THE PROCLAMATION OF THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE

The things that I have learned in the video are, the reason of Philippine revolution against the
Spain, who proclaimed the Philippine Independence under the dictatorial government, the real
definition of the Philippine Flag and the unsung history and bravery of Andres Bonifacio and the
Katipunan in the documentation.

The document reveals the reasons why the Philippine revolution happens, we all know that the
Spaniards holds the Philippines for 333 years. The Philippine revolution happen because many Filipinos
experienced the cruelty of Spaniards, they killed many Filipinos without any reasons. The time of
Spaniard also the time of injustices and inequalities, they making the church and authority to Filipinos.
The document also mentions the execution of Dr. Jose Rizal and the three-martyr priest the GOMBURZA.

The document reveals that the first dictator in the Philippine government, it was not Marcos.
There is also the explanation of our Philippine Flag, the meaning was different from what we are know
this day. Based on the document, the white triangle represents the emblem of Katipunan society, the
three stars represents the Luzon, Mindanao and Panay Island where the first revolution started. The sun
represents the gigantic strides made by the son of this land and the eight rays of the sun are the eight
provinces of manila. We know that colors of the flag commemorate the flag of the USA, history tells us
that Americans help us to gain our freedom from Spaniards. But Filipinos did not know that Americans
bought Philippines from Spain, this the Treaty of Paris. It sad to realize that there is a declaration of
Philippine Independence but the realty we are do not have the real freedom we deserve.

Then the Americans occupied the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo think that he with the
government can make the nation unite. Then Luna tried to unite the Filipinos, but Luna faces his death
because of his fellow Filipino and the Filipinos defeated by Americans. Another unsung historical truth
that I not really emphasis in the document is the foundation of the Katipunan, which is Andres Bonifacio
was the founding father of the Katipunan. The revolution begins because of Katipunan, if not because of
Bonifacio’s leadership together with the kaptipuneros. But the Katipunan is mentioned in the last part of
the document and Bonifacio and his contributions is not mention. We can say that there is selection of
information, biases on the perspective, content and context. It actually speaks the political biases, the
speaker said that these gaps are our tasks, to look for the other perspective, content and context of
particular document. As history student, I believe on what the speaker said.

CORAZON AQUINO’S SPEECH DURING THE JOINT SESSION OF THE US CONGRESS

Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuanco was born January 25, 1933, in Tarlac, Philippines. She
gradyated from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York in 1954, with a bachelor’s Degree in both
French and Mathematics. She is the 11 th President of the Philippines, becoming the first women to hold
the office. Widely accredited as the “Mother of Asian Democracy”. She has 6 years of presidential term
from February 25, 1986 to June 30, 1992 and died at the age of 76 on August 1, 2009.

On September 21, 1972, Marcos declared the Martial Law. Ninoy was jailed by Marcos on 1980
and Corazon accompanied him in the US. On February 1986 she run as the opposition’s presidential
candidate with Salvador Laurel as her Vice president. The people power revolution happens on February
25, 1986 and on September, 1986 she visited the US and gave a speech before the joint session of the
US congress. On her speech she sought help in addressing the 26 billion dollars of foreign debt and a
communist insurgency that grew from 500 armed guerillas to 16000, during the Marcos’ regime. She
called a help from the America for the Philippines in preserving our freedom. The speech writer was
Teddy Locsin Jr., it was assumed that it is written between April to September and delivered on
September 18, 1986 months after the EDSA revolution and # years after the death of his late husband.

The first part of her speech she acknowledged the speaker, senator Thurmond and the member
of congress. She reiterated her grief when left America to bury her husband and she said that she had
returned as the President for free people. Ninoy Aquino’s death was the Philippines’ resurrection and
the courage and faith which alone its people could b free again. Corazon quoted Archibald MacLeish
who said that “democracy must be defended by arms when it is attacked by arms, and with truth when
it is attacked by lies”. ‘Still, we fought for honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay.” Her speech also
appealing for help to recover that country. The speech of Corazon Aquino was influenced by the
situation of our country after Marcos. It is that Philippines was left oppressed for over more than a
decade that caused many Filipinos be burdened with dept committed by Marcos. The dust after the
Martial Law only started to settle, but the Philippines was calculating everything Marcos had Inflicted.

The speech centers the miserable experience of the Aquinos and how the government treated
them. She did not state the positive contributions of Marcos but focus on his negative deeds. Corazon’s
speech was based on her insights on the primary experiences before and after the death of late Ninoy
Aquino and on the fact that as a Filipino she was also felt devastated on the situation. As she took her
presidency, she had strongly impacted her nation and the world to view women as capable of handling
authority and power.

THE POLITICAL CARICATURES OF ALFRED MACCOY

There are some political caricatures telling us something about Filipinos and their situations
during the American era in the Philippines. We know that cartoons are also an art and is and
expressions, these arts are not just an expressionism but these are symbolic presentations of American
Occupation to the Philippines. Through the used of Dadaism and Symbolism the authors manifested
their own opinion towards the political and social situations of many Filipinos during the American time.

The first cartoon was published in the Independent on May 20, 1916. The cartoon shows Dr.
Santos from Tondo passing his crown to Dr. Barcelona (his brother-in-law), the Filipino guy wearing a
salakot was trying to stop him because it was his to begin with. The Cartoon speaks about politics, the
crown symbolizes the sovereignty Philippines should have. It is being said that the colonization of
Spaniards was passed to the America, the political cartoons actually speak off about. Also, political
dynasty was already showed in the cartoon, the authority was given or pass to the relatives just to stay
on power.

The second cartoon was published by the independent on June 16, 1917 by Fernando Amorsolo,
it is aimed as a commentary to workings of manila police at that time. The cartoon shows a child stole a
skinny chicken because of his hunger and the police pursuing the child and a man with salakot who is
Juan Dela Cruz was trying to stop the police. While pointing at the huge warehouses, he said that leave
the small time pick pockets and turn at the great thieves. We know that the American Occupation was
the start of modernization and industrialization in the Philippines, also the beginning of capitalism, and
the higher-class people are the in control to people. The cartoons speak about inequalities and gaps
between the riches and the poor, the sad reality is that we can still see it up to these days. The
favoritism and discrimination are also showed in the cartoon.

The third cartoon was the commentary of unprecedent cases of colorum in the city street, they
published this when fatal accidents involving colorum, taxis and other vehicles occurred to often. The
cartoon was representing the presence of automobiles and the new transportation system brought by
the Americans to Philippines, which is the good side of American occupation. The fourth caricature was
titled cinema, a blown-up officer was at the screen saying that couple are not allowed to neck and make
love in the theater. Two younger looked horrified while the older couple seemed amused. We all know
that the Spaniards taught us to be conservative as part of Christianity, but the time of American they
taught us to liberated when it comes to sex. The fifth cartoon was published in the independent on
November 17, 1915 titled Uncle Sam riding a Chariot, it was pulled by Filipinos wearing school uniforms.
The boys carrying American object like baseball bats, whiskey, and boxing gloves. The caricature shows
that Americans are subjugating and controlled the Filipinos, they are using sweet words but behind that
is their dark motives. The last cartoon was published by Lipang Kalabaw on August 24, 1907. The cartoon
showed Uncle Sam rationing porridge to the politicians and member of the Progresista Party while the
Nacionalista party wait for their turn. This showed what kind of society and politics in the time of
American, they not know the essence of democracy in the nation. Instead, they are competing with
other Party, history tells us that division cannot bring good in our society. These political cartoons or
caricature speaks the truth, the conditions of the Filipino, the coming of capitalism and the gap between
the rich and the poor, the politics what we had and the things we learned during the American
Occupation in the Philippines.