Lunes, Disyembre 16, 2013

EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES :)

 THE BATTLE OF BATAAN

The significance of the "Battle of Bataan" which apparently led to the "Fall of Bataan" is considered one of the key moments in WW2. Simple and yet very profound was that, it served to delay Japan's timetable in the course of war, which could have an undesirable effect for Australia itself, if things went the opposite. Bataan had proved not too easy for Japanese, despite Japan's expectation that Bataan could fall in a single day. However, the fortress in Corregidor Island also known as "The RocK", which also served as the last refuge of the USAFFE consisting of Americans, Filipinos, Australian, British, took a long time for the Japanese Imperial Army to crush. If not Lt. Gen. Wainright decided, going against Gen McArthur's wishes, to surrender the fortress in time. Wainright, in all unselfishness, thought more about his people dying and starving than his sworn military duty. But nevertheless, the surrender and Fall of Bataan destroyed Japan's timetable for about 2 weeks and which in a way took a toll on its Imperial Army's strength and resolve. It also took a toll on their equipment, since it took time to pound the Corregidor. Thus Australia was in a way spared. Consequently, this had given Australia a breather and the Allies in the U.S. and Europe to reorganize, plan, and motivate. However, Philippines bore the greater sacrifice with the war's atrocities. Lt. Gen. Wainwright's speech when he surrenders really catapulted and described the bravery and heroism these soldiers had put on during the siege of Bataan, until its fall.




EDSA REVOLUTION



Marcos’s term as president, especially after the promulgation of Martial Law in 1972, was characterized by widespread repression of rights, the lack of freedom of speech, and the President’s manipulation of the government’s legislative, judicial, and military arms. All these indications of oppression and tyranny climaxed in 1983, when Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino —a politician who was well-loved by the people and who posed a threat to the President’s regime— was assassinated upon arriving in the country after a self-imposed exile.

However, February 22 1986, signified the end of a people’s tolerance of this widespread
abuse of power, as well as the beginning of a united struggle for concrete political change. It was clear that the Filipino people, having suffered under Marcos’s reign for 20 years, were no longer going to allow themselves to be subjected to despotism and the curtailment of their liberty. 

The civilians comprising the multitudes in EDSA gave one another aid, support, and protection as they carried out peaceful demonstrations and faced the incoming military forces deployed by the President. People held prayer vigils, rallies, and processions and joined in unified cries of dissent against Marcos’s authoritarianism.

This peaceful revolution lasted three days. On February 25, 1986, our nation finally saw the end of 14 years under a cruel dictatorship: the president and his family fled to Hawaii, and Corazon Aquino, Ninoy’s widow, became the country’s new president. 




PACT OF BIAK NA BATO
    The Pact of Biak-na-Bato, signed on 14 December 1897 created a truce between Spanish Colonial Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera and Emilio Aguinaldo to end the Philippine Revolution. Aguinaldo and his fellow revolutionaries were given amnesty and monetary indemnity by the Spanish Government, in return for which the Revolutionary Government would go into voluntary exile in Hong Kong. Aguinaldo later used the money to purchase firearms.

The pact allowed Aguinaldo to prepare to return to the Phillipines. 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. 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.




CRY OF BALINTAWAK

   The Cry of Balintawak was when Bonafacio and the Katipunan tore their residence cards, or I.D. cards. This was significant because these cards were issued by Spain, and the Katipunan were fighting for independence from Spain. Therefore by ripping their I.D. cards and crying "Long Live Philippine independence", they begun the nation-wide revolt against Spain.The ceremony or ritual was done at hills of Balintawak, north of Manila.The''Cry of Pugad Lawin'' was a cry for freedom. Its historic significance to us consists of the realization that the Filipino people had finally realized the lasting value of freedom and independence and the need to fight in order to prove themselves worthy to be called a truly free people.


FIL-AM WAR

After its defeat in the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. On February 4, 1899, just two days before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo who sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers. The ensuing Philippine-American War lasted three years and resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants. As many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease. The decision by U.S. policymakers to annex the Philippines was not without domestic controversy. Americans who advocated annexation evinced a variety of motivations: desire for commercial opportunities in Asia, concern that the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule, and fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands, another power (such as Germany or Japan) might do so. Meanwhile, American opposition to U.S. colonial rule of the Philippines came in many forms, ranging from those who thought it morally wrong for the United States to be engaged in colonialism, to those who feared that annexation might eventually permit the non-white Filipinos to have a role in American national government. Others were wholly unconcerned about the moral or racial implications of imperialism and sought only to oppose the policies of President William McKinley’s administration. After the Spanish-American War
, while the American public and politicians debated the annexation question, Filipino revolutionaries under Aguinaldo seized control of most of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and proclaimed the establishment of the independent Philippine Republic. When it became clear that U.S. forces were intent on imposing American colonial control over the islands, the early clashes between the two sides in 1899 swelled into an all-out war. Americans tended to refer to the ensuing conflict as an “insurrection” rather than acknowledge the Filipinos’ contention that they were fighting to ward off a foreign invader. There were two phases to the Philippine-American War. The first phase, from February to November of 1899, was dominated by Aguinaldo’s ill-fated attempts to fight a conventional war against the better-trained and equipped American troops. The second phase was marked by the Filipinos’ shift to guerrilla-style warfare. It began in November of 1899, lasted through the capture of Aguinaldo in 1901 and into the spring of 1902, by which time most organized Filipino resistance had dissipated. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed a general amnesty and declared the conflict over on July 4, 1902, although minor uprisings and insurrections against American rule periodically occurred in the years that followed.The United States entered the conflict with undeniable military advantages that included a trained fighting force, a steady supply of military equipment, and control of the archipelago’s waterways. Meanwhile, the Filipino forces were hampered by their inability to gain any kind of outside support for their cause, chronic shortages of weapons and ammunition, and complications produced by the Philippines’ geographic complexity. Under these conditions, Aguinaldo’s attempt to fight a conventional war in the first few months of the conflict proved to be a fatal mistake; the Filipino army suffered severe losses in men and material before switching to the guerrilla tactics that might have been more effective if employed from the beginning of the conflict. The war was brutal on both sides. U.S. forces at times burned villages, implemented civilian reconcentration policies, and employed torture on suspected guerrillas, while Filipino fighters also tortured captured soldiers and terrorized civilians who cooperated with American forces. Many civilians died during the conflict as a result of the fighting, cholera and malaria epidemics, and food shortages caused by several agricultural catastrophes.Even as the fighting went on, the colonial government that the United States established in the Philippines in 1900 under future President William Howard Taft launched a pacification campaign that became known as the “policy of attraction.” Designed to win over key elites and other Filipinos who did not embrace Aguinaldo’s plans for the Philippines, this policy permitted a significant degree of self-government, introduced social reforms, and implemented plans for economic development. Over time, this program gained important Filipino adherents and undermined the revolutionaries’ popular appeal, which significantly aided the United States’ military effort to win the war.In 1907, the Philippines convened its first elected assembly, and in 1916, the Jones Act promised the nation eventual independence. The archipelago became an autonomous commonwealth in 1935, and the U.S. granted independence in 1946.



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