BY HERBERT VEGO
ONE day from now – June 12, 2014 – we will be celebrating for the 53rd time Philippine Independence Day. Why only 53rd when it was on June 12, 1898 yet when Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed it in Kawit, Cavite? That was 116 years ago!
If you are not old enough to remember, it was only in 1962 that we first celebrated Independence Day on June 12 after the late President Diosdado P. Macapagal had signed Republic Act 4166 resetting its commemoration from July 4 to June 12.
Before 1962, we, Filipinos were celebrating Independence Day on July 4 in memory of July 4, 1946 when the Philippines gained independence from the United States.
We were in the elementary school when we first learned that 48 years before America granted the Philippines its independence, the country had already proclaimed it on the balcony of Aguinaldo’s house in Kawit, Cavite. The Philippine flag was first raised on that day and the national anthem, played.
We gained that independence from Spain after a revolution that began in 1896, which in truth turned out to be a mere culmination of a series of 41 recorded revolts that began in 1574.
The date June 12, 1898 supposedly ended more than 300 years of foreign domination by the Spaniards.
The war for independence in 1898 actually began in 1892. The founding of the secret society of Filipino rebels called the Katipunan was on July 7, 1892. Prior to the execution of Jose P. Rizal on December 30, 1896, there was the so-called “First Cry of Philippine Independence” on April 10, 1895 in Montalban, Rizal, followed by the more famous Cry of Balintawak on August 26, 1896.
General Aguinaldo declared Philippine “independence” over the dead bodies of the Katipunan founder, Andres Bonifacio, his brother Procopio and their followers. History has it that Aguinaldo ordered also the assassination of Gen. Antonio Luna in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.
The proclamation of Independence came in the wake of the Battle on Manila Bay when our American allies subdued the Spanish armada on May 1, 1898.
There was not even a single country that recognized the proclamation of “independence” made by General Aguinaldo. The Filipino people did not ratify the 1899 Malolos constitution, which ostensibly gave “retroactively” Aguinaldo his “emergency” powers to declare a dictatorial government in 1898.
The Spanish-American war officially ended on July 4, 1902. However, US President William McKinley never recognized the Aguinaldo-declared Philippine independence.
In the wake of World War II where Filipinos and Americans won against the Japanese, representatives of the United States and the Philippines signed a Treaty of General Relations providing “for the recognition of the independence of the Republic of the Philippines as of July 4, 1946, and the relinquishment of American sovereignty over the Philippine Islands.”
Well, at least July 4 is still commemorated as the Philippine-American Friendship Day./PN
