I witnessed history in the making

Someone said that if Archbishop Oscar Cruz, the jueteng payola whistleblower, loses his fight against illegal gambling he would also lose people's respect. Well, he could always join the PBA and be a referee whose every blow of the whistle is respected.

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July 4, 2005 just came and went. No one it seems gave a hoot to the Fourth of July which many of my friends still consider our real Independence Day. These friends, three of them, painted the town red (white and blue) last Monday with beers and chicken barbecue in a roadside eatery along Salinas Drive in Lahug.

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"I have never recognized June 12 as our Independence Day," said Humbert Gonzales, a retired foreign affairs official. "July 4 I celebrate as our Independence Day. It was on this day 59 years ago when we actually won our freedom and become a member of the family of nations."

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Tito Alianza, a retired university lecturer, said: "Not a single nation in the world recognized us as a free country after Aguinaldo unilaterally declared us as independent at the balcony of his house in Cavite. It was only after America declared us as independent on July 4, 1946 that the whole world recognized the Philippines as a sovereign state."

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Incidentally, I happened to be present at the declaration of Philippine Independence in Manila in 1946. I was 14 then and I just happened to stray at the Luneta that morning of July 4th and out of curiousity I joined the crowd watching what looked like an important event. I saw an American hauling down the Stars and Stripes and a Filipino raising our flag. I thought it was just a simple program. I heard the band play the Star Spangled Banner followed by the Land of the Morning hymn.

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Honestly, I didn't know what it was all about. I left the Luneta while the "program" was still in progress. I was hungry and I had to walk home (in Misericordia St., Sta. Cruz) since there were still no jeepneys. It was my father, then dabbling as stringer for INS (International News Service), who made me realize I had witnessed an important event in our history...The separation of the Philippines from America. "Bantug ra dihay daghang Pinoy nanghilak pagpakanaug sa American flag," I said.

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By the way, that American who hauled down the Stars and Stripes was Paul V. McNutt and the Filipino who raised our flag was President Manuel Roxas.