The 4th Of July, My Independence Day!

Yes sir! Yes mam! My favorite PH Independence Day is today, the 4^th of July – it was 04 July 1946 when the United States of America gave back my country the Philippines the right to govern itself that it had won back from the Japanese invaders of these islands.

No, not the 12^th of June. Here’s why. From the “Philippine Declaration of Independence[1]” (Wikisource):

And, lastly, it was resolved unanimously that this Nation… must use the same flag… and the colors of Blue, Red, and White, commemorating the flag of the United States of North America, as a manifestation of our profound gratitude towards this Great Nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us and continues lending us. (image of 2 flags from Catholic Global Mission[2])

Even Emilio Aguinaldo knew the value of the US of A! “... this Great Nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us and continues lending us.”

We declared our Independence from Mother Spain and at the same time in the same document declared our Dependence on the United States of America! Goodbye Independence Day 12 June 1898!

Anyway, I have loved the English language, American English, ever since I borrowed my first copy of the Reader’s Digest from the library of our high school, Rizal Junior College, RJC, in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan. I ransacked the RJC library. I was in love with the Digest, TIME and Newsweek, books on British and American literature, westerns, and poems. Among other things, I memorized the Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln, Preamble of the US Constitution, The Highwayman by British poet Alfred Noyes, Psalm Of Life by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and so on and so forth.

A loner, I just loved the worlds opened to me by reading the best works in the English language.

In 1965, I graduated from the UP College of Agriculture with a BS Agriculture degree major in Ag Education. That continued my love for the English language because teaching in the Philippines was all in English more than 50 years ago.

In 1975, I began to work as the Editor In Chief of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, and I fathered all 3 FORI publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical forestry journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Of course, they were all in English.

Today, I have the unchallenged 5-year claim of being the “World's creative genius online, most prolific writer of non-fiction. Frank A Hilario[3],” the tagline in my blog Creative Thinkering.

Today, by blogging, I continue to actively support The New PH Agriculture in the mind of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, with his “The New Thinking For Agriculture” as accompanied by the “8 paradigms” of (1) Modernization. (2) Industrialization. (3) Promotion of exports. (4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms (5) Infrastructure development. (6) Higher budget & investment. (7) Legislative support. (8) Roadmap development.

So, tell me, how can I not love the 4^th of July as Philippine Independence Day when it gave me the language I adore?!@517

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[1]https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Philippine_Declaration_of_Independence
[2]https://xaverianmissionaries.org/missionblog/july-4th-is-philippine-american-friendship-day/
[3]http://creativethinkering.blogspot.com