On This Day - June 25, 1950 - The Korean War began when fighting erupted at the 38th Parallel

 

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when fighting erupted at the 38th Parallel. The Philippines would be the first Asian nation to send combat troops for the aid of South Korea (Republic of Korea). The legal framework for sending military personnel to the Korean Peninsula would be Republic Act No. 573, which was approved on September 7, 1950 during the administration of President Elpidio Quirino. This law created the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK).
During the same month, the first PEFTOK contingent composed of around 1,400 troops were assembled at Rizal Memorial Stadium for a send-off rite attended by 60,000 people. By September 19, 1950, they arrived in Busan (Pusan), the last United Nations defense line.
Among the highlights of Filipino service in Korea would be the Battles of Yultong (Yuldong) and Imjin River (Solma-ri).

From April 22 to April 25, 1951, 900 Filipino troops organized under the 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) fought alongside United Nations (UN) forces to hold the line at Yultong (Yuldong) and Imjin River (Solma-ri) against thousands of Communist soldiers during the Chinese Spring Offensive of the Korean War, a concerted campaign by combined Chinese and North Korean troops aimed to break the UN forces and drive them out of Korea. During these battles, the Filipino side suffered 12 killed in action and 38 wounded, as against 501 casualties on the Communist side.

Initially ignoring orders to withdraw, Filipino troops, particularly the 70-strong Tank Company, were still counterattacking in hopes of recovering the bodies of their fellow soldiers killed or wounded in action. Although unsuccessful in their later rescue of the British Gloucestershire Regiment (1st Glosters) at Hill 235, the outcome of the said battles managed to delay the Chinese-North Korean offensive in this sector. Had the UN line collapsed in the initial Communist breakthrough, it was argued they would have had better chances for their campaign to recapture Seoul by May 1951.

Among those lost in the battlefield were BCT officers Captain Conrado Yap and Lieutenant Jose Artiaga. Yap was posthumously awarded the Philippine Medal of Valor and the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross, while Artiaga was posthumously awarded the Philippine Distinguished Conduct Star. After these engagements, the 10th BCT would be transferred to the Han River. By May 1951, they would have lost around half of their original strength. Of the 1,367 Filipino soldiers who arrived in Korea, 150 have been killed, 182 wounded or missing, another 182 declared physically unfit for combat, and 104 sent home after being wounded. They would eventually be relieved by the 20th BCT in August 1951.
Meanwhile, according to Korea's Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA), 112 Filipino soldiers were killed, 288 were wounded, 16 went missing in action, and 41 became prisoners of war out of the total 7,420 troops sent during the course of the Korean War. Republic Act No. 1886, approved on June 22, 1957 during the administration of President Carlos P. Garcia, extended educational benefits to Filipino veterans of Korean War.

As of 2019, over 2 million Koreans visit the Philippines, while half a million Filipinos go to South Korea.

Tolkien explains why the Fellowship didn't fly the Eagles to Mordor in LEGO

So this is why the Fellowship didn't fly the Eagles to Mordor. 

Tolkien explains it in this video with Tolkien minifigure! 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

On This Day - June 24, 1571 - Miguel Lopez de Legazpi proclaimed Manila as the capital of the Spanish colonial administration in the Philippines

 

June 24, 1571 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi proclaimed Manila as the capital of the Spanish colonial administration in the Philippines.

On June 24, 1571, Manila was proclaimed the capital of the Spanish colonial administration in the Philippines. 

 

Earlier in Cebu, Spanish colonizer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, having heard of the rich resources of Manila, dispatched two of his lieutenant-commanders, Martín de Goiti and Juan de Salcedo, to explore the northern region.

On May 8, 1570, they arrived in Manila and were welcomed by natives and formed an alliance with Rajah Sulayman, a Muslim king who ruled the place at that time. However, the local sensed the true objectives of the Spaniards and a battle between the troops of Sulayman and the Spaniards erupted. As the Spaniards were heavily armed, they were able to conquer Manila.

After hearing that the city had been conquered, Legazpi came to join Goiti in Manila. He formed a peace pact with the native councils, Rajah Sulayman and Rajah Lakandula.

On June 24, 1571, Legazpi finally established a permanent settlement, and he also ordered the construction of the walled city of Intramuros. He proclaimed Manila as the island's capital and permanent seat of the Spanish colonial government in the western Pacific Ocean.

Manila became a replica of a European medieval city. There were churches, palaces and city hall built in the Spanish baroque style. In 1574, Manila was bestowed the title "Insigne y Siempre leal Ciudad de España" (Distinguished and ever loyal city of Spain) by King Philip II.

By the end of the 16th century, Manila had become a leading commercial center of East Asia, carrying on a flourishing trade with China, India, and the East Indies.

Reference: Philippines News Agency archives

On this Day - June 23, 1898 - Emilio Aguinaldo established The Revolutionary Government of the Philippines

 

 

On this Day - June 23, 1898 - Emilio Aguinaldo established The Revolutionary Government of the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies during the Spanish–American War. The government succeeded a dictatorial government which had been established by Aguinaldo on June 18, and which was dissolved and replaced by this government upon its establishment.


The Revolutionary Government of the Philippines was an revolutionary government established in the Spanish East Indies on June 23, 1898, during the Spanish–American War, by Emilio Aguinaldo, its initial and only President.

The government succeeded a dictatorial government which had been established by Aguinaldo on June 18, and which was dissolved and replaced by this government upon its establishment.

This government endured until January 23, 1899, when the proclamation of the Malolos Constitution established an insurgent Philippine Republic government which replaced it.

Four governmental departments were initially created, each having several bureaus: foreign relations, marine and commerce; war and public works; police, justice, instruction and hygiene; finance, agriculture, and industry.

On This Day - June 22, 1920, Jovito Salonga was born in Pasig

On June 22, 1920, Jovito Salonga, a lawyer and legal scholar, educator and a distinguesed senator, was born in poverty in the present day Pasig City to a Presbyterian pastor, Esteban Salonga and Bernardita Reyes a market vendor. Jovito Salonga, the youngest of five brothers, worked his way through college and law school as a proofreader in the publishing firm of his eldest brother, Isayas.

Senator Jovito Salonga (right) confers with Senator Lorenzo Tañada at the senate in 1966 (Photo credit: Esteban Salonga flickr account).

Salonga's long life began after the onset of American rule in the Philippines. His youth was a time of national hope and longing for independence. These things shaped him, alongside his family's deep Christian convictions and the hardships of their daily life. When he was twelve, a speech by the then House Speaker Manuel Roxas in his hometown stirred him to dream of a life in law and in public life.

Seizing on this ambition, he rose through public schools to the College of Law at the University of the Philippines. When war overtook his studies, Salonga quickly ran afoul of the new Japanese authorities. He was tortured and jailed and released after nearly a year. Amid dearth and uncertainty, he crammed for the bar examinations and, in 1944, earned the highest score.

At war's end, Salonga embraced Philippine independence but denounced "parity rights" and other compromising ties to the United States. He topped off his legal education with graduate degrees from Harvard and Yale universities and then plunged headlong into the life of his new nation.

Salonga established himself as a sought-after lawyer and an influential legal scholar and educator. In 1961, the Liberal Party tapped him for a successful run for Congress in his home province of Rizal. Four years later, he outpolled all other candidates for the Senate, a feat he repeated twice. He built his reputation as a crusader for clean government and public education. As a staunch nationalist, he opposed Philippine complicity in the Vietnam War and other acts of "puppetry." And he so persistently exposed the troubling anomalies of President Ferdinand Marcos that the Philippines Free Press named him the "Nation's Fiscalizer."

The bomb that crippled him at a political rally in 1971, Salonga says, led him to a second, "borrowed life". He opposed martial law from the start, defending opponents of the Marcos dictatorship and working tirelessly for the succor and release of political prisoners and for the democratic opposition. In 1980, he himself was jailed without charges and then released. Four years in exile followed.

Yet Salonga never lost hope. In 1985, he returned home to revitalize his political party and confront the dictatorship. Putting aside personal ambition, he withdrew his candidacy for vice president in the snap elections of February 1986 and threw himself heart-and-soul into Corazon Aquino's presidential campaign and the People Power Revolution.

Afterwards, Salonga initiated the new government's legal efforts to reclaim wealth allegedly stolen by the Marcoses as chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government. In 1987, voters returned him to the Senate. There, he authored new laws protecting the state from plunder, military coups, and corrupt officials and, in 1991 as Senate president, triumphantly led his colleagues in ejecting American military bases from the Philippines.

Salonga returned to private life the following year, having made a hotly contested but disappointing bid for the presidency. But through his NGOs, Bantay Katarungan (Sentinel of Justice) and Kilos Bayan (People's Action), he has sustained his principled interventions in the affairs of the nation.

Jovito Salonga was awarded the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service for his exemplary integrity and substance of his long public career in service to democracy and good government in the Philippines.

Senator Salonga died on Thursday, March 10, 2016. He was 95 years old.

References

1. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation
2. Wikipedia

On This Day - June 21, 1884 - Jose P. Rizal completed his medical course in Madrid, Spain, with the rating “Fair”

On This Day - June 21, 1884 - Jose P. Rizal completed his medical course in Madrid, Spain, with the rating “Fair”

He was awarded the degree of Licentiate in Medicine by the Universidad Central de Madrid. The next academic year (1884–1885) he studied and passed all subjects leading to the degree of Doctor of Medicine. “Due to the fact, however, that he did not pay the corresponding fees, he was not awarded his Doctor’s diploma”*

Rizal also finished his studies in Philosophy and Letters, with higher grades. He was awarded the degree of Licentiate in Philosophy and Letters by the Universidad Central de Madrid on June 19, 1885 (his 24th birthday), with the rating of “Excellent with a scholarship.”
At long last, Rizal completed his studies in both Medicine and Philosophy and Letters. He was ready then to face the world and lead the fight for his country’s redemption. He was determined to see more of Europe before returning home, and acquire more medical lore in the clinics of Europe’s eminent physicians.

As to recall, Rizal, found the atmosphere at the University of Santo Tomas suffocating to his sensitive spirit. He was unhappy at this Dominican institution of high learning because (1) the Dominican professors were hostile to him, (2) the Filipino students were racially discriminated, and (3) the method of instruction was obsolete and repressive.

In his novel, El Filibusterismo, he described how the Filipino students were humiliated and insulted by their Dominican professors and how backward was the method of instruction, especially in the teaching of natural sciences. He related in Chapter XIII of this novel, entitled “The Class in Physics,” that this science subject was taught without laboratory experiments. The microscope and other laboratory apparatus were kept inside the showcases to be seen by visitors, but the students could not even touch them.

After finishing the fourth year of his medical course at the University of Santo Tomas, Rizal decided to study in Spain. At that time, he could no longer endure the rampant bigotry, discrimination, and hostility in that school. His uncle, Antonio Rivera, Leonor Rivera’s father, encouraged him to go abroad. Both Paciano and Saturnina, whom he contacted secretly, were of similar opinion.

For the first time, Rizal did not seek his parents’ permission to go abroad, because he knew that they, especially his mother, would disapprove his plan. Thus, the Spanish authorities knew nothing of his decision to go abroad in order to finish his medical studies in Spain, where the professors were more tolerant and understanding than those of the University of Santo Tomas.
Later on, Rizal then asked his parents’ blessings and unknown to the Spanish authorities, Rizal left Manila on May 3, 1882. Rizal’s departure for Spain was kept secret in order to avoid detection by the colonial officials and the friars. Only Uncle Antonio Rivera, Paciano, and his sisters, and some close friends knew that Rizal would leave for Spain. Paciano gave him 700 pesos. Saturnina later gave him a diamond ring, which helped him very much during his days of poverty in Europe.

He went to Spain where he completed his university studies, improved his knowledge of languages and arts, and further developed his God-given talents for greater service to the fatherland. At that time, the government in Spain was a constitutional monarchy, under which the Spanish people enjoyed individual liberties, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

On November 3, 1882, Rizal enrolled in the Universidad Central de Madrid in two courses – Medicine and Philosophy and Letters. Aside from his heavy studies in the university, he studied painting and sculpture in the Academy of San Carlos, took lessons in French, German, and English under a private instructor and assiduously practiced fencing and shooting in the Hall of Arms of Sanz y Carbonell. His thirst for knowledge was unlimited. He attended operas and concerts to improve his knowledge of music; he visited the art galleries and museums and read books on all subjects under the sun, including military engineering, in order to broaden his cultural background.

He strictly budgeted his money and time. He lived frugally and never wasted time. His spare hours were devoted to attending lectures, operas, religious fiestas; and reading at home or at the libraries. A favorite pastime of Rizal in Madrid was reading. He stayed at home and read voraciously until midnight. Since early childhood, he liked to read. Due to lack of funds, several times Rizal earned little money by working as a private tutor to rich students.

After completing his studies in Madrid, Rizal went to Paris and Germany in order to specialize in ophthalmology. He particularly chose this branch of medicine because he wanted to cure his mother’s eye. When Rizal returned to the Philippines, he established a medical clinic in Calamba. His first exploit as a physician in his land was the successful operation on his mother’s sightless eyes. With surgical skill acquired in the best eye clinics in Europe, he removed a double cataract from Doña Teodora’s eyes. News of the successful operation spread far and wide. To the masses, the restoration of the sight of Rizal’s mother was a miracle. Patients from Manila and the provinces flocked to Calamba. Rizal, who came to be called “Doctor Uliman” because he came from Germany, was busy attending to his lucrative medical practice. His professional fees were reasonable, even gratis to the poor.


Sources and References:
1. Gregorio F. Zaide, Jose Rizal, Life, Works, and Writings, Far Eastern University, Department of History, 1957, pp. 53–54, 66–67, 102
2. Gregorio F. Zaide, Sonia M. Zaide, History of the Republic of the Philippines, Metro Manila, 1983, 1987, p. 219
*Dr. Jose F. Bantug, “Rizal, The Physician,” The Journal of History, Manila Vol. V, Nos. 1–3, p. 49

On This Day - June 20, 1899 - Japanese vessel Nonubiki Maru left Nagasaki for the Philippines loaded with war supplies purchased by Mariano Ponce

 

On June 20, 1899, the Japanese vessel Nonubiki Maru left Nagasaki for the Philippines loaded with 10,000 rifles, 6,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and other war supplies purchased by Mariano Ponce.

(Mariano Ponce)

Ponce with the aid of the Chinese revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in his mission to Japan, obtained sufficient support from the Japanese military and a few Japanese politicians to enter into agreement to purchase arms and ammunition in the Spring of 1899. At the same time, arrangements were made for "retired" Japanese officers to go to the Philippines as advisors to the Filipino army against the Americans. These officers actually served with the Filipino forces but the attempt to ship arms to the islands was a complete failure.

The Nunobiki Maru carrying the rifles and ammunition, and other military supplies was sunk in a typhoon, and a second attempt was stymied by the threat of the effective American blockade.

After the second shipment attempt failed, Ponce gave the arms to Sun who believed that if his revolution in China was to succeed, aiding the Philippines in return would be made easier. Sun would later be credited with the founding of Republic of China and the collapse of dynastic China.

The Japanese contributed little to the Filipinos in its war against the Americans. The Japanese officers arrived at a time when regular warfare was proving impossible, and no substantial shipments of weapons ever arrived. The Japanese government, not willing to alienate the Americans, gave no formal support to Aguinaldo's government or the nationalist cause.

References:

1. The United States Army in the Philippines, 1898-1902, John Morgan Gates, 1937
2. Pambansang Komisyong Pangkasaysayan
3. Research School for Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University