[LOG] June 15th, 2009

It has been a pretty laid back two weeks. Pepe and I did some diving and touring of Cebu Island and Whistler stayed mainly docked at the Cebu Yacht Club. I took advantage of good quality workmanship as well as inexpensive prices by North American Standard to have a few projects done on the boat. For instance I had a large vinyl rain catcher made so that I could collect rain water in great quantity. This should make Whistler quasi independent of shore side water supply, provided it rains at least once a month. I also had my Bimini (the canvas roof over the cockpit which protects the crew from the sun and rain) modified so that it could also catch some rain water for the shower tank. This should result in a better smell aboard Whistler since we will be able to take more showers. Ha ha!!

The same canvas shop which made my rain catcher also made me a new sun resistant main sail cover and some water proof cover for the bicycle wheels so that I could store them outside, freeing some space in the V-Berth for my crew. Pepe was particularly happy about that one. Finally, I had the wire lifelines, which goes around the deck, replaced with a 1” Stainless tube making for a safer environment when on an Ocean passage.

On the 17th, my good friend and crewmate Pepe had to go back to his home in the Canaries Islands. This was our 4th trip together in 3 years and it seems to be getting harder and harder to say goodbye. So many memories and stories had been created in these 4 trips. I will miss the old bugger and hopefully he can get away again in a few months so that I can continue his English education and he can further enlighten me with Spanish wisdom.

In between getting these jobs priced, fabricated and installed, I got to know a lot more about Filipino and their history. The first half of the 20th century was particularly interesting. After several years of Guerilla revolution against the Spanish, the Filipinos, aided by American Fleet commodore George Dewey, declared independence in 1898. This all happened during the Spanish American war over Cuba and Sugar. The Commodore help was part of a strategy to weaken Spain. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the war ended and the US effectively bought the Philippines along with Guam and Puerto Rico for $20 Million. Filipino independence would be short lived when US President William J McKinley caved in to hawks in his Republican party and agreed to take over the islands. McKinley, echoing imperialists of years past, added insult to injury, when he said that Filipinos were unfit for self-government and he had no choice but to take over the islands and civilize them. Drunk with their first small taste of independence, the Filipinos had other ideas and set up a makeshift capital in Malolos, outside Manila, in open defiance of the Americans. War broke out in February 1899.

The expected swift American victory did not materialize, as the guerilla campaign launched by the rebels proved remarkably effective at neutralizing American military superiority. On July 4th 1902, the US finally declared victory although pockets of guerilla resistance continued for several more years. Some 200,000 Filipino civilians, 20,000 Filipino soldiers and more than 4000 American soldiers died in the war from combat or disease.

The Americans quickly set about healing the significant wounds their victory had brought by instituting reforms aimed at improving Filipino life. The most important was a complete overhaul of the education system. While the Spanish had tried to keep the locals illiterate and ignorant of Spanish, America imported hundreds of teachers. Within 35 years, the literacy rate rose from a miniscule percentage to 50% with 27% of the population being able to speak English. Open promises of independence culminated with the 1935 commonwealth of the Philippines along with a drafting of a US style constitution and the first national election. Unfortunately, WWII and the Japanese would make the enterprise short lived. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, other forces attacked Clark Fields, where General MacArthur was caught napping, despite many hours’ warning. Before fleeing to Australia, MacArthur made his famous promise to return. From 1942 to 1945, the Filipinos endured a brutal Japanese military regime. In 1944 MacArthur landed on the island of Leyte and in February 1945, Manila was taken but not before an atrocious shelling of the city would kill 150,000 Filipino civilians. To this day, a debate rages about who was to blame for the destruction of the capital city. Whatever the truth, Manila belongs in a category with Warsaw, Hiroshima and Hamburg as cities that suffered the most during WWII.

The Filipinos, after paying a heavy price, finally got their independence wish, and Manual Roxas was installed as the president of the Republic.