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The Philippine
Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898 in Cavite
II el Viejo (present-day Kawit, Cavite), Philippines. With the public
reading of the Act of the Declaration of
independence (Spanish: Acta de la proclamación de independencia del
pueblo Filipino), Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio
Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine
Islands from the colonial rule of Spain.
HISTORY
Background
In 1896, the Philippine
Revolution began. Eventually, the Spanish signed an agreement with the
revolutionaries and Emilio Aguinaldo went into exile in Hong Kong. At the outbreak of
the Spanish-American War, Commodore George Dewey sailed from
Hong Kong to Manila Bay leading the Asiatic Squadron of
the U.S. Navy. On May 1, 1898, the United States defeated the Spanish in
the Battle of Manila Bay. Later that month, the U.S. Navy transported
Aguinaldo back to the Philippines.
The Proclamation on June 12
The original Flag raised
by President Emilio Aguinaldo in declaring the independence in 1898.
Independence was
proclaimed on June 12, 1898 between four and five in the afternoon in Cavite at
the ancestral home of General Emilio Aguinaldo some 30 kilometers
South of Manila. The event saw the unfurling of the National Flag of
the Philippines, made in Hong Kong by Marcela Agoncillo, Lorenza Agoncillo, and
Delfina Herboza, and the performance of the Marcha Filipina Magdalo, as
the national anthem, now known as Lupang Hinirang, which was composed by
Julián Felipe and played by the San Francisco de Malabon marching
band.
The Act of the
Declaration of Independence was prepared, written, and read by Ambrosio
Rianzares Bautista in Spanish. The Declaration was signed by
ninety-eight people, among them an American army officer who witnessed the
proclamation. The final paragraph states that there was a "stranger"
(stranger in English translation — extrangero in the
original Spanish, meaning foreigner) who attended the proceedings, Mr. L.
M. Johnson, described as "a citizen of the U.S.A, a Coronel of
Artillery". The proclamation of Philippine independence was, however,
promulgated on 1 August, when many towns had already been organized under the
rules laid down by the Dictatorial Government of General Aguinaldo.
Later at Malolos, Bulacan, the Malolos Congress modified the
declaration upon the insistence of Apolinario Mabini who objected to
that the original proclamation essentially placed the Philippines under the
protection of the United States.
Struggle for independence
The declaration was
never recognized by either the United States or Spain.
Later in 1898,
Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that
ended the Spanish-American War.
The Philippine
Revolutionary Government did not recognize the treaty or American sovereignty,
and subsequently fought and lost a conflict with United States now called
the Philippine-American War, which ended when Emilio Aguinaldo was
captured by U.S. forces, and issued a statement acknowledging and
accepting the sovereignty of the United States over the Philippines. This
was then followed on July 2, 1902, by U.S. Secretary of War Elihu
Root telegraphing that the insurrection the United States had come to an
end and that provincial civil governments had been established everywhere
except those areas inhabited by Moro tribes. Pockets of
resistance continued for several years.
Following World War II,
the US granted independence to the Philippines on 4 July 1946 via
the Treaty of Manila.]July 4 was observed in the Philippines as Independence
Day until August 4, 1964 when, upon the advice of historians and the
urging of nationalists, President Diosdado Macapagal signed
into law Republic Act No. 4166 designating June 12 as the country's Independence
Day. June 12 had previously been observed as Flag Day and
many government buildings are urged to display the Philippine Flag in their
offices.
Current location of the Declaration
The Declaration is
currently housed in the National Library of the Philippines. It is
not on public display but can be viewed with permission like any other document
held by the National Library.
During the
Philippine-American War, the American government captured and sent to the
United States about 400,000 historical documents. In 1958, the documents
were given to the Philippine government along with two sets of microfilm of the
entire collection, with the U.S. Federal Government keeping one set.
Sometime in the 1980s or
1990s the Declaration was stolen from the National Library. As part of a
larger investigation into the widespread theft of historical documents and a
subsequent public appeal for the return of stolen documents, the Declaration was
returned to the National LIbrary in 1994 by University of the
Philippines professor Milagros Guerrero
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