Night of Heroes

Random number between 1961 and 2240, page 2104 begins Carlo's Quirino's piece on the Philippine-American War in Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation, Volume 8 #goliwaliwph #antedated #catchup #august2018 pic.twitter.com/ssKLK0deRP

— glenncruz (@glenncruz) September 1, 2018

Random number between 1961 and 2240, page 2104 of the eighth volume of Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation, the Period of Armed Struggle (1896-1900), Night of Heroes, begins the piece "Claws of the Eagle" contributed by National Artist Carlos Quirino. Caption on the photograph reads, "The U.S. flag flew for the first time over Philippine soil in August 1898 at Fort San Antonio Abad, Malate." The lead-ins read as follows:

The Philippine-American War sees the Filipinos pushed back to Caloocan and to Makati early in February 1899 

When the American sentry fired on a Filipino patrol on the night of February 4, 1899, at Balsahan Bridge, in San Juan del Monte, east of Manila, the Americans were fully prepared and even anxious for the armed conflict. The Filipinos on the other hand, did not expect the war to erupt soon - at least not that Saturday evening. The commander of the second zone south of Manila, Gen. Artemio Ricarte, and Col. Lucio San Miguel, commander of the third zone east, were in Malolos, conferring with President Aguinaldo. Lt. Gen. Antonio Luna, chief of operations of the Philippine Army, was visiting his family in San Fernando, Pampanga. Gen. Mariano Noriel, commander of the first zone around Pasay and Paranaque, was making preparations for his wedding. [p. 2104]

The article before this was "The Grayson File" contributed by Ms. Felice P. Sta. Maria - or "All about the English chap whose shot triggered the Philippine-American war" - narrated that William Walter Grayson was honorably discharged at age 24 on 23 August 1899, was given a hero's welcome back in the US, settled in California, married and given a US citizenship. He died in 1941, and probably still did not know he was the first shot that started the Philippine-American War. Article ended with "Of the Filipino shot to death by Grayson in the San Juan incident, no records whatsoever are available."

Titles from my personal library were pre-selected for liwaliw Pages this month in observance of National History Month per Proclamation No. 339, series of 2012, by former President Benigno S. Aquino III.


[This post is antedated: 20180901]