On June 12, we celebrate the 123rd anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence and the focus of this celebration will be at the Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit (originally Cavite el Viejo), Cavite where the Philippine declaration of independence from Spain was declared and the Philippine flag officially unfurled by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.
These are considered to be common knowledge, but there are other facts, including stories of irony and theft, that many regarding this day, the Philippine flag, the persons involved and the shrine itself that should be made known to deepen our appreciation of this day.
First, though Philippine independence is over a hundred years old, the celebration on June 12 is only less than half that. Originally, that day was celebrated on July 4 (incidentally also the Independence Day of the USA), the day we regained our independence from our American colonizers in 1946, right after World War II. It remained that way until August 4, 1964 when, upon the advice of historians and the urging of nationalists, President Diosdado Macapagal signed into law Republic Act 4166 designating June 12 as the country’s Independence Day. Today, July 4 is just celebrated as Fil-American Friendship Day.
The original Philippine flag was designed by Emilio Aguinaldo himself, which was embroidered in gold and featured wide bands of blue (standing for unity and the noble aspirations of the Filipinos people) and red (symbolizing the willingness of Filipinos to shed their blood in defense of the nation), a white (signifying spiritual purity) equilateral triangle (representing the emblem of the Katipunan) with the eight-rayed sun (the first 8 provinces placed under martial law by Spain because of the insurrection—Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac) and three stars (the principal islands of the archipelago—Luzon, Mindanao and Panay) in it. Today, Panay has been replaced by the Visayas.
Though we would like to think so, the flag was not made in the country but in Hong Kong. Marcela Agoncillo, then in exile there with husband Felipe (who set up the propaganda office of Aguinaldo’s revolutionary government), welcomed the exiled Aguinaldo and members of the Hong Kong Junta Patriotica on May 4, 1890. Upon the request of Aguinaldo, she painstakingly sewed the flag in five days, with the assistance of a seven-year-old Lorenza, her eldest daughter, and Delfina Herbosa de Natividad.
The Aguinaldo Shrine where the event took place, now a National Shrine (turned over to the government on June 12, 1963), was the ancestral home of Aguinaldo. He was born here on March 22, 1869 and is also buried in a marble tomb in the middle of the garden. Aside from being the first president of the first constitutional republic in Asia, Aguinaldo is also our youngest president (at age 29) and our longest living president (he died on February 6, 1964 at the age of 94 years).
Though the Philippine flag was formally unfurled here, the flag was first unfurled two weeks earlier, on May 28, right after the Battle of Alapan in Imus where Filipino forces repulsed 270 Spanish marines, forcing them to surrender. In front of Teatro Caviteño, General Aguinaldo, in acknowledgement of the victory, brought out the Philippine flag and, in the presence of his men and the crowd, unfurled and hoisted it. That’s why Philippine National Flag Day is now celebrated on May 28 instead of the original June 12 (date changed in 1964). Later on, by virtue of Executive Order 179 issued on May 23, 1994, the period of celebration was extended from May 28 to June 12.
The Philippine flag was unfurled by Aguinaldo from the bank of capiz windows of the house and not from the cannon-capped Independence Balcony (now used by top government officials) we see today. The balcony was only added by Aguinaldo during the 1919 renovation. The Philippine national anthem (originally titled as the Marcha Filipina Magdalo), composed by Julian Felipe in just six days, was also played on that day by the marching band of San Francisco de Malabon (now General Trias town), but only as an instrumental music. The lyrics of the anthem that most of us know by heart today, now known as Lupang Hinirang, were only added in 1899, an adaptation of the Spanish poem Filipinas written by Jose Palma.
So where’s the original Philippine flag now? Many would think it’s in Cavite or even in Manila but they would have guessed wrong. It is now displayed at General Emilio Aguinaldo Museum in, of all places, Baguio City in Benguet together with two other historical flags—the Philippine flag of Aguinaldo when he was captured in Palanan (Isabela) and the personal flag of General Gregorio del Pilar which he captured from the Spaniards and taken from him when he was killed in the Battle of Tirad Pass in Northern Luzon.
Though our National Hero Jose Rizal, who inspired the Philippine Revolution with his writings, died nearly two years earlier, his blood relatives figured prominently in the events leading to our Independence Day. Aside from older brother Paciano Rizal who was a general during the Revolution, sisters Josefa and Trinidad were also Katipuneros. The aforementioned Delfina Herbosa de Natividad also happened to be the daughter of his sister Lucia. Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, who authored and read the Declaration of Philippine independence to the crowd from that same window, is also a distant relative of Rizal.
Regarding that 21-page declaration, the document was only ratified by the Malolos Congress three months later (September 18). Ironically, one of the 98 signers of the declaration was Mr. L.M. Johnson, a Colonel of Artillery in the US Army who witnessed the proclamation. Though he signed it, the declaration was never recognized by either the United States or Spain who later ceded the Philippines to the US in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War.
After its return by the US, the Declaration was stolen from the National Library of the Philippines by researcher Rolando Bayhon sometime in the 1980s or 1990s. After a subsequent public appeal for the return of the stolen documents and mediation by historian and UP professor Milagros Guerrero, 8,000 documents, including the Declaration, were returned to the National Library in 1994 where it remains to this day and, unlike the US Declaration of Independence, not on public display.
###
Image courtesy of Benjamin Layug
Read full article on BusinessMirror
