Philippines Independence Day

This commemorates the declaration of Philippine Independence from Spain in 1898. The Philippine Revolution began in 1896. The Pact of Blak-na-Bato signed on 14th December 1897 established a truce between the Spanish colonial government and the Filipino revolutionaries. Under its terms, Emilio Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders went into exile in Hong Kong. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Commodore George Dewey sailed from Hong Kong to Manilla Bay leading the U.S. Navy Asiatic Squadron. On 1st May 1898, Dewey defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Manilla Bay, which put the U.S. in control of the Spanish colonial government. Later that month, the Navy transported Aguinaldo back to the Philippines. On 5th June 1898 he issued a decree at his house proclaiming that 12th June 1898 as a day of independence. But America and Spain didn’t recognise their independence, the Spanish government later ceding the Philippine archipelago to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The Philippines Revolutionary Government did not recognise the treaty and the two sides fought the Philippine-American War. The USA granted independence to the Philippines on 4th July 1946, the date chosen as it was USAs independence day. That day was observed until 1962, when, on 12th May, President Diosdado Macapagal, issued Presidential Proclamation No.28, which declared 12th June as a special public holiday throughout the country, with the 4th July becoming Republic Day. 12th June used to be the country’s flag day, but this was moved to 28th May in 1965.