Month: November 2017

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, have your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell of trying to get away from a mistake without causing a new one.

The stamp today includes an overprint. Such things happen when government changes but there has not been time to properly reflect that on the stamps. It this case the status of the then American colony of the Philippine States had become a self governing commonwealth on a 10 year track to independence.

The stamp today is issue A57b a 10 centavo stamp issued in 1939. The b refers to the version with the commonwealth overprint. A version of the same stamp was issued in 1935 without the overprint. It was part of a 14 stamp issue that was the last issue before commonwealth status was granted. The stamp depicts Fort Santiago in Manila. It is worth 25 cents in it’s cancelled state according to the Scott catalog.

Fort Santiago has had an interesting history that was far from over in 1939. Fort Santiago was a stone structure built by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Philippines. It was built in 1571 on the site of a log fort that belonged to the Muslim Rajah who was the previous ruler. The Rajah was a vassal of the Sultan of Brunei so the Philippines was not independent even before the arrival of the Europeans. Santiago is the Spanish form of the Catholic Saint James, the patron Saint of Spain.

The fort was out of date militarily by the beginning of American rule in 1898. The American military did use it’s ornate facilities as a headquarters. They even drained the moat and installed a golf course on the grounds. The darkest era of the fort was ahead of it. Left over from the Spanish period was underground prison facilities. In early 1945 the American and Philippine Army were closing in on Japanese occupied Manila. The Japanese Army commander ordered Manila abandoned in order to preserve the fighting force for future fights. A Japanese Marine force refused the order and set out to defend Manila and take out revenge on the people of the Philippines for the defeat. Thousands of men were sent to detention in Fort Santiago and later executed in the underground dungeon. 400 women and girls were rounded up from the exclusive area of Manila and the 25 judged best looking were sent to a hotel where they were raped by Japanese officers and then enlisted men. Many areas of Manila were burned. This post war was deemed a war crime and the Japanese commander and his deputy were hung.

The end of colonial status did not totally arise from the people of the Philippines, although that was the official position of the local political party. Conquering the islands had proved quite bloody and expensive. The colony that then required governing still featured slavery, headhunting, and piracy that had to be ended. An increase in trade of low cost agricultural products that happened was troubling to American agricultural interest. A bill, backed by American agricultural interests, was passed over the veto of President Hoover setting Philippines on a 10 year path to independence. The Philippines was opposed to the bill but it was slightly modified and then rubber stamped. Manuel Quezon became the President of the Philippines during the commonwealth status until he went into exile when Japanese invasion was imminent during World War II. Full independence came immediately after World War II. Fort Santiago still stands.

Well, my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. There is an argument that the cost of the USA’s Philippine involvement sapped American lust for empire building and thus saved the country much. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.