Brief History of American and Philippine Independence

By: Joe Mauricio

 

July 2, 1776 was the official American Independence Day that the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia voted to approve a resolution for independence from Britain.

On that same day, the Pennsylvania Evening Post published the following: “This day the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies as independent states.”

So why do we celebrate July 4th as our official Independence Day? We do because of a “little thing” called the Declaration of Independence document.

The document was adapted by the Continental Congress on July 4th. The first draft of the Declaration was written by Thomas Jefferson, who gave it to John Adams and Ben franklin for editing. Jefferson then took this version, refined it further, and presented it to the Congress. Scholars don’t even think the document was signed by the Continental Congress on July 4th.

The huge canvas painting by John Trumbull hanging in the grand rotunda of the U.S. Capitol depicting the signing of the Declaration, as it turned out, was a work of imagination. “No such scene, with all the dele-gates present, ever occurred in Philadelphia.”

It is now believed that most of the delegates aigned it on August 2. That’s when the assistant to the Secretary of Congress, Timothy Matlack, produced a clean copy. John Hancock signed first, and the last delegate to sign is believed to be Thomas McKean of Delaware in 1777.

The city of Philadelphia, where the declaration was signed, wait-ed until July 8 to celebrate with parade and firing of guns.

The Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington did not learn about it till July 9.

As for the British government in London, well, it did not know that the United States had declared its independence until August 30, 1776.

Similarly, the Philippines has a different independence history or story to tell…For some years now, Filipinos have been celebrating Independence Day on June 12, in accord with the declaration of General Emilio Aguinaldo, who declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898.

But this declaration was invalidated by the Treaty of Paris where-in Spain ceded the country to the United States at a measly sum of $20mil-lion. The Philippines became a property of the United States from December 1898 up to July 4, 1946, when it was declared to be independent and consequently recognized as a republic. Filipinos then were used to cel-ebrating July 4th as their independence day from the American rule.

When Diosdado Macapagal became the sixth president of the Philippines, he issued a Proclamation 28 in 1962, affirmng the invalidated proclamation of the Philippine independence from Spain.

Later, Proclamation 28 became the Republic Act 4166 that ordered the change of July 4th to June 12th for official Philippine Independence, and also ordered Filipinos to celebrate their independence on that day. ###