The Transfer Of Power In Philippine History

Comment from a reader on "History Rekindled":

How can it be said that in 1898 and 1899 "there was no such thing as a Filipino based government to infringe on'?

While our American friend has much of interest to say, surely it is a biased view that the Filipinos did not have an independent government.

As he admits, Filipinos had taken over Luzon except Manila (we will leave out the rest of the Filipinos outside Luzon for the purposes of this argument).

It is a classic ploy of American-and other- Imperialists to rely legalistically on such things as treaties,which of course favor them. And which they have the power-especially military-to impose on others.

It surely is the case that after June 1898 there was a functioning Filipino government and that the secret deal worked out between the Spaniards and the Americans-both illegitimate occupiers-plus a treaty cobbled together to transfer domination from one colonial power to another-can only be called a regime change, an immoral and unjust act, against the proclaimed independence-indeed sovereignty-of the young Filipino Republic. A good read-Kinzer's Overthrow.

The Americans have been in the "business" of overthrowing regimes that stand in their way for a very long time.

Hawaii was even before the Philippines-and of course so were the "Indian nations" of the original American territory.