Philippine Independence Day
Philippine Independence Day is celebrated on June 12, marking the date in 1898 when Emilio Aguinaldo declared the islands' independence from Spanish colonial rule. The Philippines experienced centuries of foreign domination, first under Spanish control beginning in 1564 and later under American rule after the Spanish-American War in 1898. The path to independence involved a series of uprisings and revolutions fueled by a growing nationalistic sentiment among Filipinos.
The day commemorates the culmination of these struggles, particularly the significant role of Filipino leaders and movements in advocating for autonomy and self-governance. Although the United States assumed control following the war, with promises of future independence, it was not until July 4, 1946, that full sovereignty was granted. Initially, the Philippines celebrated Independence Day on July 4, in alignment with the United States, but in 1962, President Diosdado Macapagal officially moved the observance back to June 12, emphasizing the importance of the 1898 declaration. This day serves as a powerful reminder of the country's historical journey toward self-determination and national identity.
Subject Terms
Philippine Independence Day
The Philippine Islands were for several centuries under foreign domination before the establishment of independence in 1946. The story of how June 12 came to be observed as Philippine Independence Day dates from the beginning of that domination.
Spain, on the basis of the discoveries made by Ferdinand Magellan, was the first European nation to claim possession of the Philippines. Magellan, Portuguese by birth, reached the islands in 1521 during his circumnavigation of the world. The Filipinos received the Europeans with hostility and killed Magellan. In 1564 another Spanish explorer, Miguel López de Legazpi, sailed from Mexico to the Philippines and conquered the islands.
Other European nations envied Spain's control of the strategic Philippine archipelago along the Pacific trade routes. On October 6, 1762, during the Seven Years' War, British soldiers captured Manila, the principal city of the islands, but the Treaty of Paris of February 10, 1763, which ended the conflict, restored the islands to the Spanish. In the nineteenh century the strength of Spain ebbed, however, and the merchant ships of Great Britain and the United States came to dominate the commerce of the area.
The Filipinos, never fully reconciled to Spanish control, began a series of rebellions in 1843. Native priests, especially Father Peláez and Father Opolinario de la Cruz, spearheaded the movements. Although abortive, these uprisings fostered the development of strong nationalistic feelings in the islands, which, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, became even more important in the world economy.
Revolution in Spain ousted Queen Isabella II in 1868 and led to the establishment of a new regime. The new government sent a number of creative administrators to the Philippines, and they allowed the islands greater autonomy, permitted the publication of liberal journals, and tolerated freer political discussions. The collapse of the Spanish regime in 1871, however, ended the experiment and a reactionary governor-general took office in Manila. Responding to a small mutiny of Filipino soldiers at Cavite in January 1871, the restored government executed three priests, sent a number of leaders to penal colonies, and exiled various intellectuals.
Despite the Spanish abuses, many Filipino leaders were willing to remain within the Spanish empire. The Propaganda Movement, a publicity campaign started in Madrid by Filipino exiles, sought reform rather than revolution. José Rizal, the author of Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), which described the hardships endured by the islanders, became the leader of the group. Rizal returned to Manila in 1892 and founded the Liga Filipino to encourage the political and social advancement of his people. However, within a short time Spanish officials exiled him to the island of Mindanao, and both the Propaganda Movement and the Liga Filipino became moribund.
More militant Filipinos abandoned the conciliatory approach of the Propaganda Movement. In Manila in July 1892 Andrés Bonifacio founded a secret society, the Katipunan (Sons of the People), whose avowed goal was to win independence by force. In 1896 Spanish officials sought to arrest the leaders of the Katipunan, but instead set off a wave of violent uprisings throughout the Philippines. The Spanish retaliated with repressive tactics, including the execution of José Rizal on charges of sedition, even though he had actually advised the rebels to be more moderate.
In 1897 Emilio Aguinaldo emerged as the foremost rebel leader, and a revolutionary assembly proclaimed a provisional republic and named him president. Aguinaldo proved unable to defeat the Spanish in battle, however, and in December 1897 agreed to the Pact of Biac-na-bato by which the insurgent leaders voluntarily exiled themselves to Hong Kong. In return the Spanish agreed to pay the rebels for the surrender of their weapons and to assist families that had been harmed by the war. Unfortunately neither side lived up to the agreement.
In 1898, as a consequence of the Spanish-American War, the United States became involved in the struggles of the Filipinos. On the evening of April 30, Commodore George Dewey's Asiatic Squadron sailed into Manila Bay in search of the Spanish fleet, which it easily overwhelmed in a brief, one-sided operation early the following morning. Lacking the necessary manpower to undertake land operations against Manila, Dewey simply blockaded the port. Meanwhile, Emilio Aguinaldo was called back from exile by the Americans to lead a native insurrection against the Spanish. On June 12, the day that would ultimately be recalled as Philippine Independence Day, Aguinaldo declared the islands independent and established a provisional government. By the end of July, reinforcements arrived from the United States. On August 13 General Wesley Merritt, supported by Aguinaldo, attacked Manila and on the following day received the Spanish capitulation.
Negotiations necessarily involved the fate of the Philippines. Resolved to have a ship-coaling station in the Far Pacific, unwilling to allow the Spanish to reassert their colonial control, and fearful that another world power would attempt to seize the area, President William McKinley decided that the United States would take over the islands. A number of Americans, some for altruistic, anti-imperialist reasons and others on account of racist biases, opposed the acquisition of the area. However, the Senate on February 6, 1899, ratified the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War and in the process America acquired the Philippines for $20 million.
Aguinaldo and other Filipino leaders, who expected the United States to grant immediate self-government, were disappointed by the American acquisition. Even before the United States approved the Treaty of Paris, the rebel leader on January 5, 1899, had called for the Philippine people to declare their independence. On February 4 the populace rose in revolt against the latest foreign occupiers. Guerrilla warfare between the United States Army and the Filipino rebels continued for several years, but the Filipinos were eventually defeated. In March 1901 Aguinaldo himself was captured.
On January 20, 1899, President McKinley appointed President Jacob Schurman of Cornell University to lead a fact -finding commission to determine the future of the Philippines. The investigators concluded that the Filipinos desired and deserved independence, but required training and experience before they would be able to assume the responsibilities of autonomy. Schurman advocated an extensive educational program and opportunities in local self-government to equip the islanders for the future. Federal Circuit Judge William Howard Taft led the second Philippine Commission, established by President McKinley on April 7, 1900, to establish civil government on the islands. American military rule of the archipelago ended on June 12, 1901, and Taft's five-man commission took office on July 4, 1901. Taft proclaimed equal rights for all Filipinos, separated church and state, instituted freedom of assembly and of the press, and began to put Schurman's proposals into effect. The commission later added three Filipino members.
The United States Congress, by the passage of the Pacific Organic Act on July 1, 1902, increased the strength of democratic government in the islands. The bill created a popular assembly as the lower house of a bicameral legislature in which the Taft commission became the senior body. A governor-general appointed by the United States exercised executive powers. At the inauguration of the assembly chosen in the first general elections in 1909, the United States renewed its promise of eventual independence for the islands.
Passage of the Jones Act on August 29, 1916, marked another step towards Philippine independence. The bill reaffirmed American commitment to independence for the islanders and gave them effective control of their domestic affairs. The act provided for male suffrage and a bill of rights, established an elective senate in place of the Philippine Commission, and vested judicial power in the Supreme Court of the Philippines. In 1934 Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which called for the creation on July 4, 1936, of a Philippine Commonwealth under a native chief executive. Manuel Quezon became the first president and Sergio Osmeña the first vice-president of the commonwealth. The United States retained control of foreign relations and kept troops in the islands but promised that in ten years the Philippines would become an independent republic.
World War II unavoidably delayed the planned transfer of sovereignty. Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines in 1942, and set up a puppet republic the following year. Filipino resistance fighters opposed the Japanese and shared in the final Allied victory. The United States honored its promise and granted full independence to the Philippines on July 4, 1946. Manila celebrated on that day with speeches, flag raisings, planes circling overhead, a 21-gun salute, and a parade led by crack troops of the Philippine Army, which the United States had returned to Philippine command on June 30. Paul McNutt, the retiring U.S. commissioner, whom President Harry S. Truman had appointed as the first American ambassador to the Philippines, read the formal proclamation that transformed the commonwealth into a republic. Manuel Acuña Roxas, the republic's first president, delivered a public address, as did General Douglas MacArthur, who had liberated the islands from the Japanese.
Conscious of their historic ties with the United States, for many years the Filipinos chose July 4 as their Independence Day in order to parallel the American independence day celebration. However, in 1962 President Diosdada Macapagal changed the date of the observance to June 12, the anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence from Spain made by Emilio Aguinaldo in 1898.
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"Philippine Independence Day (1898): June 12, 2023." US Census Bureau, 12 June 2023, www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/philippines.html. Accessed 1 May 2024.