NEWSFLASH

INDEPENDENCE DAY, FROM JULY 4 TO JUNE 12

Manila, June 10, 2000 - The world is little aware that 102 years ago - on June 12, 1898 - the Filipinos themselves proclaimed their country’s political independence from Spanish rule.

The Filipino nation’s self-proclamation of freedom was an act that expressed the Filipino people’s age-old aspirations to set themselves free from foreign oppression.

The historical significance of June 12, therefore, is the main reason why Independence Day of the Republic of the Philippines is celebrated on that date yearly.

Prior to 1962, however, the Philippines and the United States of America commemorated their independence on the same date - the Fourth of July.

General Emilio F. Aguinaldo, President of the First Philippine Republic, under whose leadership the nation proclaimed independence, was captured by the Americans in 1901.

Aguinaldo’s capitulation and oath of allegiance to the U.S. in April 1901, brought peace. It merited the establishment of American civil government all over the islands, beginning on July 4, 1901.

As the guns fell silent, American troops initiated their mission of educating the Filipinos. Soon, hundreds of American civilians arrived in Manila as teachers.

The United States established an efficient public school system all over the archipelago. Schools were built and the training of Filipinos as teachers and government employees ensued with intensity.

Health and sanitation facilities were rushed. Hospitals, clinics and medical services mushroomed. The construction of roads, bridges and seaports began in earnest.

American tutored and guided Filipino leaders in the art and technique of modern government and elections - from the local levels to the national echelons of service.

The Legislature was formed and it soon passed into Filipino hands. The Supreme Court, the general judiciary system, police and executive bureaus were largely Filipinized.

Stage presentations dealing with nationalism and independence, as well as newspapers, were closed down by the police. Authors were hunted, arrested and jailed.

But around 1916, when the Jones Law was passed by the U.S. Congress, the hope for independence was again rekindled - but through peaceful means.

The flame of independence burned more brightly due to the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Law and the Tydings-McDuffie Act. Political battles were fought on the independence issue.

During the period of the Philippine Commonwealth Government from 1935 to 1941, however, Independence Day still coincided with that of America every July Fourth.

Even the Japanese Government, during its three years of wartime occupation, failed to institute June 12 as Philippine Independence Day.

June 12 was sidelined when Japan, on October 14, 1943, granted Philippine independence at the inauguration of the Second Philippine Republic under President Jose P. Laurel, Sr.

Only during the incumbency of President Diosdado Macapagal in 1962, President Kennedy sent a message which President Macapagal described as "bespeaking the nobility of the American people."

President Kennedy said his letter to President Macapagal:

"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."