Today in History : March 20th

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1596: Felipe II grants the city of Manila a second coat-of-arms. It is more to the liking of the Spaniards than the first.

1784: Governor Jose Basco y Vargas promulgates a decree prohibiting the seizure of farmers’ lands, carabaos, and farm implements by creditors, as well as the farmer’s arrest or imprisonment while planting or harvesting their crops.

1843: Birth of General Ambrosio Flores, who succeeded General Antonio Luna as Aguinaldo’s secretary of war and revolutionary general. Ambrosio died on June 24, 1912.

1896: Andres Bonifacio decrees that all town presidents of the Katipunan districts must hand in their collections to their respective provincial presidents who, in turn, must submit them to the supreme government of the Katipunan.

1899: General Emilio Aguinaldo and 25,000 well-armed troops digs in at Marilao. His desciplined soldiers keep an impressive line of defense that stretches all the way from Marilao to Malolos.

1900: General Manuel Tinio orders the killing of all officials who fail to report to the nearest guerrilla commander the movements and plans of the American troops. Manuel Tinio y Bundoc was the youngest General of the Philippine Revolutionary Army and in 1907, elected Governor of the Province of Nueva Ecija, Republic of the Philippines.

Today in History : March 15th

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1872: Governor-General Rafael de Izquierdo creates the Telegraph Practical School. Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters. It is a compound term formed from the Greek words tele (τηλε) = far and graphein (γραφειν) = write. Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy transmits messages using radio. Telegraphy includes recent forms of data transmission such as fax, email, telephone networks, and computer networks in general.

1899: General Mariano Trias submits to President Aguinaldo the report of the Commission of Investigation on the incident at San Juan Bridge on February 4, 1899. The Commission concludes that the Americans were the first to fire and that their attack had been premeditated.

1900: Manila officials do what they can to carry out the provisions of the treaty of Paris. Spanish officers about to be returned to Spain are urged to take their Filipino wives with them. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783, ratified by the Congress of the Confederation on 14 January 1784 and by the King of Great Britain on 9 April 1784, formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America, which had rebelled against British rule.

1912: End of the term of William Cameron Forbes as governor-general of the Philippines. He was the son of William Hathaway Forbes, president of the Bell Telephone Company, and wife Edith Emerson, a daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, nephew of James Grant Forbes and grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes. After graduating from Harvard in 1892, he embarked on a business career, eventually becoming a partner in J. M. Forbes and Company.

1946: A scroll commemorating “the brave fight of the Filipino people for liberty” and signed by thousands of war-bond purchasers in the city of Washington, D.C., U.S.A., is handed to Paul V. McNutt for delivery to the Philippines. --President Sergio Osmeña places the Military Police Command of the Philippine Army under the Secretary of the Interior.

1963: President Macapagal directs Budget Commissioner Faustino Sy-Changco to release the amount of P6 million for the purchase of the Tatalon Estate in Quezon City.

Today in History : March 14th

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1872: Jose Maria Basa, Antonio Maria Regidor, Balbino Mauricio, Ramon Maurente, Maximo Paterno, Father of Jose Maria Guevara, Father Agustin Mendoza, Feliciano Gomez, Pedro Dandan, Anacleto Desiderio, Miguel Lara, Miguel Rodriguez, Miguel Fernandez, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, Pio Maria Basa, Father Mariano Sevilla, and others, sail on board the Flores de Maria bound for the Marianas islands to serve their prison terms for complicity in the Cavite Uprising.

1898: From Malolos Don Pedro A. Paterno replies to General Aguinaldo’s letter stating that he did not consent to the division of the P200,000 received from the Spanish Government by the revolutionary leaders left behind in Biyak-na-Bato. He says that he arrived in Manila from Hongkong on January 11, 1898 and learned that the money had been divided by the leaders on December 29, 1897.

1899: General Otis reports to the Adjutant-General in Washington that General Wheaton has attacked a large force of “the enemy” with heavy losses on the “Filipino” side. Other dispatches state that “fierce opposition” was offered by the Filipinos. Major Grant is ordered to take one of the gunboats and destroy all the vessels in Laguna de Bay.

1901: General Mariano Trias surrenders to the Americans in Santa Cruz de Malabon, Cavite. Mariano Trías y Closas is considered to be the first de facto Philippine Vice President of that revolutionary government established at the Tejeros Convention - an assembly of Philippine revolutionary leaders that elected officials of the revolutionary movement against the colonial government of Spain.

Today in History : March 13th

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1877: Birth of Leandro Fullon, revolutionary general and provincial governor of Antique. Died on October 16, 1904.

1899: General Wheaton’s Provincial Brigade sets out from San Pedro Makati at 6:30 a.m., beginning the extension of American lines eastward to the shores of Laguna de Bay. Frank (Francis) Wheaton was a career military officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and Indian Wars.

Today in History : March 11th

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1565: Miguel López de Legazpi reaches Camiguin from Limasawa. Legaspi, also known as El Adelantado (The Governor) and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who established one of the first European settlements in the East Indies and the Pacific Islands in 1565. After obtaining peace with various indigenous tribes, López de Legazpi made the Philippines the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571.

1576: Juan de Salcedo, “the Hernan Cortes of the Philippines,” dies at Vigan. Juan de Salcedo was a Spanish conquistador. He was born in Mexico in 1549 and he was the grandson of Miguel López de Legazpi and brother of Felipe de Salcedo. Salcedo was one of the soldiers who accompanied the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in 1565.

1876: A protocol signed by England and Germany recognizes Spanish rights to the Tawi-Tawi group and the chain of islands stretching from Sulu to Borneo.

1876: A Supreme Court is established in the City of Cebu. Cebu is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands.

1892: A royal decree is issued creating the Superior Normal School for Women Teachers in Manila under the direction of the Augustinians. University of Wisconsin–Superior is it's name today.

1898: General Emilio Aguinaldo appoints General Ambrosio Flores as quarter master for the armed forces of the Philippine Revolutionary government.

1899: Premier Mabini sends telegrams to the municipal and military chiefs of the provinces along the coasts instructing them to admit foreign merchant ships which might want to take loads of merchandise. --Desultory firing occurs at San Pedro Makati and caloocan. Filipinos are driven from a trench they have begun to construct. A War Department order withraws permission for families of officers and enlisted of officers and enlisted men to accompany troops to Manila.

1942: General Douglas MacArthur and his family leave Corregidor for Australia.

1945: Romblon and Zamboanga are occupied by the Americans in World War II.

1946: Col. Akira Nagahama, terror of Fort Santiago and head of the kempeitai during the latter part of the Japanese occupation, is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging by the U.S. military tribunal.

1947: The Filipino people, headed by Manuel A. Roxas, ratifies the nation-wide plebiscite on the “Parity Amendment” to the Constitution. This gives the Americans and Filipinos equal rights in the exploitation of the natural resources of the Philippines.

1988: To counteract the threat of war in Mindanao, the government creates the Regional Consultative Commission. The commission is given the task to draft a charter for an autonomous region in Mindanao. The body is composed of 55 members, 27 from electoral districts in Mindanao and 28 others chosen by President Aquino. The secretariat is based in Zamboanga City.

Today in History : March 10th

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1583: Death of Governor-General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa, founder of Nueva Caceres in 1582. His first official action was to order Manila to become Philippines's political and economic capital in 1582. That same year, he established the Palacio del Gobernador (Governor's Palace) in Intramuros, Manila to integrate all governmental activities in the Philippines.

1785: The Real Compañia de Filipinas is established with a capital stock of P8,000,000 in 32,000 shares of P250 each. Its chief objective is to open commercial relations among the different colonies of Spain.

1820: King Ferdinand VII issues his famous manifesto proclaiming the re-establishment of the Cortes and the restoration of the Constitution of 1812.

1869: Birth of Macario Adriatico, lawyer, legislator, orator, scholar, journalist, and editor of La Independencia, in Calapan, Mindoro. He also helped liberate Romblon from the colonizers, and became Comandante de Estado Mayor of the Filipino Army in Panay at the dawn of the Filipino-American War until 1901. As a writer, Adriatico had contributed many of his works to several publications, and edited the Partido Conservador's Diario de Filipinos in 1907. Died on April 14, 1919.

1892: The lodge Nilad, which was established by Pedro Serrano Laktaw and Antonio Luna, is recognized by the Gran Oriente Español, the Spanish mother lodge.

1899: The U.S. transport Grant, with Major-General Henry Lawton, the Fourth Infantry, and a battalion of the Seventeenth Infantry aboard, arrives in Manila. The Council of Government agrees with the Permanent Commission of Congress to establish a Supreme Court in the capital of the Republic “because the cases are pilling up for lack of judges to try them.”

1900: President Emilio Aguinaldo issues a proclamation making it “a grave crime against the sovereignty of the Philippine Republic” for friars and other foreign priests, illegally holding ecclesiastical office of the Philippines, to ask the government of the U.S., at war with the Philippine Republic, to re-establish the ecclesiastical order that existed in the country before the Revolution.

1901: Don Isabelo de los Reyes’ periodical, Filipinas Ante Europa, publishes General Emilio Aguinaldo’s general order regulating the exchange of prisoners of war with the Americans and treating as traitors the partisans of the Federal party.

1917: Batangas was formally founded as one of the Philippines's earliest encomiendas. Batangas is one of the most popular tourist destinations near Metro Manila. The province has many beaches and famous for excellent diving spots only a few hours away from Manila. Some of the more notable ones are Anilao in the Municipality of Mabini, Matabungkay in the Municipality of Lian, Punta Fuego in the Municipality of Nasugbu, the Municipality of Calatagan and Laiya in the Municipality of San Juan.

1947: President Manuel A. Roxas narrowly escapes death during a “Parity” rally at Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila. Julio C. Guillen, a barber, hurls a hand grenade on the platform immediately after the President delivers a speech.

Today in History : March 8th

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1565: Felipe Salcedo takes possession of the island of Leyte. Felipe de Salcedo was a Spanish explorer who was a member of the López de Legazpi expedition to the Philippines in the 16th century. He accompanied his brother Juan de Salcedo and grandfather Miguel López de Legazpi in 1564 for their colonization of the East Indies and the Pacific. He commanded 1 ship, out of 5 fleets that sailed from Mexico to the Philippines.

1860: Birth of Antonio San Agustin, businessman, one of the “Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite,” in San Roque, Cavite. Antonio was a scion of a wealthy family. He studied at Letran College and University of Santo Tomas. He was married to Juliana Reyes. He owned the only bookstore, La Aurora, in the town which was used as a meetingplace by the Katipunan. Died on September 12, 1896.

1897: The Bishop of Vigan designates Fray J. Florentino Fernandez, a Dominican, the first Parish priest of Peñablanca, Cagayan.

1899: A citizenship certificate is made obligatory for all those holding official posts, entering into public or private contracts, registering and collecting remittances, salaries and pensions.

1901: From Palanan, President Emilio Aguinaldo instructs Apolinario Mabini to thank General Arthur MacArthur on his (Aguinaldo’s) behalf for the invitation extended to him to live in Malacañang Palace and to say that the Filipinos who have taken up arms have no other desire except Philippine independence.

1904: Artemio Ricarte y Garcia and an old friend, Aurelio Tolentino, write a long letter to Governor Wright setting forth their aspirations: the founding of a Filipino Republic.

1947: President Manuel Roxas, foremost leader of the Liberal Party, leaves for the southern provinces to campaign for the acceptance of the Parity Rights Bill.