Gemma Cruz Araneta
Since 1962, we Filipinos have been celebrating Independence Day on June 12. Before that, it used to be on July 4, a historical aberration corrected by President Diosdado Macapagal who said Filipinos, “… called the whole world to witness their powerful resolve to consider themselves absolved of allegiance to the Spanish crown… The revolution which culminated on June 12, 1898 was the first successful national revolution in Asia since the coming of the west, and the republic to which it gave birth was the first democratic republic outside of the western hemisphere.”
Our road to independence was a rocky one, strewn with treachery, deceit and other obstacles, the most devastating of which was the Philippine-American war. Yet, there were advocates who lent their moral support like the Anti-Imperialist League (AI), established on June 2, 1898 and lasted until November, 1920.The members profile of the AI allowed it to wield its influence rather audaciously. Among its adherents were a former US president (Grover Cleveland), ex-cabinet secretaries (of the interior, Carl Schurz of state, John Sherman, treasury, John Carlisle), congressmen (like George Sewell Boutwell), senators (like Ben Tillman), a labor leader (American Labor Federation president, Samuel Gompers) academics (Sandford University president David S. Jordan). Bishop Henry Potter and Andrew Carnegie were members. Perhaps the famous and outspoken was Mark Twain. With that impressive roster, it was not easy for the US government to stifle its activities.