ON June 12, 1898, Philippine independence was proclaimed in a ceremony at the ancestral home of General Emilio Aguinaldo in Cavite del Viejo (now Kawit, Cavite). The flag of the Philippines was unfurled for the first time and the national anthem, now known as Lupang Hinirang, was played by the San Francisco de Malabon marching band.
On August 1, the proclamation was ratified by 190 municipal presidents of towns in 16 provinces – Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan, Bataan, Infanta, Morong, Tayabas, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Mindoro, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, La Union, and Zambales. It was the first constitutional democracy in Asia.
The declaration, however, was not recognized by the United States, whose forces had come to the Philippines in 1898 in the course of the Spanish-American War. General Aguinaldo fought the American forces in the subsequent Philippine-American War but was captured by US forces and the US declared that the “insurrection” had ended on July 2, 1902.
We had been subjugated by Spain for some 350 years and Andres Bonifacio launched the Philippine Revolution in 1896. Aguinaldo’s forces won many subsequent battles against the Spanish colonial forces, but it was also the period of the Spanish-American War and the US came to the Philippines in the course of that war. It ended with the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, and the US claimed the Philippines, along with Cuba and Puerto Rico, among the spoils of its war with Spain.
The Philippine proclamation of freedom of June 12, 1898, was thus set aside for half a century. The US was starting its rise as a world power and the Philippines was right at the doorstep of the vast land of Asia. It thus chose to keep it and set up a republic patterned after its own. The process was interrupted by World War II but Douglas MacArthur made good on his promise “I shall return.”
After World War II, the US granted independence to the Philippines on July 4, 1946. For several years this was celebrated as Philippine Independence Day, until President Diosdado Macapagal, on August 4, 1964, signed into law Republic Act 4316 designating June 12 as the country’s Independence Day.
We recall these events today as we celebrate Philippine Independence Day. It has been a difficult journey for the Filipino people through over four centuries of colonial rule, but Filipinos from Lapu-Lapu to Emilio Aguinaldo persisted against great and powerful odds. And so we are free today and we can hold our own in the assemblies of nations.
We have kept our ties with our former colonial rulers as well as with today’s rising political and economic powers. As we seek our place in this world, let us never forget the struggles of our people for freedom through the centuries.
They are all part of that day on June 12, 1898, when our nation – against great odds – proclaimed its intention and desire to be free in the Proclamation of Philippine independence which we celebrate today.
