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 19th

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1731: Birth of Gabriela Silang, heroine of the Ilocos Revolt, wife of Diego Silang in Caniogan, Ilocos Sur. María Josefa Gabriela Cariño Silang or simply known sa Gabriela Silang was the first Filipino woman to lead a revolt during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. An active member of the insurgent force of Diego Silang, her husband, she led the group for four months after his death before she was captured and executed.

1946: Catanduanes, formerly a part of Albay, is inaugurated as a separate province by virtue of Act. No. 687. Catanduanes is located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. Catanduanes' capital is Virac and the province lies to the east of Camarines Sur across Maqueda Channel. As of 2007, the population of the province is 232,757.

Today in History : March 18th

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1945: Panay is invaded by the American forces. Panay is located in the western part of the Visayas. Politically, it is divided into five provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, and Guimaras, all in the Western Visayas Region. It is located southeast of the island of Mindoro and northwest of Negros, separated by the Guimaras Strait. Between Negros and Panay Islands lie the island-province of Guimaras. To the north is the Sibuyan Sea and the islands of Romblon; to the southwest is the Sulu Sea and the Panay Gulf.

1957: Vice-President Carlos P. Garcia is sworn in as President of the Philippines. Incumbent President Carlos P. Garcia won his opportunity to get a full term as President after the untimely death of Ramon Magsaysay in a plane crash. His running mate, Senator Jose Laurel, Jr. lost to Pampanga Representative Diosdado Macapagal. This was the first time in Philippine electoral history where a president was elected by a plurality and not majority, and in which the president and vice president came from different parties.

Today in History : March 17th

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1521: Magellan lands in Limasawa. Limasawa is a 6th class municipality and an island of the same name in the province of Southern Leyte, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 5,157 people in 1,108 households, it lies south of Leyte, in the Mindanao Sea and is about 10 km from north to south.

1761: Francisco Javier de la Torre becomes ad interim governor of the Philippines. During hi term laws regulating commerce, the army, and the welfare of the islands are established.

1874: Manuel Blanco Valderama becomes ad interim governor-general of the Philippines.

1877: Birth of Patricio Mariano at Santa Cruz, Manila. Patricio was a Filipino writer, poet, journalist and translator in the early 20th century Philippines. He wrote several Tagalog novels, which include Ang mga Anak Dalita and Ang Tala sa Panghulo. Mariano died at the age of 58 on January 25, 1935.

1898: A Spanish vessel enters Batangas Bay and siezes the Santisima Trinidad owned by General Francisco del Castillo where the secret papers of the Katipunan are kept.

1898: The Naic Assembly introduces a change in the Filipino flag. The Malayan letter K is replaced by a big sun with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. It was the first official flag of the Filipino.The flag remains in use until the signing of the Pact of Biyak-na-Bato in December, 1897.

1957: President Ramon Magsaysay dies in a plane crash in Cebu. Magsaysay left Manila for Cebu City where he spoke at three educational institutions. That same night, at about 1 a.m., he boarded the presidential plane "Mt. Pinatubo", a C-47, heading back to Manila. In the early morning hours of March 17, his plane was reported missing. It was late in the afternoon that day that newspapers reported that the airplane had crashed on Mt. Manunggal in Cebu and that 25 of the 26 passengers and crew aboard were killed. Vice-President Carlos P. Garcia assumes the presidency.

Today in History : March 16th

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1521: Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines where he landed in Samar. Magellan was a Portuguese explorer and was born at Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, but later obtained Spanish nationality in order to serve king Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands".

1705: The Sultan of Jolo, as a token of friendship, writes a letter to Governor-General Zalbálburu informing him that he has chosen to cede to the Spanish Crown his possessions on the island of Paragua, now as Palawan, including the neighboring isle of Lauag, Balabac.

1946:The remains of a number of prominent Filipinos, victims of Japanese Atrocities including Juan M. Elizalde, Enrico Pirovano, Rafael Roces, Jose Mañosa Ozamis, and Virgilio Lobregat, are found in a common grave at the Chinese cemetery.

1900: The Second Philippine Commission, aslo known as Taft Commission, was appointed by McKinley and headed by William Howard Taft, was granted legislative as well as limited executive powers

2001: Two owners of Ozone Disco, Ramon NG and Hermilo Ocampo get 4-year jail term and a fine of P20 million after they were declared guilty of “reckless imprudence” resulting to 160 deaths and 195 injuries after a fire erupted on the said disco house on 18 March 1996. The two are also ordered to pay P150, 000 in death indemnity and damages to the families of fatalities and P100, 000 to those who were injured.

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.