelings for the Filipinos.“[4]  Admiral Dewey emphasized that during the liberation of the islands the Filipinos had cooperated directly with every American request, as if they were working with an ally and not a ruler.  To quote the admiral, “Up to the time the army came he (i.e. Aguinaldo) did everything I requested.  He was most obedient; whatever I told him to do he did. I saw him almost daily.”[5]  Finally, as General T.M. Anderson, commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines, later concluded, “Whether Admiral Dewey and Consuls Pratt (of Singapore), Wildman ( Hong Kong) and Williams ( Manila) did or did not give Aguinaldo assurances that a Filipino government would be recognized, the Filipinos certainly thought so, probably inferring this from their acts rather than from their statements.”[6]

American Forces Arrive

The first American soldiers under General Anderson had landed in the Philippines in June 1898 as part of an expeditionary force sent by President William McKinley to secure the archipelago for the United States.  They did not participate in military operations until August 1898 when Manila was captured.  The overwhelming bulk of the fighting had been carried out by the Filipinos themselves.  Nevertheless, once the Spanish signaled their desire to surrender.  General Anderson ordered Aguinaldo to keep his men outside of Manila while American troops marched into the city.  After Manila was secured, Anderson then told Aguinaldo that his men could not enter Manila.  The Filipinos were stunned by this and tensions began to rise between the Americans and Filipinos.

The Americans Double-Cross Aguinaldo

What Aguinaldo and his men had not been told was that the United States never entered the Philippines with the intention of “liberating” the native population and then withdrawing.  Filipinos had done the fighting and dying.  They had, in fact, liberated themselves from Spanish rule while U.S. and Spanish representatives negotiated an end to the war and the future right to territories that neither the Americans nor the Spanish controlled.

Nevertheless, President McKinley made it explicit in Washington that he did not intend to give up the Philippines once the war with Spain had been concluded: “Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines is the commercial opportunity to which American statesmanship cannot be indifferent. …The United States cannot accept less than the cession in full right and sovereignty of the island of Luzon.”[7]

McKinley later explained his motives in deciding to seize the Philippines out of a sense of Christian mission:

“One night late it came to me this way – I don’t know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them (i.e. the Philippines) back to Spain – that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany – our commercial rivals in the Orient – that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves – they were unfit for self-government – and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.”[8]

The missionary zeal of President McKinley, as well as a patronizing sense of the inferiority of the Filipino people, was shared by other leading political figures.  For example, Indiana Senator Albert Beveridge argued that “[God] has made us the master organizers of the world. … That we may administer … among savages and senile peoples.”[9]

Double-Cross Complete: The Treaty of Paris

Tensions between the Aguinaldo government and the U.S. Army in the Philippines simmered between August 1898 and February 1899.  There was not yet any general outbreak of violence in the islands.  General Aguinaldo continued to hold out hope that the U.S. would reverse its imperialist course and would grant the independence to the Philippines that he thought American involvement in the war had promised.  With the formal signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, however, it became obvious that the U.S. intended to stay.  One of the treaty’s provisions was that the United States purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million, this despite the fact that Spain no longer controlled the Philippines and the Filipinos had formed their own republican government months earlier.

President McKinley finally disabused Aguinaldo of his hopes on December 21, 1898 when he issued the so-called “Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation”.  This proclamation, which McKinley ordered broadcast all over the Philippines signaled once and for all that the United States had no intention of leaving.  In the proclamation, McKinley stated:

“The destruction of the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Manila by the United States squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Dewey followed by the reduction of the city and the surrender of the Spanish forces practically effected the conquest of the Philippine islands and the suspension of Spanish sovereignty therein.  With the signature of the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain by their respective plenipotentiaries at Paris on the 10th instant, and as a result of the victories of American arms, the future control, disposition, and government of the Philippine islands are ceded to the United States.  In the fulfillment of the rights of sovereignty thus acquired and the responsible obligations thus assumed, the actual occupation and administration of the entire group of the Philippine Islands becomes immediately necessary, and the military government heretofore maintained by the United States in the city, harbor and bay of Manila is to be extended with all possible dispatch to the whole ceded territory.

The authority of the United States is to be exerted for the securing of the persons and property of the people of the Islands and for the confirmation of all private rights and relations.  It will be the duty of the commander of the forces of occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner that we come not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employment, and in their personal and religious rights.  All persons who, either by active aid or by honest submission, cooperate with the Government of the United States to give effect to these beneficent purposes will receive the reward of its support and protection.  All others will be brought within the lawful rule we have assumed, with firmness if need be, but without severity, so far as may be possible. … it should be the earnest and paramount aim of the military administration to win the confidence, respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines by assuring them in every possible way that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of a free people, and by assuring them in every possible way that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of a free people, and by proving to them that the mission of the United States is one of the benevolent assimilation, substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule.”[10]

The Philippines would thus not receive the independence that they had fought so hard to achieve.  Instead, it was made apparent to Aguinaldo and his followers that they had simply assisted the transition of rule in the Philippines from one foreign power to another.

War Breaks Out by Mistake: The Americans Deliberately Escalate

Hostilities in Manila between Aguinaldo’s resistance fighters and American troops erupted on February 4, 1899.  That day, U.S. troops were extending the American perimeter around Manila when a Filipino man who approached U.S. lines was shot by a sentry.  After this open fighting between Aguinaldo’s men and American soldiers began along the perimeter.  According to the Military Governor, General Elwell Otis, this fighting had not been planned:

“An insurgent approaching the picket (of a Nebraska regiment) refused to halt or answer when challenged. The result was that our picket discharged his piece (killing the Filipino) when the insurgent troops near Santa Mesa opened fire on our troops there stationed. … During the night it was confined to an exchange of fire between opposing lines for a distance of two miles. … It is not believed that the chief insurgents wished to open hostilities at that time.”[11]

Studies have since established conclusively that although the Battle of Manila was deliberately brought on by General Otis.  In this context it is worth quoting from one study.  According to Lichauco and Storey’s, The Conquest of the Philippines,

The next day (Feb. 5) General Aguinaldo sent a member of his staff under a flag of truce to interview General Otis and to tell him that the firing of the night before had been against his orders and that he wished to stop further hostilities.  To bring this about he proposed to establish a neutral zone wide enough to keep the opposing armies apart.  But to this request Otis replied that the fighting having begun must go on ‘to the grim end’. This refusal was followed by an attack on the Filipino forces which lasted all day and resulted in killing some three thousand natives.“[12]

The battle was an initial defeat for the Filipinos, but it started a war that lasted until 1913.

The Pacification of the Philippines

At the outset of the fighting, American troops in the Philippines numbered around 40,000, but by 1902 this number had risen to 126,000.  During the first phase of the war, Aguinaldo’s men fought and lost a succession of formal battles against the U.S. Army.  In 1900, however, Aguinaldo abandoned head-on conflicts with the Americans and resorted to the guerrilla warfare tactics that had served him and his men so well against the Spanish.

For all the talk of bringing “civilization” to the Philippines, American commanders responded to the Filipino insurgency with the utmost brutality.  Over the course of the next decade, and especially in the first few years of the conflict, it became commonplace for entire villages to be burned and whole populations to be imprisoned in concentration camps.  No mercy was accorded to Filipino prisoner, a large number of whom were shot.  This certainly was not in keeping with the spirit of “benevolent assimilation” proclaimed by President McKinley.

From Liberators to Killers: American Attitudes Toward Filipinos

The attitudes of American commanders involved in pacifying the Philippines are remarkable for both their disdain for the people they had allegedly “liberated” and their willingness to resort to the most ruthless methods in suppressing resistance. For example, General J.M. Bell, wrote in December 1901:

I am now assembling in the neighborhood of 2,500 men who will be used in columns of about fifty men each.  I take so large a command for the purpose of thoroughly searching each ravine, valley and mountain peak for insurgents and for food, expecting to destroy everything I find outside of towns.  All able bodied men will be killed or captured. … These people need a thrashing to teach them some good common sense; and they should have it for the good of all concerned.[13]

That same month, General Bell issued Circular Order No. 3 to all American commanders in the field:

Batangas, Dec. 9, 1901.

To All Station Commanders:

A general conviction, which the brigade commander shares, appears to exist, that the insurrection in this brigade continues because the greater part of the people, especially the wealthy ones, pretend to desire, but in reality do not want, peace; that, when all really want peace, we can have it promptly. Under such circumstances it is clearly indicated that a policy should be adopted that will as soon as possible make the people want peace, and want it badly.

Commanding officers are urged and enjoined to use their discretion freely in adopting any or all measures of warfare authorized by this order which will contribute, in their judgment, toward enforcing the policy or accomplishing the purpose above announced. … No person should be given credit for loyalty solely on account of his having done nothing for or against us, so far as known. Neutrality should not be tolerated. Every inhabitant of this brigade should either be an active friend or be classed as an enemy….

Another dangerous class of enemies are wealthy sympathizers and contributors, who, though holding no official positions, use all their influence in support of the insurrection, and, while enjoying American protection for themselves, their families and property, secretly aid, protect, and contribute to insurgents. Chief and most important among this class of disloyal persons are native priests.

The same course should be pursued with all of this class; for, to arrest anyone believed to be guilty of giving aid or assistance to the insurrection in any way or of giving food or comfort to the enemies of the government, it is not necessary to wait for sufficient evidence to lead to conviction by a court, but those strongly suspected of complicity with the insurrection may be arrested and confined as a military necessity, and may be held indefinitely as prisoners of war, in the discretion of the station commander or until the receipt of other orders from higher authority. It will frequently be found impossible to obtain any evidence against persons of influence as long as they are at liberty; but, once confined, evidence is easily obtainable.”[14]

Even worse, perhaps, is the fact that the policies instituted by General Bell and other American commanders were endorsed by Secretary of War Elihu Root.  In an amazing letter to the Senate dated May 7, 1902, Root argued that

“The War Department saw no reason to doubt that the policy embodied in the above-mentioned orders was at once the most effective and the most humane which could possibly be followed; and so, indeed, it has proved, guerrilla warfare in Batangas and Laguna and the adjacent regions has been ended, the authority of the United States has been asserted and acquiesced in, and the people who had been collected and protected in the camps of concentration have been permitted to return to their homes and resume their customary pursuits in peace.  The War Department has not disapproved or interfered in any way with the orders giving effect to this policy; but has aided in their enforcement by directing an increase of food supply to the Philippines for the purpose of caring for the natives in the concentration camps.“[15]

Like many of their officers, American troops also showed incredible callousness toward the Philippine civilian population.  A man named Clarence Clowe described the situation as follows in a letter he wrote to Senator Hoar.  The methods employed by American troops against civilians in an effort to find insurgent “arms and ammunition” include torture, beating, and outright killing.

At any time I am liable to be called upon to go out and bind and gag helpless prisoners, to strike them in the face, to knock them down when so bound, to bear them away from wife and children, at their very door, who are shrieking pitifully the while, or kneeling and kissing the hands of our officers, imploring mercy from those who seem not to know what it is, and then, with a crowd of soldiers, hold our helpless victim head downward in a tub of water in his own yard, or bind him hand and foot, attaching ropes to head and feet, and then lowering him into the depths of a well of water till life is well-nigh choked out, and the bitterness of a death is tasted, and our poor, gasping victims ask us for the poor boon of being finished off, in mercy to themselves.

All these things have been done at one time or another by our men, generally in cases of trying to obtain information as to the location of arms and ammunition.

Nor can it be said that there is any general repulsion on the part of the enlisted men to taking part in these doings. I regret to have to say that, on the contrary, the majority of soldiers take a keen delight in them, and rush with joy to the making of this latest development of a Roman holiday.[16]

Another soldier, L. F. Adams, with the Washington regiment, described what he saw after the Battle of Manila on February 4-5, 1899:

In the path of the Washington Regiment and Battery D of the Sixth Artillery there were 1,008 dead niggers, and a great many wounded. We burned all their houses. I don’t know how many men, women, and children the Tennessee boys did kill. They would not take any prisoners.[17]

Similarly, Sergeant Howard McFarland of the 43rd Infantry, wrote to the Fairfield Journal of Maine:

I am now stationed in a small town in charge of twenty-five men, and have a territory of twenty miles to patrol…. At the best, this is a very rich country; and we want it. My way of getting it would be to put a regiment into a skirmish line, and blow every nigger into a nigger heaven. On Thursday, March 29, eighteen of my company killed seventy-five nigger bolo men and ten of the nigger gunners. When we find one that is not dead, we have bayonets.[18]

These methods were condoned by some back at home in the U.S., as exemplified by the statement of a Republican Congressman in 1909:

You never hear of any disturbances in Northern Luzon; and the secret of its pacification is, in my opinion, the secret of pacification of the archipelago.  They never rebel in northern Luzon because there isn’t anybody there to rebel.  The country was marched over and cleaned in a most resolute manner.  The good Lord in heaven only knows the number of Filipinos that were put under ground.  Our soldiers took no prisoners, they kept no records; they simply swept the country, and wherever or whenever they could get hold of a Filipino they killed him.  The women and children were spared, and may now be noticed in disproportionate numbers in that part of the island.[19]

The Example of Samar: A “Howling Wilderness”

Early in the morning on September 28, 1901 the residents of the small village of Balangiga (located in the Samar Province) attacked the men of U.S. Army Company C, Ninth U.S. Infantry, who were stationed in the area.  While the Americans ate breakfast, church bells in the town began to peal.  This was the signal for hundreds of Filipinos armed with machetes and bolos to attack the garrison.  Forty-eight U.S. soldiers, two-thirds of the garrison, were butchered, in what is called the Balangiga Massacre.  Of the Filipinos who attacked, as many as 150 were killed.[20]

American troops began retaliating as soon as the next day by returning to Balangiga in force and burning the now abandoned village.  General Jacob H. Smith, however, sought to punish the entire civilian population of the Samar province.  Arriving in Samar himself toward the end of October, Smith charged Major Littleton Waller with responsibility for punishing the inhabitants of Samar.  Smith issued Waller oral instructions concerning his duties.  These were recounted as follows (see below) in Smith and Waller’s court martial proceedings the following year in 1902.  These proceedings, indeed attention to the entire matter of U.S. Army conduct in the Philippines, were driven by the appearance of an interview with General Smith in the Manila Times on November 4, 1901.  During this interview, Smith confirmed that these had truly been his orders to Major Waller.

“‘I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn: the more you kill and burn, the better you will please me,’ and, further, that he wanted all persons killed who were capable of bearing arms and in actual hostilities against the United States, and did, in reply to a question by Major Waller asking for an age limit, designate the limit as ten years of age. … General Smith did give instructions to Major Waller to ‘kill and burn’ and ‘make Samar a howling wilderness,’ and he admits that he wanted everybody killed capable of bearing arms, and that he did specify all over ten years of age, as the Samar boys of that age were equally as dangerous as their elders.”[21]

Smith carried out his mission by having U.S. troops concentrate the local population into camps and towns.  Areas outside of these camps and towns were designated “dead zones” in which those who were found would be considered insurgents and summarily executed.  Tens of thousands of people were herded into these concentration camps.  Disease was the biggest killer in the camps, although precisely how many lives were lost during Smith’s pacification operations is not known.  For his part, Major Waller reported that over eleven days between the end of October and the middle of November 1901 his men burned 255 dwellings and killed 39 people.  Other officers under Smith’s command reported similar figures.  Concerning the overall number of dead, one scholar estimates that 8,344 people perished between January and April 1902.[22]

The Death Toll of American Occupation

The overall cost in human lives of American actions in the Philippines was horrific.  One scholar has concluded concerning the American occupation that “In the fifteen years that followed the defeat of the Spanish in Manila Bay in 1898, more Filipinos were killed by U.S. forces than by the Spanish in 300 years of colonization. Over 1.5 million died out of a total population of 6 million.”[23]

A detailed estimate of both civilian and American military dead is offered by historian John Gates, who sums up the subject as follows:

“Of some 125,000 Americans who fought in the Islands at one time or another, almost 4,000 died there.  Of the non-Muslim Filipino population, which numbered approximately 6,700,000, at least 34,000 lost their lives as a direct result of the war, and as many as 200,000 may have died as a result of the cholera epidemic at the war’s end. The U. S. Army’s death rate in the Philippine-American War (32/1000) was the equivalent of the nation having lost over 86,000 (of roughly 2,700,000 engaged) during the Vietnam war instead of approximately 58,000 who were lost in that conflict.  For the Filipinos, the loss of 34,000 lives was equivalent to the United States losing over a million people from a population of roughly 250 million, and if the cholera deaths are also attributed to the war, the equivalent death toll for the United States would be over 8,000,000.  This war about which one hears so little was not a minor skirmish.”[24]

Yet another estimate states, “Philippine military deaths are estimated at 20,000 with 16,000 actually counted, while civilian deaths numbered between 250,000 and 1,000,000 Filipinos.  These numbers take into account those killed by war, malnutrition, and a cholera epidemic that raged during the war.”[25]

That U.S. troops slaughtered Filipino civilians out of proportion to the conventions of so-called “formal” warfare was remarked upon during the Senate investigation of the war‘s conduct.  As one official from the War Department estimated,

“The comparative figures of killed and wounded – nearly five killed to one wounded if we take only the official returns — are absolutely convincing. When we examine them in detail and find the returns quoted of many killed and often no wounded, only one conclusion is possible.  In no war where the usages of civilized warfare have been respected has the number of killed approached the number of wounded more nearly than these figures. The rule is generally about five wounded to one killed.  What shall we say of a war where the proportions are reversed?“[26]

INVESTIGATING WAR CRIMES: THE U.S. SENATE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE

The United States Senate Investigating Committee on the Philippines was convened from January 31, 1902 after word of the Army’s Samar pacification campaign reached Washington via the Manila Times story of November 4, 1901.  Chaired by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the committee heard testimony concerning crimes that had allegedly been committed by U.S. troops and officers in the Philippines.  The policies behind the U.S. occupation were also examined.

For six months officers and political figures involved in the Philippine adventure, both pro and anti-imperialists, testified as to the brutal nature of American anti-insurgent operations.  Although attempts were made to justify the amount of damage U.S. troops were doing, as well as the number of Filipino lives lost, the evidence provided by several individuals was damning.

Major Cornelius Gardener, for example, a West Point graduate and the U.S. Army’s Provincial Governor of the Tayabas province in the Philippines, submitted the following evidence via letter on April 10, 1902:

“Of late by reason of the conduct of the troops, such as the extensive burning of the barrios in trying to lay waste the country so that the insurgents cannot occupy it, the torturing of natives by so-called water cure and other methods, in order to obtain information, the harsh treatment of natives generally, and the failure of inexperienced, lately appointed Lieutenants commanding posts, to distinguish between those who are friendly and those unfriendly and to treat every native as if he were, whether or no, an insurrection at heart, this favorable sentiment above referred to is being fast destroyed and a deep hatred toward us engendered.

The course now being pursued in this province and in the Provinces of Batangas, Laguna, and Samar is in my opinion sowing the seeds for a perpetual revolution against us hereafter whenever a good opportunity offers. Under present conditions the political situation in this province is slowly retrograding, and the American sentiment is decreasing and we are daily making permanent enemies.”[27]

The letters of American troops home to the U.S. were also introduced as evidence of war crimes.  In this case, a letter written in November 1900 by one Sergeant Riley described an interrogation torture procedure used on Filipino captives:

“Arriving at Igbaras at daylight, we found everything peaceful; but it shortly developed that we were really “treading on a volcano.” The Presidente (or chief), the priest, and another leading man were assembled, and put on the rack of inquiry. The presidente evaded some questions, and was soon bound and given the “water cure“. This was done by throwing him on his back beneath a tank of water and running a stream into his mouth, a man kneading his stomach meanwhile to prevent his drowning. The ordeal proved a tongue-loosener, and the crafty old fellow soon begged for mercy and made full confession. … The presidente was asked for more information, and had to take a second dose of “water cure” before he would divulge.”[28]

Committee proceedings adjourned on June 28, 1902.  For two months after this the legal team presenting evidence for the committee compiled its report.  This report was released on August 29, 1902 under the title Secretary Root’s Record: “Marked Severities” in Philippine Warfare, An Analysis of the Law and Facts Bearing on the Action and Utterances of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root.  The report was a damning indictment of U.S. policy in the Philippines and the almost criminal conduct of the war by War Secretary Elihu Root, who multiple times had expressed support for the extreme measures implemented by the U.S. Army.

Altogether thirteen conclusions were drawn from the evidence, the most significant of which were:

1. That the destruction of Filipino life during the war has been so frightful that it cannot be explained as the result of ordinary civilized warfare.

2. That at the very outset of the war there was strong reason to believe that our troops were ordered by some officers to give no quarter, and that no investigation was had because it was reported by Lieut.-Colonel Crowder that the evidence “would implicate many others,” General Elwell Otis saying that the charge was “not very grievous under the circumstances.”

3. That from that time on, as is shown by the reports of killed and wounded and by direct testimony, the practice continued.

4. That the War Department has never made any earnest effort to investigate charges of this offence or to stop the practice.

5. That from the beginning of the war the practice of burning native towns and villages and laying waste the country has continued.

6. That the Secretary of War never made any attempt to check, or punish this method of war.

7. That from a very early day torture has been employed systematically to obtain information.

8. That no one has ever been seriously punished for this, and that since the first officers were reprimanded for hanging up prisoners no one has been punished at all until Major Glenn, in obedience to an imperative public sentiment, was tried for one of many offences, and received a farcical sentence.

9. That the Secretary of War never made any attempt to stop this barbarous practice while the war was in progress.

11. That the statements of Mr. Root’s, whether as to the origin of the war, its progress, or the methods by which it has been prosecuted, have been untrue.

12. That Mr. Root has shown a desire not to investigate, and, on the other hand, to conceal the truth touching the war and to shield the guilty, and by censorship and otherwise has largely succeeded.

13. That Mr. Root, then, is the real defendant in this case. The responsibility for what has disgraced the American name lies at his door. He is conspicuously the person to be investigated. The records of the War Department should be laid bare, that we may see what orders, what cablegrams, what reports, are there. His standard of humanity, his attitude toward witnesses, the position which he has taken, the statements which he has made, all prove that he is the last person to be charged with the duty of investigating charges which, if proved, recoil on him.”[29]

LINKS

Chronology of the Spanish-American War

The Philippine-American War

The Balangiga Massacre

The Burning of Samar

The Philippine Revolution

The Philippine-American War

Biography of Emilio Aguinaldo

Emilio Aguinaldo and the Philippine Revolution

Biography of Admiral George Dewey

History of the Lodge Committee

ONLINE READINGS (DOCUMENTS AND STUDIES)

William McKinley On Why the U.S. Should Take the Philippines

The “Benevolent Assimilation” Proclamation of President Wm. McKinley, December 21, 1898

Secretary Root’s Record: “Marked Severities” in Philippine Warfare

Letters from American Soldiers During the Philippines War

The Anti-Imperialist League, “Soldiers’ Letters: Being Materials for the History of a War of Criminal Aggression” (1899)

John Gates, The U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare, Chapter 3, “The Pacification of the Philippines”

Sean McEnroe, “Painting the Philippines with an American Brush: Visions of Race and National Mission Among Oregon Volunteers”

Apolinario Mabini, The Philippine Revolution
A history of the revolution from one of its participants.

Don Emilio Aguinaldo, True Version of The Philippine Revolution
A history of the Philippine Revolution written by the President of the Philippine Republic.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • John M. Gates, Schoolbooks and Krags: The U.S. Army in the Philippines, 1898-1902 (Westport, 1973).
  • John M. Gates, “The Pacification of the Philippines, 1898-1902,” in Joe E. Dixon, ed., The American Military in the Far East: Proceedings of the 9th Military History Symposium, U.S. Air Force Academy (Washington D.C.,1982).
  • Moorefield Storey and Julian Codman, Secretary Root’s Record: “Marked Severities” in Philippine Warfare (Boston, 1902), 11.
  • Marcial P. Lichauco and Moorfield Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925 (NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926.
  • Richard E. Welch, Jr., “American Atrocities in the Philippines: The Indictment and the Response,” Pacific Historical Review, 43 (1974).
  • Stanley Karnow, In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines (New York, 1989).
  • Brian McAllister Linn, The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902 (Chapel Hill, 1989).
  • Peter W. Stanley, A Nation in the Making: The Philippines and the United States, 1899-1921 (Cambridge, Mass., 1974).
  • Stuart Creighton Miller, “Benevolent Assimilation”: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899–1903 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).
  • Angel Velasco Shaw, Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899–1999. (New York, 2002).

NOTES

1) Marcial P. Lichauco and Moorfield Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925 (NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926), pp. 36f.

2) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 46.

3) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 47.

4) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 47.

5) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 48.

6) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 51.

7) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 70.

8) President McKinley Defends U.S. Expansionism

9) PBS: War in the Philippines

10) The “Benevolent Assimilation” Proclamation of President Wm. McKinley, December 21, 1898

11) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 92.

12) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 93.

13) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 120.

14) “The Orders of Bell and Smith” from Secretary Root’s Record

15) “Secretary Root Approved this Policy” from Secretary Root’s Record

16) “The Orders of Bell and Smith” from Secretary Root’s Record

17) “The First Reports of Cruelty” from Secretary Root’s Record

18) “The First Reports of Cruelty” from Secretary Root’s Record

19) Lichauco and Storey, The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925, p. 120.

20) “The History of Samar” from Secretary Root’s Record

21) “The History of Samar” from Secretary Root’s Record

22) The Burning of Samar and The Balangiga Massacre

23) The Philippine-American War, See Note 1

24) John Gates, The U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare, Chapter 3, “The Pacification of the Philippines”

25) The Philippine-American War

26) “Evidence from Statistics as to Killing Wounded Men and Prisoners” from Secretary Root’s Record

27) See The Lodge Committee and The U.S. Senate Committee on the Philippines

28) Lodge Committee Report Summary: Secretary Root’s Record of “Marked Severities” in Philippine Warfare

29) Secretary Root’s Record: “Marked Severities” in Philippine Warfare
]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=3145 0 The Bolomen of the Revolution by Perry Gil S. Mallari , FIGHT Times Editor https://mandirigma.org/?p=2421 https://mandirigma.org/?p=2421#respond Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:09:38 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=2421 An illustration by J. Alexander Mackay published in the book Bamboo Tales by Ira L. Reeves (1900) IMAGE FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG

An illustration by J. Alexander Mackay published in the book Bamboo Tales by Ira L. Reeves (1900) IMAGE FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG

The Bolomen of the Revolution by Perry Gil S. Mallari , FIGHT Times Editor

Arma Blanca is the name of the clandestine regiment of Filipino bolomen active during the revolution against the Spaniards and the Americans. Arma Blanca is a Spanish singular term for a bladed weapon like a sword or a knife.

A fairly recent mention of Arma Blanca was made in Orlino Ochosa’s book Bandoleros: The Outlawed Guerillas of the Philippine-American War of 1903 to 1907 (New Day Publications, 1995), and it reads, “Manila’s Arma Blanca that phantom army of bolomen whom General Luna had so much depended upon in his bold attack of Manila at the start of the war with the Americans.”

An earlier reference to Arma Blanca can be found in The Philippines Past and Present, by Dean C. Worcester released in 1914. Worcester, who had served as Secretary of the Interior of the Philippine Islands from 1901 to 1913 and was a member of the Philippine Commission from 1900 to 1913, wrote, “The regiment of Armas Blancas had already been raised in Tondo and Binondo. It was in existence there in December, 1898, and may have been originally organized to act against Spain.”

The bolo being both a farm implement and a weapon was carried with impunity by Filipinos even in the presence of Spanish and American soldiers. Its blade is often designed heavily weighted towards the tip for ease of chopping hence when used in combat, it can easily severe a limb with a single stroke. The Philippine bolo boasts of a sturdy construction and minor dents on its blade could easily be fixed by a little hammering and filing.

In the absence of guns, the Philippine revolutionary forces greatly depended upon the bolo in inflicting casualty on the enemy. A part of Worcester’s book reads, “There is no reason for believing that this is a complete statement of sandatahan [Filipino armed groups] organized in Manila by the end of January, and yet this statement gives a force of at least 6,330 men. General Otis said that this force had been reported to him as being 10,000 men. It is probably true that only a small number of them had rifles; but armed with long knives and daggers they could have inflicted much damage in a sudden night attack in the narrow and badly lighted streets of Manila.”

Filipino bolomen even received precise instructions on how to use the blade in conducting raids to snatch the guns of their enemies. A part of Emilio Aguinaldo’s order to the sandatahan was included in Worcester’s book, and it reads, “At the moment of the attack the sandatahan should not attempt to secure rifles from their dead enemies, but shall pursue, slashing right and left with bolos until the Americans surrender, and after there remains no enemy who can injure them, they may take the rifles in one hand and the ammunition in the other.”

Continue reading story at: http://www.manilatimes.net/the-bolomen-of-the-revolution/104227/

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=2421 0 The PBS Film: Crucible of Empire – The Spanish American War https://mandirigma.org/?p=2384 https://mandirigma.org/?p=2384#respond Thu, 22 May 2014 11:32:09 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=2384  Aginaldo

Katipunero

The PBS Film: Crucible of Empire – The Spanish American War

 

One hundred years ago, United States celebrated victory in the Spanish-American War. Popular songs and headlines popularized Commodore Dewey’s victories at sea and Theodore Roosevelt’s ride up Kettle Hill. Although the Spanish-American War sparked unprecedented levels of patriotism and confidence, the defeat of the Spanish also raised new questions about the nation’s role as a world power.

CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE: THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, narrated by award-winning actor Edward James Olmos, examines the colorful characters and historic events surrounding this 100-year-old war and its relevance to the twentieth century. When a declining Spain, beset by rebellion abroad, fell to American expansionism, the United States inherited her colonies and suddenly emerged as a world power. The experience and questions that the Spanish-American War raised about foreign intervention echo throughout the 20th century—as recent events in Kosovo show. Even in its own time, the war with Spain was understood as a turning point in American history.

As the twentieth century ends, it is instructive to note the complexities and significance of this very brief war that began this century. In the words of noted historian Walter LaFeber, “The 1898 war literally as well as chronologically ushered in the United States as a major shaper, soon the major shaper, of twentieth-century world politics and commerce.” In the process, it also unified a nation still embittered by Civil War divisions; debuted the media in its role as catalyst of U.S. intervention; built up the navy and inspired a re-evaluation of the army; and vastly broadened the powers of the president in wartime and foreign affairs. Clearly, the Spanish-American War was more than the war that ended the nineteenth century; it was also the war that launched the American century.

Using original footage and period photographs, newspaper headlines, more than a dozen popular songs from the 1890s, and interviews with some of America’s most prominent historians, CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE tells how issues of race, economy, technology, yellow journalism, and public opinion propelled America into this war. Four 1990s Senators bring to life the 1899 Senate debate on imperialism: Patrick Leahy (VT), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Paul Simon (IL), and Alan Simpson (WY). The film also features Larry Linville (Major Frank “Ferret Face” Burns of “M*A*S*H”) as the voice of Rough Rider Theodore Roosevelt, Laurence Luckinbill as President William McKinley, and Lou Diamond Phillips as Philippine revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo.

Continue reading at: http://www.pbs.org/crucible/film.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g8NpQsmxj4

http://youtu.be/8g8NpQsmxj4

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=2384 0 Some of the Combat, Massacres,Rebellions, Disputes And Calamities of the Philippine Islands according to the book “The Inhabitants of the Philippines” By Frederic H. Sawyer. 1900 https://mandirigma.org/?p=2095 https://mandirigma.org/?p=2095#respond Sun, 03 Nov 2013 12:14:25 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=2095 Some of the Combat, Massacres, Rebellions, Disputes And Calamities of the Philippine Islands.

according to the Book_

 

The Inhabitants of the Philippines

By

Frederic H. Sawyer

Memb. Inst. C.E., Memb. Inst. N.A.

London

Sampson Low, Marston and Company Limited

St. Dunstan’s House

Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.

1900

 

 

Some of the Combat, Massacres, Rebellions, Disputes And Calamities of the Philippine Islands.

 

1521. Magellan and several of his followers killed in action by the natives of Mactan, near Cebú; Juan Serrano and many other Spaniards treacherously killed by Hamabar, King of Cebú.
1525. Salazar fights the Portuguese off Mindanao, and suffers great losses in ships and men.
1568. Legaspi’s expedition attacked in Cebú by a Portuguese fleet, which was repulsed.
1570. Legaspi founds the city of Cebú, with the assistance of the Augustinians.
1571. Legaspi founds the city of Manila, with the assistance of the Augustinians.
1572. Juan Salcedo fights the Datto of Zambales, and delivers his subjects from oppression.
1574. Siege of Manila by the Chinese pirate Li-ma-hon with 95 small vessels and 2000 men. The Spaniards and natives repulse the attack. The pirates retire to Pangasinan, and are attacked and destroyed by Juan Salcedo.
1577. War against Mindanao and Joló, parts of which are occupied. Disputes between the missionaries and the military officers who desire to enrich themselves by enslaving the natives, which the former stoutly oppose, desiring to convert them, and grant them exemption from taxes according to the “Leyes de Indias.” They considered the cupidity of the soldiers as the chief obstacle to the conversion of the heathen. The Crown decided in favour of the natives, but they did not derive all the benefits they were entitled to, as the humane laws were not respected by the governors.
The Franciscans arrived in Manila.
1580. Expedition sent by Gonzalo Ronquillo to Borneo to assist King Sirela.
1581. Expedition sent by the same to Cagayan to expel a Japanese corsair who had established himself there. The expedition succeeded, but with heavy loss.
Expedition against the Igorrotes to get possession of the gold-mines, but without success.
The Jesuits arrive in Manila.
1582. Expedition against the Molucas, under Sebastian Ronquillo.[390]An epidemic destroyed two-thirds of the expedition, which returned without accomplishing anything.
Great disputes between the encomenderos and the friars in consequence of the ill-treatment of the natives by the former. Dissensions between the Bishop of Manila and the friars who refused to submit to his diocesan visit.
Manila burnt down.
1584. Second expedition against the Molucas, with no better luck than the first.
Rebellion of the Pampangos and Manila men, assisted by some Mahometans from Borneo. Combat between the English pirate, Thomas Schadesh, and Spanish vessels.
Combat between the English adventurer Thomas Cavendish (afterwards Sir Thomas), and Spanish vessels.
1587. The Dominicans arrive in Manila.
1589. Rebellion in Cagayan and other provinces.
1593. Third expedition against the Molucas under Gomez Perez Dasmariñias. He had with him in his galley 80 Spaniards and 250 Chinese galley-slaves. In consequence of contrary winds, his vessel put into a port near Batangas for shelter. In the silence of the night, when the Spaniards were asleep, the galley-slaves arose and killed them all except a Franciscan friar and a secretary. Dasmariñias built the castle of Santiago, and fortified Manila with stone walls, cast a large number of guns, and established the college of Sta. Potenciana.
1596. The galleon which left Manila for Acapulco with rich merchandise, was obliged to enter a Japanese port by stress of weather, and was seized by the Japanese authorities. The crew were barbarously put to death.
1597. Expedition of Luis Perez Dasmariñias against Cambodia, which gained no advantage.
1598. The Audiencia re-established in Manila, and the bishopric raised to an archbishopric.
Expedition against Mindanao and Joló, the people from which were committing great devastations in Visayas, taking hundreds of captives.
Much fighting, and many killed on both sides, without any definite result.
1599. Destructive earthquake in Manila and neighbourhood.
1600. Great sea combat between four Spanish ships, commanded by Judge Morga, and two Dutch pirates. One of the Dutchmen was taken, but the other escaped.
Another destructive earthquake on January 7th, and one less violent, but long, in November.
1603. Conspiracy of Eng-Cang and the Chinese against the Spaniards. The Chinese entrench themselves near Manila; Luis Perez Dasmariñias marches against them with 130 Spaniards. They were all killed and decapitated by the Chinese, who then besieged Manila, and attempted to take it by assault. Being repulsed by the Spaniards, all of whom, including the friars, took up arms, they retired to their entrenchments. They were ultimately defeated, and 23,000 of them were massacred. Only 100 were left alive, and these were sent to the galleys as slaves.[391]
1606. The Recollets arrive in Manila.
Fourth expedition against the Molucas. Pedro de Acuña, having received a reinforcement of 800 men—Mexicans and Peruvians—attacked and took Ternate, Tidore, Marotoy and Herrao, with all their artillery and provisions. He left 700 men in garrison there, and returned to Manila, dying a few days after his arrival. The Augustinians furnished a galleon for this expedition. It was commanded by the Rev. Father Antonio Flores.
1607. Revolt of the Japanese living in and near Manila, and heavy losses on both sides.
1609. Arrival of Juan de Silva with five companies of Mexican and Peruvian infantry. Attack on Manila by a Dutch squadron of five vessels. They were beaten off with the loss of three of their ships.
1610. Unsuccessful expedition against Java. This was to have been a combined attack on the Dutch by Portuguese and Spaniards, but the Spanish squadron did not arrive in time to join their allies, who were beaten by the Dutch fleet in the Straits of Malacca.
Terrific earthquake in Manila and the eastern provinces.
1616. Violent eruption of the Mayon volcano.
1622. Revolt of the natives in Bohol, Leyte and Cagayan, which were easily suppressed.
1624. The Dutch landed on Corregidor Island, but were beaten off.
1627. August. Great earthquake.
1628. Destructive earthquake in Camarines.
1638. Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera makes an attack on the Moros of Mindanao, and conquers the Sultanate of Buhayen and island of Basilan. He also defeats the Joloans.
1639. Insurrection of Chinese in the province of Laguna and in Manila. Out of 30,000, 7000 ultimately surrendered. All the rest were massacred by the Tagals.
1640. The Dutch attacked the Spanish garrisons in Mindanao and Joló. The governor-general, fearing they might attack Manila, withdrew the garrisons from the above places to strengthen his own defences, thus leaving the Moros masters of both islands.
1641. Eruption of the Taal volcano. Violent earthquake in Ilocos.
1645. The Dutch attacked Cavite and other ports, but were repulsed.
Rebellion of the Moros in Joló, and of the natives of Cebú and other provinces, who were oppressed by forced labour in building vessels, and other services.
In these years there were great disputes between the Spaniards of the capital and the friars.
Great earthquake in Manila, 30th November, called St. Andrew’s earthquake.
1646. Long series of strong earthquakes, which began in March with violent shocks, and lasted for sixty days.
1648. Great earthquakes in Manila.
1653. Great devastations by the Moros of Mindanao, which were severely punished.
Rebellion in Pampanga and Pangasinan against being forced to cut timber gratuitously for the navy. Suppressed after a serious resistance.[392]
1658. Destructive earthquake in Manila and Cavite.
1662. The Chinese pirate, Cong-seng, demands tribute from the Governor of the Philippines. A decree is issued ordering all Chinamen to leave the Philippines. The Chinese entrench themselves in the Parian, and resist. Thousands were killed, and 2000 who marched into Pampanga were all massacred by the natives.
Great troubles occurred between the governor, Diego de Salcedo, and the archbishop.
1665. 19th June, violent and destructive earthquake in Manila.
1669. During the government of Manuel de Leon, further troubles occurred between the archbishop and the Audiencia. The archbishop was banished, and sent by force to Pangasinan. But a new governor, Gabriel de Cruzalegui, arrived, and restored the archbishop, who excommunicated the dean and chapter.
1675. Destructive earthquake in South Luzon and Mindoro.
1683. Great earthquake in Manila.
1689. Archbishop Pardo having died, was succeeded by P. Camacho, and now great disorders arose from his insisting on making the diocesan visit, which the friars refused to receive, and would only be visited by their own Provincial. Again Judge Sierra required the Augustinians and Dominicans to present the titles of the estates they possessed in virtue of a special commission he had brought from Madrid, which they refused to obey, and the end of the dispute was that Sierra was sent back to Mexico, and another commissioner, a friend of the friars, was appointed, to whom they unofficially exhibited the titles.
1716. Destructive eruption of the Taal volcano, and violent earthquake in Manila.
1717. Fernando Bustillo Bustamente became governor, and re-established garrisons in Zamboanga and Paragua. He caused various persons who had embezzled the funds of the colony to restore them, imprisoning a corrupt judge. He was assassinated by the criminals he had punished, and nothing came of the inquiry into his death.
1735. Earthquake in Baler, and tidal wave.
At this time, the audacity of the Moro pirates was incredible. They ravaged the Visayas and southern Luzon, and carried away the inhabitants by thousands for slaves. The natives began to desert the coast, and take to the interior. Pedro Manuel de Arandia, obeying repeated orders, decreed the expulsion of the Chinese.
1744. Another rising in Bohol, due to the tyranny of a Jesuit priest named Morales. The chief of this rising was a native named Dagohoy, who put the Jesuit to death, and maintained the independence of Bohol, paying no tribute for thirty-five years. When the Jesuits were expelled from the Philippines, Recollets were sent to Bohol, and the natives submitted on receiving a free pardon.
1749. Eruption of the Taal volcano, and earthquake in Manila. The eruption lasted for twenty days.
1754. Violent eruption of the Taal volcano, which began on 15th May,[393]and lasted till the end of November. This was accompanied by earthquakes, an inundation, terrifying electrical discharges, and destructive storms. The ashes darkened the country for miles round, even as far as Manila. When the eruption ceased, the stench was dreadful, and the sea and lake threw up quantities of dead fish and alligators. A malignant fever burst out, which carried off vast numbers of the population round about the volcano.
1762. A British squadron, with troops from India, arrived in the bay 22nd September, and landed the forces near the powder-magazine of S. Antonio Abad. On the 24th, the city was bombarded. The Spaniards sent out 2000 Pampangos to attack the British, but they were repulsed with great slaughter, and ran away to their own country.
The civil population of Manila were decidedly in favour of resisting to the last drop of the soldiers’ blood; but the soldiers were not at all anxious for this. Confusion arose in the city, and whilst recriminations were in progress, the British took the city by assault, meeting only a half-hearted resistance.
The natives immediately began plundering, and were turned out of the city by General Draper. The Chinese also joined in the robbery, and a few were hanged in consequence. The city was pillaged. The British regiments are said to have behaved well, but the sepoys ravished the women, and killed many natives.
Cavite was about to be surrendered, but as soon as the native troops there knew what was going on, they began at once to plunder the town and arsenal.
1763. A British expedition sailing in small craft took possession of Malolos on January 19th, 1763. The Augustin and Franciscan friars took arms to defend Bulacan, where two of them were killed in action.
It was said that the Chinese were conspiring to exterminate the Spaniards. Simon de Anda, the chief of the war-party amongst the Spaniards, issued an order that all the Chinese in the Philippines should be hanged, and this order was in a great measure carried out. This was the fourth time the Spaniards and natives exterminated the Chinese in the Philippines.
Peace having been made in Europe, the British evacuated Manila in March, 1774.
In order to satisfy their vanity, and account for the easy victory of the British, the Spaniards made various accusations of treachery against a brave Frenchman named Falles, and a Mexican, Santiago de Orendain. Both those men gallantly led columns of Pampangos against the British lines in the sortie before mentioned. Although the Pampangos, full of presumption, boldly advanced against the British and sepoys, they were no match for disciplined troops led by British officers, and were hurled back at the point of the bayonet. The inevitable defeat and rout was made a pretext for the infamous charges against their leaders. It may be asked, Was there no Spaniard brave enough to lead the[394]sorties, that a Frenchman and a Mexican were obliged to take command?
The Spaniards in this campaign showed themselves more at home in making proclamations, accusations, and intriguing against each other, than in fighting. However, the friars are exempt from this reproach, for Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans, fought and died, and shamed the soldiers.
No less than ten Augustinians fell on the field of battle, nineteen were made prisoners, and twelve were banished. The British are said by the Augustinians to have sacked and destroyed fifteen of their conventos, or priests’ houses, six houses of their haciendas, and to have sold everything belonging to them in Manila. The Augustinians gave their church bells to be cast into cannon for the defence of the islands.
Spaniards and natives, however, showed great unanimity and enthusiasm in massacring or hanging the unwarlike Chinamen, and in pillaging their goods. Nearly all the Chinese in the islands, except those in the parts held by the British, were killed.
During the Anglo-Spanish war there were revolts of the natives in Pangasinan and in Ilocos, then a very large province (it is now divided into four), but both these risings were suppressed. The same happened with a revolt in Cagayan. Disturbances also occurred in many other provinces.
Simon de Anda became Governor-General, and carried out the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Philippines. Great troubles again occurred between the Archbishop and the friars over the diocesan visit.
1766. 20th July, violent eruption of the Mayon volcano.
23rd October, terrible typhoon in Albay, causing enormous destruction of life and property.
1777. José Basco y Vargas, a naval officer, came out as Governor-General, and found the country overrun with banditti. He made a war of extermination against them, and then initiated a vigorous campaign against the Moros. He repaired the forts, built numbers of war vessels, and cut up the pirates in many encounters. Basco governed for nearly eleven years.
1784. During the government of Felix Marquina, a naval officer, the Compañia de Filipinas was founded to commence a trade between Spain and the Philippines. Marquina was succeeded by Rafael Maria de Aguilar, an army officer, who organized the land and naval forces, and made fierce war on the Moros. He governed the islands for fourteen years.
1787. Violent and destructive earthquake in Panay.
1796. Disastrous earthquake in Manila.
1800. Destructive eruption of the Mayon volcano.
1807. Rebellion in Ilocos.
When the parish priest of Betal, an Augustinian, was preaching to his flock, exhorting them to obedience to their sovereign, a woman stood up in the church and spoke against him, saying that they should not believe him, that his remarks[395]were all humbug, that with the pretence of God, the Gospel, and the King, the priest merely deceived them, so that the Spaniards might skin them and suck their blood, for the priests were Spaniards like the rest. However, the townsmen declared for the King, and took the field under the leadership of the priest.
1809. The first English commercial house established in Manila.
1811. Rebellion in Ilocos to change the religion, nominating a new god called Lungao. The leaders of this rebellion entered into negotiations with the Igorrotes and other wild tribes to exterminate the Spaniards, but the conspiracy was discovered and frustrated.
1814. Rebellion in Ilocos and other provinces.
Prisoners released in some towns in Ilocos. This rebellion was in consequence of General Gandarás proclaiming the equality of races, which the Indians interpreted by refusing to pay taxes.
1st February, violent earthquake in south Luzon and destructive eruption of the Mayon volcano. Astonishing electrical discharges.
A discharge of ashes caused five hours’ absolute darkness, through which fell showers of red hot stones which completely burnt the towns of Camalig, Cagsana, and Budiao with half of the towns of Albay and Guinchatau, and part of Bulusan.
The darkness caused by the black ashes reached over the whole of Luzon, and even to the coast of China. So loud was the thunder that it was heard in distant parts of the Archipelago.
Great epidemic of cholera in Manila.
1820. Massacre of French, English, and Americans in Manila by the natives who plundered their dwellings, after which they proceeded with the fifth massacre of the Chinese. They asserted that the Europeans had poisoned the wells and produced the cholera. The massacre was due to the villainous behaviour of a Philippine Spaniard named Varela, who was Alcalde of Tondo, equivalent to Governor of Manila, and to the criminal weakness and cowardice of Folgueras the acting governor-general, who abstained from interference until the foreigners had been killed, and only sent out troops when forced by the remonstrances of the friars and other Spaniards.
The archbishop and the friars behaved nobly, for they marched out in procession to the streets of Binondo, and did their best to stop the massacre, whilst Folgueras, only attentive to his own safety, remained with the fortifications.
1822. Juan Antonio Martinez took over the government in October. Folgueras having reported unfavourably of the officers of the Philippine army, Martinez brought with him a number of officers of the Peninsular army to replace those who were inefficient.
This caused a mutiny of the Spanish officers of the native army, and they murdered Folgueras in his bed. He thus expiated his cowardice in 1820. The mutiny was, however,[396]suppressed, and Novales and twenty sergeants were shot. Novales’ followers had proclaimed him Emperor of the Philippines. The constitution was abolished by Martinez, without causing any rising.
1824. Destructive earthquake in Manila.
Alonzo Morgado appointed by Martinez to be captain of the Marina Sutil, commenced an unrelenting persecution of the piratical Moros, causing them enormous losses.
1828. Another military insurrection, headed by two brothers, officers in the Philippine army.
From this date Peninsular troops were permanently maintained in Manila, which had never been done before.
1829. Father Bernardo Lago, an indefatigable missionary of the Augustinian Order, with his assistants baptised in the provinces of Abra and Benguet more than 5300 heathen Tinguianes and Igorrotes, and settled them in towns.
1834. Foreign vessels allowed to enter Manila by paying double dues.
1836–7. Great disturbances amongst the natives in consequence of the ex-claustration of the friars in Spain. The natives divided into two parties. One wished to turn out the friars and all Spaniards, the others to turn out all Spaniards except the friars, who were to remain and take charge of the government.
The disturbances were ultimately smoothed over.
1841. Marcelino de Oráa being Governor-General, a sanguinary insurrection burst out in Tayabas, under the leadership of a native, Apolinario de la Cruz. He murdered the Alcalde of the province, and persuaded his fanatical adherents that he would make the earth open and swallow up the Spanish forces when they attacked.
His following was composed of 3000 men, women, and children. They were attacked by four hundred soldiers and as many cuadrilleros and coast-guards, and suffered a crushing defeat, and a third of them were slain.
Apolinario de la Cruz was apprehended, and immediately put to death.
Apolinario called himself the “King of the Tagals,” and told his followers that a Tagal virgin would come down from Heaven to wed him, that with a handful of rice he could maintain all who followed him, and that the Spanish bullets could not hurt them, and many other absurd things. His followers declared that he had signified his intention, in case of being victorious, to tie all the friars and other Spaniards to trees, and to have them shot by the women with arrows.
There lay in garrison at Manila at this time a regiment composed of Tagals of Tayabas, and they also mutinied, and were shot down by the other troops.
1844. Royal order prohibiting the admission of foreigners to the interior of the country.
Narciso de Claveria became Governor-General, and organised a police force called the Public Safety for Manila, and similar corps for the provinces. Up to this time the Alcaldes Mayores of provinces had been allowed to trade, and, in fact, were almost the only traders in their provinces,[397]buying up the whole crop. This forced trade is quite a Malay custom, and is practised in Borneo and the Malay States under the name of Serra-dagang.
The Alcaldes Mayores used to pay the crown one third, or half, or all their salary for this privilege, and took in return all they could squeeze out of their provinces without causing an insurrection, or without causing the friars to complain of them to the Government, for the parish priests were ever the protectors of the natives against the civil authority. This privilege of trading was now abolished as being unworthy of the position of governor of a province.
1851. Expedition by the Governor-General Antonio de Urbiztondo against Joló. The force consisted of four regiments, with artillery, and a battalion of the inhabitants of Cebú, under the command of a Recollet friar, Father Ibañez. These latter behaved in the bravest manner, in fact they had to; for their wives, at the instance of the priest, had sworn never to receive them again if they turned their backs on the enemy.
The undaunted Father Ibañez led them to the assault, and lost his life in the moment of victory. Eight cottas (forts), with their artillery and ammunition, were captured by this expedition, and a great number of Moros were killed.
After this the Joló pirates abated their insolent attacks. Claveria made an expedition against the piratical Moros and seized their island of Balanguingin, killing 400 Moros, and taking 300 prisoners, also rescuing 200 captives. He also captured 120 guns and lantacas, and 150 piratical vessels. This exemplary chastisement tranquillised the Moros for some time.
1853. 13th June. Loud subterranean noises in Albay and eruption of the Mayon volcano. Fall of ashes and red-hot stones which rolled down the mountain and killed thirty-three people.
1854. Insurrection in Nueva Ecija under Cuesta, a Spanish mestizo educated in Spain, where Queen Isabela had taken notice of him.
He arrived in Manila with the appointment of Commandant of Carabineros in Nueva Ecija, and immediately began to plot. The Augustine friars harangued his followers and persuaded them to disperse, and Cuesta was captured and executed, with several other conspirators; others were banished to distant islands.
In this year Manuel Crespo became Governor-General, and a military officer, named Zapatero, endeavoured to strangle him in his own office.
1855. Strong shocks of earthquake in all Luzon. Eruption of the Mayon volcano.
1856. In the latter part of this year a submarine volcanic explosion took place at the Didica shoal, eight miles north-east of the island of Camiguin in the Babuyanes, to the north of Luzon. It remains an active volcano, and has raised a cone nearly to the height of the volcano of Camiguin, which is 2414 feet high.[398]
1857. The old decrees against foreigners renewed.
Fernando de Norzagaray became governor-general, and found the country over-run by bandits, against whom he employed severe measures. He greatly improved Manila.
The French in Cochin-China, finding more resistance than they expected, appealed to Norzagaray for help. He lent them money, ships, and about a thousand native troops, who behaved with great bravery during the campaign.
1860. Ramon Maria Solano succeeded to the Government.
In this year two steam sloops and nine steam gunboats were added to the naval forces, and now the Moros could only put to sea running great risks of destruction.
These nine gunboats were the greatest blessings the Philippines had received for many years.
1861. José de Lemery y Ibarrola, Governor-General. Mendez-Nuñez, with the steam sloops and gunboats, inflicted terrible chastisement on the piratical Moros.
1862. Rafael de Echague y Bermingham became Governor-General.
Second visitation of cholera in the islands, but not so severe as in 1820.
1863. Terrible earthquake in Manila and the surrounding country, causing thousands of victims, destroying the cathedral, the palace of the governor-general, the custom houses, the principal churches (except St. Augustine), the public and private buildings, in fact, reducing the city to a ruin.
At this time the steam gunboats continually hostilised the Moros of Joló, and caused them great losses.
1865. Juan de Lara y Irigoyen became Governor-General, and took measures to subdue the bandits, who were committing great depredations and murders. Hostilities continued in Joló, as the Moros had recommenced their piratical cruises.
1866. Frequent earthquakes in Manila and Benguet.
At this time the Treasury was in the greatest difficulty, and could not meet the current payments. A large quantity of tobacco was sold to meet the difficulty.
1867. José de la Gandara y Navarro became Governor-General. To him is due the credit of creating that excellent institution the Guardia Civil, which has extirpated the banditti who infested the islands for so many years.
An expedition was sent against the Igorrotes, but without effecting anything of consequence.
1868. June 4th. Intense earthquake in the island of Leyte.
1869. Carlos Maria de la Torre became Governor-General, and was not ashamed to publish a proclamation offering the bandits a free pardon if they presented themselves within three months. Hundreds and thousands of men now joined the bandits for three months murder and pillage, with a free pardon at the end of it. This idiotic and cowardly proclamation was most prejudicial to the interests of the country. Finally a special corps, called La Torre’s Guides, was organised to pursue the bandits.
1871. Rafael Izquierdo y Guttierez became Governor-General, and raised the excellent corps called La Veterana to act as the police of the capital.[399]
December 8th, eruption of the Mayon volcano, and discharge of ashes and lava. Two persons smothered, and one burnt.
16th February. Commencement of the series of earthquakes which preceded the frightful volcanic eruption in the island of Camiguin on 30th April. Full details of this terrible event are preserved. A volcanic outburst took place on the above date at 344 metres from the town of Cabarman, and near the sea. Great volumes of inflammable gases were ejected from deep cracks in the neighbouring hills, which presently took fire, and soared in flames of incredible height, setting fire to the forests. The wretched inhabitants who had remained in their houses found themselves surrounded by smoke, steam, water, ashes, and red hot stones, whilst their island seemed on fire, and they had sent away all their seaworthy craft with the women and children.
At first the volcanic vent was only two metres high, but it continually increased.
After the eruption, the earthquakes decreased, and on 7th May entirely ceased.
The volcano gradually raised itself by the material thrown out to a height of 418 metres.
1872. Military revolt in Cavite, in which the native clergy were mixed up. A secret society had been working at this plot for several years, and was very widely extended. It inundated the towns of the Archipelago with calumnious and libellous leaflets in the native languages. The conspiracy coincided with the return of the Jesuits in accordance with a Royal Order, and their substitution for the Recollets missionaries in many parishes in Mindanao. In turn, the Recollets, removed from Mindanao, were given benefices in Luzon which, for one hundred years, had been in the hands of the native clergy, who were, in consequence, very dissatisfied, and great hatred was aroused against the Recollets. The mutiny was suppressed by the Spaniards and the Visayas troops, who bayoneted the Tagals without mercy, even when they had laid down their arms.
Besides many who were shot for complicity in this revolt, three native priests—D. Mariano Gomez, D. Jacinto Zamora, and D. José Burgos—were garrotted in Bagumbayan on the 28th February. Much discussion arose about the guilt or innocence of these men, and it is a matter on which friars and native clergy are never likely to agree.
Later on, a rising took place in Zamboanga penal establishment, but this was put down by the warlike inhabitants of that town, who are always ready to take up arms in their own defence, and are very loyal to Spain.
Loud subterranean noises in Albay. Eruption of the Mayon volcano, which lasted for four days.
1873. Juan de Alaminos y Vivar became governor-general.
The ports of Legaspi, Tacloban and Leyte, were opened to foreign commerce.
November 14, 1873, violent earthquake in Manila. Eruption of the Mayon volcano, from 15th June to 23rd July.[400]
1874. Manuel Blanco Valderrama, being acting governor-general, fighting took place in Balábac, where the Spanish garrison was surprised by the Moros. José Malcampo y Monge, a rear-admiral, took over the government of the islands, and, during his administration, the news of the proclamation of Alfonso XII, as King of Spain was received, and gave great satisfaction in Manila, which had never taken to the Republican Government in Spain.
Malcampo led a strong expedition, consisting of 9000 men, against the Moros, and took Joló by assault, after bombarding the Cottas by the ships’ guns. At the end of his time, the regiment of Peninsular Artillery had become demoralised, and its discipline very lax. Finally, the soldiers refused to obey their officers, and broke out of barracks.
Two of them were shot dead by the officer of the guard at the barrack-gate, Captain Brull, but the affair was hushed up, and no one was punished. Discipline was quite lost.
1877. Great devastation by locusts in province of Batangas. Domingo Moriones y Murillo arrived, and took over the government on 28th February. His first act was to shoot a number of the Spanish mutineers, put others in prison, and send back fifty to Spain in the same vessel with Malcampo. This incident is related in greater detail in Chapter III. The Treasury was in the greatest poverty, and the poor natives of Cagayan obliged to cultivate tobacco and deliver it to the government officials, had not been paid for it for two or three years, and were actually starving. Moriones did what he could for them, and strongly insisted on the abolition of the “estanco.”
To this worthy governor, Manila and the Philippines owe much. He insisted on the legacy of Carriedo being employed for the object it was left for, instead of remaining in the hands of corrupt officials.
He also made good regulations against rogues and vagabonds.
1879. Nov. 8th. Violent typhoon passed over Manila, doing much damage.
July 1st. Commencement of earthquakes in Surigao (Mindanao), which lasted over two months.
1880. Fernando Primo de Rivera became Governor-General, 15th April.
On July 14th, a violent earthquake took place, doing enormous damage in the city of Manila and the central provinces of Luzon. The seismic disturbance lasted till the 25th July. The inhabitants of Manila were panic-stricken, and took refuge in the native nipa houses.
General Primo de Rivera made an expedition against the Igorrotes, and the vile treatment the soldiers meted out to the Igorrote women has delayed for years the conversion of those tribes.
1881. Eruption of the Mayon volcano, which began on July 6th, and lasted till the middle of 1882.
At times there were loud subterranean noises, after which the flow of lava usually increased.
1882. Dreadful epidemic of cholera which, in less than three months,[401]carried off 30,000 victims in the city and province of Manila. In the height of the epidemic the deaths reached a thousand a day. The victims were mostly natives, but many Spaniards died of the disease. Only one Englishman died, and this was from his own imprudence. A typhoon passed over Manila on October 20th, and caused great damage on shore and afloat. Twelve large ships and a steamer were driven on shore, or very seriously damaged.
On November 5th, another typhoon, not quite so violent as the first, took place. After this, the cholera almost entirely stopped. On December 31st, another typhoon occurred.
1883. Joaquin Jovellar y Soler, captain-general in the army, and the pacificator of Cuba, assumed the government 7th April, and was received with great show of satisfaction by the Spaniards.
The old tribute of the natives was replaced by the tax on the Cédulas-personales.
During his time there were threats of insurrection, and additional Peninsular troops were sent out. He resigned from ill-health 1st April, 1885.
October 28th. Typhoon passed over Manila.
1885. Emilio Terrero y Perinat assumed the government of the islands on April 4th.
He conducted successful expeditions against the Moros of Mindanao and Joló.
In the month of May, during the great heat, the River Pasig was covered with green scum from the lake. The water was charged with gas, the fish and cray-fish died, and the stench was overpowering, even at a couple of miles distance from the river.
A huge waterspout was formed in the bay, and passed inland.
November. Death of King Alfonso XII., and mourning ceremonies in all the islands.
October 2nd. Eruption of the Taal volcano.
1886. 5th March. Separation of the executive and judicial powers. Appointment of eighteen civil governors instead of alcaldes—mayores of provinces. Very great inconvenience occurred through the delay in sending out the Judges of First Instance, and the duties were, in some cases, temporarily performed by ignorant persons devoid of any legal training.
11 P.M., 2nd April, an enormous flaming meteor traversed the sky, travelling from E. to W., and when about the zenith it split into two with a loud explosion, the pieces diverging at an angle of perhaps 45°; they fell, apparently, at a great distance, producing a violent concussion like a sharp shock of earthquake.
24th April. Attack by bandits on the village of Montalban. Two of them were killed by the Guardia Civil.
8th July. Eruption of the Mayon volcano in Albay. It continued to discharge ashes and lava, bursting out into greater violence at times till the middle of March, 1887.
March 19th. Don German Gamazo, Minister for the[402]Colonies, lays before the Queen-Regent, for her approbation, the project of the General Exhibition of the Philippines, to be held in Madrid in 1887. In it he says:—
“By this we shall bring about that the great sums of money which are sent from the metropolis to purchase in foreign countries cotton, sugar, cacao, tobacco, and other products, will go to our possessions in Oceania, where foreign merchants buy them up, with evident damage to the material interests of the country.”
When it is considered that the freight from Manila to Barcelona in the subsidised Spanish Royal Mail steamers was considerably higher than that charged in the same steamers to Liverpool, that enormous duties were charged in Spain on sugar and hemp, which enter British ports duty free, and that British capital was advanced to the cultivators to raise these very crops, the idiotic absurdity and contemptible hypocrisy of such a statement may be faintly realised by the reader.
In May the mud of the Pasig became permeated with bubbles of gas, and floated to the surface. On May 23rd, the writer witnessed several violent explosions of fetid gas smelling like sulphuretted hydrogen from the mud of the Pasig at Santa Ana.
June 7th. Triple murder committed at Cañacao by a Tagal from jealousy.
20th May. Three days’ holiday and public rejoicings ordered in honour of the birth of the King of Spain (Alfonso XIII.).
1887. January 3rd. Troops embarked in Manila for the expedition against the Moros of Mindanao under General Terrero.
March 5th. The United States warship Brooklyn arrived in Manila.
July 14th. The Penal Code put in force in the Philippines.
December 3rd. The Civil Code put in force in the Philippines.
1888. March 1st. A petition is presented to the Acting Civil Governor of Manila by the Gobernadorcillo and Principales of Santa Cruz, praying for the expulsion of the religious orders and of the Archbishop, the secularization of all benefices, and the confiscation of the estates of the Augustinians and Dominicans. See Chapter VI.
December 15th. Violent eruption of Mayon volcano with subterranean noises, storms, thunder and lightning. Don Valeriano Weyler, Marques de Tenerife, became governor-general.
1890. Agrarian disturbances occurred at Calamba and Santa Rosa between the tenants on the Dominicans’ estates and the lay brother in charge. During this year there was a great increase of secret societies. A woman admitted as a mason. A woman’s lodge established. See Chapter IX.
February 21st. Violent eruption of the Mayon.
February 24th. Several explosions occurred at the summit, discharging showers of white-hot bombs. About 100 metres of the top toppled over. Many of the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns fled to a distance.[403]
1891. Don Emilio Despujols, Conde de Caspe, became governor-general. See Chapter III.
1893. Doroteo Cortes banished to the Province of La Union, other malcontents banished to different localities.
October 3rd. Eruption of the Mayon and explosion of volcanic bombs. Loud subterranean noises and deafening thunder.
A vast column of smoke ascended to the sky, from which proceeded violet-coloured lightning.
The eruption lasted till the end of October.
1894. May. The Datto Julcainim, with seventy armed Moros from Sulu, landed in Basilan Island to recover tribute from the natives, but was sent back by a Spanish gunboat.
1896. August 30th. Tagal insurrection broke out near Manila and in Cavite Province. See Chapter X.
1897. June 25th. Violent and disastrous eruptions of the Mayon. Complete destruction of the villages San Antonio, San Isidro, Santo Niño, San Roque, Santa Misericordia, and great damage to other places by the incandescent lava. A dreadful tempest destroyed houses and plantations in places where the lava did not reach. About 300 people were either killed outright or died of their wounds. Fifty wounded persons recovered.
1898. March 24th. Revolt of the famous Visayas or 74th Regiment at Cavite.
March 25th. Massacre of the Calle Camba.
April 24th. Meeting at Singapore between Aguinaldo and the United States’ Consul, Mr. Spencer Pratt.
April 26th. Aguinaldo proceeds to Hong Kong.
May 1st. Naval battle of Cavite. Destruction of the Spanish squadron and capture of Cavite Arsenal by the Americans.
May 19th. Aguinaldo and seventeen followers land at Cavite from the United States’ vessel Hugh McCullough, and are furnished with arms by Admiral Dewey.
May 24th. Aguinaldo proclaims a Dictatorial Government.
June 23rd. He issues a manifesto claiming for the Philippines a place, if a modest one, amongst the nations.
August 6th. He sends a message to foreign powers claiming recognition.
August 13th. The American troops enter Manila, the Spaniards making only a show of resistance.
August 14th. The capitulation signed. General Merritt issues his proclamation establishing a military government.
August 15th. General McArthur appointed military commandant of the Walled City and Provost-Marshal-General of the city and suburbs.
September 29th. General Aguinaldo makes a speech at Malolos to the Philippine Congress, the keynote of which was independence: “The Philippines for the Filipinos.”
October 2nd. The Peace Commission holds its preliminary meeting in Paris.
November 13th. The insurgents invest Ilo-ilo. Fighting[404]proceeding in other parts of Visayas between Spaniards and natives.
December 10th. The Peace Commission signs the Treaty. Don Felipe Agoncillo, representative of the Philippine Government, hands in a formal protest, of which no notice is taken.
December 24th. The Spaniards evacuate Ilo-ilo.
December 26th. The insurgents occupy the city. The Spaniards evacuate all the southern island stations except Zamboanga. The Philippine Congress at Malolos adjourns.
December 29th. New Philippine cabinet formed; all the members pledged to independence.
President of Congress and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Señor Mabini; Secretary for War, Señor Luna; Interior, Señor Araneta; Agriculture and Commerce, Señor Buencamino; Public Works, Señor Canon.
1899. January 5th. The Washington officials announce that they “expect a peaceful adjustment.” [Blessed are they who expect nothing.]
President McKinley instructs General Otis to extend military government with all dispatch to the whole ceded territory.
January 8th. Protest of Aguinaldo against the Americans.
January 12th. General Otis telegraphs to the War Department that conditions are apparently improving.
Other dispatches represent the situation as daily growing more acute.
January 16th. A telegram was received at Washington from General Otis, of so reassuring a character regarding the position at Manila and Ilo-ilo, that the government officials accept without question the correctness of his statement, that the critical stage of the trouble there is now past and that he controls the situation.
A commission nominated by President McKinley, consisting of Dr. Schurman, President of Cornell University; Professor Worcester of Michigan University, and Mr. Denby.
January 21st. The Philippine constitution is proclaimed at Malolos.
February 4th. Fighting between Filipinos and Americans began at Santa Mesa 8.45 P.M., and continued through the night.
February 5th. Fighting continued all day and ended in the repulse of the Filipinos with heavy loss.
General Otis wires: “The situation is most satisfactory, and apprehension need not be felt.”
February 6th. The U.S. Senate ratifies the Peace Treaty with Spain by 57 to 27.
Senator Gorman in the course of the debate expressed his belief that the battle at Manila was only the beginning. If the treaty was ratified war would follow, lasting for years, and costing many lives, and millions upon millions of money.
[Senator Gorman makes a better prophet than General Merritt or Mr. Foreman.]
February 8th. General Otis wires: “The situation is[405]rapidly improving. The insurgent army is disintegrating, Aguinaldo’s influence has been destroyed.”
February 10th. The Americans attack and capture Calocan. President McKinley signs the Treaty.
February 11th. Ilo-ilo captured by General Miller without loss, but a considerable part of the town was burned.
February 18th. The American flag hoisted at Bacolod in Negros Island, opposite Ilo-ilo.
February 22nd. Tagals attempt to burn Manila, setting fire simultaneously to the Santa Cruz, San Nicolas, and Tondo. Sharp fighting at Tondo. Many natives were burned while penned in by the cordon of guards.
February 23rd. The Americans burned all that remained of Tondo. General Otis issued an order requiring the inhabitants to remain in their homes after 7 P.M.
March 13. Oscar F. Williams does not expect to live to see the end of the war. This is the man who on July 2nd, 1898, “hoped for an influx that year of 10,000 ambitious Americans,” who he said could all live well and become enriched. See Chapter XVIII.
Since the American occupation three hundred drinking saloons have been opened in Manila.
March 19th. Urgent instructions sent from Washington to Generals Otis and Lawton to hasten the end.
March 24th. Engagement at Marilao—the Filipinos are defeated.
New York Times says the situation is both surprising and painful to the American people.
March 31st. The Americans occupy Malolos which the Filipinos had set on fire, after some skirmishing.
April 1st. Troops resting at Malolos.
The ironclad Monadnock was fired on by Filipinos artillery at Parañaque (three miles from Manila), and replied silencing the guns on shore.
April 20th. A column of General Lawton’s force, 140 strong, surrounded and captured by the Filipinos near Binangonan.
April 23rd. Fighting at Quingua. Col. Stotsenburg killed. This was a severe engagement.
April 26th. Americans capture Calumpit. Washington “profoundly relieved.”
April 27th. Fighting near Apalit.
April 30th. General Otis believes that the Filipinos are tired of the war.
May 1st. Anniversary of the Battle of Cavite.
May 2nd. Conference between Filipino envoys and General Otis with the American Civil Commissioners.
General Lawton captures Baliuag.
May 12th. The Nebraska Regiment petitions General McArthur to relieve them from duty, being exhausted by the campaign. Since February 4th, the regiment has lost 225 killed and wounded, and 59 since the fight at Malolos.
May 18th. Filipino peace delegates enter General Lawton’s lines at San Isidro.[406]
May 20th. Admiral Dewey leaves Manila in the Olympia.
May 22nd. The U.S. Civil Commission received Aguinaldo’s Peace Commissioners, and explained to them President McKinley’s scheme of Government.
May 29th. Aguinaldo reported dead.
May 30th. The authorities at Washington admit that more troops are needed for Manila.
June 1st. Mr. Spencer Pratt obtains an interim injunction in the Supreme Court, Singapore, against the sale of Mr. Foreman’s book, “The Philippine Islands.”
June 5th. Skirmishing in the Laguna district. An attempt by the Americans to surround Pio del Pilar fails.
June 13th. A Filipino battery at Las Piñas, between Manila and Cavite, consisting of an old smooth bore gun and two one-pounders open fire on the American lines. A battery of the 1st Artillery, the ironclad Monadnock, and the gunboat Helena directed their fire upon this antiquated battery, and kept it up all the morning.
A correspondent remarks, “This was the first real artillery duel of the war.”
This developed into one of the hardest fights in the war, the Filipinos made a determined stand at the Zapote bridge.
Reports arrive that General Antonio Luna had been killed by some of General Aguinaldo’s guards.
June 16th. The Filipinos attack the Americans at San Fernando and are repulsed with heavy loss.
Mr. Whitelaw Reid, addressing the Miami University of Ohio, denounces the President’s policy, or want of policy, in the Philippines.
June 19th. American troops under General Wheaton march through Cavite Province.
June 21st. General Miles describes the situation at Manila as “very serious.”
June 26th. Twelve per cent. of the American forces sick. Little can now be attempted as the rainy season is now on.
June 27th. General Otis reports that the Filipinos have no civil government.
June 28th. It is stated that General Otis will have 40,000 men available for active operations after the rainy season.
July 12th. General Otis asks for 2500 horses for the organisation of a brigade of cavalry after the rainy season.
The entire staff of correspondents of the American newspapers protest against the methods of General Otis in exercising too strict a censorship over telegrams and letters. They say, “We believe that, owing to the official despatches sent from Manilla and published in Washington, the people of the United States have received a false impression of the situation in the Philippines, and that these despatches present an ultra-optimistic view which is not shared by general officers in the field.”
July 20th. The rainfall at Manila since 1st June has been 41 inches and the country is flooded.
July 23rd. Mr. Elihu Root nominated to succeed Mr. Alger as Secretary for War.[407]
July 27th. General Hall’s division captures Calamba on the lake.
August 1st. Mr. Root sworn in as Secretary for War. He contemplates increasing General Otis’ available force to 40,000 men.
August 15th. General McArthur’s force captures Angeles.
August 17th. Orders issued at Washington to form ten additional regiments to serve in the Philippines. General Otis to have 62,000 men under his command.
August 23rd. General Otis applies the Chinese Exclusion law to the Philippines.
August 24th. The Moros sign an agreement acknowledging the sovereignty of the United States over the entire Philippine Islands.
The Moros of Western Mindanao are asking for permission to drive out the insurgents.
August 28th. President McKinley makes a speech to the 10th Pennsylvanian Regiment lately arrived from Manila. See Chapter XII.
September 1st. Fighting in Negros, American successes.
September 14th. U.S. cruiser Charleston engages a gun mounted by the Filipinos at Olongapó, Subic Bay, and fired sixty-nine shells from her 8-inch guns without silencing the gun, notwithstanding that the Filipinos used black powder.
September 18th. Some of the U.S. Civil Commission had already started to return; remainder leave.
September 23rd. A U.S. squadron, consisting of the Monterey, Charleston, Concord and Zafiro, bombarded the one-gun battery of the Filipinos at Olongapó for six hours, and then landed 250 men who captured and destroyed the gun which was 16-centimetre calibre.
General Otis, in an interview, is reported to have stated that “Things are going very satisfactorily.”
September 28th. General McArthur captures Porac.
September 30th. General Aguinaldo releases fourteen American prisoners. They looked well and hearty, and it was evident that they had been well treated.
October 8th. General Schwan advanced against Noveleta and encountered a heavy resistance, but ultimately took the town and next day occupied Rosario.
October 18th. War now said to be beginning in its most serious phase. The American troops, men and officers, said to be thoroughly discouraged by the futility of the operations ordered by General Otis. They feel that their lives are being sacrificed without anything being accomplished.
October 28th. 17,000 sick and tired soldiers have been sent home and replaced by 27,000 fresh men. 34,000 are on the way or under orders. Total will be 65,000 men and forty ships of war.
October 31st. General Otis reports to the War Department that the continuance of the rainy season still harasses the prosecution of the campaign.
Count Almenas, speaking in the Spanish Senate, said that through the ignorance of the Peace Commission the Batanes[408]Islands, Cagayan Sulu, and Sibutu were not included in the scope of the treaty.
November 7th. General Wheaton, with an American force lands at San Fabian [Pangasinan] and marches towards Dagupan, driving the Filipinos before him.
November 13th. Tarlac captured by the Americans under Colonel Bell. Telegrams from Manila state, “A careful review of the situation made on the spot justifies the prediction that all organised hostile operations on a definite plan are at an end.”
November 14th. The U.S. cruiser Charleston lost on the Guinapak rocks to the north of Luzon, and the crew land on Camiguin Island.
November 28th. The province of Zamboanga [Mindanao] said to have surrendered unconditionally to the commander of the gunboat Castine.
December 20th. General Lawton shot by the insurgents at San Mateo whilst personally directing the crossing of the river by two battalions of the 29th U.S. infantry.
1900. January 20th. The Filipinos capture a pack train of twenty ponies in the Laguna Province. American losses, two killed, five wounded, nine missing.
February 15th. American newspapers report many cases of insanity amongst the U.S. soldiers.
February 20th. General Otis signifies to the War Department his desire for leave of absence from Manila to recruit his health.
March 30th. The bubonic plague, extending in Luzon, and appears in other islands of the Archipelago. Cases suspected to be leprosy reported amongst the U.S. troops.
Independent reports represent the situation in the Philippines as most unsatisfactory. The islands are practically in a state of anarchy.
April 6th. The War Department issues an order recalling General Otis, because his work has been accomplished, and appoints General McArthur in his place.
May 1st. Judge Canty, of Minnesota, makes a report upon the condition of the Philippines.
He says: “All the native tribes, except a small band of Macabebes and the Sulu Mahometans, are against us, and hate the Americans worse than the Spaniards…. The American soldiers are undergoing terrible hardships, and are a prey to deadly tropical diseases.”
June 2nd. General McArthur asks for more troops, and at least three regiments are to be sent.
June 14th. Rear-Admiral Raney cables for another battalion of marines.
June 15th. Macaboulos, a Filipino chieftain, surrenders at Tarlac with 8 officers and 120 riflemen.
June 17th. A regiment of infantry and a battery of artillery embark at Manila for China.
June 19th. It is reported that, in all, 5000 men are to be sent from Manila to China.
June 20th. But to-day, the idea prevails in Washington[409]that, under present conditions, every soldier in the Philippines is needed there.
July 27. Negotiations are being carried on between Spain and the United States for the cession by the former to the latter of the Sibutu and Cagayan Islands on payment of a sum of $100,000.
August 4th. The Filipinos kill or capture a lieutenant of Engineers and fifteen soldiers.
August 8th. Miss Margaret Astor Chanler, who was engaged in Red Cross work in Manila, declares that the hospitals are inadequate. This is confirmed by the Washington correspondent of the World. He says 3700 men are now in hospital, and large numbers are unable to find accommodation. Thousands who are down with fever and other diseases are without doctors or medical supplies. Eight per cent. of the entire force is incapacitated.
August 15th. The Filipinos reported to be gaining ground.
The cost of the war said to be nearly £40,000,000, 2394 deaths, 3073 wounded. There are said to be still 70,000 American troops in the Philippines. The “goodwill” of the war cost £4,000,000.
August 19th. Censored news despatches from Manila show that the Filipinos are increasing their activity, and scorn the offers of amnesty.
September 1st. The Civil Commission in the Philippines, presided over by Judge Taft, assumes the direction of the Government. Judge Taft reports that the insurrection is virtually ended, and that a modus vivendi is established with the ecclesiastical authorities!
September 3rd. General McArthur cables that an outbreak has occurred in Bohol, and that in an engagement near Carmen the Americans lost 1 killed and 6 wounded, and the Filipinos 120 killed.
September 6th. The estimated cost of the Philippines to America is estimated at three-quarters of a million dollars per day.
September 12th. The first public legislative session of the Civil Commission was held. Two million dollars (Mexican) were voted for the construction of roads and bridges, $5000 for the expenses of a preliminary survey of a railroad between Dagupan and Benguet, and $5400 towards the expenses of the educational system.
September 17th. General McArthur cables that Captain McQuiston, who had become temporarily insane, shot a number of men of his company. The others, in self-defence, shot and killed the captain.
September 20th. The Civil Commission reports that large numbers of the people in the Philippines are longing for peace, and are willing to accept the government of the United States.
General McArthur cables reports of fighting in the Ilocos Provinces, from whence General Young telegraphs for reinforcements, also in Bulacan, and in Tayabas.[410]
A desperate engagement is fought in the Laguna Province, where the Americans made an attack upon the Filipino positions, and were repulsed with heavy loss, including Captain Mitchell and Lieutenant Cooper.
The Filipinos are constantly harassing and attacking the American outposts and garrisons around Manila, and have caused fourteen casualties amongst the troops.

 

pilipinas inhabintants

]]> https://mandirigma.org/?feed=rss2&p=2095 0 BOOK: True Version of the Philippine Revolution By Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy President of the Philippine Republic., Tarlak (Philippine Islands), 23rd September, 1899 https://mandirigma.org/?p=2090 https://mandirigma.org/?p=2090#respond Sun, 03 Nov 2013 12:00:40 +0000 MO1 http://mandirigma.org/?p=2090 Aguinaldo-Emilio

True Version of the Philippine Revolution

By
Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy
President of the Philippine Republic.

Tarlak (Philippine Islands),

23rd September, 1899

To All Civilized Nations and Especially to the Great North American Republic

I dedicate to you this modest work with a view to informing you respecting the international events which have occurred during the past three years and are still going on in the Philippines, in order that you may be fully acquainted with the facts and be thereby placed in a position to pronounce judgment upon the issue and be satisfied and assured of the Justice which forms the basis and is in fact the foundation of our Cause. I place the simple truth respectfully before and dedicate it to you as an act of homage and as testimony of my admiration for and recognition of the wide knowledge, the brilliant achievements and the great power of other nations, whom I salute, in the name the Philippine nation, with every effusion of my soul.

The Author.

Page 1

The Revolution of 1896

Spain maintained control of the Philippine Islands for more than three centuries and a half, during which period the tyranny, misconduct and abuses of the Friars and the Civil and Military Administration exhausted the patience of the natives and caused them to make a desperate effort to shake off the unbearable galling yoke on the 26th and 31st August, 1896, then commencing the revolution in the provinces of Manila and Cavite.

On these memorable days the people of Balintawak, Santa Mesa, Kalookan, Kawit, Noveleta and San Francisco de Malabon rose against the Spaniards and proclaimed the Independence of the Philippines, and in the course of the next five days these uprisings were followed by the inhabitants of the other towns in Cavite province joining in the revolt against the Spanish Government although there was no previous arrangement looking to a general revolt. The latter were undoubtedly moved to action by the noble example of the former.Page 2

With regard to the rising in the province of Cavite it should be stated that although a call to arms bearing the signatures of Don Augustin Rieta, Don Candido Firona and myself, who were Lieutenants of the Revolutionary Forces, was circulated there was no certainty about the orders being obeyed, or even received by the people, for it happened that one copy of the orders fell into the hands of a Spaniard named Don Fernando Parga, Military Governor of the province, who at that time was exercising the functions of Civil Governor, who promptly reported its contents to the Captain-General of the Philippines, Don Ramon Blanco y Erenas. The latter at once issued orders for the Spanish troops to attack the revolutionary forces.

It would appear beyond doubt that One whom eye of man hath not seen in his wisdom and mercy ordained that the emancipation of the oppressed people of the Philippines should be undertaken at this time, for otherwise it is inexplicable how men armed only with sticks andgulok1 wholly unorganized and undisciplined, could defeat the Spanish Regulars in severe engagements at Bakoor, Imus and Noveleta and, in addition to making many of them prisoners, captured a large quantity of arms and ammunition. It was owing to this astonishing success of the revolutionary troops that General Blanco quickly concluded to endeavour, to maintain Spanish control by the adoption of a Page 3conciliatory policy under the pretext that thereby he could quel the rebellion, his first act being a declaration to the effect that it was not the purpose of his Government to oppress the people and he had no desire “to slaughter the Filipinos.”.

The Government of Madrid disapproved of General Blanco’s new policy and speedily appointed Lieutenant-General Don Camilo Polavieja to supersede him, and despatched forthwith a large number of Regulars to the Philippines.

General Polavieja advanced against the revolutionary forces with 16,000 men armed with Mausers, and one field battery. He had scarcely reconquered half of Cavite province when he resigned, owing to bad health. That was in April, 1897.

Polavieja was succeeded by the veteran General Don Fernando Primo de Rivera, who had seen much active service. As soon as Rivera had taken over command of the Forces he personally led his army in the assault upon and pursuit of the revolutionary forces, and so firmly, as well as humanely, was the campaign conducted that he soon reconquered the whole of Cavite province and drove the insurgents into the mountains.

Then I established my headquarters in the wild and unexplored mountain fastness of Biak-na-bató, where I formed the Republican Government of the Philippines at the end of May, 1897.Page 4

1 A kind of sword—Translator.

The Treaty of Biak-na-bató

Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (who was appointed by the Spanish Governor-General sole mediator in the discussion of the terms of peace) visited Biak-na-bató several times to negotiate terms of the Treaty, which, after negotiations extending over five months, and careful consideration had been given to each clause, was finally completed and signed on the 14th December, 1897, the following being the principal conditions:—

(1) That I would, and any of my associates who desired to go with me, be free to live in any foreign country. Having fixed upon Hongkong as my place of residence, it was agreed that payment of the indemnity of $800,000 (Mexican) should be made in three installments, namely, $400,000 when all the arms in Biak-na-bató were delivered to the Spanish authorities; $200,000 when the arms surrendered amounted to eight hundred stand; the final payment to be made when one thousand stand of arms shall have been handed over to the authorities and the Te Deumsung in the Cathedral in Manila as thanksgiving for the restoration of peace. The latter part of February was fixed as the limit of time wherein the surrender of arms should be completed.

(2) The whole of the money was to be paid to me personally, leaving the disposal of the money to my discretion and knowledge of thePage 5understanding with my associates and other insurgents.

(3) Prior to evacuating Biak-na-bató the remainder of the insurgent forces under Captain-General Primo de Rivera should send to Biak-na-bató two General of the Spanish Army to be held as hostages by my associates who remained there until I and a few of my compatriots arrived in Hongkong and the first installment of the money payment (namely, four hundred thousand dollars) was paid to me.

(4) It was also agreed that the religious corporations in the Philippines be expelled and an autonomous system of government, political and administrative, be established, though by special request of General Primo de Rivera these conditions were not insisted on in the drawing up of the Treaty, the General contending that such concessions would subject the Spanish Government to severe criticism and even ridicule.

General Primo de Rivera paid the first installment of $400,000 while the two Generals were hold as hostages in Biak-na-bató.

We, the revolutionaries, discharged our obligation to surrender our arms, which were over 1,000 stand, as everybody knows, it having been published in the Manila newspapers. But the Captain General Primo de Rivera failed to fulfill the agreement as faithfully as we did. The other installments were never paid; the Friars were neither restricted in their acts of tyranny and Page 6oppression nor were any steps taken to expel them or secularize the religious Orders; the reforms demanded were not inaugurated, though the Te Deum was sung. This failure of the Spanish authorities to abide by the terms of the Treaty caused me and my companions much unhappiness, which quickly changed to exasperation when I received a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Don Miguel Primo de Rivera (nephew and private Secretary of the above-named General) informing me that I and my companions could never return to Manila.

Was the procedure of this special representative of Spain just?

Negotiations

But I and my companions were not to be kept long in our distress, grieving over the bad faith of the Spaniards, for in the month of March of the year referred to (1898) some people came to me and in the name of the Commander of the U.S.S. Petrel asked for a conference in compliance with the wishes of Admiral Dewey.

I had some interviews with the above-mentioned Commander, i.e., during the evening of the 16th March and 6th April, during which the Commander urged me to return to the Philippines to renew hostilities against the Spaniards with the object of gaining our independence, and he assured me of the assistance of the United States in the event of war between the United States and Spain.Page 7

I then asked the Commander of the Petrel what the United States could concede to the Filipinos. In reply he said: “The United States is a great and rich nation and needs no colonies.”

In view of this reply I suggested to the Commander the advisability of stating in writing what would be agreed to by the United States, and be replied that he would refer the matter to Admiral Dewey.

In the midst of my negotiations with the Commander of the Petrel I was interrupted by letters from Isabelo Artacho and his solicitors, on the 5th April, claiming $200,000 of the money received from the Spanish authorities, and asserting that he (Artacho) should receive this sum as salary due to him while acting as Secretary of the Interior, he having been, it was alleged, a member of the Filipino Government established in Biak-na-bató. These letters contained the threat that failure to comply with the demand of Artacho would result in him bringing me before the Courts of Law in Hongkong. It may make the matter clearer if I mention at this point that Isabelo Artacho arrived at Biak-na-bató and made himself known to and mixed with the officers in the revolutionary camp on the 21st day of September, 1897, and was appointed Secretary of the Interior in the early part of November of that year, when the Treaty of Peace proposed and negotiated by Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno was almost concluded, as is proved by the fact that the document was signed on the 14th of December of that year.Page 8

In the light of these facts the unjust and unreasonable nature of the claim of Artacho is easily discernable, for it is monstrous to claim $200,000 for services rendered to the Revolutionary Government during such a brief period.

Moreover, it is a fact that it was agreed between ourselves (the leaders of the Revolution assembled in Biak-na-bató) that in the event of the Spaniards failing to comply with each and every one of the terms and conditions of the Agreement the money obtained from the Spanish Government should not be divided, but must be employed in the purchase of arms and ammunition to renew the war of independence.

It is therefore evident that Artacho, in making this preposterous demand, was acting as a spy for the enemy, as an agent of General Primo de Rivera, for he wanted to extinguish the rebellion by depriving its organizers and leaders of the most indispensable element, the “sinews of war,” which is money. This was the view, too, of the whole of my colleagues, and it was resolved by us that I should leave Hongkong immediately and thereby avoid the litigation which Artacho seemed bent upon and thereby afford my companions time and opportunity to remove this new and wholly unexpected barrier to the realization of our cherished plans for the emancipation of our beloved fatherland. I am profoundly pleased to say that they succeeded, Artacho withdrawing the suit through a transaction.Page 9

In accordance with the decision of the meeting above referred to, I left Hongkong quietly on the 7th April, 1898, on board the steamshipTaisany, and after calling at Saigon I reached Singapore as a passenger by the s.s. Eridan, landing there as secretly as possible on the 21st April. I at once proceeded to the residence of one of my countrymen.

Thus is explained the cause of the interruption of the vitally important negotiations with Admiral Dewey, initiated by the Commander of thePetrel.

But “Man proposes and God disposes” is a proverb which was verified in its fullest sense on this occasion, for, notwithstanding the precautions taken in my journey to avoid identification yet at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the day I arrived at Singapore an Englishman came to the house in which I was residing and in a cautious manner stated that the United States Consul at that port, Mr. Spencer Pratt, wished to have an interview with Don Emilio Aguinaldo. The visitor was told that in that house they did not know Aguinaldo; this being the prearranged answer for any callers.

But the Englishman returned to the house several times and persisted in saying that it was no use trying to conceal the fact of Aguinaldo’s arrival for Consul Pratt had received notice from Admiral Dewey of General Aguinaldo’s journey to Singapore.Page 10

In reply, the Consul said he would telegraph about this matter to Admiral Dewey, who was, he said, Commander-in-Chief of the squadron which would invade the Philippines, and who had, he also stated, full powers conferred on him by President McKinley.

Between 10 or 12 in the forenoon of the next day the conference was renewed and Mr. Pratt then informed me that the Admiral had sent him a telegram in reply to the wish I had expressed for an agreement in writing. He said the Admiral’s reply was—That the United States would at least recognize the Independence of the Philippines under the protection of the United States Navy. The Consul added that there was no necessity for entering into a formal written agreement because the word of the Admiral and of the United States Consul were in fact equivalent to the most solemn pledge that their verbal promises and assurance would be fulfilled to the letter and were not to be classed with Spanish promises or Spanish ideas of a man’s word of honour. In conclusion the Consul said, “The Government of North America, is a very honest, just, and powerful government.”

Being informed of what had been said by the visitor I consented to meet Consul Pratt, and had a strictly private interview with him between 9 and 12 p.m. on 22nd April, 1898, in one of the suburbs of Singapore. As soon as Mr. Pratt met me he said that war had been formally declared by the United States against Spain the day before, i.e., on the 21st April.Page 11

In the course of the interview alluded to, Consul Pratt told me that as the Spaniards had not fulfilled the promises made in the Biak-na-bató Agreement, the Filipinos had the right to continue the revolution which had been checked by the Biak-na-bató arrangement, and after urging me to resume hostilities against the Spaniards he assured me that the United States would grant much greater liberty and more material benefits to the Filipinos than the Spaniards ever promised.

I then asked the Consul what benefits the United States would confer on the Philippines, pointing out at the same time the advisability of making an agreement and setting out all the terms and conditions in black and white.

Being as anxious to be in the Philippines as Admiral Dewey and the North American Consul—to renew the struggle for our Independence—I took the opportunity afforded me by these representatives of the United States, and, placing the fullest confidence in their word of honour, I said to Mr. Pratt (in response to his persistent professions of solicitude for the welfare of my countrymen) that he could count upon me when I returned to the Philippines to raise the people as one man against the Spaniards, with the one grand object in view as above mentioned, if I could take firearms with me to distribute amongst my countrymen. I assured him that I would put forth my utmost endeavours to crush and extinguish the power of Spain in the islands and I added that if in possession of one Page 12battery of a dozen field-guns I would make the Spaniards surrender Manila in about two weeks.

The Consul said he would help me to get over to the Philippines the consignment of arms in respect of which I had made the preliminary arrangements in Hongkong, and he added that he would at once telegraph to Admiral Dewey informing him of this promise in order that the Admiral might give what assistance laid in his power to make the expedition in question a success.

On the 25th April the last conference was held in the United States Consulate at Singapore. I was invited by the Consul to meet him on this occasion and as soon as we met he said he had received a telegram from the Admiral requesting him to ask me to proceed to Hongkong by first steamer to join the Admiral who was then with his squadron in Mir’s Bay; a Chinese harbour close to Hongkong. I replied to this proposal in the affirmative, and gave directions to my aide-de-camp to at once procure passages for myself and companions, care being taken that the tickets should bear the assumed names we had adopted on the occasion of our journey from Hongkong to Singapore, it being advisable that we should continue to travel incognito.

On the 26th April I called on Consul Pratt to bid him adieu on the eve of my departure from Singapore by the steamship Malacca. The Consul, after telling me that when I got near the port of Hongkong I would be met by the Admiral’s launch Page 13and taken from the Malacca to the American squadron (a precaution against news of my movements becoming public property, of which I highly approved), then asked me to appoint him Representative of the Philippines in the United States, there to zealously advocate official recognition of our Independence. My answer was, that I would propose him for the position of Representative of the Philippines in the United States when the Philippine Government was properly organized, though I thought it an insignificant reward for his assistance, for, in the event of our Independence becoming un fait accompli I intended to offer him a high position in the Customs Department, besides granting certain commercial advantages and contributing towards the cost of the war whatever sum he might consider due to his Government; because the Filipinos had already decided such a policy was the natural outcome of the exigencies of the situation and could be construed only as a right and proper token of the nation’s gratitude.

But to continue the statement of facts respecting my return to Hongkong from Singapore: I left Singapore with my A.D. Cs., Sres Pilar and Leyba, bound for Hongkong by the s.s. Malacca, arriving at Hongkong at 2 a.m. on the 1st May, without seeing or hearing anything of the launch which I had been led by Consul Pratt to expect to meet me near the entrance of Hongkong harbour. In response to an invitation from Mr. Rounsevelle Wildman, United States Consul at Hongkong, I wended my way to the United States Consulate and between 9 and 11 p.m. Page 14of the same day I had an interview with him. Mr. Wildman told me that Admiral Dewey left for Manila hurriedly in accordance with imperative orders from his Government directing him to attack the Spanish Fleet. He was therefore unable to await my arrival before weighing anchor and going forth to give battle to the Spaniards. Mr. Wildman added that Admiral Dewey left word with him that he would send a gunboat to take me across to the Philippines. In the course of this interview with Mr. Wildman I spoke to him about the shipment of arms to the islands which I had previously planned with him, and it was then agreed among ourselves that he (Mr. Rounsevelle Wildman) and the Filipino Mr. Teodoro Sandico should complete the arrangements for the despatch of the expedition, and I there and then handed to and deposited with them the sum of $50,000.

A steam launch was quickly purchased for $15,000, while a contract was made and entered into for the purchase of 2,000 rifles at $7 each and 200,000 rounds of ammunition at $33 and 56/100 per 1000.

A week later (7th May) the American despatch-boat McCulloch arrived from Manila bringing news of Admiral Dewey’s victory over the Spanish fleet, but did not bring orders to convey me to Manila. At 9 o’clock that night I had another interview with Consul Wildman, at his request.

On the 15th of the same month the McCulloch again arrived at Hongkong from Manila, this time Page 15bringing orders to convey me and my companions to Manila. I was promptly notified of this by Consul Wildman who requested that we go on board the McCulloch at 10 o’clock at night on 16th May. Accompanied by Consul Wildman, the Captain of the McCulloch, and Mr. John Barrett (who then usually styled himself “ex-Secretary of the United States Legation in Siam”) we boarded an American steam launch and proceeded to Chinese Kowloon Bay, where the McCulloch was anchored. While bidding us adieu Mr. Barrett said he would call on me in the Philippines, which he did later on in Cavite and Malolos.

Mr. Wildman strongly advised me to establish a Dictatorship as soon as I arrived in the Philippines, and he assured me that he would use his best endeavours to have the arms already contracted for delivered to me in the Philippines, which he in fact did. [It is to be observed, though, that the first expedition having been conducted satisfactorily, the arms reaching me in due course, I was naturally grateful and had confidence in the sincerity and good faith of Consul Wildman, and there was nothing surprising therefore in the fact that I asked him to fit out another expedition and caused the sum of $67,000 to be deposited with him for that purpose. I regret to state, however, that Mr. Wildman has failed to comply with my request and I am informed that he refuses to refund the money.]

The McCulloch left Hongkong at 11 a.m. on the 17th May and arrived off Cavite (Manila Bay) Page 16between noon and 1 p.m. on the 19th idem. No sooner had the McCulloch dropped anchor than the Admiral’s launch, carrying his Adjutant and Private Secretary, came alongside to convey me the flagship Olympia, where I was received with my Adjutant (Sr. Leyba) with the honours due to a General.

The Admiral ushered me into his private quarters, and after the exchange of the usual greetings I asked whether it was true that he had sent all the telegrams to the Consul at Singapore, Mr. Pratt, which that gentleman had told me he received in regard to myself. The Admiral replied in the affirmative, adding that the United States had come to the Philippines to protect the natives and free them from the yoke of Spain. He said, moreover, that America is exceedingly well off as regards territory, revenue, and resources and therefore needs no colonies, assuring me finally that there was no occasion for me to entertain any doubts whatever about the recognition of the Independence of the Philippines by the United States. Then Admiral Dewey asked me if I could induce the people to rise against the Spaniards and make a short, sharp, and decisive campaign of it.

I said in reply that events would speak for themselves, but while a certain arms expedition (respecting which Consul Wildman was duly informed that it would be despatched from a Chinese port) was delayed in China we could do nothing, because without arms every victory would assuredly cost us the lives of many brave and dashing Page 17Filipino warriors. The Admiral thereupon offered to despatch a steamer to hurry up the expedition. (This, be it borne in mind, in addition to the General orders he had given the Consul to assist us to procure arms and ammunition.) Then he at once placed at my disposal all the guns seized onboard the Spanish warships as well as 62 Mausers and a good many rounds of ammunition which had been brought up from Corregidor Island by the U.S.S. Petrel.

I then availed myself of an early opportunity to express to the Admiral my deep gratitude for the assistance rendered to the people of the Philippines by the United States, as well as my unbounded admiration of the grandeur and beneficence of the American people. I also candidly informed the Admiral that before I left Hongkong the Filipinos residing in that colony hold a meeting at which the following question was fully discussed, namely, the possibility that after the Spaniards were defeated, and their power and prestige in the islands destroyed, the Filipinos might have to wage war against the United States owing to the American Government declining to recognize our independence. In that event the Americans, it was generally agreed, would be sure to defeat us for they would find us worn out and short of ammunition owing to our struggle with the Spaniards. I concluded by asking the gallant Admiral to excuse me for an amount of frankness that night appear to border on impudence, and assured him of the fact that I was actuated only by a desire to have a perfectly clear understanding in the interest of both parties.Page 18

The Admiral said he was very glad to have this evidence of our earnestness and straightforwardness and he thought the Filipinos and Americans should act towards one another as friends and allies, and therefore it was right and proper that all doubts should be expressed frankly in order that explanations be made, difficulties avoided, and distrust removed; adding that, as he had already indicated, the United States would unquestionably recognize the Independence of the people of the Philippines, guaranteed as it was by the word of honour of Americans, which, he said, is more positive, more irrevocable than any written agreement, which might not be regarded as binding when there is an intention or desire to repudiate it, as was the case in respect of the compact made with the Spaniards at Biak-na-bató. Then the Admiral advised me to at once have made a Filipino National Flag, which he said he would recognize and protect in the presence of the other nations represented by the various squadrons anchored in Manila Bay, adding, however, that he thought it advisable that we should destroy the power of Spain before hoisting our national flag, in order that the act would appear more important and creditable in the eyes of the world and of the United States in particular. Then when the Filipino vessels passed to and fro with the national flag fluttering in the breeze they would attract more attention and be more likely to induce respect for the national colours.

I again thanked the Admiral for his good advice and generous offers, giving him to understand clearly that I was willing to sacrifice my Page 19own life if he would be thereby more exalted in the estimation of the United States, more honoured by his fellow-countrymen.

I added that under the present conditions of hearty co-operation, good fellowship and a clear understanding the whole nation would respond to the call to arms to shake off the yoke of Spain and obtain their freedom by destroying the power of Spain in all parts of the archipelago. If, however, all did not at once join in the movement that should not cause surprise, for there would be many unable to assist owing to lack of arms and ammunition, while others, again, might be reluctant to take an active part in the campaign on account of the loss and inconvenience to themselves and families that would result, from open hostility to the Spaniards.

Thus ended my first interview with Admiral Dewey, to whom I signified my intention to reside for a while at the headquarters of the Naval Commandant of Cavite Arsenal.

The Revolution of 1898

I returned to the McCulloch to give directions for the landing of the luggage and war materials which I brought over with me from Hongkong. On my way to the McCulloch I met several of my old associates in the 1896 revolution who had come over from Bataan province. To these friends I gave two letters directing the people of that Page 20province and Zambales to rise against the Spaniards and vigorously attack them.

Before returning to the Arsenal and when near the landing place I came across several bancas [large open boats] loaded with revolutionists of Kawit (my birth-place) who told me they had been looking out for me for about two weeks, the Americans having announced that I would soon return to the islands. The feeling of joy which I experienced on the occasion of this reunion with my own kith and kin—people who had stood shoulder to shoulder with me in the desperate struggles of the 1896–97 revolution—is simply indescribable. Words fail to express my feelings—joy mingled with sadness and strong determination to accomplish the salvation, the emancipation, of my beloved countrymen. Hardly had I set foot in the Naval Headquarters at Cavite, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, than I availed myself of the opportunity to give these faithful adherents orders similar to those despatched to Bataan and Zambales.

I was engaged the whole of that night with my companions drawing up orders and circulars for the above mentioned purpose.

We were also kept very busy replying to letters which were pouring in from all sides asking for news respecting the reported return of myself to the islands and requesting definite instructions regarding a renewal of hostilities against the Spaniards.Page 21

That the invisible, albeit irresistible, hand of Providence was guiding every movement and beneficently favouring all efforts to rid the country of the detestable foreign yoke is fairly evidenced by the rapid sequence of events above recorded, for in no other way can one account for the wonderful celebrity with which news of my projected return spread far and wide.

Sixty-two Volunteers, organized and armed by the Spaniards with Mausers and Remingtons, from San Roque and Caridad, placed themselves under my orders. At first the Americans apprehended some danger from the presence of this armed force, which was promptly placed on guard at the entrance to the Arsenal. When I heard of this I went down and gave them orders to occupy Dalajican, thereby preventing the Spaniards from carrying out their intention to approach Cavite by that route.

When the Americans were informed of what I had done they were reassured, and orders were given to the Captain of the Petrel to hand over to me the 62 rifles and ammunition which Admiral Dewey had kindly promised. About 10 a.m. the Petrel’s launch landed the arms and ammunition in question at the Arsenal and no time was lost in distributing the arms among the men who were by this time coming in ever increasing numbers to offer their services to me and expressing their willingness to be armed and assigned for duty at the outposts and on the firing line.Page 22

During the evening of the 20th May the old Revolutionary officer Sr. Luciano San Miguel (now a General in command of a Brigade) came to me and asked for orders, which were given to him to effect the uprising of the provinces of Manila, Laguna, Batangas, Tayabas, Bulakan, Morong, Pampanga, Tarlak, Newva Ecija and other northern provinces. He left the same night to execute the orders.

During the 21st, 22nd and 23rd and subsequent days of that month my headquarters were simply besieged by my countrymen, who poured into Cavite from all sides to offer their services in the impending struggle with the Spaniards. To such an extent, indeed, were my quarters in the Arsenal invaded that I soon found it necessary to repair to another house in the town, leaving the place entirely at the disposal of the U.S. Marines, who were then in charge of and guarding Cavite Arsenal.

The Dictatorial Government

On the 24th May a Dictatorial Government was established, my first proclamation being issued that day announcing the system of government then adopted and stating that I had assumed the duties and responsibilities of head of such government. Several copies of this proclamation were delivered to Admiral Dewey and through the favour of his good offices forwarded to the representatives of the Foreign Powers then residing in Manila, notwithstanding our lack of intercourse with Manila.Page 23

A few days later the Dictatorial Government was removed to the house formerly occupied by the Spanish Civil Governor of Cavite, because, owing to the great number of visitors from the provinces and the rapid increase of work the accommodation in the private house was wholly inadequate and too cramped. It was while quartered in the first mentioned house that glad tidings reached me of the arrival at Cavite of the long-expected arms expedition. The whole cargo, consisting of 1,999 rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition, besides other special munitions of war, was landed at the very same dock of the Arsenal, and was witnessed by the U.S.S. “Petrel.”

I immediately despatched a Commission to convey to the Admiral my thanks for the trouble he had taken in sending to hurry up the expedition. I also caused my Commissioners to inform the Admiral that I had fixed the 31st May as the day when the Revolutionary Forces should make a General attack upon the Spaniards. The Admiral returned the compliment by sending his Secretary to congratulate me and my Government upon the activity and enthusiasm displayed in preparing for the campaign, but he suggested that it was advisable to postpone the opening of the campaign to a later date in order that the insurgent troops might be better organized and better drilled. I replied to the Admiral through his Secretary that there was no cause for any anxiety for everything would be in perfect readiness by the 31st and, moreover, that the Filipinos were very anxious to Page 24free themselves from the galling Spanish yoke, that they would therefore fight and my troops would make up for any deficiency in discipline by a display of fearlessness and determination to defeat the common enemy which would go far to ensure success, I was, I added, nevertheless profoundly grateful to the Admiral for his friendly advice.

I promptly gave orders for the distribution of the arms which had just arrived, sending some to various provinces and reserving the remainder for the revolutionaries of Kawit, the latter being smuggled into the district of Alapang during the night of 27th May.

The First Triumphs

The next day (8th May, 1898), just when we were distributing arms to the revolutionists of Kawit, in the above mentioned district a column, composed of over 270 Spanish Naval Infantry, appeared in sight. They were sent out by the Spanish General, Sr. Peña, for the purpose of seizing the said consignment of arms.

Then it was that the first engagement of the Revolution of 1898 (which may be rightly styled a continuation of the campaign of 1896–97) took place. The battle raged from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the Spaniards ran out of ammunition and surrendered, with all their arms, to the Filipino Revolutionists, who took their prisoners to Cavite. Page 25In commemoration of this glorious achievement I hoisted our national flag in presence of a great crowd, who greeted it with tremendous applause and loud, spontaneous and prolonged cheers for “Independent Philippines” and for “the generous nation”—the United States of America. Several officers and Marines from the American fleet who witnessed the ceremony evinced sympathy with the Filipino cause by joining in the natural and popular rejoicings of the people.

This glorious triumph was merely the prelude to a succession of brilliant victories, and when the 31st May came—the date fixed for general uprising of the whole of the Philippines—the people rose as one man to crush the power of Spain.

The second triumph was effected in Binakayan, at a place known as Polvorin, where the Spanish garrison consisting of about 250 men was attacked by our raw levvies and surrendered in a few hours, their stock of ammunition being completely exhausted.

I again availed myself of the opportunity to hoist our national flag and did so from an upper story of the Polvorin facing the sea, with the object of causing the sacred insignia of our Liberty and Independence to be seen fluttering in the breeze by the warships, representing all the great and civilized nations of the world, which were congregated in the harbour observing the providential evolution going on in the Philippines after upwards of three hundred years of Spanish domination.Page 26

Scarcely had another hour elapsed before another flag was seen flying over the steeple of the Church at Bakoor—which is also in full view of vessels in the harbour—being the signal of another triumph of our troops over the Spanish forces which held that town. The garrison consisted of about 300 men, who surrendered to the Revolutionary Army when their ammunition was exhausted.

And so the Revolution progressed, triumph following triumph in quick succession, evidencing the power, resolution and ability of the inhabitants of the Philippines to rid themselves of any foreign yoke and exist as an independent State, as I affirmed to Admiral Dewey and in respect of which he and several American Commanders and officers warmly congratulated me, specially mentioning the undeniable triumphs of the Philippine Army as demonstrated and proved by the great number of prisoners we brought into Cavite from all parts of Luzon.

The Philippine Flag

In conformity with my orders issued on the 1st of September, all Philippine vessels hoisted the national flag, the Marines of the Filipino flotilla being the first to execute that order. Our little flotilla consisted of some eight Spanish steam launches (which had been captured) and five vessels of greater dimensions, namely, the Taaleño, Baldyan, Taal, Bulucan, and Purisima Concepcion. Page 27These vessels were presented to the Philippine Government by their native owners and were converted by us, at our Arsenal, into gunboats, 8 and 9 centimetre guns, taken from the sunken Spanish warships, being mounted on board.

Ah! what a beautiful, inspiring joyous sight that flag was fluttering in the breeze from the topmasts of our vessels, side by side, as it were, with the ensigns of other and greater nations, among whose mighty warships our little cruisers passed to and fro dipping their colours, the ensign of Liberty and Independence! With what reverence and adoration it was viewed as it suddenly rose in its stately loneliness crowning our victories, and, as it were, smiling approvingly upon the undisciplined Philippine Army in the moment of its triumphs over the regular forces of the Spanish Government! One’s heart swells and throbs again with the emotions of extreme delight; the soul is filled with pride, and the goal of patriotism seems well-nigh reached in the midst of such a magnificent spectacle!

At the end of June I called on Admiral Dewey, who, after complimenting me on the rapid triumphs of the Philippine Revolution, told me he had been asked by the German and French Admirals why he allowed the Filipinos to display on their vessels a flag that was not recognized. Admiral Dewey said his reply to the French and German Admirals was—with his knowledge and consent the Filipinos used that flag, and, apart from this, Page 28he was of opinion that in view of the courage and steadfastness of purpose displayed in the war against the Spaniards the Filipinos deserved the right to use their flag.

I thereupon expressed to the Admiral my unbounded gratitude for such unequivocal protection, and on returning to the shore immediately ordered the Philippine flotilla to convey troops to the other provinces of Luzon and to the Southern islands, to wage war against the Spaniards who garrisoned them.

Expedition to Bisayas

The expedition to Bisayas was a complete success as far as the conveyance of our troops to the chief strategic points was concerned, our steamers returning safely to Cavite after landing the soldiers. The steamer Bulusan, however, which sailed for Masbate with Colonel Sr. Mariano Riego de Dios’ column destined for duty in Samar was sighted by the Spanish gunboats Elcano and Uranus, which gave chase, and the former proving the faster overtook and attacked the Bulusan doing so much damage to her that she foundered after a hot engagement in which considerable damage was done to the Spaniard. Happily the crew and troops on board of the Bulusan saved their lives by swimming ashore.

The Steamer “Compania de Filipinas”

In a few days the Spanish steamer Compania de Filipinas was brought to Cavite by my countrymen, Page 29who captured her in the harbour of Aparri. Cannon were at once mounted on board this vessel and she was loaded with troops and despatched for Olongapo, but she had not gone far before I sent another gunboat to recall her because Admiral Dewey requested me to do so in order that a question raised by the French Consul might be duly settled. The Admiral having been informed that when captured the Compania de Filipinas was flying the Spanish flag abstained from interfering in the matter and handed the French Consul’s protest over to me, affirming at the same time that he and his forces were in no way concerned in the matter.

This incident, which was soon settled, clearly demonstrates the recognition of and protection extended to the Philippine Revolution by Admiral Dewey.

The Filipinas (as this steamer has since been styled) was again despatched to Olongapo and on her way back landed troops in the provinces of Cagayan and the Batanes islands for the purpose of wresting the government of those districts from Spain. This steamer, whose name has more recently been changed to Luzon, is at present ashore in the Rio Grande, in Cagayan, where she was beached owing to some damage to her machinery.

When our steamers were leaving the harbour with troops for the provinces they dipped their ensigns in passing Admiral Dewey’s flagshipOlympia, performing this act in conformity with the rules of international courtesy, a demonstration Page 30of friendship that was invariably promptly responded to in the usual way.

The Proclamation of Independence

The Dictatorial Government decided that the proclamation of Independence should take place on the 12th June, the ceremony in connection therewith to be held in the town of Kawit. With this object in view I sent a Commission to inform the Admiral of the arrangement and invite him to be present on the occasion of the formal proclamation of Independence, a ceremony which was solemnly and impressively conducted. The Admiral sent his Secretary to excuse him from taking part in the proceedings, stating the day fixed for the ceremony was mail day.

About the end of that month (June) the Spanish gunboat Leyte escaped from the Macabebe river and reached Manila Bay, where she was seized by General Torres’ troops. She had on board part of the troops and volunteers which were under the command of the Filipino Colonel Sr. Eugenio Blanco, but on being sighted by an American gunboat she voluntarily surrendered. Admiral Dewey delivered to me all the prisoners and arms on board the vessel, which latter, however, he took possession of; but after the fall of Manila he demanded that I should give back the prisoners to him.

On the 4th July the first United States military expedition arrived, under command of General Page 31Anderson, and it was quartered in Cavite Arsenal. This distinguished General called on me in the Filipino Government House at Cavite, an honour and courtesy which I promptly returned, as was right and proper, seeing that we were friends, of equal rank, and allies. In the course of official intercourse General Anderson solemnly and completely endorsed the promises made by Admiral Dewey to me, asserting on his word of honour that America had not come to the Philippines to wage war against the natives nor to conquer and retain territory, but only to liberate the people from the oppression of the Spanish Government.

A few days before the arrival of this military expedition, and others that followed under command of General Merritt, Admiral Dewey sent his Secretary to my Government to ask me to grant permission for the stationing of American troops in Tambo and Maytubig, Paranaque and Pasay. In view of the important promises of Admiral Dewey, above mentioned, the Dictatorial Government consented to the movement of troops as proposed.

During that month (July) Admiral Dewey accompanied by General Anderson visited Cavite, and after the usual exchange of courtesies he said—“You have had ocular demonstration and confirmation of all I have told you and promised you. How pretty your flag is! It has a triangle, and is something like the Cubans’. Will you give me one as a memento when I go back home?”Page 32

I replied that I was fully satisfied with his word of honour and of the needlessness of having our agreement in documentary form. As to the flag he wanted, he could have one whenever he wished.

The Admiral continued: Documents are useless when there is no sense of honour on one side, as was the case in respect of the compact with the Spaniards, who failed to act up to what had been written and signed. Have faith in my word, and I assure you that the United States will recognize the independence of the country. But I recommend you to keep a good deal of what we have said and agreed secret at present. I further request you to have patience if any of our soldiers insult any Filipinos, for being Volunteers they are as yet undisciplined.

I replied that I would bear in mind all his advice regarding cautiousness, and that with respect to the misconduct of the soldiers orders had already been issued enjoining forbearance, and I passed the same remarks to the Admiral about unpleasantness possibly arising through lack of discipline of our own forces.

The Spanish Commission

At this juncture the Admiral suddenly changed the topic of conversation and asked—“Why don’t the people in Manila rise against the Spaniards as their countrymen in the provinces have done? Is it true that they accept the autonomy offered by General Augustin with a representativePage 33Assembly? Is the report which has reached me true, that a Filipino Commission has been sent from Manila to propose to you the acceptance of that autonomy coupled with a recognition of your rank of General, as well as recognition of the rank held by your companions?”

“The people of Manila,” I answered, “are quiet because they have no arms and because as merchants and landlords they fear that their valuable properties and money in the banks will be confiscated by the Spaniards if they rise up and begin burning and destroying the property of others. On this account they had ostensibly accepted autonomy, not because that was what they wanted but more as a means of deceiving the Spaniards and being allowed to live in peace; but I am confident that all the Filipinos in Manila are for independence, as will be proved the very day our troops capture Manila. At that time I fully expect the people of Manila will join with us in raising loud cheers for the Independence of the Philippines, making fresh demonstrations of loyalty to our Government.”

I also told him it was true that a Mixed Commission had arrived and in the name of General Augustin and Archbishop Nozaleda made certain proposals; but they made known to us their intention to adhere to our Cause. The members of the Commission said the Spaniards instructed them to say they came motu propio1 without being formally Page 34appointed or ‘coached’ by the Spanish authorities in what they should say, representing, on the contrary, that they were faithful interpreters of the sentiment of the people of Manila and that they had good reason for believing that if I was willing to accept autonomy General Augustin and Archbishop Nozaleda would recognize my rank of General, and that of my companions, would give me the $1,000,000 indemnity agreed upon at Biak-na-bató and still unpaid, as well as liberal rewards for and salaries to the members of a popular Assembly promises which the Commissioners did not put any faith in, though some of them held the opinion that the money should be accepted because it would reduce the funds of the Spanish Government and also because the money had been wrung from Filipinos. The Commissioners, I added, left after assuring me that the people in Manila would rise against the Spaniards if supplied with arms, and that the best thing I could do was to make an attack on Manila at the places they pointed out as being the weakest parts of the Spanish defense and consequently the easiest to overcome.

I thanked the Commission for their loyalty and straightforwardness, told them they would be given an escort to take them safely back to the Spanish lines, and that when they got back they should inform those who had sent them that they were not received because they were not duly accredited and that even if they had brought credentials according to what they had seen and heard from the Revolutionists Don Emilio Aguinaldo would certainly Page 35not consider, much less accept, their proposals respecting autonomy because the Filipino people had sufficient experience to govern themselves, that they are tired of being victimised and subjected to gross abuses by a foreign nation under whose domination they have no wish to continue to live, but rather wish for their independence. Therefore the Spaniards might prepare to defend their sovereignty, for the Filipino Army would vigorously assault the city and with unflagging zeal prosecute the siege until Manila was captured.

I also told the Commissioners to tell Archbishop Nozaleda that he was abusing the privileges and authority of his exalted position; that such conduct was at variance with the precepts of His Holiness the Pope, and if he failed to rectify matters I would throw light on the subject in a way which would bring shame and disgrace upon him. I added that I knew he and General Augustin had commissioned four Germans and five Frenchmen to disguise themselves and assassinate me in the vain hope that once I am disposed of the people of the Philippines would calmly submit to the sovereignty of Spain, which was a great mistake, for were I assassinated, the inhabitants of the Philippines would assuredly continue the struggle with greater vigor than ever. Other men would come forward to avenge my death. Lastly I recommended the Commissioners to tell the people in Manila to go on with their trades and industries and be perfectly at ease about our Government, whose actions were guided in the paths of rectitude and justice, and Page 36that since there were no more Friars to corrupt the civic virtues, the Filipino Government was now endeavouring to demonstrate its honesty of purpose before the whole world. There was therefore no reason why they should not go on with their business as usual and should not think of leaving Manila and coming into the Camp, where the resources were limited, where already more were employed than was necessary to meet the requirements of the Government and the Army, and where, too, the lack of arms was sorely felt.

The Commissioners asked me what conditions the United States would impose and what benefits they would confer on the Filipinos, to which I replied that is was difficult to answer that question in view of the secret I was in honour bound to keep in respect of the terms of the Agreement, contenting myself by saying that they could learn a good deal by carefully observing the acts, equivalent to the exercise of sovereign rights, of the Dictatorial Government, and especially the occular demonstrations of such rights on the waters of the harbour.

These statements, which were translated by my interpreter, Sr. Leyba, made such an impression on the Admiral that he interrupted, asking—“Why did you reveal our secret?” Do you mean that you do not intend to keep inviolate our well understood silence and watchword?

I said in reply that I had revealed nothing of the secret connected with him and the Consul.Page 37

The Admiral then thanked me for my cautiousness, bid we good-by and left with General Anderson, after requesting me to refrain from assaulting Manila because, he said, they were studying a plan to take the Walled City with their troops, leaving the suburbs for the Filipino forces.

He advised me, nevertheless, to study other plans of taking the city in conjunction with their forces, which I agreed to do.

1 Of their own free will and accord—Translator.

More American Troops

A few days later American troops arrived, and with them came General Merritt. The Admiral’s Secretary and two officers came to the Dictatoriat Government and asked that we allow them to occupy our trenches at Maytubig; from the harbour side of that place right up to the main road, where they would form a continuation of our lines at Pasay and Singalong. This I also agreed to on account of the solemn promises of the Admiral and the trust naturally placed in them owing to the assistance rendered and recognition of our independence.

Ten days after the Americans occupied the trenches at Maytubig (this move being well known by the Spaniards who were entrenched at the Magazine in San Antonio Abad) their outposts, composed of a few men only, were surprised by the Spaniards, who made a night attack on them. They had barely time to get out of their beds and fall back on the centre, abandoning their rifles and six field-guns in their precipitate retreat.Page 38

The firing being distinctly heard, our troops immediately rushed to the assistance of our friends and allies, repulsing the Spaniards and recapturing the rifles and field-guns, which I ordered to be returned to the Americans as a token of our good-will and friendship.

General Noriel was opposed to this restitution, alleging that the arms did not belong to the Americans since the Filipino troops captured them from the Spaniards. But I paid no attention to the reasonable opposition of my General and gave imperative instructions that they be returned to the Americans, showing thereby clearly and positively the good-will of the Filipinos. The said rifles and field-guns, with a large quantity of ammunition, was therefore restored to those who were then our allies, notwithstanding the fact of General Noriel’s brigade capturing them at a cost of many lives of our compatriots.

Later on more American reinforcements arrived and again Admiral Dewey, through his Secretary, asked for more trenches for their troops, averring that those which we had given up to them before were insufficient. We at once agreed and their lines were then extended up to Pasay.

The Thirteenth of August

The 13th August arrived, on which day I noticed a general advance of the American land Page 39and sea forces towards Manila, the former being under command of General Anderson at Paranaque.

Subsequently I ordered a general assault of the Spanish lines and in the course of this movement General Pio del Pilar succeeded in advancing through Sampalok and attacked the Spanish troops who where defending the Puente Colgante,1 causing the enemy to fall back on the Bridge of Spain. The column commanded by our General, Sr. Gregorio II. del Pilar, took the suburbs of Pretil, Tendo, Divisoria and Paseo de Azcarraga, situated north of Manila city; while General Noriel’s command, near Pasay, took the suburbs of Singalong and Pako, and following the American column he out-flanked the Spaniards who were defending San Antonio Abad. The Spanish officers observing General Noriel’s move ordered their men to retreat towards the Walled City, whereupon the Americans who held the foremost trenches entered Malate and Ermita without firing a shot. At this point the Americans met General Noriel’s troops who had captured the above mentioned suburbs and were quartered in the building formerly used by the Exposicion Regional de Filipinas,2 in the Normal, and in Sr. Perez’ house in Paco.

In Santa Ana (the eastern section of Manila) General Ricarto successfully routed five companies of Spaniards, being aided in this by the manoeuvres of General Pio del Pilar’s brigade.Page 40

1 Suspension bridge.—Translator.

2 Philippine Local Exhibition.—Translator.

First Clouds

Our troops saw the American forces landing on the sea shore near the Luneta and Paseo de Santa Lucia, calling the attention of everybody to the fact that the Spanish soldiers in the city forts were not firing on them (the Americans), a mystery that was cleared up at sunset when details of the capitulation of Manila, by General Jaudenes in accordance with terms of an agreement with General Merritt, became public property—a capitulation which the American Generals reserved for their own benefit and credit in contravention of the agreement arrived at with Admiral Dewey in the arrangement of plans for the final combined assault on and Page 41capture of Manila by the allied forces, American and Filipino.

Some light was thrown upon this apparently inexplicable conduct of the American Commanders by the telegrams which I received during that day from General Anderson, who wired me from Maitubig asking me to issue orders forbidding our troops to enter Manila, a request which I did not comply with because it was not in conformity with the agreement, and it was, moreover, diametrically opposed to the high ends of the Revolutionary Government, that after going to the trouble of besieging Manila for two months and a half, sacrificing thousands of lives and millions of material interests, it should be supposed such sacrifices were made with any other object in view than the capture of Manila and the Spanish garrison which stubbornly defended the city.

But General Merritt, persistent in his designs, begged me not only through the Admiral but also through Major Bell to withdraw my troops from the suburbs to (as it was argued) prevent the danger of conflict which is always to be looked for in the event of dual military occupation; also by so doing to avoid bringing ridicule upon the American forces; offering, at the same time, in three letters, to negotiate after his wishes were complied with. To this I agreed, though neither immediately nor at one time, but making our troops retire gradually up to the blockhouses in order that the whole of the inhabitants of Manila should witness the proceedings of our troops and amicability toward our American allies.

Up to that time, and in fact right up to the time when the Americans openly commenced hostilities against us, I entertained in my soul strong hopes that the American Commanders would make absolute with their Government the verbal agreement made and entered into with the Leader of the Philippine Revolution, notwithstanding the indications to the contrary which were noticeable in their conduct, especially in respect of the conduct of Admiral Dewey, who, without any reason or justification, one day in the month of October seized all our steamers and launches.

Being informed of this strange proceeding, and at the time when the Revolutionary Government Page 42had its headquarters in Malolos, I despatched a Commission to General Otis to discuss the matter with him. General Otis gave the Commissioners a letter of recommendation to the Admiral to whom he referred them; but the Admiral declined to receive the Commission notwithstanding General Otis’s recommendation.

Notwithstanding the procedure of the American Commanders, so contrary to the spirit of all the compacts and antecedents above mentioned, I continued to maintain a friendly attitude towards them, sending a Commission to General Merritt to bid him farewell on the eve of his departure for Paris. In his acknowledgement of his courtesy General Merritt was good enough to say that he would advocate the Filipino Cause in the United States. In the same manner I sent to Admiral Dewey a punal1 in a solid silver scabbard and a walking stick of the very best cane with gold handle engraved by the most skilful silversmiths as a souvenir and mark of our friendship. This the Admiral accepted, thereby in some measure relieving my feelings and the anxiety of my compatriots constituting the Revolutionary Government, whose hearts were again filled with pleasant hopes of a complete understanding with Admiral Dewey.

1 Short sword—Translator.

Vain Hopes

Vain indeed became these hope when news arrived that Admiral Dewey had acted and was Page 43continuing to act against the Revolutionary Government by order of His Excellency Mr. McKinley, who, prompted by the “Imperialist” party, had decided to annex the Philippines, granting, in all probability, concessions to adventurers to exploit the immense natural wealth lying concealed under our virgin soil.

This news was received in the Revolutionary camp like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Some cursed the hour and the day we treated verbally with the Americans; some denounced the ceding of the suburbs, while others again were of opinion that a Commission should be sent to General Otis to draw from him clear and positive declarations on the situation, drawing up a treaty of amity and commerce if the United States recognize our independence or at once commence hostilities if the States refused.

In this crisis I advised moderation and prudence, for I still had confidence in the justice and rectitude of United States Congress, which, I believed, would not approve the designs of the Imperialist party and would give heed to the declarations of Page 44Admiral Dewey, who, in the capacity of an exalted Representative of the United States in these Islands concerted and covenanted with me and the people of the Philippines recognition of our independence.

In fact in no other way was such a serious matter to be regarded, for if America entrusted to Admiral Dewey the honour of her forces in such a distant region, surely the Filipinos might equally place their trust in the word of honour of such a polished, chivalrous gentleman and brave sailor, in the firm belief, of course, that the great and noble American people would neither reject his decision nor expose to ridicule the illustrious conqueror of the Spanish fleet.

In the same way the not less known and notorious circumstances, that the American Commanders who came soon after the echoes of the Admiral’s victory reached their native shores, namely, Generals Merritt, Anderson and Otis, proclaimed to the people of the Philippines that America did not come to conquer territories, but to liberate its inhabitants from the oppression of Spanish Sovereignty. I would therefore also expose to universal ridicule and contempt the honour of these Commanders if the United States, by repudiating their official and public acts, attempts to annex these islands by conquest.

The American Commission

With such prudent as well as well founded reflections, I succeeded in calming my companions shortly before the official news arrived reporting that the Washington Government, acting on Admiral Dewey’s suggestion, had intimated its intention to despatch a Civil Commission to Manila which would treat with the Filipinos with a view Page 45to arriving at a definite understanding respecting the government of the Islands.

Joy and satisfaction now filled the breasts of all the Revolutionists, and I thereupon set about the appointment of a Commission to meet the American Commissioners. At the same time I gave strict orders that the most friendly relations should be maintained with the Americans, enjoining toleration and overlooking of the abuses and atrocities of the soldiery because the effect on the Commissioners would not be good it they found us at loggerheads with their nation’s forces.

But the abases of the Americans were now becoming intolerable. In the market-place at Arroceros they killed a woman and a little boy under the pretext that they were surprising a gambling den, thus causing the greatest indignation of a great concourse of people in that vicinity.

My Adjutants, too, who hold passes permitting them to enter Manila with their uniform and sidearms, were molested by being repeatedly stopped by every patrol they met, it, being perfectly evident that, the intention was to irritate them by exposing them to public ridicule.

While this sort of thing was going on as against our people the American Commanders and officers who visited our camp were treated with the utmost courtesy and consideration.

In Lacoste Street an American guard shot and killed a boy seven years of age for taking a banana from a Chinaman.Page 46

The searching of houses was carried on just as it was during the Spanish regime, while the American soldiers at the outposts often invaded our lines, thus irritating our sentries. It would make this book a very large volume if I continued to state seriatim the abuses and atrocities committed by the American soldiery in those days of general anxiety.

It seemed as if the abuses were authorised or at least winked at in official quarters for the purpose of provoking an outbreak of hostilities. Excitement ran high among all classes of people, but the Filipino Government, which had assumed responsibility for the acts of the people, by the constant issue of prudent orders succeeded in calming the excited populace and maintained peace, advising all sufferers to be patient and prudent pending the arrival of the Civil Commission.

Impolitic Acts

At such a critical juncture as this, and before the anxiously-awaited Civil Commission arrived, it occurred to General Otis, Commandant of the American forces, to commit two more impolitic acts. One of them was the order to search our telegraph offices in Sagunro Street, in Tondo, where the searching party seized the apparatus and detained the officer in charge, Sr. Reyna, in the Fuerza Santiago1 under the pretext that he was conspiring against the Americans.Page 47

How and why was Sr. Reyna conspiring? Was not this sufficient for the Filipino Government to give the order to attack and rescue Reyna and thereby we (eight thousand strong) be plunged immediately into war with the United States? Was there any reason for conspiring when the power was in our own hands? And, above all, would a telegraphist, be likely to interfere in affaires de guerre when there was an army near by to attend to such matters?

It was abundantly manifest that the object was by wounding the feelings of and belittling the Filipino Government to provoke a collision, and it was clear also that this system of exasperating us was not merely the wanton act of the soldiery but was actually prompted by General Otis himself, who, imbued with imperialistic tendencies, regarded the coming of the Civil Commission with disfavour and especially would it be unsatisfactory that this Commission should find the Philippines in a state of perfect tranquility, because it was evident to the said General, as well as to the whole world, that the Filipinos would assuredly have arrived at a definite amicable agreement with the aforesaid Commission if it reached the islands while peace prevailed.

We, the Filipinos, would have received the Commission with open arms and complete accord as honourable Agents of the great American nation. The Commissioners could have visited all our provinces, seeing and taking note of the complete tranquility throughout our territory. They Page 48could have seen our cultivated lands, examined our Constitution and investigated the administration of public affairs in perfect peace and safety, and have felt and enjoyed the inimitable charm of our Oriental style,—half negligent, half solicitude, warmth and chilliness, simple confidence and suspiciousness; characteristics which cause descriptions of contact with us to be depicted by foreigners in thousands of different hues.

Ah! but neither did General Otis nor the Imperialists wish for such a landscape. It was better for their criminal designs that the American Commission should view the desolation and horrors of war in the Philippines, inhaling on the very day of their arrival the revolting odour emitted from American and Filipino corpses. It was better for their purposes that that gentleman, Mr. Schurman, President of the Commission, should return from Manila, limiting his investigation to inquiries among the few Filipinos, who, seduced with gold, were siding with the Imperialists. It were better for them that the Commission should view the Philippines problem through fire and slaughter, in the midst of whizzing bullets and the uncontrolled passion of infuriated foes, thus preventing them from forming correct judgment of the exact and natural conditions of the problem. Ah! it was, lastly, better that the Commission return to the States defeated in its mission of obtaining peace and blaming me and other Filipinos for its inability to settle matters, when, in reality, I and all the Philippine people were longing that that Page 49peace had been concluded yesterday,—long before now—but an honest and honourable peace, honourable alike for the United States and the Philippine Republic in order that it be sincere and everlasting.

The second impolitic act of General Otis was the issue of a proclamation on the 4th of January, 1899, asserting in the name of President McKinley the sovereignty of America in these islands, with threats of ruin, death and desolation to all who declined to recognize it.

I, Emilio Aguinaldo—though the humble servant of all, am, as President of the Philippine Republic, charged with the safeguarding of the rights and independence of the people who appointed me to such an exalted position of trust and responsibility—mistrusted for the first time the honour of the Americans, perceiving of course that this proclamation of General Otis completely exceeded the limits of prudence and that therefore no other course was open to me but to repel with arms such unjust and unexpected procedure on the part of the commander of friendly forces.

I protested, therefore, against such a proclamation—also threatening an immediate rupture of friendly relations,—for the whole populace was claiming that an act of treason had been committed, plausibly asserting that the announcement of the Commission applied for by Admiral Dewey was a ruse, and that what General Otis was scheming for was to keep us quiet while he brought reinforcement after reinforcement from the United Page 50States for the purpose of crashing our untrained and badly equipped Army with one blow.

But now General Otis acted for the first time like a diplomatist, and wrote me, through his Secretary, Mr. Carman, a letter inviting the Filipino Government to send a Commission to meet an American Commission for the purpose of arriving at an amicable arrangement between both parties; and although I placed no trust in the professions of friendly intentions of the said General—whose determination to prevent the Commission arriving at a peaceful solution of the difficulties was already evident—I acceded to the request, partly because I saw the order, dated 9th January, given by the above mentioned General confirmed, and on the other hand to show before the whole world my manifest wishes for the conservation of peace and friendship with the United States, solemnly compacted with Admiral Dewey.

1 The “Black Hole” of Manila.

The Mixed Commission

Conferences of the Mixed Commission, Americans and Filipinos, were held in Manila from the 11th to the 31st of the said month of January, the Filipino Commissioners clearly expressing the wish of our people for recognition as an independent nation.

They also frankly stated the complaints of the Filipino people about the abuses and atrocities of the American soldiery, being attentively andPage 51benevolently listened to by the American Commissioners. The latter replied that they had no authority to recognize the Filipino Government, their mission being limited to hearing what the Filipinos said, to collect data to formulate the will of our people and transmit it fully and faithfully to the Government of Washington, who alone could arrive at a definite decision on the subject. These conferences ended in perfect harmony, auguring well for happier times and definite peace when Mr. McKinley should reply to General Otis’s telegrams transmitting our wishes with his favourable recommendations, as the American Commissioners said.

Outbreak of Hostilities

While I, the Government, the Congress and the entire populace were awaiting the arrival of such a greatly desired reply, many fairly overflowing with pleasant thoughts, there came the fatal day of the 4th February, during the night of which day the American forces suddenly attacked all our lines, which were in fact at the time almost deserted, because being Saturday, the day before a regular feast day, our Generals and some of the most prominent officers had obtained leave to pass the Sabbath with their respective families.

General Pantaleon Garcia was the only one who at such a critical moment was at his post in Maypajo, north of Manila, Generals Noriel, Rizal and Ricarte and Colonels San Miguel, Cailles and others being away enjoying their leave.Page 52

General Otis, according to trustworthy information, telegraphed to Washington stating that the Filipinos had attacked the American Army. President McKinley read aloud the telegram in the Senate, where the Treaty of Paris of the 10th December, 1898, was being discussed with a view to its ratification, the question of annexation of the Philippines being the chief subject of debate, and through this criminal procedure secured the acceptation of the said Treaty in toto by a majority of only three votes,1 which were cast simultaneously with a declaration that the voters sided with the “Ayes” on account of war having broken out in these Islands.

This singular comedy could not continue for a great length of time because the Filipinos could never be the aggressors as against the American forces, with whom we had sworn eternal friendship and in whose power we expected to find the necessary protection to enable us to obtain recognition of our independence from the other Powers.

The confusion and obfuscation of the first moments was indeed great, but before long it gave place to the light of Truth which shone forth serene, bringing forth serious reflections.

When sensible people studied the acts of Mr. McKinley, sending reinforcement after reinforcement to Manila at a time after an armistice was agreed upon and even when peace with Spain Page 53prevailed; when they took into account that the despatch of the Civil Commission to settle terms of a treaty of amity with the Filipinos was being delayed; when, too, they knew of the antecedents of my alliance with Admiral Dewey, prepared and arranged by the American Consuls of Singapore and Hongkong, Mr. Pratt and Mr. Wildman; when they became acquainted with the actual state of affairs on the 4th February knowing that the Filipinos were awaiting the reply of Mr. McKinley to the telegram of General Otis in which he transmitted the peaceful wish of the Filipino people of live as an independent nation; when, lastly, they riveted their attention to the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the approval of which, in as far as it concerned the annexation of the Philippines, was greeted with manifestations of joy and satisfaction by the Imperialist party led by Mr. McKinley, then their eyes were opened to the revelations of truth, clearly perceiving the base, selfish and inhuman policy which Mr. McKinley had followed in his dealings with us the Filipinos, sacrificing remorselessly to their unbridled ambition the honour of Admiral Dewey, exposing this worthy gentleman and illustrious conqueror of the Spanish fleet to universal ridicule; for no other deduction can follow from the fact that about the middle of May of 1898, the U.S.S. McCullochbrought me with my revolutionary companions from Hongkong, by order of the above mentioned Admiral, while now actually the United States squadron is engaged in bombarding the towns and ports held by these Page 54revolutionists, whose objective is and always has been Liberty and Independence.

The facts as stated are of recent date and must still be fresh in the memory of all.

Those who in May, 1898, admired the courage of Admiral Dewey’s sailors and the humanitarianism of this illustrious Commander in granting visible aid to an oppressed people to obtain freedom and independence, surely cannot place an honest construction upon the present inhuman war when contrasting it with those lofty and worthy sentiments.

I need not dwell on the cruelty which, from the time of the commencement of hostilities, has characterized General Otis’s treatment of the Filipinos, shooting in secret many who declined to sign a petition asking for autonomy. I need not recapitulate the ruffianly abuses which the American soldiers committed on innocent and defenseless people in Manila, shooting women and children simply because they were leaning out of windows; entering houses at midnight without the occupants’ permission—forcing open trunks and wardrobes and stealing money, jewellery and all valuables they came across; breaking chairs, tables and mirrors which they could not carry away with them, because, anyhow, they are consequences of the war, though improper in the case of civilized forces. But what I would not leave unmentioned is the inhuman conduct of that General in his dealings with the Page 55Filipino Army, when, to arrange a treaty of peace with the Civil Commission, of which Mr. Schurman was President, I thrice sent emissaries asking for a cessation of hostilities.

General Otis refused the envoys’ fair and reasonable request, replying that he would not stop hostilities so long as the Philippine Army declined to lay down their arms.

But why does not this Army deserve some consideration at the hands of General Otis and the American forces? Had they already forgotten the important service the Filipino Army rendered to the Americans in the late war with Spain?

Had General Otis forgotten the favours conferred on him by the Filipino Army, giving up to him and his Army the suburbs and blockhouses which at such great sacrifice to themselves the Filipinos had occupied?

Why should General Otis make such a humiliating condition a prime factor or basis of terms of peace with an Army which stood shoulder to shoulder with the American forces, freely shedding its blood, and whose heroism and courage were extolled by Admiral Dewey and other Americans?

This unexplained conduct of General Otis, so manifestly contrary to the canons of international law and military honour, is eloquent testimony of his deliberate intention to neutralize the effects of Mr. Schurman’s pacific mission.

What peace can be concerted by the roaring of cannon and the whizzing of bullets?Page 56

What is and has been the course of procedure of General Brooke in Cuba? Are not the Cubans still armed, notwithstanding negotiations for the pacification and future government of that Island are still going on?

Are we, perchance, less deserving of liberty and independence than those revolutionists?

Oh, dear Philippines! Blame your wealth, your beauty for the stupendous disgrace that rests upon your faithful sons.

You have aroused the ambition of the Imperialists and Expansionists of North America and both have placed their sharp claws upon your entrails!

Loved mother, sweet mother, we are here to defend your liberty and independence to the death! We do not want war; on the contrary, we wish for peace; but honourable peace, which does not make you blush nor stain your forehead with shame and confusion. And we swear to you and promise that while America with all her power and wealth could possibly vanquish us; killing all of us; but enslave us, never!!!

No; this humiliation is not the compact I celebrated in Singapore with the American Consul Pratt. This was not the agreement stipulated for with Mr. Wildman, American Consul in Hongkong. Finally, it was not the subjection of my beloved country to a new alien yoke that Admiral Dewey promised me.Page 57

It is certain that these three have abandoned me, forgetting that I was sought for and taken from my exile and deportation; forgetting, also, that neither of these three solicited my services in behalf of American Sovereignty, they paying the expense of the Philippine Revolution for which, manifestly, they sought me and brought me back to your beloved bosom!

If there is, as I believe, one God, the root and fountain of all justice and only eternal judge of international disputes, it will not take long, dear mother, to save you from the hands, of your unjust enemies. So I trust in the honour of Admiral Dewey: So I trust in the rectitude of the great people of the United States of America, where, if there are ambitious Imperialists, there are defenders of the humane doctrines of the immortal Monroe, Franklin, and Washington; unless the race of noble citizens, glorious founders of the present greatness of the North American Republic, have so degenerated that their benevolent influence has become subservient to the grasping ambition of the Expansionists, in which latter unfortunate circumstance would not death be preferable to bondage?

Oh, sensible American people! Deep is the admiration of all the Philippine people and of their untrained Army of the courage displayed by your Commanders and soldiers. We are weak in comparison with such Titanic instruments of your Government’s ambitious Caesarian policy and find it difficult to effectively resist their courageous Page 58onslaught. Limited are our warlike resources, but we will continue this unjust, bloody, and unequal struggle, not for the love of war—which we abhor—but to defend our incontrovertible rights of Liberty and Independence (so dearly won in war with Spain) and our territory which is threatened by the ambitions of a party that is trying to subjugate us.

Distressing, indeed, is war! Its ravages cause us horror. Luckless Filipinos succumb in the confusion of combat, leaving behind them mothers, widows and children. America could put up with all the misfortunes she brings on us without discomfort; but what the North American people are not agreeable to is that she should continue sacrificing her sons, causing distress and anguish to mothers, widows and daughters to satisfy the whim of maintaining a war in contravention of their honourable traditions as enunciated by Washington and Jefferson.

Go back, therefore, North American people, to your old-time liberty. Put your hand on your heart and tell me: Would it be pleasant for you if, in the course of time, North America should find herself in the pitiful plight, of a weak and oppressed people and the Philippines, a free and powerful nation, then at war with your oppressors, asked for your aid promising to deliver you from such a weighty yoke, and after defeating her enemy with your aid she set about subjugating you, refusing the promised liberation?Page 59

Civilized nations! Honourable inhabitants of the United States, to whose high and estimable consideration I submit this unpretentious work, herein you have the providential facts which led to the unjust attack upon the existence of the Philippine Republic and the existence of those for whom, though unworthy, God made me the principal guardian.

The veracity of these facts rests upon my word as President of this Republic and on the honour of the whole population of eight million souls, who, for more than three hundred years have been sacrificing the lives and wealth of their brave sons to obtain due recognition of the natural rights of mankind—liberty and independence.

If you will do me the honour to receive and read this work and then pass judgment impartially solemnly declaring on which side right and justice rests, your respectful servant will be eternally grateful.

(Signed) Emilio Aguinaldo. Tarlak, 23rd September, 1899.

1 Many of the American papers reported that the majority was one vote only in excess of the absolutely requisite two-thirds majority.

Index

  • I.—The Revolution of 1896 1
  • II.—The Treaty of Peace of Biak-na-bató 4
  • III.—Negotiations 6
  • IV.—The Revolution of 1898 19
  • V.—The Dictatorial Government 22
  • VI.—The First Triumphs 24
  • VII.—The Philippine Flag 26
  • VIII.—Expedition to Bisayas 28
  • IX.—The Steamer “Compania de Filipinas” 28
  • X.—The Proclamation of Independence 30
  • XI.—The Spanish Commission 32
  • XII.—More American Troops 37
  • XIII.—The 13th August 38
  • XIV.—First Clouds 40
  • XV.—Vain Hopes 42
  • XVI.—The American Commission 44
  • XVII.—Impolitic acts 46
  • XVIII.—The Mixed Commission 50
  • XIX.—Outbreak of Hostilities 51

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		SILENT FILM: Philippine American War – Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan by Thomas A. Edison; 5 June 1899
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				Philippine American War – Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan by Thomas A. Edison; 5 June 1899

From LibraryOfCongress, Washinton D.C.


 


Comment by Mandirigma.org: At the time of this production, film was a brand new medium. This Film by Thomas Edison shows Filipino Freedom Fighters defending their country against  American Invaders. However the director portrays the Filipinos as “Rebels” and the Americans as defenders of “Freedom” and “Liberty” who overcome the “Insurgents”.


 




 


 


SUMMARY

From Edison films catalog: From the thick underbrush where the Filipinos are massed comes volley after volley. They are making one of those determined stands that marks Caloocan as the bloodiest battle of the Filipino rebellion. Suddenly, with impetuous rush, Funston’s men appear. They pause but for a moment, to fire, reload and fire. The color bearer falls, but the standard is caught up by brave Sergeant Squires and waves undaunted in the smoke and din of the receding battle. This is one of the best battle pictures ever made. The first firing is done directly toward the front of the picture, and the advance of the U.S. troops apparently through the screen is very exciting; the gradual disappearance of the fighters sustaining the interest to the end. 65 feet. $9.75.


NOTES

Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 5June1899; 37443.


Original main title lacking.


Reenacted by the New Jersey National Guard.


Materials listed originate from the paper print chosen best copy of two for digitization; for other holdings on this title, contact M/B/RS reference staff.


Edison code name (for telegraphic orders): Unbroached.


MAVIS 47087; Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan.


Reenacted May 1899 in the Orange Mountains near West Orange, New Jersey.


Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Musser, C. Edison motion pictures 1890-1900, 1997; Niver, K.R. Early motion pictures, 1985; Edison films catalog, no. 94, March 1900, p. 4 [MI]; Edison films catalog, no. 105, July 1901, p. 30 [MI].


SUBJECTS

United States.–Army.–Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 20th.

Philippines–History–Philippine American War, 1899-1902–Battlefields.

Battles–Philippines.

Soldiers.

Revolutionaries–Philippines.

Funston, Frederick,–1865-1917–Military leadership.

Battle casualties–Philippines.

Flags–United States.

War films.

Historical reenactments (Motion pictures)

Short films.

Silent films.

Nonfiction films.


RELATED NAMES

White, James H. (James Henry), production.

New Jersey. National Guard.

Thomas A. Edison, Inc.

Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)


CALL NUMBER

FEC 2820 (ref print)

FPE 9628 (dupe neg)

FPE 9135 (masterpos)

LC 973a (paper pos)


DIGITAL ID

sawmp 0973 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/sawmp.0973


 


Philippine American War

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		Katipunero: Simeón Ola y Arboleda -Philippine Revolution Hero and the last General to surrender to American forces during the Philippine-American War
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				backyard eskrima


 


The Paternal Great Grandfather of Mandirigma.orgs’ Guro Dino Flores, Segundo Flores was a Katipunero serving under the

General Simeón Ola y Arboleda in the Bicol Region. Major Simeón Ola y Arboleda was under General Vito Belarmino, the Zone Commander of the Revolutionary Forces in the Bicol Region.


———-


Simeón Ola y Arboleda


Municipal President of Albay, In office 1904–1908


Born: 2 September 1865

Guinobatan, Albay, Philippines

Died : 14 February 1952 (aged 86)

Guinobatan, Albay, Philippines

Organization: Katipunan


Simeón Ola y Arboleda (September 2, 1865 – February 14, 1952) was a hero of the Philippine Revolution and the last general to surrender to American forces during the Philippine-American War.


Biography

Simeon Ola was born on September 2, 1865 to Vicente Ola and Apolonia Arboleda, who were ordinary citizens with little money. He was enrolled in Holy Rosary Minor Seminary and studied Philosophy, but didn’t finish the course. He joined the local branch of the Katipunan in his hometown province of Albay and later became the leader. With the help of a parish priest he was able to acquire arms to support his men. He was promoted to the rank of captain after the battle of Camalig in Albay, 1898 and again promoted to the rank of major after a daring ambush mission that led to the capture of three Americans. He was also the leader of the subsequent valiant attacks on Albay towns namely, Oas, Ligao and Jovellar. He later surrendered on the condition that his men would be granted amnesty. He was put on trial and was proven guilty of sedition and was sentenced to thirty years in prison. In 1904, he was given a pardon and returned to his place of birth and became the municipal president. The regional police command in Legazpi City was name after him.


SIMEON A. OLA

(1865-1952)


Revolutionist


In Guinobatan, Albay hailed Simeon Ola, the man who would lead the Bicolanos fight for

their freedom. He was born on September 2, 1865 to Vicente Ola and Apolonia Arboleda.


Ola was highly regarded in Guinobatan, being the teniente de cuadrillos and a trusted

confidant of Father Carlos Cabido, the parish priest of his town. These positions helped him carry

out his revolutionary works – recruiting men and acquiring firearms for the revolutionary army.

He connived with the jail warden in his town, Sergeant Loame, to free about 93 prisoners. The

prisoners soon joined his army.


In April 1898, he fought in the battle of Camalig. General Vito Belarmino, the Zone

Commander of the Revolutionary Forces in the Bicol Region, designated him the rank of a Captain.

Fully committed to the cause of the revolution, he also raised funds amounting to P42, 000.00,

which he turned over to General Mariano Trias, Secretary of Finance of the Revolutionary

Government.


On January 23, 1900, he was promoted Major after he successfully effected an ambush and

captured three American soldiers: Dubose, Fred Hunter and Russel. In February that same year,

his troops fought against the Americans in Arimbay, Legaspi. His cousin Jose Arboleda perished in

the bloody battle.


American soldiers’ mighty firepower and combat training did not dampen his spirit; he

continued to fight so that his men were encouraged and more men joined his army. With the army

of Colonel Engracio Orence, he fought valiantly in the battle of Binogsacan in Guinobatan, Albay.

His army rested for over a month in July 1901 when he accompanied General Belarmino to Manila.

He resumed his campaign in August by raiding the town of Oas, Albay. On August 12, 1902, he

ambushed the American detachment at Macabugos, Ligao.


Ola became a marked man to the Americans. Although his troops were easily repulsed

during battles, the Americans took him seriously. From March to October 1903, the Americans set

up the reconcentration system as a means to stop Ola’s activities. Because of the damage it caused

even to the innocent civilians, they turned into negotiations. They sent Ramon Santos and Major

Jesse S. Garwood of the Constabulary as emissaries to negotiate for his surrender, which he

politely refused. Instead, he carried on his battle. On July 15, 1903, he ambushed the 31st

Philippine Scout Garrison under the command of Sergeant Nicolas Napoli in Joveliar, Albay.


The persistent effort of the peace panel and his battle weary men made Ola realized that he

could never win the war. He became open to the agreement set by Colonel Harry H. Bandholtz, the

Assistant Commander of the Constabulary in Lucena, Tayabas, for his surrender. The agreement

included general amnesty, fair treatment and justice to his comrades in arms. On September 25,

1903 the negotiating panel composed of Ramon Santos, Eligio Arboleda, Epifanio Orozco, Frank L.

Pyle, John Paegelow, J.B. Allison and Joseph Rogers went to his camp in Malagnaton, Mapaco,

Guinobatan. Eventually, Ola surrendered to Governor Bette and Colonel Bandholtz.


Charged with sedition, Judges Adam Carson and James Blount presided over his case. He

was sentenced of 30 years imprisonment on November 10. 1903. Fortunately, he was granted

executive clemency so he was released from prison on October 8, 1904. In 1910, he entered politics

and won as town mayor of Guinobatan, which he served until 1913. He was again elected to the

same position in 1916. He served the term until 1919.


Simeon Ola died on February 14, 1952 and was interred at the Roman Catholic Cemetery of

Guinobatan.


References:


Agoncillo, Teodoro A. History of the Filipino People. 8th ed. Quezon City: Garotech,  1990.


Eminent Filipinos. Manila: National Historical Commission, 1970.


Quirino, Carlos.  Who’s who in Philippine History.  Manila: Tahanan Books, 1995.


 




Simeón Ola y Arboleda mandirigmaa.org





















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		Emilio Aguinaldo filmed with actor Douglas Fairbanks, Philippines, 1931
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1993
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		Thu, 01 Aug 2013 22:06:27 +0000
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				Emilio Aguinaldo filmed with actor Douglas Fairbanks, Philippines, 1931



In 1931 Douglas Fairbanks went on a trip to Asia, and made a comic travelogue entitled “Around the World in 80 Minutes”. The clip from the Philippines included a short speech in Spanish by Emilio Aguinaldo.


Fairbanks was a movie producer and actor in silent films. He co-founded the American film studio United Artists and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929.


La calidad del audio deja mucho que desear, pero me parece que el Sr. Aguinaldo dijo:

“Os participo de que he dado la bienvenida a nuestro gran actor (?Douglas Fairbanks) de America. Por la misma razón espero que esta visita que nos ha dignado dicho gran actor,(???), estrechará más la armonía entre americanos y filipinos”


Una traducción literal: I have given welcome to our great actor, Douglas Fairbanks, from America. For the same reason, I hope that this visit by this great actor, who has humbled himself to us, will develop greater harmony between Americans and Filipinos.


 


Emilio Aguinaldo and Douglas Fairbanks his Cavite home March 26 1931


 


emilio aginaldo katipunero

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		Sino pumatay kay Antonio Luna? – Philippine TV Show Crime Klasik – Episode #301 – June 8, 2012
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=2036
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		Wed, 24 Jul 2013 04:57:19 +0000
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				Sino pumatay kay Antonio Luna? – Philippine TV Show Crime Klasik – Episode #301 – June 8, 2012



 


 


Isa sa pinakamatapang at pinakamatalinong Heneral na lumaban sa mananakop si General Antonio Luna.

Pero hindi tulad ng ibang bayani, sa kamay raw ng kapwa Pilipino natapos ang kaniyang buhay.

Paano nabago nito ang ating kasaysayan?


 


Was it Aguinaldo who had Antonio Luna killed? Go back in time and know the history of Antonio Luna here in Crime Klasik.


 


More on Crime Klasik: https://www.facebook.com/CrimeKlasik


 


General Antonio Luna


 


Antonio Luna

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		Imprinting Andres Bonifacio: The Iconization from Portrait to Peso by The Malacañan Palace Library
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1815
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		Sun, 09 Jun 2013 19:48:47 +0000
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				Imprinting Andres Bonifacio: The Iconization from Portrait to Peso by The Malacañan Palace Library

 


The face of the Philippine revolution is evasive, just like the freedom that eluded the man known as its leader.




 


The only known photograph of Andres  Bonifacio is housed in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain.  Some say that it was taken during his second wedding to Gregoria de  Jesus in Katipunan ceremonial rites. It is dated 1896 from Chofre y Cia  (precursor to today’s Cacho Hermanos printing firm), a prominent  printing press and pioneer of lithographic printing in the country,  based in Manila. The faded photograph, instead of being a precise  representation of a specific historical figure, instead becomes a kind  of Rorschach test,  liable to conflicting impressions. Does the picture show the President  of the Supreme Council of the Katipunan as a bourgeois everyman with  nondescript, almost forgettable features? Or does it portray a dour  piercing glare perpetually frozen in time, revealing a determined leader  deep in contemplation, whose mind is clouded with thoughts of waging an  armed struggle against a colonial power?


Perhaps a less subjective and more  fruitful avenue for investigation is to compare and contrast this  earliest documented image with those that have referred to it, or even  paid a curious homage to it, by substantially altering his faded  features.




This undated image of Bonifacio offers  the closest resemblance to the Chofre y Cia version. As attested to by  National Scientist Teodoro A. Agoncillo and the National Historical  Commission of the Philippines, it is the image that depicts the  well-known attribution of Bonifacio being of sangley (or Chinese)  descent. While nearly identical in composition with the original, this  second image shows him with a refined–even weak–chin, almond-shaped  eyes, a less defined brow, and even modified hair. The blurring of his  features, perhaps the result of the image being timeworn, offers little  room for interjection.


In contrast, the next image dating from a February 8, 1897 issue of La Ilustración Española y Americana,  a Spanish-American weekly publication, features a heavily altered  representation of Bonifacio at odds with the earlier depiction from  Chofre y Cia.




This modification catered to the  Castilian idea of racial superiority, and to the waning Spanish Empire’s  shock–perhaps even awe?–over what they must have viewed at the time as  indio impudence. Hence the Bonifacio in this engraving is given a more  pronounced set of features–a more prominent, almost ruthless jawline,  deep-set eyes, a heavy, furrowed brow and a proud yet incongruously  vacant stare. Far from the unassuming demeanor previously evidenced,  there is an aura of unshakable, even obstinate, determination  surrounding the revolutionary leader who remained resolute until his  last breath. Notice also that for the first (although it would not be  the last) time, he is formally clad in what appears to be a three-piece  suit with a white bowtie–hardly the dress one would expect, given his  allegedly humble beginnings.


Given its printing, this is arguably the  first depiction of Bonifacio to be circulated en masse. The same image  appeared in Ramon Reyes Lala’s The Philippine Islands, which was published in 1899 by an American publishing house for distribution in the Philippines.




The records of both the Filipinas  Heritage Library and the Lopez Museum reveal a third, separate image of  Bonifacio which appears in the December 7, 1910 issue of El Renacimiento Filipino, a Filipino publication during the early years of the American occupation.


El Renacimiento Filipino portrays an  idealized Bonifacio, taking even greater liberties with the Chofre y Cia  portrait. There is both gentrification and romanticization at work  here. His receding hairline draws attention to his wide forehead–pointing to cultural assumptions  of the time that a broad brow denotes a powerful intellect–and his full  lips are almost pouting. His cheekbones are more prominent and his eyes  are given a curious, lidded, dreamy, even feminine emphasis, imbuing him  with an air of otherworldly reserve–he appears unruffled and somber,  almost languid: more poet than firebrand.


It is difficult to imagine him as the  Bonifacio admired, even idolized, by his countrymen for stirring battle  cries and bold military tactics. He is clothed in a similar fashion to  the La Ilustración Española y Americana portrait: with a  significant deviation that would leave a telltale mark on succeeded  images derived from this one. Gone is the white tie (itself an artistic  assumption when the original image merely hinted at the possibility of  some sort of neckwear), and in its stead, there is a sober black cravat  and even a corsage on the buttonhole of his coat.


Here the transformation of photograph to  engraving takes an even more curious turn; as succeeding  interpretations in turn find reinterpretation at the hands of one artist  in two media; with each interpretation in turn becoming iconic in its  own right.


For it was from contemporary history textbooks such as The Philippine Islands that the future National Artist for Sculpture, Guillermo Tolentino, based his illustration, Filipinos Ilustres, which was completed sometime in 1911. Severino Reyes, upon seeing the image, agreed to have it lithographed and published in Liwayway, of which he was the editor at the time, under the name Grupo de Filipinos Ilustres.




Grouping prominent Filipinos together as  if posing for a formal studio portrait with the Partido Nacionalista  emblem hanging above the group (though other versions do not have the  seal), resonated with the public; the illustration was once a regular  fixture in most homes in the first decades of the twentieth century. A  stern, serious Bonifacio, with wide eyes and a straight nose, is seated  between Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar.


Filipinos Ilustres would inspire other depictions from around the same period–notably, Manuel Artigas’ Andres Bonifacio y el Katipunan.




The Artigas image is decidedly patrician  in both dress and mien, with larger but still almond-shaped eyes but  with a slightly more aquiline nose, complemented by prominent cheekbones  and a defined jaw. Already far-removed from the original, this  gentrified and respectable portrait almost betrays Bonifacio’s class  background and visually thrusts him into the exclusive club of  ilustrados–the reformists who sought change from above instead of  slashing revolution.






The first depiction of Bonifacio on  Philippine banknotes (part of the English series of currency issued by  the Central Bank of the Philippines from 1949 to 1969 and printed by the  British printing company Thomas De La Rue & Co. Ltd.) mirrored both  the Artigas rendition and a sculpture by Ramon Martinez. The  twenty-peso bill had both Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto on the obverse.  On the reverse is a near-photographic depiction of Martinez’ Balintawak  monument, which was unveiled on September 3, 1911. Though he originally  intended to commemorate the fallen heroes of the 1896 Revolution in  general, this soon became the image of one particular man, Bonifacio,  that lingered in the minds of many.




It is almost as if, in the face of  conflicting representations, the engravers of the banknote decided to  avoid controversy by simply depicting both. For here, the gentrified  Bonifacio appears, while the increasingly more iconic–yet ironically not  actual (because the statue was never explicitly intended to portray  Bonifacio)– sculpture is portrayed on the reverse of the banknote.


However, it would be the El Renacimiento Filipino adulteration, despite its provenance, that would be lent credibility  throughout the years with its use in Philippine currency, starting with  banknotes issued under the Pilipino series, in circulation from 1969 to  1973.




The Bagong Lipunan series of President  Ferdinand E. Marcos, which was in circulation from 1973 to 1985, would  follow this design with simple alterations.




This would likewise be featured  alongside the portrait of Apolinario Mabini on the ten-peso bill  released in 1997, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has since  demonetized.




Bonifacio’s image undergoes another  re-imagining altogether in Philippine coinage–following conventions  established, this time in sculpture, by Guillermo Tolentino.


There was, however, a re-ordering of the  hierarchy of heroes. While Rizal was enshrined as the foremost hero by  the construction of the Rizal Monument, the second (in scale and  artistic ambition) grander monument was that of Bonifacio in 1933. In  contrast, there were no monuments dedicated to Emilio Aguinaldo, very  much alive, mired as he was in the partisan politics of the 1920s. The  era of monumentalism for Aguinaldo would begin only in the 1960s, with the transfer of Independence Day to June 12 in 1962,  the renaming of Camp Murphy to Camp Aguinaldo in 1965, and Aguinaldo’s  donation of his mansion to the Filipino People shortly before his death.  President Marcos consciously adopted the Malolos Republic–with its  unicameral legislature and strong presidency– as the historical  antecedent for his regime, inaugurating the Interim Batasan Pambansa on June 12, 1978;  and transferring the start of official terms to June 30 from Rizal Day  (which had been the date since 1941). The looming centennial of the  Proclamation of Independence kept the spotlight on Aguinaldo, and with  it, the promotion of Aguinaldo in the hierarchy of banknotes: formerly  it had been Rizal on the basic unit of currency, the Peso, followed by  Bonifacio on two pesos. With the abolition of the two peso coin,  Bonifacio was reduced in rank, so to speak, to share the ten peso  banknote while Aguinaldo was promoted, so to speak, to the five peso  coin.


In 1983, Emilio Aguinaldo replaced  Bonifacio on the five-peso bill, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas  minted a unique, octagonal two-peso coin featuring Bonifacio. This was  in circulation from 1983 to 1990, re-released in a smaller, circular  form from 1991 to 1994. Bonifacio is more stern and masculine in  profile, with a kerchief knotted around his neck.






The current bimetallic 10-peso coin, first minted in 2000, is similar in design to the 10-peso bill with Bonifacio and Mabini.




The image on the coins is most likely  sourced from the 45-foot tall bronze monument that bears his name in the  City of Caloocan, sculpted by Guillermo Tolentino, who was already  middle-aged by this time–the second time the artist had featured  Bonifacio in his art.




Here, at what was once the entrance to  Manila before the era of the expressway, stands a calm Bonifacio,  dressed in an embroidered Barong Tagalog and knotted kerchief, with a  bolo in one hand, a revolver in the other, surrounded by Jacinto and two  other Katipuneros, symbolizing the Cry of Pugad Lawin.


Tolentino’s work was the culmination of  extensive research and consultations not just with Bonifacio’s living  contemporaries, but also with the occult through seances and  espiritistas. The artist also based his sculpture on Bonifacio’s sister  Espiridiona.


The Bonifacio of Tolentino was done in  the classical sense, expressing almost no emotion–a cool, calculating,  even serene leader in the midst of battle. Napoleon Abueva, a student of  Guillermo Tolentino, offers an alternative interpretation: that  Bonifacio’s quiet dignity and confidence evokes the resilient spirit of  Filipinos.


The monument itself was a purely  Filipino project from start to finish, proposed by Bonifacio’s fellow  revolutionary leader Guillermo Masangkay in the Philippine Legislature,  and funded by Act No. 2760 s. 1918, which also enacted Bonifacio Day as a  national holiday. Inaugurated on Bonifacio’s birthday in November 30,  1933, it presaged the transition to independence.


This is in stark contrast to the  aforementioned Martinez monument in Balintawak, which was transferred to  Vinzons Hall in the University of the Philippines Diliman campus in  1968. Here, a lone figure stands barefoot with his arms outstretched,  mouth open in a silent cry to arms. In one hand, a bolo, in the other,  the flag of the Katipunan. He is clothed in red pants and an unbuttoned  camisa chino.


This image of Bonifacio would endure in  popular consciousness, appearing in even the unlikeliest of places, such  as in cigarette boxes.




National Artist for Painting Carlos V. Francisco seemingly strikes a balance between both renditions in his famous mural Filipino Struggles Through History,  1964. While the fiery revolutionary in camisa chino and rolled-up red  pants resemble the monument that previously stood in Balintawak, he also  holds a bolo and a revolver, reflecting the research undertaken by  Tolentino.


Amidst the bustling environs of  Divisoria in Manila, another side of the President of the Supreme  Council is given prominence–poring over a piece of parchment, here is  the Bonifacio who wrote impassioned manifestos that rallied the masses.  The Katipunan flag waves in the background.




Discrepancies abound even in the  commemorative memorabilia released for the Bonifacio centenary in 1963.  While the Philippine Postal Corporation evoked the defiant Katipunero of  Ramon Martinez’s creation, the BSP chose to follow the serene figure of  Tolentino’s monument. Notice that on the stamps marking Bonifacio’s  Centenary, he is in what is considered the trademark, though hardly  definitive, Katipunero attire; while the coin shows him clad in a suit  and tie.






Commemorative memorabilia were likewise  released for his death centenary in 1997. The stamps would now feature  the various monuments that have been erected to pay tribute to  Bonifacio–the calm Bonifacio of Tolentino’s creation, the fiery  Bonifacio in Martinez’s sculpture and the pensive Bonifacio that stands  in Tutuban.




Written accounts are similarly  inconclusive when it comes to the physical characteristics of  Bonifacio–none of his contemporaries nor the historians who specialized  in the study of the Katipunan are able to provide a concrete description  of Bonifacio.


Through the multiple visualizations and  renditions of Bonifacio, we may never truly know how he looked. But  revolutions are waged not by faces–rather, by the faceless hundreds and  thousands who took up arms with the notable and the noted. In death, a  definitive image of Bonifacio remains elusive, which presents a  concluding irony: that the man unfortunate in battle, achieved his true  glory not through the sword, but the pen, through the manifestos and  letters that ignited revolutionary ardor, sustaining the revolution in  times of adversity, and, regardless of the eventual means for achieving  independence, lives on in the hearts and minds of every Filipino who has  read the words of Maypagasa–Bonifacio’s nom-de-guerre, which  encapsulated in one word, what he himself sought to represent and  inspire in his countrymen.


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


Source: http://malacanang.gov.ph/2942-imprinting-andres-bonifacio-the-iconization-from-portrait-to-peso/

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		Origin of the Symbols of the Philippine National Flag  by The Malacañan Palace Library
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		Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:59:24 +0000
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				Origin of the Symbols of the Philippine National Flag by The Malacañan Palace Library

Aside from the Masonic influence on the Katipunan, the design of the  Philippine flag has roots in the flag family to which it belongs—that of  the last group of colonies that sought independence from the Spanish Empire at  the close of the 19th century, a group to which the Philippines belongs.  The Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning  Office traces the origins of the Philippine flag’s design elements,  which have been in use since General Emilio Aguinaldo first conceived  them—the stars and stripes; the red, white, and blue; the masonic  triangle; and the sun—and have endured since.


Source: http://malacanang.gov.ph/3846-origin-of-the-symbols-of-our-national-flag/


 


dino flores pinoy flag kali kalis eskrima escrima arnis fma ilustrisimo lameco ricketts sulite luzon visayas mindanao pinoy flag kali kalis eskrima escrima arnis fma ilustrisimo lameco ricketts sulite luzon visayas mindanao pinoy flag kali kalis eskrima escrima arnis fma ilustrisimo lameco ricketts sulite luzon visayas mindanao


 

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		Pre-Standardized Philippine Flag by Ambeth R. Ocampo
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1965
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		Fri, 17 May 2013 03:17:31 +0000
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Philippine Revolution Sun




Before the Philippine flag was standardized into the form we know today, the sun had a human face and eight rays that differed depending on who made it. The sun in the flag also appeared as: seals, stamps, and logos on official communications. I’m not sure if this is a stamp for postage, revenue, or documentary tax.



Ambeth R. Ocampo

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		Movie: Supremo (2012), Andres Bonifacio as husband, brother, soldier and hero
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1703
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		Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:55:30 +0000
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About

Andres Bonifacio’s Biopic


Description

Andres Bonifacio as husband, brother, soldier and hero


Release date


August 2012


Genre


Epic Drama


Studio


Alternative Vision Cinema and Strawdogs Studio Productions


Plot outline


Manila, year 1896. The cry for independence from the tyranny of Spain peals louder than ever. Andres Bonifacio, leader of the rebel movement the Katipunan, leads his men to war. Though ill-equipped and untried in the field of battle, the Katipuneros launch an offensive against a vastly superior Spanish military.


What follows is a series of events that will test the nation’s brave sons, and an aftermath that will separate the genuine patriots from mere participants.


Starring


Alfred Vargas, Mon Confiado, Nicco Manalo, Alex Vincent Medina, Edmon Romawac, Shielbert Manuel, Lehner Mendoza, Manu Respall, Jeff Fernandez, Banjo Romero, Alex Cabodil, Nica Naval and Hermie Concepcion


Directed by


Richard V. Somes


Written By


Jimmy Flores


Produced by


PM Vargas, Alfred Vargas, Riza Montelibano, Mai Montelibano and Ellen Ilagan


 


Supremo (2012) Full Trailer


Director: Richard V. Somes


Starring:

Alfred Vargas


Mon Confiado

Hermie Concepcion

Nicco Manalo

Alex Vincent Medina

Nica Naval

Edmon Romawag

Shielbert Manuel

Lehner Mendoza

Jeff Fernandez

Banjo Romero

Mano Respall

Alex Cabodil


Production Manager: Darryl De la Cruz

Sound Engineer Jedd Chriss Dumaguina

Musical Scorer: Von De Guzman

Editors: Carlo Francisco Manatad + Joris Fernandez

Director of Photography: Alex Espartero

Production Designers: Erin John Martir + Adrian Torres

Screenplay: Jimmy Flores

Associate Producer: Ellen Ilagan + Maimai Montelibano

Line Producer: Riza Montelibano

Executive Producers: PM Vargas + Alfred Vargas


 


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Supremo/407515249292352


 


 


supremo movie 2012 katipunan pilipinas supremo movie 2012 katipunan pilipinas supremo movie 2012 katipunan pilipinas supremo movie 2012 katipunan pilipinas supremo movie 2012 katipunan pilipinas supremo movie 2012 katipunan pilipinas

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		BOOK: Color Photos Of America’s New Possessions by  F. Tennyson Neely (1899)
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1284
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		Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:31:51 +0000
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				kali lameco eskrima lameco eskrima mandirigma.org kali lameco eskrima lameco eskrima mandirigma.org







Color Photos Of America’s New Possessions by  F. Tennyson Neely (1899)


Collection of color photographs of the Spanish – American War military actions in the Philippines.




Many of these photographs are not found in any other books!


 


Read it online at The Library of Congress .


http://www.archive.org/stream/neelyscolorphoto00newy#page/n0/mode/2up


http://www.archive.org/details/neelyscolorphoto00newy


 




 




 





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		BOOK: FOUNDERS OF FREEDOM, The History of the Three Philippine Constitutions (1971)
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1280
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		Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:20:45 +0000
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Description: The  book tells the history of struggle for freedom in the Philippines, from  the first massive filipino alliance against Spain during the 16th  century, to the Philippine Revolution, to the founding of the Philippine  republic, and the succession of Presidents up to the time of President  Marcos. Its a book that conditions citizens to the framing of the new  Constitution in 1972. In the introduction  reads: “Seventy-Three years ago, on 12 June 1898, General Emilio  Aguinaldo, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Revolution, declared  the independence of the Philippines at Kawit”.


Writers: Vicente  Albano Pacis, Dr. Jose M. Aruego, Esteban De Ocampo, Carlos Quirino,  Jose Luna Castro, Mauro Garcia, Isidro L. Retizos, D.H. Soriano


Publisher: Elena Hollman Roces Foundation, Inc


 




 




 




 


kali arnis eskrima kali arnis eskrima kali arnis eskrima kali arnis eskrima kali arnis eskrima kali arnis eskrima kali arnis eskrima

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		BOOK: Memories of the Philippine Revolution  Apolinario Mabini (1963)
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1277
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		Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:10:11 +0000
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 www.mandirigma.org lameco lameco lameco
















Memories of the Philippine Revolution  Apolinario Mabini (1963)















Description: Apolinario Mabini’s biographical work about the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Text in Spanish.


Publisher: Bureau of Public Printing-Manila. 1963


Author: Apolinario Mabini


Pages: 254
































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		Book: Photographs from Harper’s History of the War in the Philippines
		https://mandirigma.org/?p=1196
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		Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:41:33 +0000
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Harper’s

History of the War in the Philippines


 


 Edited by


 Marrion Wilcox


  Harper and Brothers, New York, 1900, first edition.

Light brown cloth hard covers with red leather label on spine, gilt  titles, large folio, 472pp, profusely illustrated with b&w  photographs,  many full-page color plates (chromolithographs), fold-out  plate, maps


A detailed and richly illustrated account of the background history and military campaigns of the War.


The volume includes a listing of all the US soldiers by rank.


Among the color  plates is an illustration  General Lawton by Frederic Remington.


 


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Ilustrisimo Lameco Arnis Eskrima Kali


 


Ilustrisimo Lameco Arnis Eskrima Kali


 


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Ilustrisimo Lameco Arnis Eskrima Kali





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		Apolinario ‘Lumpo’ Mabini y Maranan – Conscience  of the Philippine Revolution (July 23, 1864 — May 13, 1903)
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		Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:16:56 +0000
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				kali arnis eskrima escrima philippines kali arnis eskrima escrima philippines


Apolinario Mabini


Hero of the Philippine Revolution 


Conscience  of the Philippine Revolution

the Sublime Paralytic

key adviser of Emilio Aguinaldo

proposed the first constitution of the Philippine Republic

born July 22, 1864 Barrio Talaga, Tanawan Batangas to Inocencio Mabini, Dionisia Maranan

died May 13, 1903


It was immediately before the proclamation of independence that a young man was brought before Aguinaldo as his adviser. He was Apolinario Mabini. Born of very poor parents, Inocencio Mabini and Dionisia Maranan, in Talaga, Tanawan, Batangas. Mabini studied in a school in Tanawan, then conducted by a certain Simplicio Avelino. Much later, he transferred to a school conducted by the famous pedagogue, Father Valerio Malabanan. He continued his studies at the San Juan de Letran and at the University of Sto. Tomas where he received his law degree in 1894.


His dream to defend the poor led him to forsake the priesthood, which his mother wanted him to take. Early in 1896, he contracted an illness, probably infantile paralysis, that led to the paralysis of his lower limbs. When the revolution broke out the same year, the Spanish authorities, suspecting that he was somehow involved in the disturbance, arrested him. The fact, however, that he could not move his lower limbs showed the Spaniards that they had made a mistake. He was released and sent to the San Juan de Dios Hospital.


Mabini, it must be noted, was not entirely free from nationalistic association, for he was a member of Rizal’s La Liga Filipina and worked secretly for the introduction of reforms in the administration of government. In 1898, while vacationing in Los Baños, Aguinaldo sent for him. It took hundreds of men taking turns at carrying the hammock he was in to bring Mabini to Kawit. Aguinaldo, upon seeing Mabini’s physical condition, thought that he must have made a mistake in calling for him to help him in his work. What could a man in such a condition do to help him?


But when Mabini spoke, Aguinaldo’s doubts vanished. There was firmness in the sick man’s voice, and Aguinaldo decided to make him his trusted adviser. From then on, it was Mabini who stood behind Aguinaldo. Envious enemies called him the “Dark Chamber of the President”, but his admirers called him the “Brains of the Revolution”.


History of the Filipino People. Teodoro A. Agoncillo


 


—


Apolinario Mabini


Born of a poor family, Apolinario Mabini was always studious. He was always sad and silent and liked to sit alone to meditate.


Mabini studied at San Juan de Letran where he got his Bachelor of Arts degree and Professor of Latin. He also finished Law. He was a spokesman of the Congress, and a notary public.


In early 1896, he contracted a severe fever which paralyzed him for the rest of his life. He was later called the Sublime Paralytic.


Mabini was most active in the revolution in 1898, when he became the chief adviser of Gen. Aguinaldo during the revolution. He drafted decrees and proposed a constitution for the Philippine Republic. He made the plans for the revolutionary government.


In 1899, he was captured by the Americans but was later set free. In 1901, he was exiled to Guam but returned to the Philippines in 1903 after agreeing to take an oath of allegiance to the US. He took his oath on February 26, 1903 before the Collector of Customs.


On May 13, 1903, he died of cholera in Manila.


Excerpts from Talambuhay ng mga Bayani by Rene Alba


 


—


Apolinario ‘Lumpo’ Mabini y Maranan (July 23, 1864 — May 13, 1903)


Apolinario ‘Lumpo’ Mabini y Maranan (July 23, 1864 — May 13, 1903) was a Filipino political philosopher and revolutionary who wrote a constitutional plan for the first Philippine republic of 1899-1901, and served as its first prime minister in 1899. In Philippine history texts, he is often referred to as “the Sublime Paralytic”, and as “the Brains of the Revolution.” To his enemies and detractors, he is referred to as the “Dark Chamber of the President.”


 


Early life of Apolinario Mabini


Mabini was born on July 23, 1864 in Barangay Talaga in Tanauan, Batangas. He was the second of eight children of Dionisia Maranan, a vendor in the Tanauan market, and Inocencio Mabini, an unlettered peasant.


Mabini began informal studies under his maternal grandfather, who was the village teacher. Because he demonstrated uncommon intelligence, he was transferred to a regular school owned by Simplicio Avelino, where he worked as a houseboy, and also took odd jobs from a local tailor – all in exchange for free board and lodging. He later transferred to a school conducted by the Fray Valerio Malabanan, whose fame as an educator merited a mention in José Rizal’s novel El Filibusterismo.


In 1881 Mabini received a scholarship to go to the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. An anecdote about his stay there says that a professor there decided to pick on him because his shabby clothing clearly showed he was poor. Mabini amazed the professor by answering a series of very difficult questions with ease. His studies at Letran were periodically interrupted by a chronic lack of funds, and he earned money for his board and lodging by teaching children.


Mabini’s mother had wanted him to take up the priesthood, but his desire to defend the poor made him decide to take up Law instead. A year after receiving his Bachilles en Artes with highest honors and the title Professor of Latin from Letran, he moved on to the University of Santo Tomas, where he received his law degree in 1894.


The 1896 Revolution


Believing that the Reform Movement still had a chance to achieve success, Mabini did not immediately support the revolution of 1896. When José Rizal was executed in December that year, however, he changed his mind and gave the revolution his wholehearted support.


In 1898, while vacationing in Los Baños, Laguna, Emilio Aguinaldo sent for him. It took hundreds of men taking turns carrying his hammock to portage Mabini to Kawit. Aguinaldo, upon seeing Mabini’s physical condition, must have entertained second thoughts in calling for his help.


Mabini was most active in the revolution in 1898, when he served as the chief adviser for General Aguinaldo. He drafted decrees and crafted the first ever constitution in Asia for the First Philippine Republic, including the framework of the revolutionary government which was implemented in Malolos in 1899.


Later life and death


He also joined the fraternity of Freemasonry.


On December 10, 1899, he was captured by Americans at Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, but was later set free. In 1901, he was exiled to Guam, along with scores of revolutionists Americans referred to as ‘insurrectos’ and who refused to swear fealty to imperialist America. When Brig. Gen. Arthur C. MacArthur, Jr. was asked to explain by the US Senate why Mabini had to be explained, the following was cabled:


“     Mabini deported: a most active agitator; persistently and defiantly refusing amnesty, and maintaining correspondence with insurgents in the field while living in Manila, Luzon…     ”


Mabini returned home to the Philippines in 1903 after agreeing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States on February 26, 1903 before the Collector of Customs. On the day he sailed, he issued this statement to the press:


“     After two long years I am returning, so to speak, completely disoriented and, what is worse, almost overcome by disease and sufferings. Nevertheless, I hope, after some time of rest and study, still to be of some use, unless I have returned to the Islands for the sole purpose of dying.      ”


To the chagrin of the American colonial officials, however, Mabini resumed his patriotic work of agitating for independence for the Philippines soon after he was back home from exile. On May 13, 1903 Mabini died of cholera in Manila, at the age of 38.


 


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		Katipunero: Emilio Jacinto. The “Brains of the Katipunan.” (15 December 1875 – 16 April 1899).
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http://www.trueknowledge.com/images/thumbs/180/250/Emilio_jacinto_PG.jpg


Katipunero: Emilio Jacinto. Revolutionary and writer.


 


Emilio Jacinto y Dizon was considered as one of the greatest military genius during his time. He was very close to Andres Bonifacio. Like Bonifacio, Emilio also comes from a poor family. He was born in Trozo, Manila on December 15,1875. His parents were Mariano Jacinto and Josefa Dizon.


Despite being orphaned, he managed to send himself to Colegio de San Juan de Letran. He was also able to study law at the University of Santo Tomas although he was not able to finish it because his Spanish classmates often abused him.


Emilio was only 19 when he joined the Katipunan. He was known as the brains of the Katipunan when it comes to military matters. His book entitled Kartilya was the one used by the Katipuneros as their guide in fighting the Spanish colonizers. It contained the constitution and by-laws ofthe Katipunan.


Reading books was one of Emilio’s greatest passions. One of his favorite books was the one about the French Revolution. He also has in his collection a book on how to make gunpowder and dynamite. He also learned quite a few things about the art of war, military strategies and ways of making weapons of war.


—


Emilio Jacinto – Utak ng Katipunan


Si Emilio Jacinto ay anak nila Mariano Jacinto at Josefa Dizon. Namatay agad ang kanyang ama ilang sandali lamang matapos na siya ay isilang na nagtulak sa kanyang ina na ipaampon si Emilio sa kanyang tiyuhin na si Don Jose Dizon upang magkaroon ng magandang buhay.


Si Emilio ay bihasa sa pagsasalita ng Tagalog at Kastila pero mas gusto niya ang Kastila. Siya ay nag-aral sa Kolehiyo ng San Juan de Letran at nang maglaon ay lumipat sa Pamantasan ng Sto. Tomas para mag-aral ng batas. Hindi niya natapos ang kurso at sa edad na 20 ay sumapi siya sa isang sikretong samahan na ang pangalan ay Katipunan.


Nang mamatay si Bonifacio, ipinagpatuloy ni Jacinto ang paglaban sa mga Kastila bagamat hindi siya sumali sa puwersa ni Aguinaldo. Namatay si Emilio Jacinto sa sakit na malaria noong Abril 16, 1899 sa Majayjay, Laguna sa edad na 23.


Dr. Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. Del Pilar inspired him to be a good writer during his time. He used Dimes Haw as his pen name. He also wrote A la Patria, which he based from Dr. Jose Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios.


He was seriously injured in one bloody encounter that resulted to his death on April 16,1899 in Majayjay, Laguna at a young age of 24.


http://www.freewebs.com/philippineamericanwar/Emilio%20Jacintp%20dies%20better%20pic.jpg


 


Known  as the “Brains of the Katipunan”, Emilio Jacinto was born in Trozo,  Tondo, Manila, on Dec 15,1875. He was the son of Mariano Jacinto and  Josefa Dizon. He was fluent in both Spanish and Tagalog, but he spoke  more in Spanish. He studied in the Universidad de Santo Tomas, but did not finish college and at 20 joined the Katipunan.  Because he was very brilliant, he became the advisor on fiscal matters  and secretary to Andres Bonifacio. He also edited and wrote for the  Katipunan newspaper “Kalayaan”–Freedom in Tagalog. He wrote in the newspaper under the pen name Dimasilaw, and in the Katipunan he was called Pingkian. Emilio Jacinto was the author of the Kartilya ng Katipunan. After Andres Bonifacio’s death, he continued fighting the Spaniards.


http://www.panix.com/~clay/currency/PH-137d.jpg


 


 


http://images.cliofilipinas.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/SShDcAoKCpEAABH2iD81/pic55.jpg?et=qdYO98R62qps9v4Kz2Pl6Q&nmid=0


The appointment paper of Emilio Jacinto as commander-in-chief of the revolutionary forces north of Manila,  signed by Andres Bonifacio as “Pangulo ng Haring Bayang Katagalugan.”  The letterhead cites Bonifacio as having founded the Katipunan and  initiated the revolution. (ENE Collection)


 

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		Film: Watawat. Movie recalls the creation of the Philippine flag. Philippines -2010
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		Tue, 31 May 2011 18:38:12 +0000
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				kali, arnis, eskrima, escrima, guro dino


 


Watawat  recalls the creation of the Philippine flag


Also entered were actors James Blanco Carlos Morales and the appropriate-produced films.  And not just ordinary this movie in terms of genre because it is a period movie titled Flag.


Aside from being executive producers Carlos and James Flag, they also perform in the film as the Philippine national heroes.  General Emilio Carlos plays Aguinaldao, while James also plays the role of Andres Bonifacio.


From Ghalaxy  Cinecilio Pictures and Film Productions, the film said the film debut of  first-time director Dave Cecilio and two of them Deo Divinagracia the  creation of stories.


Features in this period film about the creation of the Philippine flag and how it became part of Philippine history.  The other cast members of film were Chin-Chin Gutierrez, FAMAS awardee, Mercedes Cabral, Kisza Divinagracia.  Those three women performing naghabi of the first flag of the Philippines.


Among the cast as well as the flag were Monsour del Rosario, Justin Cuyugan, Mosang, Dan Fernnadez, Angie  Ferro, Nathan Lopez, Maricar Madrid, Mara Lopez, Gigi Pirote, Dick  Lindayag, Herminia Concpecion, and Fria Rivas.


On December 12, 2009 had a trial screening at the University of the Philippines Baguio.  Although the film is still raw pina preview it there, as requested.


January 2010 now officially start actually present at screenings and walks of people in the movie production.   Among the schools and universities is the Baguio Colleges Foundation,  University of Baguio, UP Baguio, University of Cordillera, STI College,  Colleges Data Center, St.  Louis University, etc..


If you can not change the schedule, the target is screening this  January 15-21 in Olongapo City area and also OCNHS Like the fourteen  (14) public elementary and high schools in Sta.Rita and Subic, etc.  Theater SUMVAC held it in Subic Freeport Zone.


In February, it also targets to tour Bohol and Nueva Ecija, in March in  Cebu and Davao and international screenings also plans soon.


Synopsis: This is a journey in the past.  The Flag (Flag) is pagsasapelikula a part in the history of the Philippines at the time  made ​​the symbol of freedom for the declaration of the First Republic  the country.


Symbol generated in an effort by Doña Marcela Agoncillo (Chin Chin  Gutierrez) based on the request of General Emilio Aguinaldo (Carlos  Morales) to create colors.  They did it while they live in Hong Kong was caused by the occupation of Spain.


There are five days Mrs. Marcela hinahabi also the standard, a partner  with his son Enchang (Kisza Divinagracia) and Delfina Natividad  (Mercedes Cabral).   Obrang generated here represent a shape, color, and the image of  courage and truth behind the efforts to achieve a desired freedom.


Source of multicolor colors.  Red, blue, black white and yellow.


Taut the outbreak of the Association was against the repressive foreigners.  Became the leader of the revolt were Dagohoy and Diego Silang until developed by Andres Bonifacio (James Blanco) the Katipunan.  Also resulted in agreement by Aguinaldo Pakto of Biak-na-Bato the

revolution.  The eight rays of the sun in eight provinces also felt the first revolt.


In Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898 was a historic wave of the official flag of the First Republic.  This occurred in the middle window of the home of General Aguinaldo.


It became the day of full independence.  But more followed this revolution against the Spaniards, Americans and other war since switching Dr.  Jose Rizal and the Supremo.


Many of the historical truth and reveal it tumutulay present.  Mute-witness piece of cloth on real events and was even now.


Thy banner will continue to shine while gentle people continued to acknowledge its importance.


Production staff: Story by Deo Divinagracia and Dave Cecilio

Director of Photography: Marvin Reyes

Music by Miguel Cortez

Wild Sound Sound by AMI

Edited by Thop Nazarene, wardrobe by Ronnie Martinez

Assistant Directors were Danseco Cicero, Deo Divinagracia, Edmund Mijares, Alex Brin, Ricci Rono, and Carlos Morales.

Production Manager: Christopher Manabal,

Assistant Production Managers: Kemuel Nini Santos Cruz

Executive Producers: Carlos Morales and James Blanco


DIRECTOR’S PROFILE: The Director Dave Cecilio was born in Paranas, Samar on March 6, 1972.  Native of Bacoor, Cavite City, he was a child and Nora by Cecilio Cecilio Domingo.


Among his professional qualifications are as follows: Filmmaker and  Writer at the International Academy of Film & Television, Big Foot  Entertainment, Hollywood Boulevard (Mactan Lapu-lapu City, Cebu).


He was also a TV commercial director, worked at the International Institute for Film & Arts (IIFA) in Makati City.   He was also a registered nurse, became a product specialist, former  teacher and professioanal medical representative, gained him many  kunsaan honor in this field.


Among its basic video editing skills, being creative art director,  choreographer, digital graphic artist, visual designer and event  hosting.


 


 


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Watch the Movie Trailer:



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		Film: Amigo (2010)
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		Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:32:37 +0000
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				dino flores kali arnis eskrima ilustrisimo lameco


Movie: Amigo (2010)


Amigo is a 2010 American drama film written and directed by John Sayles.

The film takes place in the Philippines in 1900 during the Philippine–American War. It is one of only a small handful of films directed by an American to address the war.


Plot

Amigo centers on Rafael Dacanay, cabeza of the barrio of San Isidro in a rice-growing area of Luzon. His brother Simón, head of the local guerilla band, has forced the surrender of the Spanish guardia civil outpost and charged Rafael with the task of imprisoning the guardia Captain and the barrio’s Spanish friar, Padre Hidalgo, in the name of the revolutionary government. But when the American troops chasing General Aguinaldo arrive, the Spanish officer and Padre Hidalgo are freed, and a garrison under the command of Lieutenant Ike Compton is left to ‘protect’ the barrio. The American occupation policy now changes from ‘hearts and minds’ to ‘concentration’ (what was called ‘hamletting’ during the Vietnam war) and Rafael has to answer to both the Americans and the Filipino patriots, with deadly consequences.


Cast


•    Chris Cooper as Col. Hardacre

•    Garret Dillahunt as Lt. Compton

•    DJ Qualls as Zeke

•    Yul Vàzquez as Padre Hidalgo

•    Joel Torre as Rafael

•    Lucas Neff as Shanker

•    James Parks as Sgt. Runnels

•    Dane DeHaan as Gill

•    Stephen Taylor as Pvt. Bates

•    Rio Locsin as Corazon

•    Jemi Paretas as Zuniga

•    Bill Tangradi as Dutch

•    Bembol Roco as Policarpio

•    Ronnie Lazaro as Simon

•    Irma Adlawan as Josefa


Press


Cinematical reports that the film was once titled Baryo, and that the idea for it came from a yet-to-be-published novel Some Time in the Sun, detailing U.S. imperialism in the Philippines. The book will actually be called A Moment in the Sun, though the unrealized screenplay which inspired it was called Some Time in the Sun.


Distribution


Amigo will show on September 14 at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. It will also screen at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.

In North America, the film will be released on August 20, 2011 by Variance Films.


From Wikipedia


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dino flores kali arnis eskrima kali ilustrisimo lameco eskrima

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		Katipunan General Gregorio del Pilar, (1875-1899) – One of the youngest Generals in the Philippine Revolutionary Forces
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		Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:49:02 +0000
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				arnis eskrima escrima


Gregorio del Pilar


November 14, 1875(1875-11-14) – December 2, 1899(1899-12-02) (aged 24)


Nickname:”Goyong”, “Boy General”

Place of birth: Bulacan, Bulacan, Philippines

Place of death: Tirad Pass, Ilocos Sur, Philippines

Allegiance:  First Philippine Republic

Service/Branch: Philippine Revolutionary Army

Battles/Wars: Philippine Revolution, Philippine-American War

Battle of Quingua, Battle of Tirad Pass


Gregorio del Pilar y Sempio (November 14, 1875—December 2, 1899) was one of the youngest generals in the Philippine Revolutionary Forces during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. He is most known for his role and death at the Battle of Tirad Pass. Because of his youth, he was called the “Boy General.”


Early life and education


Born on November 14, 1875 to Fernando H. del Pilar and Felipa Sempio of Bulacan, Bulacan, del Pilar was the nephew of propagandist Marcelo H. del Pilar and Toribio H. del Pilar, who was exiled to Guam for his involvement in the 1872 Cavite Mutiny.


“Goryo”, as he was casually known, studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 1896, at the age of 20. When the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule broke out in August under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, del Pilar joined the insurgency. He distinguished himself as a field commander while fighting Spanish garrisons in Bulacan.


Military career


He later joined General Emilio Aguinaldo, who had gained control of the movement, in Hong Kong after the truce at Biak-na-Bato. During the Spanish American War, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines and established the government of the First Philippine Republic. He appointed del Pilar section leader of the revolutionary forces in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. On June 1, del Pilar landed in Bulacan with rifles purchased in Hong Kong, quickly laying siege on the Spanish forces in the province. When the Spaniards surrendered to del Pilar, he brought his men to Caloocan, Manila to support the other troops battling the Spaniards there.


When the Philippine-American War broke-out on February 1899, del Pilar led his troops to a short victory over Major Franklin Bell in the first phase of the Battle of Quingua on April 23, 1899, in which his forces repelled a cavalry charge and killed the highly respected Colonel John M. Stotsenburg,[1] after whom Clark Air Base was originally named (Fort Stotsenburg).[2]


Death


Gregorio del Pilar circa 1899

Main article: Battle of Tirad Pass


On December 2, 1899, del Pilar led 60 Filipino soldiers of Aguinaldo’s rear guard in the Battle of Tirad Pass against the “Texas Regiment”, the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the United States led by Peyton C. March. A delaying action to cover Aguinaldo’s retreat, the five-hour standoff resulted in Del Pilar’s death due to a shot to the neck (at the height or end of the fighting, depending on eyewitness accounts). Del Pilar’s body was later despoiled and looted by the victorious American soldiers.


Del Pilar’s body lay unburied for days, exposed to the elements. While retracing the trail, an American officer, Lt. Dennis P. Quinlan, gave the body a traditional U.S. military burial. Upon del Pilar’s tombstone, Quinlan inscribed, “An Officer and a Gentleman”.


In 1930, del Pilar’s body was exhumed and was identified by the gold tooth and braces he had installed while in exile in Hong Kong.


Documentary


His life was shown in the Philippine TV news show Case Unclosed as its 13th episode.


Memorials


* Fort Del Pilar, home of the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio, is named after him.

* In 1944, the Japanese-sponsored Philippine republic of President Jose P. Laurel issued the Tirad Pass Medal commemorating the battle and del Pilar’s sacrifice. A bust of General del Pilar occupies the center of the obverse (front) side of the medal. The Tirad Pass Medal was the only award issued to recognize service to the Laurel government during the Japanese occupation.

* In 1955, the municipality of Concepcion in Ilocos Sur was renamed in his honor.

* In 1995, his life was featured in the movie “Tirad Pass: The Last Stand of General Gregorio del Pilar” starring Romnick Sarmienta.


From Wikipedia


mandirigma research organization arnis
Gregorio del Pilar and Other Filipino army officers probably in Bacolor, Pampanga 1898.


General Gregorio del Pilar on Horseback.
General Gregorio del Pilar on Horseback.

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		Macario Sakay: Tulisán or Patriot? by Paul Flores
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		Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:14:39 +0000
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				Macario Sakay: Tulisán or Patriot?

by Paul Flores

© 1996 by Paul Flores and PHGLA

All rights reserved


Contrary to popular belief, Philippine resistance to American rule did not end with the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo in 1901. There were numerous resistance forces fighting for Philippine independence until the year 1910. One of these forces was led by Macario Sakay who established the Tagalog Republic.

Born in 1870 in Tondo, Macario Sakay had a working-class background. He started out as an apprentice in a calesa manufacturing shop. He was also a tailor, a barber, and an actor in comedias and moro-moros. His participation in Tagalog dramas exposed him to the world of love, courage, and discipline.

In 1894, Sakay joined the Dapitan, Manila branch of the Katipunan. Due to his exemplary work, he became head of the branch. His nightly activities as an actor in comedias camouflaged his involvement with the Katipunan. Sakay assisted in the operation of the Katipunan press. During the early days of the Katipunan, Sakay worked with Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. He fought side by side with Bonifacio in the hills of Morong (now Rizal) Province.

During the initial stages of the Filipino-American war, Sakay was jailed for his seditious activities. He had been caught forming several Katipunan chapters and preaching its ideals from town to town.


Republika ng Katagalugan

Released in 1902 as the result of an amnesty, Sakay established with a group of other Katipuneros the Republika ng Katagalugan in the mountains of Southern Luzon.


Sakay held the presidency and was also called “Generalisimo.” Francisco Carreon was the vice-president and handled Sakay’s correspondence. Julian Montalan was the overall supervisor for military operations. Cornelio Felizardo took charge of the northern part of Cavite (Pasay-Bacoor) while Lucio de Vega controlled the rest of the province. Aniceto Oruga operated in the lake towns of Batangas. Leon Villafuerte headed Bulacan while Benito Natividad patrolled Tanauan, Batangas.


In April 1904, Sakay issued a manifesto stating that the Filipinos had a fundamental right to fight for Philippine independence. The American occupiers had already made support for independence, even through words, a crime. Sakay also declared that they were true revolutionaries and had their own constitution and an established government. They also had a flag. There were several other revolutionary manifestos written by the Tagalog Republic that would tend to disprove the U.S. government’s claim that they were bandits.


The Tagalog Republic’s constitution was largely based on the early Katipunan creed of Bonifacio. For Sakay, the new Katipunan was simply a continuation of Bonifacio’s revolutionary struggle for independence.


Guerilla tactics

In late 1904, Sakay and his men took military offensive against the enemy. They were successful in seizing ammunition and firearms in their raids in Cavite and Batangas. Disguised in Philippine Constabulary uniforms, they captured the U.S. military garrison in Parañaque and ran away with a large amount of revolvers, carbines, and ammunition. Sakay’s men often employed these uniforms to confuse the enemy.


Using guerrilla warfare, Sakay would look for a chance to use a large number of his men against a small band of the enemy. They usually attacked at night when most of the enemy was looking for relaxation. Sakay severely punished and often liquidated suspected collaborators.


The Tagalog Republic enjoyed the support of the Filipino masses in the areas of Morong, Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite. Lower class people and those living in barrios contributed food, money, and other supplies to the movement. The people also helped Sakay’s men evade military checkpoints. They collected information on the whereabouts of the American troops and passed them on. Muchachos working for the Americans stole ammunition and guns for the use of Sakay’s men.


Unable to suppress the growth of the Tagalog Republic, the Philippine Constabulary and the U.S. Army started to employ “hamletting” or reconcentration in areas where Sakay received strong assistance. The towns of Taal, Tanauan, Santo Tomas, and Nasugbu in the province of Batangas were reconcentrated. This cruel but effective counter-insurgency technique proved disastrous for the Filipino masses. The forced movement and reconcentration of a large number of people caused the outbreak of diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Food was scarce in the camps, resulting in numerous deaths.


Meanwhile, search and destroy missions operated relentlessly in an attempt to suppress Sakay’s forces. Muslims from Jolo were brought in to fight the guerrillas. Bloodhounds from California were imported to pursue them. The writ of habeas corpus was suspended in Cavite and Batangas to strengthen counter-insurgency efforts. With support cut off, the continuous American military offensive caused the Tagalog Republic to weaken.


Fall of Sakay

While all of these were going on, the American leader of the Philippine Constabulary, Col. Harry H. Bandholtz, conceived a plan to deceive Sakay and his men. He would later be quoted as saying that the technique involved “playing upon the emotional and sentimental part of the Filipino character.”


In mid-1905, the American governor-general of the Philippines, Henry Ide, sent an ilustrado named Dominador Gomez to talk to Sakay. Gomez presented a letter from the American governor. The written statement promised that if Sakay surrendered, he and his men wouldn’t be punished or jailed. Moreover, Gomez assured Sakay that a Philippine Assembly comprising of Filipinos will be formed to serve as the “gate of kalayaan.”


Sakay took the bait, went down from the mountains, and surrendered on July 14, 1906.


On July 17, Sakay and his staff were invited to attend a dance hosted by the acting governor of Cavite. Just before midnight, they were surrounded, disarmed, and arrested by American officers who were strategically deployed in the crowd. Sakay and his men were brought to the Bilibid Prison. They were tried and convicted as bandits.


During the trial, Gomez was not around to produce the letter from the American governor-general. He didn’t even show up and the letter had mysteriously disappeared.


Sakay was hanged on September 13, 1907. Before he died, he uttered, “Filipinas, farewell! Long live the Republic and may our independence be born in the future!”


eskrima kali arnis


L to R: seated, Julian Montalan, Francisco Carreon, Macario Sakay, Leon Villafuerte; standing, Benito Natividad, Lucio de Vega.


Sakay and many of his followers favored long hair, certainly something strange for his era. This affectation may have been exploited by the Americans in their efforts to portray Sakay and his men as wild bandits preying on the simple folk of the countryside. Even today, many in the Tagalog area (most of whom have never heard of Macario Sakay) refer to a man with long hair as “someone who looks like Sakay.” This is, perhaps, a testimony to the effectiveness of the American propaganda campaign.


anting anting


This vest with all its religious figures and Latin phrases belonged to Macario Sakay. It was his anting-anting and protected him from bullets and other hazards of war.


Many Filipinos who participated in the fight against Spain and the United States used anting-antings of all types for personal protection.




This is the author’s impression of what Sakay’s Republika ng Katagalugan flag must have looked like. There are no available pictures of the flag; this reconstruction was based on a written description.


Further reading:


1. Abad, Antonio K. General Macario L. Sakay: Was he a bandit or a patriot? Manila: J.B. Feliciano & Sons, 1955.

2. Constantino, Renato. The Philippines: A past revisited. Quezon City: Tala Publishing,1975.

3. Ileto, Reynaldo C. Pasyon and revolution: Popular movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979.


(This article was originally presented by the author to PHGLA on 8/12/95.)


To cite:

Flores, Paul. “Macario Sakay: Tulisán or Patriot?” in Hector Santos, ed., Philippine Centennial Series; at http://www.bibingka.com/phg/sakay/. US, 24 August 1996.


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Flag Illustration from http://www.watawat.net/

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		June 12 as Independence Day by Diosdado Macapagal Former President of the Philippines
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				kali arnis eskrima escrima

June 12 as Independence Day

by Diosdado Macapagal

Former President of the Philippines


“A nation is born into freedom on the day when such a people, moulded into a nation by a process of cultural evolution and sense of oneness born of common struggle and suffering, announces to the world that it asserts its natural right to liberty and is ready to defend it with blood, life, and honor.”


The promotion of a healthy nationalism is part of the responsibility of the leaders of newly independent nations. After they lay the foundation for economic development, they promote nationalism and spur the search for national identity. This we can do by honoring our distinguished forebears and notable periods in our history. A step we took in this direction was to change the date for the commemoration of Philippine Independence day.


When I was a congressman, I formed the opinion that July 4 was not the proper independence day for Filipinos and should be changed to June 12– the date General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Filipinos in Kawit, Cavite, in 1898.


Having served in the foreign service, I noted that the celebration of a common independence day with the United States on July 4 caused considerable inconvenience. The American celebration dwarfed that of the Philippines. As if to compound the irony, July 4 seemed tantamount to the celebration of Philippine subjection to and dependence on the United States which served to perpetuate unpleasant memories.


I felt, too, that July 4 was not inspiring enough for the Filipino youth since it recalled mostly the peaceful independence missions to the United States. The celebration of independence day on June 12, on the other hand, would be a greater inspiration to the youth who would consequently recall the heroes of the revolution against Spain and their acts of sublime heroism and martyrdom. These acts compare favorably with those of the heroes of other nations.


In checking the reaction to my plan to shift independence day to June 12, I found that there was virtual unanimity on the desirability of transferring the celebration from July 4. Likewise, there was a preponderant view for choosing June 12 as the proper day.


A few suggested January 21, the opening day of the Malolos Congress in 1899, or January 23, when the Malolos Congress, ratifying the independence proclamation of June 12, established a republican system of government. The reason for this view was that the government temporarily by Aguinaldo when he proclaimed independence on June 12 was a dictatorship.


There was no difficulty in adhering to June 12, however, because although Aguinaldo Government was a dictatorship in view of the military operations he was then leading, he led in converting it into a republican Government in the Malolos Congress. Moreover, the celebration of independence refers to its proclamation rather than to the final establishment of the government. In the case of America, when independence was proclaimed on July 4, the American Government was still a confederation and it was much later when it finally became a federal government.


The historical fact was that the Filipinos proclaimed their independence from foreign rule on June 12. Even the national anthem and the Filipino flag which are essential features in the birth of a nation were played and displayed respectively at the independence proclamation in Kawit.


When I became President, I knew that this was the opportunity to take action on what had been in my mind since entering public life. The specific question was when to make the change.


The opportunity came when the US House of Representatives rejected the $73 million additional war payment bill on May 9, 1962. There was indignation among the Filipinos. There was a loss of American good will in the Philippines, although this was restored later by the reconsideration of the action of the US lower chamber. At this time, a state visit in the United States had been scheduled for Mrs. Macapagal and me on the initiative and invitation of President John F. Kennedy. Unable to resist the pressure of public opinion, I was constrained to obtain the agreement of Kennedy to defer the state visit for another time.


To postpone the state visit, I wrote a letter on May 14, 1962, to Kennedy, which read in part as follows:


The feeling of resentment among our people and the attitude of the US Congress negate the atmosphere of good will upon which my state visit to your country was predicated. Our people would never understand how, in the circumstances now obtaining, I could go to the United States and in all honesty affirm that I bear their message of good will. It is with deep regret theredore that I am constrained to ask you to agree to the postponement of my visit to a more auspicious time.


On May 28, 1962, Kennedy wrote me explaining the situation on the war damage bill. His letter stated:


In the meantime, I must respect your decision that your visit to the United States should be postponed. We do not want your visit to be less than first class, when it comes. But I do hope that we will be able to find another convenient time.


I decided to effect the change of independence day at that time not as an act of resentment but as a judicious choice of timing for the taking of an action which had previously been decided upon.


I called Press Secretary Rufino Hechanova to consult him on my contemplated action. I asked him outright what he thought of my step if I should move the celebration of independence day from July 4 to June 12.


Hechanova winced and said: “Please Mr. President, don’t act on that yet. Let us give it a thorough study. I am flying to Iloilo today and on my return on Monday I will come to discuss it with you.”


After his departure, I called in Legal Adviser Juan Cancio. “Johnny,” I asked, “Do I have the power to change independence day from July 4 to June 12?” Cancio readily answered: “Yes, sir, because July 4 is being celebrated as independence day not because it is so specifically designated by law but as an official holiday. Since the President has the authority to declare official holidays, you may declare June 12 as a holiday and hold an independence celebration on that day.”


I immediately directed Cancio to prepare the proclamation, revised and signed it, and asked him to release it to the press through the Malacañang press office. On May 17, 1962, I certified as urgent to the Congress the enactment of a measure to fix June 12 statutorily as independence day.


The change was justified by the successful celebration. General Emilio Aguinaldo was the guest of honor. At least one million people attended whereas in previous celebrations on July 4, only from two to three hundred thousand came.


Bespeaking of the nobility of the American people, President Kennedy was among the first to extend the congratulations of the United States to the Filipino people in celebrating their freedom on June 12, 1962. In a message to me, he said:


It is with pleasure that I join the people of the United States in extending our best wishes and warmest congratulations to Your Excellency and the people of the Republic of the Philippines on the occasion of the Philippine Independence Day.


A letter of thanks in Spanish was also sent to me by General Aguinaldo on May 19, 1962. A translation of the letter reads in part as follows:


I cannot but send you this letter to express the most profound gratitude for the proclamation which Your Excellency has recently issued naming June 12 as independence day– the date when we announced to the whole world that we were a free and independent nation. I who took an active if modest part in the effort of our people to break the colonial yoke we were subjected to, feel joy and pride over the patriotic act which Your Excellency has just performed.


In my address on the first June 12 as independence day celebration, I said:


In the discharge of my responsibility as President of the Republic, I moved the observance of the anniversary of our independence to this day because a nation is born into freedom on the day when such a people, moulded into a nation by the process of cultural evolution and a sense of oneness born of common struggle and suffering, announces to the world that it asserts its natural right to liberty and is ready to defend it with blood, life, and honor.


While we were seated at the grandstand during the ceremonies, General Aguinaldo thanked me again for the rectification of an erroneous historical practice and then asked: “When will there be an Aguinaldo monument at the Luneta like that of Rizal?” I could not answer the question. The next generation might have the answer.


The following year the same successful celebration was held. The commemoration on the third year was likewise a success.


I noted by this time that Congress had not yet approved a measure to prescribe June 12 as independence day by statute. I followed up the matter with members of the Senate and the House.


Rep. Ramon Mitra Sr. was leading the spade work in the House for the approval of the new independence day measure. The bill was authored by him and Rep. Justiniano Montano. Senator Lorenzo Tañada authored a similar measure in the Senate.


Among those whom I talked to in following up the bill was Senator Gerardo Roxas, son of President Roxas who raised the Filipino flag on July 4, 1946 to mark the independence of the Philippines from American rule and thereby became the first President of the Republic of the Philippines. I thought it possible that Senator Roxas might be lukewarm toward the change of independence day since the historical focus on the first Presidency of the Republic may shift from Roxas to Aguinaldo. My talk with him did not bear out my fear. Roxas informed me that what had delayed the approval of the independence day bill was the desire of some legislators to retain some significance for July 4. In the consideration of the measure, the snag was solved by the provision that with June 12 being declared Independence Day, July 4 shall be known as Republic Day.


Finally, on August 4, 1964, I signed at Malacañang Republic Act No. 4166 statutorily prescribing June 12 as Philippine Independence Day. Special witnesses invited to the signing were children of Presidents, including Carmen Melencio-Aguinaldo, Manuel Quezon Jr., Maria Osmeña-Charnley, Gerardo Roxas, Tomas Quirino, and my sons Arturo and Diosdado Jr.


(Thanks to the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles for making this document available.)


To cite:

Macapagal, Diosdado. “June 12 as Independence Day” in Hector Santos, ed., Philippine Centennial Series; at http://www.bibingka.com/phg/documents/whyjun12.htm. US, 30 April 1997.9


 


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