Today is supposedly the 67th anniversary of Philippine independence because way back in my high school days at the University of San Carlos (USC) Boy’s High School (BHS) it was a momentous day when the nation would be holding parades and marches to commemorate the day when the United States brought down the American Flag and then President Manuel Roxas raised up the Philippine Flag… or was that event a mere footnote in Philippine history? Perhaps the US Embassy should remind us.
Pardon me my readers if every time this year I always write a similar piece about this important moment in Philippine history because it was 67 years ago when the nations of the world via the newly-formed United Nations (UN) which rose from the ashes of the League of Nations (LN) accepted the Philippines as a sovereign state. This is what my generation believes happened 67 years ago and no amount of flag raising will convince me that Philippine Independence really occurred when then Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo waved the Philippine Flag on June 12, 1898 in his home in Kawit, Cavite.
Philippine Independence Day is called in Tagalog Araw ng Kasarinlan or Araw ng Kalayaan…(Day of Freedom). However if you read your history lessons very well, when Gen. Aguinaldo raised the flag, not a single nation recognized Philippine sovereignty. Why? That’s because Gen. Aguinaldo did not even capture a single town or city. So why should Philippine Independence Day be celebrated on June 12? Why not on April 3?
Few Filipinos know that three months earlier, a Katipunero named Pantaleon “Leon Kilat†Villegas from Bacong, Negros Oriental given the full authority by the Katipunan leadership in Luzon gathered his Cebuano friends who despised the Spaniards, fought with the Spanish troops on April 3, 1898 at the corner of what is now called “Tres de Abril†corner V. Rama Ave. Leon Kilat outsmarted the better armed Guardia Civil who retreated through the streets of downtown Cebu City and straight into the secured walls of the Ft. San Pedro and kept the Spaniards at bay for at least four long days.
I do remember my Philippine history books by Gregorio Zaide and Teodoro Agoncillo. But I don’t remember reading any account of the exploits of Leon Kilat in those books. It was only later in my years when I began reading certain historic accounts that happened here in Cebu that I came across the heroic story of the nation’s forgotten hero, Leon Kilat. There are only two reasons why our famous historians did not mention the Cebu uprising… either they were completely unaware that history was being made in Cebu by the same anti-Spanish organization or that these Tagalog writers only portrayed the exploits of their Tagalog leaders… or both!
Unfortunately for Leon Kilat, the Cebuanos did not realize the significance of his victory over the Spaniards and only a handful few helped him and his men who were surrounding the Ft. San Pedro in the hope of starving the Spanish troops holed out in the fort. Perhaps because of our 400 years under Spanish rule, our forefathers probably thought that this was an isolated incident and the Spaniards would return with a vengeance.
Indeed four days after Leon Kilat declared freedom for Cebu, the Spanish Cruiser Don Juan Austria arrived with fresh troops and repulsed the Katipuneros of Leon Kilat. On April 8, 1898, Leon Kilat fled to the town of Carcar (the hometown of the Avila family) and his own aide-de-camp Apolinario Alcuitas and his seconds got Leon Kilat stoned drunk and they stabbed him to death in his bed, the ultimate form of treachery. That date was also Good Friday. Their plan was to surrender the body of Leon Kilat so that the Juez de Cochillo would spare their lives. As they did this… the Spanish had all of them executed.
But the flames of freedom was already burning in Cebu and weeks later another Katipunero, Gen. Arcadio Maxilom captured Toledo, Balamban and Tuburan. Then by the end of the month of April, another historic event occurred when the Asiatic Squadron of Admiral George Dewey sailed quietly under the guns of Corregidor and on the 1st of May, the famous Battle of Manila began, which was the final battle of the Spanish-American War against the Spanish Armada led by Gen. Patricio Montojo, whose flagship the Reina Christina was sunk. This was America’s greatest naval victory, where only nine Americans were wounded and only one navy officer died… of a heart attack.
So when Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo raised the Philippine Flag in his home on June 12, 1898, he was a “Johnny-come-lately.†No one even arrested him for waving the Philippine Flag. So today as you reflect on what really happened on that historic day 67 years ago, you should all be reminded that unfortunately a President Diosdado Macapagal changed our history. The whole truth and nothing but the truth is today is our 67th Independence Day.
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