Nay Isa Dagohoy

Street Vendors Selling "Bakya" (Native Footwear)
Manila 1954

Today in Philippine History
AUGUST 19, 1878

MANUEL LUIS QUEZON (y Molina), the First Filipino President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, and officially considered the Second President of the Philippines (after Emilio Aguinaldo, from 1935-1944) was born on this day in Baler, Tayabas (now renamed Aurora).

Quezon was the first Senate president elected to the presidency, the first president elected through a national election, and the first incumbent to secure re-election (for a partial second term, later extended, due to amendments to the 1935 Constitution).

For pushing Commonwealth Act No. 184 that established the National Language Institute and a consequent Philippine national language, advocating Filipino-language amendments to the 1935 Constitution, Quezon has been tagged as his country's "Father of the National Language".

Quezon is also called the “Father of Philippine Independence” for his efforts in pushing for the independence of the Philippines from American rule.
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Quezon was born to Spanish-Mestizos Lucio Quezon and Maria Dolores Molina, both schoolteachers. He was privately tutored and received most of his primary education from the public school established by the Spanish government in his village, as part of the establishment of the free public education system in the Philippines. Afterwards, he boarded at Colegio de San Juan de Letrán where he finished secondary school in 1889. However, his mother died of tuberculosis in 1893, before he graduated 'summa cm laude' with a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sto. Tomás (UST) in 1894. In 1898, his father Lucio and brother Pedro were ambushed and killed by armed men while on their way home to Baler from Nueva Écija, because of their loyalty to the Spanish government.

Quezón’s law studies at UST were cut short by the Philippine-American War, where he joined the Philippine Revolutionary forces and later served as aide-de-camp to Emilio Aguinaldo from 1899 until Aguinaldo’s capture in 1901. After the war, he completed his law studies at UST and placed fourth at the 1903 Bar Exams. He then worked for a time as a clerk and surveyor, before entering government service as an appointed fiscal for Mindoro on September 19, 1903, and later becoming fiscal of Tayabas in March 1904, where he filed 25 cases for estafa against Frank J. Berry, an influential American lawyer and publisher. However, he resigned as fiscal of Tayabas in November 1904 and instead went into private practice from 1904 to 1906.

On July 13, 1906, the Supreme Court found in the case of U.S. vs. Querijero (G.R. No. L-2626) that at the time Quezon's father and brother were killed the perpetrators were “soldiers in the insurrection against Spain and that it was committed by order of a superior officer and for the purposes of the revolution”.

POLITICAL CAREER. In 1906, Quezon was elected councilor and later became Governor of Tayabas. On July 25, 1907, however, he resigned as Governor and ran for the Philippine Assembly. From 1907 to 1909, he was a Member of the Philippine Assembly, as well as Majority Floor Leader and Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. In 1909 he was elected by the Philippine Legislature to serve as the resident commissioner to the United States Congress.

As resident commissioner, Quezon could be heard but not vote during deliberations of the U.S. Congress. Even then, he was outspoken in advocating the Philippine bid for independence.

After a speech at Tammany Hall for the American Fourth of July in 1911, Quezon told the New York Times,

“We are grateful to Mr Taft and to the American people for what they have done but we don’t want to be colonised. We want our freedom.” (New York Times, July 1911 edition)

In response to the NY Times article “Philippines the Key to our Success in the Far East”, Quezón again told the Times (as printed in their September 15, 1912 edition):

”It is time for those who look upon the Philippines as a business enterprise to come out and say so frankly when they are advocating the retention of the islands, instead of covering their real purpose with the arguments, insulting to the national pride of the Filipino people, that ‘the United States is in the Philippines, not for territorial expansion, not for commercial gain, but to supply the islands with a benevolent and wise Government, that the Filipinos are incapable of establishing and maintaining from within.”

Quezón warned that the Filipinos only accepted American rule with the understanding that they will be given their full independence in time, and if the Filipinos became convinced that America intended to remain permanently, they would “make it a very expensive task for the American Government to govern the islands, and a serious menace to the success of American enterprises.” (New York Times, September 1912 edition)

In 1916, Quezón brought home the Jones Law, which promised recognition of the independence of the Filipino people.
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SENATOR. Manuel L. Quezon was elected senator for the 5th Senatorial District in 1916 and became Senate President, serving continuously until 1935, for a total of 19 years.

On December 9, 1918, he sailed for the United States as the head of the first Independence Mission to the U.S. Congress, marrying his first cousin, Aurora Aragon y Molina, along the way in Hongkong on December 17. They had four children: María Aurora (“Baby”, 1919-1949); Maria Zeneida (“Nini”, 1921- ); Luisa Corazón Paz ("Nenita", b. and d. 1923); and Manuel L., Jr. (“Nonong”, 1926-1998).

On May 10, 1920, Quezon delivered his maiden speech in front of the U.S. Congress, containing, among others, the lines "Despite it all, we still want independence", "Moreover, large investments of American capital in the Philippines will result in the permanent retention of the Philippines by the US", and "If the pre-ordained fate of my country is either to be subject people but rich, or free but poor, I am unqualifiedly for the latter".

In 1922, Quezon challenged what he described as Speaker Sergio Osmeña's "unipersonal leadership" as opposed to "collective leadership", which he advocated. On February 24, 1922, Quezon broke with then Speaker Sergio Osmeña and the Nacionalista Party, stating: "The party never has been and never will be the people. My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to my country begins." He won that struggle to remain as Senate President, with Osmeña becoming Senate President Pro Tempore. (Nacionalista Party website, History of the Nacionalista Party)

Following the election of Warren Harding as President of the U.S.A. in 1920, Francis Burton Harrison was replaced by Leonard Wood as Governor-General of the Philippines. As Governor-General, Wood implemented policies which were considered by the Filipinos to be harsh. In 1923, during the campaign period for the special election for the fourth senatorial district (then comprising Manila and the nearby provinces) Interior Secretary José P. Laurel resigned to protest Wood's interference in his department. The opposition party, 'Partido Democrata', pledged cooperation with Wood. Quezon called the Partido Democrata "Americanistas", saying that a vote for their candidate was a vote against Philippine independence, and further stated: "I prefer a country run like hell by Filipinos to a country run like heaven by Americans, because however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it.”

In 1931, however, the OsRox mission headed by Sergio Osmeña and Manuel Roxas went to the United States to lobby for independence and brought home the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act. Quezon vehemently opposed this act because it provided that American military bases would still stay in the Philippines even after independence. Although the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act had already been approved by the U.S. Congress, the Philippine Legislature rejected it in October 1933. In November 1933, Quezon was on his way back to Washington. In 1934, he brought home the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which did not provide for the retention of the American military bases, and it was approved by the Philippine Legislature.

On July 30, 1934, the Constitutional Convention formally opened and on May 14, 1935 the 1935 Constitution was ratified.
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PRESIDENCY. Quezon ran in the Philippines' first presidential election held in November 1935 and won against former revolutionary president Emilio Aguinaldo (whom he had formerly served as aide-de-camp) and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay.

During his first term, Quezon, in cooperation with United States High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, facilitated the entry into the Philippines of Jewish refugees fleeing fascist regimes in Europe. (Escape to Manila by Frank Ephraim, Book about Jewish refugees finding sanctuary in the Philippines) Quezon was also instrumental in promoting a project to resettle the refugees in Mindanao.

From 1901 to 1935, although a Filipino was always appointed chief justice, the majority of the members of the Supreme Court had always been Americans. Complete Filipinisation was achieved only with the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935 when Quezon, as President, was given the power to appoint the first all-Filipino Supreme Court of the Philippines. Claro M. Recto and Jose P. Laurel were among Quezón's first appointees to replace the American justices. The membership in the Supreme Court increased to 11, a chief justice and ten associate justices, who sat either 'en banc' or in two divisions of five members each.

In 1935, former United States Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur, whom Quezon had known for many years, returned to the Philippines as military advisor for the Philippine Commonwealth, tasked with evolving a national defense plan and organizing and training a Philippine Army. When MacArthur retired from the U.S. Army in 1937, Quezon offered him the position of Field Marshal.

In 1936, Quezon issued E.O. No. 23 prescribing the technical description and specification of the Flag of the Philippines.

In January 1937, Quezon created the Institute of National Language with the view of creating a common national language for the Filipinos. In November 1937, the Institute recommended the adoption of Tagalog as the national language ("Wikang Pambansa"). On December 30, 1939, Quezon proclaimed Tagalog as the Philippine national language, and in June 1940, ordered that it be taught as a subject in schools.

Quezon championed social justice; one of his best-known statements is: "Social Justice is far more beneficial when applied as a matter of sentiment, and not of law.". In 1937, he signed the first minimum wage law in the Philippines. Women also voted for the first time in a plebiscite on women's suffrage.

On October 12, 1939, Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 502, creating a city located at Diliman, just outside of Manila. The city, which he had founded and developed to become the nation's capital, would be named after him – Quezon City ('Ciudad Quezon').

Quezon's original six-year term was extended by constitutional amendment, allowing him to serve two additional years for a total of eight. He was reelected in November, 1941.
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WORLD WAR II and GOVERNMENT IN EXILE. On December 8, 1941, when Quezon had just been recently reelected as President, Japan launched an aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, followed with aerial attacks on various other American installations in the Philippines. When Japan invaded, Quezon evacuated to Corregidor, where he was sworn in for his second term as President on December 30, 1941, in front of Malinta Tunnel (term extended by Act of U.S. Congress, November 15, 1943). The next month, Quezon was forced to flee Corregidor to go to the Visayas via submarine, and from there to Mindanao. Upon the invitation of the US government, he was further evacuated to Australia and then to the United States, where he established the Commonwealth government in exile with headquarters in Washington, D.C. There, he served as a member of the Pacific War Council and wrote his autobiography (The Good Fight, 1946).

On June 14, 1942 at the White House in Washington, D.C., Quezon signed the United Nations Declaration on behalf of the Philippines. For the first time, the flag of the Philippines was raised alongside that of other nations, and, although still a Commonwealth, the Philippines was given an international personality in anticipation of its eventual independence.
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DEATH. President Manuel Quezon suffered from tuberculosis and died on August 1, 1944 in Saranac Lake, New York. He was initially buried in Arlington National Cemetery in the United States of America before his body was transferred by the USS Princeton to Manila and brought at the Manila North Cemetery on July 17, 1946.

He was moved to his final resting place at the Quezon City Monument in Quezon Memorial Circle on August 19, 1979. The epitaph on his tomb reads: "Statesman and Patriot, Lover of Freedom, Advocate of Social Justice, Beloved of his People."
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LEGACY. On September 23, 1955, President Ramon Magsaysay declared August 13 to 19 of every year to be "Linggo ng Wika" (National Language Week), the celebrations culminating on the birthday of Quezon, the man who first pushed for the creation of a Filipino national language.

In 1989, President Corazon Aquino signed and approved Republic Act No. 6741 that commemorates the birth of former President Manuel L. Quezon which is now officially known as Quezon City Day. Every 19th of August will be declared a special nonworking public holiday in Quezon City, Provinces of Quezon and Aurora while a special working holiday is declared throughout the Philippines.

On January 15, 1997, President Fidel V. Ramos declared the whole month of August to be National Language Month.

On April 28, 2005, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had the remains of Aurora Aragon Quezon, who had been killed in an ambush on the Bongabon road in Nueva Ecija on April 28, 1949, re-interred at the Quezon Memorial beside that of her husband, President Manuel L. Quezon.

Quezon City, Quezon Province, Quezon Bridge in Manila and the Manuel L. Quezon University, and many streets are named after him. The highest honor conferred by the Republic of the Philippines is the Quezon Service Cross. He is also memorialized on Philippine currency, appearing on the Philippine twenty peso bill. He also appears on two commemorative one peso coins, one alongside Frank Murphy and another withFranklin Delano Roosevelt.

The "Open Doors" is a holocaust memorial in Rishon LeZion, Israel. Its is a 7 meter high sculpture designed by Filipino artist Luis Lee Jr. and erected in honor and thanks to President Manuel Quezon and the Filipinos who saved over 1,200 Jews from N**i Germany.

·— researched by on August 19, 2016 —·

info sources:
*Wikipilipinas
*senate.gov.ph
*encyclopedia.com
*Wikipedia
*quezoncity.com

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Today in Philippine History
AUGUST 18, 1926

Filipino cartoonist-illustrator and National Artist for Visual Arts (Posthumous awardee, 2018) Lauro Zarate Alcala, more popularly known as LARRY ALCALA, was born on this day in Daraga, Albay.

"His comic strips spiced up the slices of Filipino lives with witty illustrations executed throughout his 56 years of cartooning. He created over 500 characters and 20 comic strips in widely circulated publications. Alcala’s most iconic work, 'Slice of Life', not only made for decades long of widely circulated images of Filipino everyday life, it also symbolically became an experiential way for his followers to find a sense of self in the midst of an often cacophonic, raucous and at odds environment that Filipinos found themselves amidst." (ncca.gov.ph)

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LARRY ALCALA: A FILIPINO CARTOONIST
by Ruben Defeo, Philstar.com
July 1, 2002

Larry Alcala lived a full life. And it showed amply in his works. His name, even if he is now gone, remains synonymous with Philippine cartoons, an art form that he served well to his last days. In fact, among the practitioners of this art form on the national scene, he stood tall.

In his lifetime, Alcala commanded a popular following, not only because of the number and variety of cartoon characters that came out of his drawing board, but for the incisive wit that he willfully breathed into his characters and the participative humor that he engendered in his works have more than endeared him to his audience.

Alcala made over 500 characters, 20 comic strips, six movies, two murals, and 15,000 published pages in 56 years of cartooning. Through his works, he eloquently depicted the Filipino’s capacity to face squarely the challenges of life in the country, peppered with satirical humor and a wee bit of sarcasm.

In the practice and pursuit of his art, Alcala unwittingly became one with his readers. It was as if he knew them by heart–able to read their pulse, their likes and dislikes, in short, their being.

Many of his readers, in turn, even without personally meeting him, often regard him as a companion. The humor of Alcala visits them regardless of time and space–whether in the comforts of home while sipping their first cup of coffee at the breakfast table, or in the punishing constraints of city traffic while inching their way through a jeepney ride back home. It is this degree of intimacy that makes the art of Alcala an all-time favorite. In sum, his cartoons are for all seasons, and for all people of diverse persuasions.

Alcala also introduced a favorite pastime among his readers. Young and old, his readers would meticulously look for his trademark profile ingeniously hidden among the bushes, wall, people and places that he drew.

He also significantly contributed to the popularity of Tagalog, and without meaning to, Taglish as well.

Alcala started his career as cartoonist in 1946. The myriad achievements that he collected in his 56-year career all attest to his being widely recognized as a razor-edged satirist, a humor machine, a Filipino artist, all rolled into one.

Alcala’s Slice of Life, which originally appeared in the Philippines Daily Express, moved to The Philippine STAR, and was adjudged Best in Humor by the Catholic Mass Media Awards in February 1988. He was cited "for helping to keep alive the Filipino’s ability to laugh at himself, through the lively marriage of art and humor, and through commentaries that are at once critical and compassionate, evoking laughter and reflection."

The citation may have been written for all the characters that Alcala created in his more than half-a-century career, from "Islaw Palitaw" and "Tipin" to "Kalabog and Bosyo" and "Asiong Aksaya". For in the dispatch of his responsibilities as an artist, Alcala steadfastly pushed the art form of cartooning to cogently affirm the Filipino’s peculiar coping mechanism of laughing at himself even in the face of adversity, and of absorbing life’s vicissitudes with characteristic resilience and candor.

Alcala was born to Ernesto Alcala and Elpidia Zarate on August 18, 1926 in Daraga, Albay. He finished his fine arts degree at the University of the Philippines in 1950 after obtaining a scholarship grant from Ramón Roces, publisher of the Manila Times. He taught at the UP College of Fine Arts from 1951 to 1981.

During his teaching stint at the University, he would always instill among his students the value of creativity. He discouraged imitation of works – more so of his works.

Alcala became instrumental in designing and offering a degree course in commercial design. It was from this shift in program focus that the department of visual communication at the UPCFA was eventually born, a revolution of a new diversified segment in the field of fine arts, a new line of thinking and approach. Until his retirement, Alcala steered this department as chairperson, pushing graphic design, in particular, the field of cartooning, to the same level that painting and sculpture have achieved through time.

The University was quite keen of the significant contributions Alcala made to the world of visual arts. In 1977, the UP Alumni Association honored him with a professional award in fine arts. The following year, he was accorded the status of artist-in-residence for cartooning.

Outside of the academe, Alcala received awards and citations such as the Araw ng Maynila Award, the Pamana Award for Cartooning, the Press Award for Best in Humor, the MOPC-SPIC Excellence in Cartooning, and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People Lifetime Achievement Award, to cite a few.

Recognized as the "Dean of Philippine Cartoonists", he founded the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas and which he served as president in 1979.

★Larry Alcala died on June 24, 2002 at the age of 75.

He was survived by his wife Guadalupe, children Lauro Jr. and Menchu; Toti, and Drs. Lizette and Vic Guazon; grandchildren Ana Iris, Angela Ingrid, Anjelica Ida, Andrea Isabel and Anton Ivy; and siblings Joventino and Ody, Vic and Cloty, Aurora and Leo Amatong, and Elena and Rudy Obial.

★In 2018, he was posthumously conferred the National Artist for Visual Arts title and the Grand Collar of the Order of National Artists (Pambansang Alagad ng Sining).

TREN NG SAN FERNANDO SA PAMPANGA
Ang istasyon ay pinasinayaan nina Gobernador-Heneral Eulogio Despujol at Bernardino Nozaleda, ang Arsobispo ng Maynila, noong Pebrero 23, 1892. Noong Hunyo 27, 1892, si José Rizal ay bumaba mula sa istasyong ito upang makipagkita sa ilang mga rekrut para sa La Liga Filipina at muli sa susunod na araw patungo sa Bacolor. Noong Abril 1942, noong Bataan Death March, ang istasyon ay nagsilbing ending point para sa 102-kilometro (63-milya) na martsa mula Bataan, kung saan ang mga Pilipino at Amerikanong bilanggo-ng-digma ay dinala sa Capas sa Tarlac patungo sa ang kanilang huling hantungan, ang Camp O'Donnell.

Ang istasyon ay sarado mula nang matapos ang northbound rail services ng Philippine National Railways (PNR) noong 1988.

Ang istasyon ay muling itatayo bilang bahagi ng proyekto ng Northrail, na kinasasangkutan ng pag-upgrade ng kasalukuyang single track sa isang elevated dual-track system, pag-convert ng rail gauge mula sa narrow gauge patungo sa standard gauge, at pag-uugnay sa Maynila sa Malolos sa Bulacan at tungo pa sa Angeles City, Clark Special Economic Zone at Clark International Airport Nagsimula ang proyekto noong 2007, ngunit paulit-ulit na itinigil pagkatapos ay itinigil noong 2011. Giniba na ang lahat ng poste ng Northrail ng 2019 at sinimulan na hanggang sa tuloy ang Construction ngayon ng mas bago na may Japanese contractor.

The Philippine Legislative Building (now National Museum) during Manuel L. Quezon's inauguration in November 1935

Destruction of Old Manila, February 1945

Beautiful ruins in one of the oldest Churches in Antique⛪️

The Lumang Simbahan🔔