Calida’s ‘conflict of interest’

YESTERDAY marked the 120th year since Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo read out the Acta de la proclamacion de independencia, which, sadly, was not recognized by the Spanish regime and by many others in the archipelago and in the region.

To add insult to injury, Spain, after losing a one-sided war with the Americans, was forced to turn over the islands to Washington for a paltry sum of $20 million.

Many in the US didn’t even want us, but President William McKinley thought it was his administration’s responsibility to “educate,” “uplift,” “civilize” and “Christianize” us Catholic savages. Of course, he then went on to say: “Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines is the commercial opportunity to which American statesmanship cannot be indifferent. It is just to use every legitimate means for the enlargement of American trade.”

And so, from that period until 1934, when the Philippine Independence Act was passed and the Insular Government was dissolved to give way to the Commonwealth of the Philippines that would prepare the country for full independence in 1946, the country was under American tutelage.

During that time, Filipinos were taught to forget the atrocities they suffered in the hands of the usurpers during the first years of occupation and instead embrace everything Americana.

Oh, and let’s not forget those four years of Japanese occupation, which saw the country in ruins in its aftermath.

To those who don’t know, many of the devastation were not directly caused by the Japanese. It was American shelling that laid siege to every corner of the capital to flush out the interlopers that gave Manila the distinction of being the second most war-damaged city after the war. Warsaw in Poland was first.

And yet, with the country still barely able to stand on its own two feet, the American government granted us our independence on July 4, 1946.

(You know, I always thought that independence was to be gained and not to be granted. Oh well, I guess it’s a matter of semantics.)

Of course, the date would have to coincide with America’s own independence from Great Britain way back in 1776. Now, wasn’t that convenient?

Eighteen years into celebrating this farce, President Diosdado Macapagal issued Proclamation 28, declaring June 12 as a special public holiday.

Two years later, Republic Act 4166 officially changed the date of Independence Day from July 4 to June 12.

I don’t know if it was public pressure or the realization that we couldn’t be America’s little brown brothers forever that prodded the change of heart, but the question remains: When did the Philippines really gain its independence?