Philippine Events and History

 Significant Developments in the Philippines on March 12, 2025

On March 12, 2025, the Philippines witnessed a series of notable events spanning legal proceedings, international relations, environmental concerns, and public health advisories.​

Former President Rodrigo Duterte's Transfer to the International Criminal Court

Former President Rodrigo Duterte was transported to The Hague to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). This development follows his arrest on March 11, 2025, upon returning from Hong Kong, based on an ICC warrant related to allegations of crimes against humanity during his administration's anti-drug campaign. ​pna.gov.ph+3The Manila Times+3aljazeera.com+3

China's Accusation Against UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy

China accused UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy of "provoking tensions" after his visit to a Philippine coastguard station in the contested South China Sea. Lammy's visit, which included a tour of a coastguard vessel, was met with criticism from Beijing, urging the UK to respect China's territorial sovereignty and avoid sowing discord over regional disputes. ​The Times

Heat Index Alert in Dagupan City

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) issued a heat index forecast indicating that Dagupan City, Pangasinan, may experience a heat index reaching 44°C on March 12. Residents are advised to take necessary precautions to avoid heat-related illnesses. ​GMA Network

Class Suspensions Due to Extreme Heat

In response to the extreme heat forecast, local authorities have announced class suspensions in various areas to ensure the safety and well-being of students and educators. The public is advised to stay updated through official channels for further announcements. ​vocal.media

The Insufficiency of Filipino Nationhood

The Insufficiency of Filipino Nationhood

by Niels Mulder

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The Philippine Enigma

The Philippine Enigma
by Niels Mulder 
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Philippine and Filipino American History & Heritage

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Philippines: Reference Materials in University of Hawaii

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Philippine American History

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NCCA Philippine History Sourcebook

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CHINESE TRADE IN PRE-SPANISH PHILIPPINES: CREDIT, HOSTAGE AND RAID REGIMES

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Rizal’s Morga and insights into pre-Hispanic institutions and trade

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Full Airplane interview from August 21 1983 with Ninoy Aquino

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How Filipinos Got their Surnames

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7 Rare Apolinario Mabini Photos

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Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1959–1974

by Joseph Paul Scalice
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Filipinas Heritage Online Library

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PRESIDENT ELPIDIO QUIRINO PAPERS

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TEXT IN SPANISH

TRAVELOGUES

Manila

Magellan was first to sail around the world, right? Think again.

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Philippine Fossils Add Surprising New Species to Human Family Tree

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Acts of the Philippine Commission

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February 1945: The Rape of Manila

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Datus, Rajahs, and Sultans: How Wealthy and Powerful Were the Pre-Colonial Filipino Nobility?

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How the Filipinos in Balangiga avenged the Chinese in Peking

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Confessions of Aguinaldo and Bonifacio’s executioner and more ‘explosive’ finds on auction

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Returning the Bells

by Sung Kim

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Tejeros Convention

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Treachery in Tejeros

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Federalism References

Decentralization and Federalism in the Philippines: Lessons from Global Community

federalism.ph

Federalism 101 Part 1

Federalism 101 Part 2

If Federalism is the Answer, What is the Question

Decentralization, Not Federalism

Some Advantages of Federalism and Parliamentary Government for the Philippines

The Federalist Papers

The State of Our Regions by Cielito Habito

BANCOM Memoirs

by Dr. Sixto K. Roxas

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Rare Photos of Jose Rizal

Rare Photos of Jose Rizal

AWARD: In the Matter of the South China Sea Arbitration Between The Philippines and China

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Philippine Culture and History

What's New - Culture - Picturesque Old Philippines - History    Philippine Culture Filipino Ethnic Communities Philippine Folk Tales Philippine Ethnographic Map by Ferdinand Blumentritt (1890) Condiman (Philippine folksong) Interesting Manila: Old Organs and Choirs (1912) Kontemporaryong Gamelan Pilipino (KONTRA-GAPI) KONTRA-GAPI: Music Samples (WAV-Format) KONTRA-GAPI: Press comments Prospects for Transformation in the Philippines in the Next Millenium (by San E. Juan, Jr.) Samples of the PANABI Newsletter (courtesy of National Museum of the Philippines) Remote Links: Filipino Wedding  Includes marching and seating arrangements! Noel's Pilipino Folkdance Glossary  Thesaurus of Geographic Names: Philippines Datu Matu (Historical Fiction in Drama, by Steven P.C. Fernandez, Iligan City)  Gallery of Photographs from Mindanao (by Hans Brandeis)  POP (Picturesque Old Philippines)  Includes 150 turn-of-the-century photographs! Picturesque Old Philippines: Dwellings of the Bontoc Igorot  Picturesque Old Philippines: Public Services  Philippine History A Hispanized Philippines: A Good Option? (by Liz Medina)   Graciano López Jaena (by Robert L. Yoder) The Rebellion in the Philippines (Spanish View, 1896) The Filipino-American War of 1899 - 1902 and its Contemporary Resonance (by San E. Juan, Jr.) Mabini: Wounded Hero (by Robert L. Yoder) Philippine Heroines of the Revolution: Maria Clara they were not (by Robert L. Yoder) The Philippine Revolution (by Apolinario Mabini) The Austrian frigate Novara visits Manila (June 15 -25, 1858) Of the Philippines and Moluccas Pierre Sonnerat (1782) The Passing of Spanish Dominian (Forbes-Lindsay, 1906) Early Maps of Asia How Mariveles Got Its Name The Law of Marriage in the Philippines around 1900 Chronological Table of Leading Events in the Philippines The Story of the Philippines (by Murat Halstead, 1898) The Philippines and Round About (by G. J. Younghusband, 1899) America and the Philippines (F. Blumentritt, 1900) Ferdinand Blumentritt: An Austrian Life for the Philippines (by Harry Sichrovsky, 1987) More information on Philippine history and the Philippine Revolution can be found under "Rizal-Blumentritt Friendship". Early Travels Early Austrian Travelers to the Philippines VTR (Virtual Travels of Dr. José Rizal) Remote Links: Zur Geschichte der Philippinen  (by Margarete Payer, in GERMAN only) Mga Bayani  (A collection of very interesting pages on the prehistory and pre-contact culture of the Philippines and Filipinos by Paul Kekai Manansala) Philippine History Group of Los Angeles  (edited by Hector Santos) Philippine-American War Centennial Homepage (PAWCI)  by Rene N. Sumodobila The U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare (a work in progress on the web)  by John M. Gates, The College of Wooster The FlipBook  (by Papu Leynes) Philippine Bookstore Online  Sentenaryo/Centennial  (via Jim Zwick, Syracuse University) Philippines National Centennial Exposition 1998  Balangiga - An American Nightmare (by Bob Couttie) The Philippine Centennial Celebration  Österreichische Wissenschaftsarchive

 

	[Austrian-Philippine Home Page]
	Document created: May 12, 1995 updated: April, 2000 APSIS Editor Johann Stockinger

Philippine Folk Tales

by Mabel Cook Cole

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The Samal people in the Mindanao sea, pre-history-1900s : a historical study in ethnic origination, dispersion and migration

by Margarita delos Reyes Cojuangco

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Historical Timeline of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu Including Related Events of Neighboring Peoples

By Josiah C. Ang, PM 

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Chronology of a Revolution, EDSA 1986 ~ The Original People Power Revolution

by Angela Stuart-Santiago

The EDSA Revolution of 1986

Did Andrew Carnegie Offer 20 Million Dollar for Philippine Independence?

by Alan S. Cajes

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who is considered as the fourth richest man in the world for all time, was born to a poor family in Scotland. Years after immigrating to the United States, he became a steel magnate and one of the wealthiest businessmen of the United States. In 1901, he sold Carnegie Steel to John Pierpont Morgan, another industrialist in the United States, for $480 million (about $310 billion in modern dollars[i]). After retiring as a businessman, Carnegie spent his time doing philanthropic work[ii].

But on June 15, 1898, before Carnegie sold his company, the American Anti-Imperialist League was “formed to fight U.S. annexation of the Philippines, citing a variety of reasons ranging from the economic to the legal to the racial to the moral.”[iii]Carnegie was among the leaders of the league, which included famous men like Mark Twain and William James. He was also a member of the Philippine Independence Committee.

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Rizal as Teacher, Farmer, Surgeon and Engineer in Dapitan

by Alan S. Cajes

Jose P. Rizal said that he spent “four years, thirteen days, and a few hours” in Dapitan, now a third-class city in Zamboanga del Norte. The Spanish regime arrested and exiled the 31-year old surgeon to Dapitan from 17 July 1892 to 31 July 1896 for fear that he was sowing the seed of a movement towards independence.

In a letter to his friend, Fernando Blumentritt, on 5 April 1896, Rizal explained that Dapitan was “founded by Boholanos before or after the coming of the first Spaniards” and that “Dapitan means a place of rendezvous or meeting-place.” As a disclosure, let me state that I am a Boholano thus I was excited for the opportunity to visit the place during the holidays and gather data on Rizal’s ecological way of life in a home away from home. I have written elsewhere about the evacuation of some Boholanos to Dapitan. However, there is another narrative claiming that the evacuees were actually conquerors of the Boholanos and that they were forced out of their Mansasa-Dauis settlement as consequence of the raid by Ternate sometime in 1563. This article, however, has a simpler aim -- to piece together some of Rizal’s ideas and feelings during his banishment as embodied in his separate writings.

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The Causes of the Bataan Death March Revisited

Source: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

By Jim Nelson

Source: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

The fall of the Philippines was the largest defeat of an American armed force in the history of the United States, and the Bataan Death March was the most brutal series of war crimes ever committed against surrendering American or Philippine soldiers.  The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), the Pacific War’s equivalent of the Nuremburg trials formally established the general extent and kind of atrocities committed by Japanese troops but did not fully determine all of the causes that contributed to the Death March. To some degree the IMTFE’s inability to find and understand all of the causal factors led to a situation in which some of the less culpable were executed and some of the most culpable escaped justice. 

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Source: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

Keeping the Spirit of 1896 Alive

by Onofre D. Corpuz

The Filipino Revolution and its ideals were an inspiration to the nationalists of Southeast Asia of the late 1890s. Even today, high school pupils in our neighbor nations that were ruled by European colonial regimes read about our revolution and our Dr. Rizal in their history books.

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The Beginnings of Filipino Society and Culture

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The History of the Muslim in the Philippines

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Ancient History of the Philippines: An Introduction

by Alan S. Cajes

If the story of the universe is told in a calendar year[1], the following events happened from January to November: separation of the gravitational force from the infinite singularity; formation of a thick mixture of hydrogen and helium; birth of the galaxies; explosion of a star that spewed forth heavy elements such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, and then the birth of the solar system. In the 12^th month, December, the first microscopic forms of life emerged. On the last day of December, the first shell appeared. At the last minute of the last day of December, life emerged from the sea. During a tiny fraction of the last second of December 31, the first hominid ancestor of humans and apes and chimpanzees appeared.

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Revisiting Andres Bonifacio

by Ignacio Bunye, Manila Bulletin 

Using both primary historical documents and interpretative accounts of earlier historians, Dr. Guerrero, et. al., are submitting the proposition that:

1. When the plans of a general uprising were discovered, Bonifacio called a general meeting of the Katipunan on August 24, 1896. According to Santiago Alvarez, a thousand people came, indicating that there was already a government working when they declared the national government.

2. In that meeting, the Katipunan assembly made three decisions:

a. They declared a nationwide armed revolution to win freedom from Spain.

b. They established a national government.

c. They elected officials who would lead the nation and the army.

3. From a secret organization, the Katipunan became an open de facto government.

4. This de facto government had its constitution – the Kartilya ng Katipunan. An important document called “Casaysayan” defined the de facto government’s leadership and various positions.

5. Early documents referred to the de facto government as Haring Bayan ng Katagalugan. Haring Bayan means pamahalaan o republika.

6. Katagalugan encompassed not just the Tagalogs but all ethnic groups from the entire archipelago.

7. Katagalugan was preferred over the use of “Filipinas” to symbolize the complete break of the natives or “Indios” from the “Filipinos.” At the time, “Filipinos” referred only to Spaniards born in the islands – the so-called Insulares.

8. Haring Bayan ng Katagalugan had a near complete cabinet: A Secretary of War, a Secretary of State, a Secretary of Interior, a Secretary of Justice, a Secretary of Finance.

9. Haring Bayan ng Katagalugan had a diplomatic component – a “Commission” which tried to negotiate for Japanese political, military, and financial aid. The same “Commission” also tried to touch base with the US and French governments through their consulates in Hong Kong.

10. Haring Bayan ng Katagalugan had its own flag consisting of a red and white sun with the baybayin K in the center.

11. Haring Bayan ng Katagalugan had its own national anthem “Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan” which was composed by Julio Nakpil.

12. Haring Bayan ng Katagalugan commanded the loyalty of a significant portion of the population.

13. While it existed, the government held territory where it exercised the functions of a state, especially in Pasig and Morong.

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Can The Philippines Save Itself From Typhoons?

by GREG MYRE

For the third year in a row, the Philippines has been hit by a major storm claiming more than 1,000 lives, and the death toll from Haiyan, one of the worst on record, could climb to 10,000.

With thousands of islands in the warm waters of the Pacific, the Philippines is destined to face the wrath of angry tropical storms year after year.

So what can a poor, densely populated country do to mitigate the huge loss of life and the massive destruction?

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'Absolute Bedlam' In The Philippines After Typhoon Haiyan

by MARK MEMMOTT

The news from the Philippines, where it's feared that last week's powerful Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 10,000 people, isn't getting better as hundreds of thousands of people struggle to survive and authorities struggle to get help to them.

"It's absolute bedlam right now," Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, tells the BBC.

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My last talk with Ninoy Aquino

by FRANCISCO S. TATAD

President B. S. Aquino 3rd’s strong words in Boston, while recalling his father’s three year- medical furlough there, and his assassination at the Manila international airport upon his return on August 21, 1983, compel me to reveal for the first time a conversation I had with Ninoy Aquino at Harvard in the summer of 1982.

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Outdated restrictions

By Cielito F. Habito

In 2000-2011, we attracted an average of $1.1 billion in net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows per year, a pittance against Singapore’s $14.8 billion, Thailand’s $4.5 billion, Vietnam’s $3.9 billion, and Indonesia’s $2.3 billion. But last year, our net FDI inflows already amounted to $3.9 billion, nearly four times the earlier average annual figure. Impressive?

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The Marcos Diary : A Lust for Power, an Eye on Glory

 WILLIAM C. REMPEL and RICHARD E. MEYER

"If we do not prepare measures of counteraction, (Communist subversives) will not only succeed in assassinating me but in taking over the government. So we must perfect our emergency plan."

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Historical Facts, Historical Lies, and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea

by Justice Antonio T. Carpio

"All these ancient maps show that since the first Chinese maps appeared,the southern most territory of China has always been Hainan Island, with its ancient names being Zhuya, then Qiongya, and thereafter Qiongzhou. ““Hainan Island was for centuries a part of Guangdong Province until 1988 when it became a separate province.” 

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The 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro

On October 7, 2012, the Government of Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front released the Framework of Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which will pave the way for the establishment of the new autonomous political entity, the Bangsamoro, to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The agreement was signed on the afternoon of October 15, 2012, in ceremonies held in Malacañan Palace, witnessed by President Benigno S. Aquino III, Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, and other dignitaries.

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