Monday, June 12, 2000 | 11:50 a.m.
Today is the 102nd anniversary of Philippine independence from Spain and a day for many Filipinos to reflect once again upon how this subject is portrayed in American history books as opposed to their own knowledge.
Missing from popular culture are any images of Filipinos fighting for their own independence.
Conventional thinking holds that the United States acquired sovereignty over the Philippines pursuant to the Treaty of Paris on Dec. 10, 1898. This treaty ended the Spanish-American War and freed Cuba.
Conventional thinking also holds that the United States benevolently governed its new colony in the Pacific until July 4, 1946, when it granted the Philippines independence.
Wedged in that 50-year period are the twin images of Gen. Douglas MacArthur proclaiming, "I shall return" when he fled Corregidor for Australia on March 17, 1942, and his landing on the beach of Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944.
The latter event is indelibly ingrained in the psyches of Filipino and American citizens as the single, defining moment of the Philippines' liberation and its transition two years later to self-rule.
Forgotten declaration
Unknown or forgotten is Filipino Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration of independence on June 12, 1898, from 327 years of oppressive Spanish rule. But it was an independence that was short-lived, lasting only about eight months.
At the time, the United States ignored it, as did the other sea-faring powers, Germany, England, and France. And even today, there is no way for Filipinos, Filipino-Americans and Americans to recognize, celebrate and honor the day without despairing of recorded history.
The fight for independence has been institutionalized in Western mainstream thinking as the "Philippine Insurrection of 1899." This has become a forgotten war that involved at its height 70,000 U.S. troops and the killing of 200,000 to 500,000 Filipino civilians, depending on whose account you read.
America's presence in the Philippines was its first experiment in colonialism as a superpower. It was drawn into the Far East as an adjunct to the Spanish-American War in Cuba.
Commodore George Dewey's victory over the Spanish naval fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, catapulted the United States to international prominence as a naval power and re-ignited back home the spirit of Manifest Destiny, which had shaped America's history of territorial expansion in North America.
The question of what to do with the Philippines was debated in Congress between the expansionists/imperialists and the isolationists. The former saw opportunities for new markets for American exports, an outpost for the lucrative China trade and a new duty to civilize what they considered to be an inferior race. The latter were opposed to subjugating people and they feared competition from cheap labor and the dilution of their superior race.
This debate, coupled with the scramble of the powers of northwest Europe to consolidate their holdings in the Caribbean, Africa and the Far East, formed the climate in which President William McKinley made policy decisions affecting the Philippines.
One such policy was to not commit to Philippine independence in the same way that the United States had committed to Cuba's independence. It is against this backdrop that America's negotiations and dealings with Aguinaldo have to be recognized as intentionally misleading and duplicitous.
Exiled at the time in Hong Kong and Singapore, Aguinaldo was persuaded by U.S. officials to return to the Philippines and resume his war against Spain. Given that the U.S. had just guaranteed Cuba's independence, had fought its own War of Independence and had articulated its national moral imperative in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Aguinaldo believed the United States to be an ally free of any imperialistic motives.
Aguinaldo's military assistance was essential to the U.S. because few U.S. troops were stationed in the Philippines. Under arrangements made by Dewey, Aguinaldo and 13 companions returned to the Philippines aboard the USS McCulloch, landing in Cavite on May 19, 1898. He set up an emergency dictatorial government on May 24, 1898, proclaiming:
"As the great and powerful North American nation has offered its disinterested protection to secure the liberty of this country, I again assume command of all the troops in the struggle of attainment of our lofty aspirations ..." He went on to proclaim that he would surrender power to a president and Cabinet when the islands were under "our complete control."
The first U.S. volunteer troops, approximately 2,000, did not sail from San Francisco until May 25, 1898, and only arrived in Cavite on June 30. By that time, Aguinaldo had already organized his armed forces, and with guns provided by Admiral Dewey, captured Spanish garrisons in quick succession until he controlled Luzon except for Manila.
Aguinaldo's men encircled Manila with trenches and cut off the water supply. Escape by sea was blocked by Dewey. Aguinaldo demanded the surrender of Spanish troops.
Oscar King Davis of Harper's Weekly commented, "Whatever the outcome of the insurgent problem here, Aguinaldo has saved our troops a lot of desperately hard campaigning. The Spaniards are completely hemmed in (with) no hope for them but surrender."
Dewey himself admitted in his biography that Aguinaldo's military successes had saved American troops.
The build-up of U.S. troops -- 8,000 by July 31 -- severely strained the relationship between the Americans and the Filipinos. Aguinaldo asked if the U.S. was planning to keep the islands. Gen. Thomas Anderson, one of the U.S. commanders, replied, "In 122 years we have established no colonies. I leave you to draw your own inferences."
The siege of Manila in early August 1898 best illustrates how the Philippine Revolution was manipulated by U.S. policymakers and military commanders.
Gen. Wesley Merritt assumed command of about 10,000 U.S. troops in the Philippines on July 25, 1898. Promising new artillery, a Merritt subordinate duped Aguinaldo's men into vacating a section of the trenches, which American troops soon occupied.
In the meantime, Dewey, through the Belgian consul, negotiated the Spanish surrender of Manila. The surrender took the form of a sham battle, as Spanish code dictated court martial for officers surrendering without a fight. Six Americans and 49 Spaniards died in the sham battle. The Spanish were allowed to surrender and save face at the same time.
Aguinaldo was excluded from the negotiations and from any participation in the siege of Manila. His troops were prohibited from occupying Manila alongside U.S. troops and he was barred from the surrender ceremony.
Between the sham battle of Manila and the signing of the Treaty of Paris on Dec. 10, 1898, tensions mounted between the Americans and the Filipinos. Hopeful that the U.S. Senate would refuse to ratify the Treaty of Paris in which the U.S. purchased the Philippines and Guam as spoils of war for $20 million, Aguinaldo continued a course of diplomacy and accommodated American demands against the counsel of his own advisors.
The accidental release to Aguinaldo of the full text of President McKinley's Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation in late December 1898 -- after the Dec. 10 signing of the Treaty of Paris -- disclosed the intentions of the U.S. to annex the Philippines and exercise sovereignty over it.
Came as friends
The proclamation asserted that the U.S. came "not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends," that America's paramount aim was to win the confidence, respect and affection of Filipinos through "benevolent assimilation," and that the sovereignty of the U.S. was to be extended over the entire country, by force if necessary.
Aguinaldo's sense of betrayal was complete.
"It was taken for granted that the American forces would necessarily sympathize with the revolution which they had encouraged and which had saved them much blood and great hardships," Aguinaldo wrote. "Above all, we entertained absolute confidence in the history and traditions of a people which fought for its independence and for the abolition of slavery; we felt ourselves under the guardianship of a free people."
His military advisers were incensed and both sides readied for war. Hopeful to the end that diplomacy would work, Aguinaldo agreed to the U.S. suggestion that both sides should seek reconciliation. For the Americans, this was a stalling tactic to buy more time until the arrival of more troops, an additional 12,000, bringing the total to 22,000.
On Jan. 23, 1899, Aguinaldo was inaugurated as president of the Philippine Republic and launched a constitutional government. No U.S. officials attended.
In America, the debate raged. Those against annexation argued: Federal statutes contained no provisions for colonies, that the U.S. could not annex territories abroad against the will of their people without violating its own principle of government, that annexation would open America to Filipinos and downgrade white supremacy.
A vote was scheduled for Feb. 6.
On Feb. 4, 1899, Pvt. William Grayson shot and killed a Filipino soldier on the San Juan Bridge in Manila. Thus began the "Philippine Insurrection of 1899." This prompted the ratification of the Treaty of Paris on Feb. 6, 1899, with a two-thirds majority vote on the tie-breaking ballot of Vice President Garret Hobart.
It was called an insurrection for two reasons. First, the U.S. War Department perpetuated an image of itself as the non-aggressor. As insurgents, Filipinos were cast in the light of unlawfully rising up against an established and duly constituted authority. Second, in downgrading the struggle to an "insurrection," they avoided having to pay combat pay to their troops. This marginalization of the Philippines' struggle for independence continues to haunt U.S.-Philippine relations today.
In reality, it was a full armed conflict on the part of the U.S. to implement McKinley's "benevolent assimilation" annexation policy. The atrocities included forcing people to move to specified zones with whatever food and possessions they could carry and burning everything outside the zone.
This prevented the people from aiding the Filipino soldiers.
Atrocities recounted
The suppression campaign of Gen. Jacob W. Smith in Samar is noteworthy. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a "howling wilderness."
"I want no prisoners," Smith ordered. "I wish you to kill and burn: the more you kill and burn the better you will please me." This order applied to everyone over the age of 10. Smith was subsequently court-martialed and found guilty.
The Anti-Imperialist League of America assembled graphic stories of atrocities from soldiers' letters: the bombarding of Malabon and the killing of every man, woman and child, the total destruction of the village of Maypayo, the use of the bodies of dead Filipinos as foundations for entrenchments, and the celebration of U.S. troops with cries of, "That shot was a peach!" as Filipino soldiers were blown up by artillery, bodies exploding in the air.
These accounts soured the American public on their adventure in the Philippines. What the Americans thought of as a humane and glorious assumption of responsibility to uplift an uncivilized, inferior society had become a repugnant and barbaric expose of America's darker side.
Although President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed victory and an end of the insurrection on July 4, 1902, the fighting actually lasted another 10 years.
The tenacity and determination of the Filipino people in defending their right to independence can be seen in these statistics on U.S. troops: 70,000 were already fighting in the Philippines in 1900, a total of 126,000 participated in the war, and 50,000 were still there when victory was declared.
Some have called the Philippine Insurrection of 1899 America's first Vietnam. We know the healing taking place in America from writings that have placed that war in its truthful historical context.
That is why Filipino Americans, who form the largest ethnic group within the Asian-Pacific Islander population in the U.S., want to place the fight for Philippines independence in its own truthful historical context.
This suppression of an independence movement that was no different from America's own revolution has never been fully acknowledged by the U.S.
Aurora Jose Wong has served as corporate counsel for her family businesses in North Las Vegas and Guam. She is on the Board of Visitors of Georgetown University Law Center and the board of directors of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, both in Washington, D.C. She writes a column, Speaking from the Heart, for the Asian Reader, a local monthly newspaper. She has lived in Las Vegas since 1985 with her husband, Buck.
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