Eufemio Agbayani III
Historic Sites Development Officer II
Last year, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines unveiled a historical marker on the corner of Silencio and Sociego Streets where it was believed that the first shot of the Philippine-American War was triggered.
The text of the marker and the special working holiday on which it was unveiled is the culmination of more than a century’s worth of advocacy to recognize the conflict between the Filipinos and Americans as a war between an independent nation and another trying to conquer it.
Dr. Ma. Sheilah Lacuna-Pangan, then-Vice Mayor of Manila, salutes the historical markers commemorating the Philippine-American War on the corner of Silencio and Sociego Streets, Manila on Philippine-American War Memorial Day, 4 February 2021
The Label
The war that ensued was referred to merely as an insurrection by the Americans who thought that as of 10 December 1898, sovereignty over the country had been transferred to them by Spain through the Treaty of Paris. The Americans were conscious of the existence of a Filipino government which exercised control over large portions of the country, but they refused to recognize it. The term ‘Philippine Insurrection’ stuck for a long while, appearing in official records and even books. For a long time, the collection of documents captured from the Philippine Republic by the Americans were even referred to as the Philippine Insurgent Records.
However, people long desired to call the conflict a war between two nations. The term “Filipino-American War” had been used abroad as early as 1900 in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Filipino Martyrs: A Story of the Crime of February 4, 1899 and by Filipinos as early as 1916 in the book The Case for the Filipinos by Maximo M. Kalaw. By the time the Philippine Historical Committee drafted in 1940 the text of a marker remembering the events of 4 February 1899, it had been labelled “First Shot in Filipino-American War.”
1941 Marker by Philippine Historical Committee
currently installed at the corner of Silencio and Sociego Streets, Sampaloc, Manila
Despite the term “Filipino-American War” being made official through the historical marker, efforts had to be made to raise awareness about the War. In his columns in the Daily Globe in 1988, historian Renato Constantino criticized the national government’s seeming lack of awareness of the War and encouraged commemorating it as “a fight for the defense of an independence already won.” After all, it was a time when tensions were high in connection with calls for the United States to return their military bases in Subic and Clark to the Philippines and the prevailing consensus that the Americans came to educate Filipinos was being questioned.
Thankfully, efforts were made to recognize the legacy of the War which included demands for an official apology, phasing out the term “Philippine Insurrection” in the U.S. Library of Congress, and a corrective plaque installed at the Minnesota State Capitol on 4 February 2002.
The Location
It is not exactly known when the first marker was placed on the bridge of San Juan. As early as November 1940, Philippine Historical Committee Chairman Eulogio B. Rodriguez knew that the first shot happened along Sociego Street, at least according to a report.
As early as 1988, historian Dr. Benito Legarda Jr. published columns in Mr. & Ms. Magazine disputing that the War began at the San Juan Bridge. Perhaps heeding this call, the national government commemorated the centenary of the first shot both on Silencio street and the San Juan Bridge.
Meanwhile, the National Historical Institute formally received a report from Dr. Legarda a month later and began thorough discussions which led to a Resolution on 27 January 2003 resolving to remove the 1941 marker from the bridge and placing it on the corner of Sociego and SIlencio Streets.
In 2014, another attempt to verify the location was done by overlapping existing maps from the period and studying them considering contemporary accounts. It affirmed that the first encounter happened along Silencio Street, although the exact location where the first shot was fired could not be determined definitively.
2004 marker by the National Historical Institute
formerly installed at the corner of Silencio and Societo Streets, Sampaloc, Manila
To clarify the old Spanish-era San Juan Bridge’s role in national history, a marker was inaugurated in 2009. The text juxtaposes two events that occurred there: it was where a conference between the Filipino and American commanders, Col. Luciano San Miguel and Col. John Stotsenburg, was held and it was also where Filipino and American soldiers clashed after the onset of the Philippine-American War.
2009 marker by the National Historical Institute on San Juan Bridge
The Date
The Americans sought to nip what they saw as an insurrection in the bud by capturing President Emilio Aguinaldo in March 1901, and a proclamation he released the following month led to a series of capitulations by Filipino military leaders. Satisfied with their so-called pacification, the Americans declared the war officially over on 4 July 1902.
However, clashes continued throughout the country even after that date. Hence, placing the end of the war in 1902 has been questioned by Filipino historians who wanted to include as part of the War, movements such as the Republikang Tagalog by Macario Sakay which lasted until his surrender in 1906; armed religious and peasant movements in Luzon and the Visayas which lasted until 1911; the continuation of the Moro Wars lasting until the Battle of Bud Bagsak in June 1913, and indigenous resistance in the Cordilleras, which also ended in a battle in the same year. These activities were labelled by the American authorities as rebellions and brigandage, excluding them from the usual understanding of the so-called ‘Insurgency’.
In his A History of the Philippines (1987), former National Historical Institute Chairman Samuel K. Tan called the period of 1898 to 1913 as the “military phase” of the American occupation. He later authored a book entitled The Filipino-American War, 1899-1913 (2002). Meanwhile, in the posthumous eighth edition of Teodoro Agoncillo’s History of the Filipino People (1990), the period of 1901 to 1913 was called “The Continuing Resistance” for the Filipino masses.
All these are enshrined in the historical marker unveiled last year. It ends with a brief but meaningful sentence recognizing that the War ended on 15 June 1913. It also moved the focus of the remembrance away from the American soldier who fired the first shot and highlighted the response by Filipino troops.
The most recent marker asserts the position that it was the First Philippine Republic which was at war with the United States. It reminds us of Emilio Aguinaldo’s message after he was inaugurated as President on 23 January 1899:
Tayo’y hindi na insurrecto, hindi na revolucionario, sa macatuid baga’y mg̃a tauong nanandata upang lansaguin at inisin ang caauay.–Mg̃a republicano na ng̃a tayo buhat ng̃ayon, alalaong baga’y mg̃a tauong may catouiran, at maituturing nang capatid ng̃ lahat ng̃ ibang lupa, sa pamamaguitan ng̃ matuid na paggagalang̃an at pagtiting̃inan. Ganap nang̃ang lahat upang tayo’y maquilala at matangap na Nacióng malaya at nagsasarili.
(We are no longer insurgents, nor revolutionaries; rather, we are people who bear arms to dismantle and frustrate the enemy. We are indeed republicans from now on, people who have justice, and a brother to other lands, through mutual respect and affection. We have done everything to be recognized and accepted as a free and independent Nation.)
2022 marker by the National Historical Institute
currently installed at the corner of Silencio and Societo Streets, Sampaloc, Manila
The law creating Philippine-American War Memorial Day and the marker unveiled last year are a culmination of advocacy, lasting more than a century, to recognize the independence won and defended by Filipinos at the turn of the 20th century. The challenge for us today is to learn and re-learn lessons from it as we continue to defend and preserve the freedoms our ancestors won and regained for us in the context of an ever-connected world.
Sources:
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