‘The United Nations (of which the Philippines is an original member) eventually won the Anti-Fascist War, the Republic was re established in 1946, and 10 years after the Casablanca Conference, the Filipinos were also reviving their relations with other nations…’
RAMPING up the Republic is a protracted struggle, thus, we need reminders like Republic Act No. 11014 (An Act Declaring January 23 Of Every Year A Special Working Holiday In The Entire Country To Commemorate The Declaration Of The First Philippine Republic), which was preceded by Presidential Proclamation No. 533 of 2013 (Declaring January 23 Of Every Year As “Araw Ng Republikang Filipino, 1899”), among others. These policies harken back to 23 January 1899 when the Philippine Republic (aka Malolos Republic) was inaugurated at the Barasoain Church in Bulacan, making the Philippines the first independent republic in Asia.
It is an integral part of the story that this Republic was strangled in its cradle by the American imperialists who imposed their war of aggression less than a month after the Malolos inauguration. So much so that by 02 January 1903, it was William H. Taft (as the Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands) who designated William S. Washburn as Chairman/chief examiner of the Philippine Civil Service Board. [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1903/01/02/executive-order-no-1-s-1903/]
It was also in January 1903 when the mastermind of the American Occupation of the Philippines confessed: “And one night late it came to me this way–I don’t know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them back to Spain–that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany–our commercial rivals in the Orient–that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves–they were unfit for self-government–and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief engineer of the War Department (our map-maker), and I told him to put the Philippines on the map of the United States (pointing to a large map on the wall of his office), and there they are, and there they will stay while I am President!” [General James Rusling, “Interview with President William McKinley,” The Christian Advocate, 22 January 1903]
To execute McKinley’s vision, the US Army campaigned against the “Philippine Insurrection” and even authorized the Philippine Campaign Medal for servicemen who were in the field up to 1913. Having neutralized the Katipuneros (from Sakay to Ricarte), the Americans turned some of their attention to the First War on Drugs, creating an Opium Committee: “the duty of which shall be to destroy by burning in the boiler furnace of the division of cold storage, Bureau of Supply, or in the city crematory all opium, cocaine, and other drugs, and all instruments and apparatus for the unlawful use of such drugs, seized and confiscated under the provisions of the laws of the Philippine Islands, unless such drugs, and so forth, are found by said committee to have a legitimate commercial value.” [Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes, Executive Order No. 10, Manila, 27 January 1913]
A decade passed, the Malolos Republic could not be resurrected, the Americans remained in the saddle, but a darker force was arising in the Occident: “On January 27, the first NSDAP events took place in various Munich beer halls. Hitler made a brief appearance at each venue. On January 28 (1923), 5,000-6,000 SA storm troopers (i.e., brownshirts) and members of other so-called defensive organizations marched before Hitler on the Marsfeld, a large parade ground in central Munich. Afterwards, Hitler presented the first swastika standards to four SA activist units in attendance.” [Professor of History Karl Alexander von Mí¼ller on the First Nazi Rally in Munich in January 1923; https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3912]
Those black brigades became the German government in 1933, precipitating World War II in 1939, and by January 1943, goading the Allies to adopt a policy of unconditional surrender: “the destruction of the philosophies in those (Axis) countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people.” [The Casablanca Conference, 1943; https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/88778.htm]
The United Nations (of which the Philippines is an original member) eventually won the Anti-Fascist War, the Republic was re-established in 1946, and 10 years after the Casablanca Conference, the Filipinos were also reviving their relations with other nations:
“In the last 12 months, the Philippines concluded treaties of friendship with Cuba and with the Dominican Republic. It also signed 14 other agreements, three of which were on civil aviation for the extension of our air routes to various countries, and eight with United Nations Agencies providing for various forms of technical assistance to the Philippines…The Senate did not act on the (Japanese) peace treaty during its last session. Technically, therefore, we are still at war with that country.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1953/01/26/elpidio-quirino-fifth-state-of-the-nation-address-january-26-1953/]
Both nation-building and fence-mending progressed in the midst of the Cold War that was still in full swing with a different Chief Executive a decade later. 08 January 1963 — “In the afternoon the President (Macapagal) received Princess Tarhata Kiram and Sultan Ismael Kiram who…expressed the gratitude of the Kiram family to the President for pressing the claim over North Borneo.” January 9 – “This morning the President conferred with U.S.
Ambassador William Stevenson on ‘matters of common interest’.” [Official Week in Review. January 6—January 12, 1963. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines]
Ten years later, martial law was in effect, and the Republic waged another War on Drugs:
15 January 1973 — Lim Seng, alias Gan Sou So, died before an eight-man firing squad early this morning after a military tribunal convicted him for manufacturing and peddling heroin to the country’s youth. The Chinese paid for his crime of trafficking in illegal drugs like morphine, heroin and marijuana.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1973/01/22/official-week-in-review-january-12-january-18-1973/]
How is the Republic today?
