The Filipino-American Friendship Day

     Every 4th of July,  everyone knows the Americans celebrate the Independence day of their powerful country,  the United States of America commemorating the brave american shoulders who fought and died for the freedom against the British.
     The 4th of July was once a significant day among Filipinos in the old times.  It was once the independence day of the Philippines but was moved  to every 12 of July respectively and officially the 4th of July was recognized as the "Filipino-American Freindship Day. "

     The 4th of July was celebrated as the Filipino-American friendship day during the old times up to the latter part of the 80s.  This was to commemorate the strong alliance between the Americans and Filipinos against the japanese forces during the WWII and to remember the brave  soldiers of both Filipinos and Americans who fought intrepidly and died in the hands of the Japanese infantry.  But now adays,  this significant holiday is no longer celebrated because it was removed from Philippine official holiday list for political reasons and only very few people knew about this special day.

     Filipino-American friendship day was also known as the Philippine Republic day.  It was a commemoration in the Philippines celebrated yearly every 4th of July. It was formerly an official holiday designated as Independence day, celebrating the signing of ' Treaty of Manila ' which gave way to the Philippine independence from the United States after the WWII in 1946. It was a secular, heritage and governmental type of holiday.


History and background:

     The Philippines was an occupied territory of the United States from 1898 to 1946. It became a commonwealth in the beginning of 1935.  When the Japanese invaded the Philippines during the second world war,  the commonwealth became a government-in-exile precided by Manuel Luis Quezon.  When Douglas McArthur returned to the Philippines and landed in Leyte,  Sergio Osmena succeeded Manuel L.  Quezon after in 1944.  The return of McArthur lead to the bloody and gruesome battle against the Japanese imperial troops until the surrender of the Japanese in September 2, 1945 and the Philippines gained it's independence on July 4, 1946.
     For a very few years, the Philippine Independence was held every 4th of July. It was then Diosdado Macapagal moved the date to the 12th of June, the date in 1898 in which Emilio Aguinaldo issued the Philippine Independence from spain.  The 4th of July was declared as Philippine Republic day coinsiding with the American independence day under the Macapagal administration.

     This holiday was moved to the 15th of November be President Ramon Magsaysay as the observance of the Philippine-American day.

     Sometime, during the term of President Ferdinand Marcos,  The Filipino-American Friendship day was moved back to the 4th of July. It was during the term of  President Marcos that the relationship of  the Philippines and United States became closer and the alliance became much stronger.   It was also the time of height of the so called 'cold war' between The United States and Soviet union.
     During the coldwar the Soviets had strong influence to a very few South east asian countries leading to the creation of communist factions leading to the rise and threat of communism.  Kampuchea  ( now known as communist Cambodia ) fell under the hands of Khmer Rouge and Vietcong of the South vietnam allied with communist North Vietnam causing the fall of saigon.  In the Philippines,  The Communist Party of  the Philippines and the New People's Army ( CPP-NPA) were the very well known communist factions and  were considered as the worst threat and President Marcos took this seriously and didn't  want the Philippines to fall into the hands of communist sympathizers.
     Because of the threat of communism and the gradual rise of communist factions, President Ferdinand Marcos declared the Martial law which lead to the suspension of the 1935 constitution. President Marcos made the Philippine-American Frendship day which was relegated to a non-working holiday without mentioning of the Republic Day.

Delisting:

     After when President Marcos was ousted and President Corazon Coangco Aquino took over,  the practice of celebrating of the Filipino-American Friendship day as a non-working holiday was formally abolished in 1987 to give way to newly created holiday during that time such as People power and Ninoy Aquino day.  Section 26 of the Administrative code of 1987, specified list of Philippine holidays and nation wide special day didn't not include 4th of July.


     It wasn't fully understood why the Filipino-American Friendship Day was delisted some speculated that this was strongly linked to the ousted President  Marcos that any trace of him should be removed and deleted.  Well,  for whatever reason  no one will never know despite the fact that many Presidents of Philippines gave importance to it as reminder of our strong allegiance with the Americans who fought side by side with Filipinos against the Japanese during the WWII.

     Though the Filipino-American Freindship day is no longer celebrated, we Filipinos must not forget how our forefathers made a strong ties with our American allies and how they struggled, shed blood and fought bravely for the glory and freedom of the Philippines.  And we should always remember that this strong alliance help to counteract the possible rise of communism and up to now, we are living in a free country brought about by this alliance of both Filipinos and Americans.

Sources:

manila times online
Wikipedia> Filipino-American Frienship Day