On June 12, 1898, Philippine independence was proclaimed in a ceremony at the ancestral home of General Emilio Aguinaldo  in  Cavite  del  Viejo (now Kawit, Cavite). The flag  of the Philippines was unfurled for the first time and  the  national anthem, now known as Lupang  Hinirang, was played by the San Francisco de Malabon marching band. On August 1, the proclamation was ratified  by 190 municipal presidents of towns  in 16 provinces — Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan, Bataan, Infanta, Morong, Tayabas, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Mindoro, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, La Union, and Zambales.  It  was  the first constitutional democracy  in Asia. The declaration, however, was not recognized by the United States, whose forces had come to the Philippines  in 1898 in the course of the Spanish-American War.  General  Aguinaldo  fought the American forces in the subsequent Philippine-American  War but  was captured by US forces and the US declared that the “insurrection” had ended on  July 2, 1902. We had been subjugated by Spain for some  350 years and Andres Bonifacio launched the Philippine Revolution  in 1896. Aguinaldo’s forces  won  many subsequent battles against the Spanish colonial forces, but  it was also the period of the Spanish-American War  and the US  came to the Philippines in the course  of  that war.  It ended with  the Treaty  of Paris on  December 10, 1898, and the US claimed the Philippines, along with Cuba and Puerto Rico,  among  the spoils of its war with Spain. The Philippine proclamation  of freedom  of June 12, 1898, was thus  set aside for half a century.  The   US was  starting  its rise as a world power and the Philippines was right at the doorstep of the vast land of Asia. It thus chose to keep  it and set up a republic patterned after  its own. The process was interrupted  by World War II but Douglas MacArthur made good on his promise  “I shall return.” After  World War II, the US granted  independence  to the Philippines  on  July 4, 1946.   For several years this was celebrated as Philippine Independence Day,  until  President  Diosdado  Macapagal, on August 4, 1964, signed  into law Republic Act 4316 designating June 12 as  the country’s  Independence  Day. We recall these events today as we celebrate  Philippine  Independence Day.  It has been  a  difficult  journey for the Filipino people  through over  four centuries  of colonial  rule,  but Filipinos from  Lapu-Lapu  to Emilio Aguinaldo persisted against great  and powerful  odds. And so we are free   today  and we can hold our own in the assemblies of nations. We have kept our ties with our former  colonial rulers  as well as with today’s  rising political and economic powers.  As we seek our place in this world, let us  never  forget   the struggles of our  people  for freedom  through the centuries. They  are all part of that  day on June 12, 1898, when  the our nation — against  great  odds — proclaimed its  intention and desire to be free in the  Proclamation of Philippine independence which we celebrate today.