Philippines Celebrates 114th Independence Day

The Philippine Declaration of independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898 in Cavite II el Viejo (now Kawit), Cavite, Philippines. With the public reading of the Act of the Declaration of independence, Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain, which had been recently defeated at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.

The declaration, however, was recognized by neither the United States nor Spain. The Spanish government later ceded the Philippines to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War. The Philippine Revolutionary Government did not recognize the treaty, having already gained the upper hand in its war of independence from Spain. When the Americans sought to execute the terms of the treaty, a bitter three-year conflict, now called the Philippine-American War, ensued. This conflict represents the first of America's mass deployment of its troops into foreign soil and saw the evolution of guerrilla warfare as bands of poorly armed Filipinos challenged the highly organized and well provisioned US armed forces.

Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by U.S. forces on March 23, 1901. On April 19, He issued a statement acknowledging and accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the entire Archipelago. On July 2, 1902, U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root telegraphed that the insurrection against the sovereign authority of the United States in the Philippines had come to an end and that provincial civil governments had been established throughout the entire territory of the archipelago not inhabited by Moro tribes; pockets of resistance continued for several years, however.

After democratizing the governmental and educational systems of the country, the US granted independence to the Republic of the Philippines on 4 July 1946 via the Treaty of Manila.[4] July 4 was observed in the Philippines as Independence Day until August 4, 1964 when, upon the advice of historians and the urging of nationalists, President Diosdado Macapagal signed into law Republic Act No. 4166 designating June 12 as the country's Independence Day.[5] June 12 had previously been observed as Flag Day and many government buildings are urged to display the Philippine Flag in their offices.

-wikipedia