1896 December 30 Jose Rizal , prominent reformist, author of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo was executed by the Spanish authorities at Luneta Park.
1898 December 10 Spain cedes the Philippines to the United States in Treaty of Paris.
1899 January 23 Emilio Aguinaldo proclaims proclaims independence from Spain, raises the Philippine flag.
1941 December 7 Japanese Imperial army attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1942 January 2 Japanese armed forces occupied Manila.
1945 January 9 Douglas MacArthur landed his forces in Lingayen, Pangasinan and began the march to liberate Manila.
1970 January 30 First Quarter Storm – what began as student protests, became three months of continuous demonstrations against the Marcos government.
January, as the month that follows the old year, somehow takes its cue from December. December presages the events of the new year. It sets the tempo of the following months and colors its outcome – quiet, turbulent or maybe even dull. For Catholic Filipinos, December announces the birth of baby Jesus and the eve of the New Year is celebrated with Chinese fire-crackers whose original purpose was to banish the pagan demons of the past.
The 23rd of this month, in 1899 was a momentous event in the history the Philippines. On this day, in the town of Malolos, Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the Philippines free of Spanish rule. For the first time in Asia, an independent republic was inaugurated. Earlier, a constitution had been promulgated by a representative congress. One of the first acts of this new government was to pardon all non-combatant Spanish residents and extending a fraternal hand to the Sultan of Jolo. The new government had an ambitious programme especially in public education and its inauguration had the pomp and grandeur of a new republic — marching presidential guards, flag-waving crowds and, an inaugural ball.
Such displays of civility did not impress the Americans. Much to the chagrin of the U.S. who was witness to this historic event, Aguinaldo appeared to them as an ingrate. After all it was the US who solicited and fetched Aguinaldo from Hong-Kong where he and his fellow revolutionaries were exiled. Aguinaldo was brought back to Manila in May, 1898 to re-start the revolution and to keep the Spanish army at bay, while Dewey took care of the its navy. With the vaunted Spanish armada obliterated, Dewey and his generals established a beach head in Manila.
BY end of January, battle lines were drawn between Aguinaldo’s army and the American-controlled the walled city of Manila, Intramuros, the only piece of real estate Spain could hand over at the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898. The stage was set for America?s imperial ambitions. All that was needed was an excuse for war.
The other time American forces landed in Luzon was in January 9, 1945 at Lingayen to begin the march to liberate the Manila from the Japanese occupation forces. Led by Douglas MacArthur, whose father Arthur MacArthur commanded soldiers in the war against Aguinaldo?s government, made good on his now well-quoted promise: ?I shall return.?
On January 30, 1970 seventy years after Aguinaldo?s proclamation and twenty years after MacArthur lands in Lingayen, students brandishing flags and symbols of the Revolution of 1896, launch a three-month-long protest against an American-sponsored president ? Ferdinand Marcos, enshrining this portentious moment as the First Quarter Storm.
Suggested Readings:
Teodoro Agoncillo, A Short History of the Philippines, Mentor Book, 1969
Stanley Karnow, In Our Image: America?s Empire in the Philippines, New York: Balantine, 1989
Jose Lacaba, Days of Quiet, Nights of Rage, Manila: Salinlahi, 1982
Austin Coates, Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr, London: Oxford U.P., 1968
Reynaldo Ileto, Filipinos and their Revolution, Quezon City: Ateneo University Press, 1998
Luis Francia and Angel Shaw, Vestiges of War: The Philippine American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999, New York: New York University Press, 2003
