On 12 June 2023, Filipinos celebrated the 125th anniversary of Philippine independence. Despite the warning of potential thunderstorms brought about by the southwest monsoon, the national and local government in Manila pushed for the ceremonial flag raising and wreath laying at Luneta Park. The government had specified that the 125th anniversary would inaugurate a three-year celebration of Philippine independence and nationhood centred on remembering the founding of the Republic in 1898 until the capture of its president by the Americans in 1901.

Historically, the Philippines has had three independence days. But, of course, the country only celebrates one. The first is 12 June 1898, the current date that the Philippine government recognises and the one celebrated months ago. In 1898, General Emilio Aguinaldo, the revolution’s leader, declared independence at Kawit, Cavite, ending the more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippine Islands; the following year he was declared President of the First Republic under the Malolos Constitution. The second was during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The Empire of Japan sponsored the Second Republic on 14 October 1943, with Jose P. Laurel as its president. It was a kind of revival of the First Republic that was short-lived in 1901 when the United States interrupted the Philippine revolution and newfound republic. The third was on 4 July 1946. Right before the Second World War ended in the Pacific, the United States reclaimed the Philippines from Japan. Reinstating their rule and keeping their promise of independence, the Americans “granted” the Filipinos their long-aspired independence on 4 July 1946, the date of United States Independence Day, as a sign of American nurturing and upholding their civilising mission of the Manifest Destiny and the White Man’s Burden.