Philippine Republic Day, July 4, (also known as Filipino-American Friendship Day) is a day in the Philippines designated to commemorate the official recognition of Philippine independence by the United States of America.
The Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946. Between 1941 and 1946, during World War II Japanese occupation, it remained a U.S. territory with a government in exile headed by Manuel Quezon initially located in Australia and later in the United States. A campaign to retake the country began in October 1944, when General Douglas McArthur landed in Leyte along with Sergio Osmena who had assumed the Philippine presidency after Quezon's death. The battles entailed long fierce fighting; some of the Japanese continued to fight until the official surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945. The country gained complete independence on July 4, 1946.
Initially, the nation's Independence Day holiday (Araw ng Kalayaan) was held on July 4. Former President Diosdado Macapagal moved it to June 12, the date on which the Malolos Republic had declared independence from Spain in 1898. Philippine Republic Day was created in its place, and it coincides with the United States's Independence Day on July 4.
Famous quotes containing the words republic and/or day:
“I date the end of the old republic and the birth of the empire to the invention, in the late thirties, of air conditioning. Before air conditioning, Washington was deserted from mid-June to September.... But after air conditioning and the Second World War arrived, more or less at the same time, Congress sits and sits while the presidents—or at least their staffs—never stop making mischief.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“This Day, whate’er the Fates decree;
Shall still be kept with Joy by me:
This Day then, let us not be told,
That you are sick, and I grown old,”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)