North Philippines
| Free Philippine Republic | |
|---|---|
 Flag
.svg) Coat of arms
| |
| Capital and largest city | Manila (state) Malolos (ceremonial) |
| Official languages | Tagalog, English |
| Recognised national languages | Batad, Cebuano, Hilgaynon, Ivatan, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Palauano, Sambal, Tagalog, Waray-Waray, Spanish, |
| Demonym | Filipino, North Filipino Pulahan (colloquial) |
| Government | Federal multiparty socialist republic with direct democratic tendencies |
| Nonie Bello (NDF) | |
• Chairman | Juana Campilan (PKP) |
| Legislature | People's Congress |
| First Philippine Revolution | |
| 1897-1901 | |
| 1901-19xx | |
• Establishment of Commonwealth | 1934 |
| 1948 | |
• Current Constitution | 1968 |
| Currency | Philippine Peso (₱)a |
| Date format | dd.mm.yyyy |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | +1 |
| Internet TLD | .ph, .syn |
| |
The Free Philippine Republic (Tagalog: Haring Bayáng Pilipíno), also known as North Philippines or Pulanglupa ("Red Land"), is a socialist republic in Southeast Asia. It occupies the northern half of the Philippine Islands, with direct maritime borders with South Philippines, China, Indochina, and the United Republics by way of the Caroline Islands. Its capital is Manila. The country has an area of XXX km2 and, as of 2017, had a population of XXX. Together with its southern counterpart, the islands form a key biodiverse region.
With the formal end of the United States proper in the Red May Revolution, the country's colonial government declared the independence of the Philippines from the United States on 1933 as the Commonwealth of the Philippines, with its capital in Manila under sponsorship of the United Kingdom and the Japanese Empire. However, the breakdown of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in the Great Revolutionary War prompted the latter to invade the country despite declarations of neutrality. In response, a nationalist resistance movement, led by the local Communist Party waged an insurgency until Japan's surrender in 194X. Their contributions to the war effort allowed for the Party to participate in elections with a large mandate. However, later crackdowns under a nascent Cold War revived the armed struggle; escalating into a Civil War that divided the country into the TCI-aligned north to the AFS-aligned south.
The Philippine Islands are deemed a key Cold War hotspot, and are highlighted in AFS and TCI military strategy in a prospective conflict in the Asia-Pacific region. North Philippines is a member of the Third Communist International. It is also the country with the most significant religious population in the Comintern, with about XX% subscribing to Christianity (mainly Aglipayan-Trinitarian), Islam (in Palawan), Buddhism and local Neopaganism.
Geography and Ecology
The Free Philippine Republic currently spans from the Batanes-Babuyan islands to Palawan. The Philippines islands' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close proximity to the equator makes the country prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatest biodiversity.
Luzon and Palawan in particular are known to be a predominantly mountainous region, especially in Luzon in the Cordillera region. North Philippines' highest point is Mt. Pulag in the Kabundukan Council Provinces, while the Inang Walog mountain range—spanning six provinces: Nueva Vizcaya, Kagayan, Rizal, Kaliraya, Laguna, and Bulakan—is the longest mountain range in all the Philippine Islands.
History
Revolution and war with the United States
The Philippine Revolution began just after the execution of Jose Rizal in 1896, inaugurated in what is now Balintawak in the Cry of Pugad Lawin. The first instances of rebellion began in the provinces adjacent to Manila: Cavite, Bulacan and Morong, and spread to Batangas, Nueva Ecija (now Valmonte), Pampanga, Laguna, Bataan and later Manila itself. With early military victories such as the Battle of Imus and Binakayan-Dalahikan, the revolutionary Katipunan was waging both a guerilla and formal war against the Spanish Empire. With major setbacks of the skirmishes under Andres Bonifacio's leadership, his faction, Magdiwang and the leading chapter in Cavite, Magdalo, the political unity within the Katipunan would disintegrate, and would come to ahead in the Tejeros Convention in May 1897. Here, Magdalo enjoyed a decisive win and Emilio Aguinaldo would be helmed as the new leader of the Katipunan. Andres Bonifacio's faction would later decry the Convention as acting against him, and after his promulgation of the Acta de Tejeros which denounced Aguinaldo, would be executed in that same month.
The Katipunan would later continue to wage war against Spain despite the forced exile of the Supreme Council and other key Katipuneros to Hong Kong in the Pact of Biak-na-Bato. A temporary government under the leadership of Francisco Macabulos would continue until Aguinaldo's return. With continuing victories and eventual retreat of Spanish forces from the country, the reorganized Filipino revolutionaries declared independence in 1898, essentially founding the First Republic, essentially absorbing the other local revolutionary governments save for Zamboanga. In January 1899, a constitution was ratified in Malolos, and in that same year elected Aguinaldo as President.
The Filipino revolutionary government (and later the Republic) ambiguously coexisted with the incoming American forces until the outbreak of war with America. Spain, suffering with heavy losses after the preceding Spanish-American War, made moves to sell all its remaining holdings (Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, with Cuba the only colony in the War achieving sovereignty) to the United States. In particular, the Spanish and American governments formed backstage agreements towards the former's surrender, staging a mock battle essentially relinquishing the city to the Americans. By this point, the Americans are held as allies and co-liberators from Spanish rule. Thus, while most of the country was still technically under Philippine territory, it was bound to be under American rule, with their presence becoming increasingly assertive.
This ambiguity would end after a shooting incident in Santa Mesa, Manila between Filipino and American soldiers leads to another battle of Manila, formally putting the city under American hands. Continuous incursions of the United States Army deep into the interior and the continued retreat of Aguinaldo's government (evacuating to Tarlac). In June 1899, the Republic formally declares war on the United States, though it was too late a motion--the Republican government would later retreat far north, the United States eventually taking much of central Luzon, and continuing further north. Their advance was delayed by Filipino forces in the abortive Battle of Tirad Pass. Aguinaldo and the rest of the Republic's leadership are eventually captured and arrested on March 1901, officially ending the war and putting the Philippines under a military government. Some Filipinos, such as Vicente Lukban, Miguel Malvar and Macario Sakay continued the war effort, though these continued insurgencies would have died down after 1906 with the capture of Sakay in that year.
American rule and rise of the Movimiento Obrero
The United States government was met with controversy over the war, mainly in the country itself. A formal investigation on the Treaty of Paris and the war, which questioned the ethics that went on in the war, was largely polarized between anti-imperialist and imperialist factions. A civil government under the Second Philippine Commission in the Philippines was instituted in 1900. In the following year, a formal territorial government was established (the Insular Government). For the most part, the United States justified its rule of the country as both a "civilizing" effort and as a preparation for the Filipino people towards independence (and defending them from other "predatory" great powers of the time).
The civilizing effort was taken to heart, and an active Americanization campaign was instituted: aggressive secularization (Church lands being expropriated and redistributed), establishment of new mandatory education programs (making English an enforced language) and building up infrastructure. Education in particular had led to the modern Commonwealth University System, founding the University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University and the Philippine School of Arts and Trades (all now the Filipino People's University), Capitalist firms began setting up in conjunction to native ones, with cash crops such as sugarcane being a major product. Mechanized industry led to more migration to the cities, shaping the urban and economic landscape. With this, about XX% of the Philippine population of the time were working in cities, industrial labor in the form of XXX and manufacturing becoming equal with the plantation economy and rural agriculture. In reply, some Filipino activists upheld local languages and preserve the events of the Philippine Revolution.
The worker's movement at the time would also become Americanized in its own way, being informed by the Socialist Labor Party's radical thought and increased militancy. With this, the Union Trabajadores de Filipina (UTF) and Union Obrera Democratica Filipina (UODF) would later unite as the Congreso Obrero de Filipinas, (COF) in May 1, 1913. It would include uniona in support of not only city workers, but also farmers and agricultural workers and fisherfolk. In alignment with the DeLeonist strategy of labor union agitation and conduct of class struggle; a political party was founded in concert by the more left-leaning members of the COF called the Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PSP) two days after the establishment of the COF, led by activist and writer Lope K. Santos. By 1922, its close contact with the Socialist Labor Party in the United States would later reorganize the COF's political wing, along with other smaller left-wing nationalist parties into the Workers’ and Farmers’ Party of the Philippines (Partido ng Manggagawa at Magsasaka ng Pilipinas, PMMP). During this period, the COF maintained a political stronghold in Central Luzon, and would stay a leftist stronghold well into the Civil War.
In 1927, Governor-General Leonard Wood vetoed the Independence Bill which was already passed legislation. With Wood's already notorious record of his abuse of veto powers, his conflict with the Filipino leadership would precipitate the political crisis of 1927, continuing to his death. The crisis would later emphasize the issues of independence and political rights of the legislature in the national discourse. In particular, First Secretary Manuel L. Quezon used the independence issue as a way of gaining support from the people while groups such as the leftist PMMP and the nationalist Sakdalistas were gaining speed, starting with the appointment of Santos in the Senate, whose pro-labor and nationalist legislation (alongside a resurgent nationalist movement) would lend leftist and nationalist groups popularity among the masses.
<Quezon-Osmena political domination and entrenching filipinization policy>
The Red Uprising and formal independence
The nationalist movement became large and unanimous enough that it included factions from the left and from the right. The latter, led by Quezon and Osmeña, supported gradual independence while the latter, spearheaded by Santos and Ramos emphasized the value of the Filipino people and were vehement in their anti-imperialist message. The latter's rise culminated in February 1931 in a massive demonstration in Manila's Plaza Miranda, which featured the leaders of the PMMP, Benigno Ramos and other nationalist figures. In their speeches, there came an apparent divide between the two sides; Ramos, a thorough nationalist, stopped short of identifying himself and his newspaper with the more radical PMMP. Despite this, he and Santos found common cause in the struggle for total independence. This would lead to a boost in popularity of both parties, and by the elections in June the PMMP and Sakdalistas combined gained 5 seats in th Senate and XX seats in the House of Representatives, Ramos now at almost equal footing with his former mentor Quezon.
The election of socialist Norman Thomas to the United States presidency gave high hopes to the independence movement, until his immediate murder in the MacArthur putsch. His death, well before hos inauguration, incited much anger amongst many pro-independence Filipinos, leading to riots in Manila. In response, Ramos and Santos began organizing in the rural areas and formalized an alliance, with Ramos joining the PMMP and formally establishing the Sakdalistas as the PMMP's political wing. By the time the United States lost authority over its holdings due to due to Civil War, the Insular Government became virtually leaderless.
Inspired by the developments on America, the Sakdalista-PMMP movement began mobilizing, radicalized soldiers and constabulary helping in silent takeovers of towns and cities in the countryside. Eventually, the movement began sowing discord in the major areas of Luzon (namely Antipolo, Manila, Laguna, Cavite and Malolos), beginning the Red February Uprising of 1934. With the Governor-General in Manila without a center to report to (the rump government of the United States wouldn't reorganize fully until a year later), he, with assent of the members of the Philippine Legislature, declared a state of emergency. The burgeoning British-Japanese alliance, seeing an opportunity with the American withdrawal, supported the Insular Government.
The uprising was largely suppressed within the year, which culminating in the Manila Siege. The PMMP was banned, the Sakdalistas was suppressed and some leaders (namely Ramos) was forced to Exile in the UASR. The Governor-General and Philippine Legislature in concert declared the Insular Government's independence from the United States in June 12, 1934, establishing the Philippine Commonwealth. The promulgation of their formal constitution was sponsored by the U.K. and Japan under a formal agreement. The Commonwealth was formed as a liberal parliamentary republic under a constitutionally-sanctioned Anglo-Japanese protectorate status. Manuel L. Quezon was appointed the First President of the Commonwealth.
Second World War
The breakdown of the Second Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the decision of Japan to formally join the Anti-Comintern Axis pulled the Commonwealth in opposite directions. These tensions culminated with the Japanese invasion of the island of Mindanao when the nascent Franco-British Union declared war on Japan’s allies Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, starting the Western European and Southeast Asian fronts of the Second World War.
President Manuel L. Quezon declared neutrality in an attempt to bring the conflict out of the islands to no avail; leading to a Japanese military occupation of the rest of the islands in preparation for an eventual annexation to the Empire of Japan. Quezon and his government then went in exile in Sydney, Australia. In the place of the Quezon-Osmena regime, a corporatist-nationalist regime was formed by the Makapili one-party state; which was slightly patterned after the emergent Japanese fascist state but with liberal democratic institutions nominally intact. In the chaos, reports of Japanese abuse of Filipino civilians (including the infamous comfort women situation) were reported, alongside widespread famine in some parts of Mindanao, where the invasion began.
The war with Japan opened a space for the Filipino left, which had greater popularity and organizational strength. Santos, escaping prison, began reorganizing the Party. In response to the Japanese occupation, the Anti-Japanese Liberation Army or Hukbalahap (Huks for sort) was established, a guerilla army which became the formal armed wing of the PMMP. Similar Sakdalista militia, often with the support of the Huks, followed. Coinciding with it, an insurgent underground state was in place with loyalties with the Quezon's government-in-exile in Sydney. The PMMP strategically declares its loyalty to the Emergency Commission and it became the left wing of the Philippine resistance movement. With French and Commonwealth support, the Filipinos would bit by bit liberate the occupied islands, Manila falling in 194X. Most of the exiled PMMP leadership, including Ramos, would return in the same year, hoping for reconciliation with the government.
As the Commonwealth government reorganized, British, Australian and French soldiers that liberated the islands with the right-wing guerillas started to forcibly disarm the Huks, which led to resistance. As part of the precursor to the Cold War; the Huks were being supported by the Comintern on the underground by the way of the leftist-leaning Chinese community and contacts with the UASR's Filipino-American community. By this point, Luzon was under effective control of the PMMP-Hukbalahap movement, forming an impromptu socialist proto-state. The Huk, now bolstered by foreign support, would later rename itself the People's Liberation Army, and the PMMP would rename itself into the Communist Party of the Philippines (PKP).
The returning President Sergio Osmena, who happens to be a Cebuano, previously has the seat of his government in Tacloban and then moved to Cebu during his return to the country as Japanese forces were slowly being defeated. He returned the capital of the Commonwealth to Manila, though this largely held little water as the Commonwealth's control of Luzon was tenuous due to the more dominant PKP movement.
Civil War and Partition
Liberation from Japanese occupation proved to be chaotic, with returning British soldiers accompanied by soldiers from the rest of the Franco-British Commonwealth and the Allied powers meeting insurgents affiliated with a resurgent PKP. President Sergio Osmena agreed for holding of new elections with PKP participation in return for the disarmament of the PKP-aligned Huk Army; which the left-wing of the PKP refused until the elections were finished, driving themselves to the political underground, strengthening the base in Luzon.
The unseating of the loyalist PKP elected representatives that refused to renew the parity rights provision of the Commonwealth Constitution fully dissolved any potential of concordance between the Reds and the Commonwealth. The Huks, now called the People's Liberation Army (HMB, now the People's Liberation Forces) renewed their fightinh; now aimed at the Commonwealth government itself. This Second Red Uprising was supported by First Republic figures such as Aguinaldo, Ricarte and de Jesus. This nascent PMMP-Huk government under the Democratic-Revolutionary Commission (Komisyong Demokratiko-Rebolusyonaryo or KDR) held control of the Ivatan Islands, Luzon, Marinduque, Masbate, Panay, Mindoro and Palawan, with aid from China and the United Republics.
The ensuing Philippine Civil War culminated in the declaration of the Free Philippine Republic on June 12, 1948, the 50th anniversary of Philippine independence in Malolos, Bulakan. This largely socialist republic followed a mix of the early revolutionary government and the administrative system of the United Republics. The country had its first general elections in 1949, with Emilio Aguinaldo winning as President and Benigno Ramos winning as Chairman of the Central Committee.
The Civil War didn't formally end until the First Tacloban Conference in 1951, establishing the Philippine demarcation lines between the Northern and Southern Philippine republics that remains up to the present-day. The conference declared a ceasefire, but no peace treaty was signed until the Second Tacloban Conference in 1963.
Early years of the Third Republic
Aguinaldo-Ramos tenure, market socialism-cooperativism years and the rise of Maphilindo. First Conference of the East Asia-Pacific Section of the Comintern.
The First Quarter Storm and Cultural Revolution
Cold war and militarized internationalism. Support of the Issarak Dong-Minh movement in Indochina. Younger internationalist cadre leads a countercultural mass movement against the prevailing conservative tendencies of the ruling communist party. Nationalist revivalism under the New Katipunan call for the reunification of the Islands under the North. Long seventies marked by hostility and skirmishes between the North and South. Period of liberalization and war paranoia.
Normalization of 1986 to present
Internationalist youth forms a coalition with the PKP in the 1986 elections, and a ceasefire is declared between Manila and Cebu.
Government and politics
While officially a federal socialist republic, the North Filipino constitution peculiarly works under a hybrid council republican and parliamentary system. The President (Pangulo), as head of state, ceremonially convenes the legislature, while the Chairman of the Central Committee (Puno ng Sangguniang Haring Bayan, simply Punongbayan), is the head of government, with the Committee itself governing as a collective executive.
The legislative branch itself, collectively referred to as the "Twin Supreme Assemblies" (kambal na kapisanan), consists of the elected elected 400-seat People's Congress (Kapisanan ng Sambayanan, Kasamban), and the appointed, 100-seat Consultative Assembly (Tanungang Kapisanan, Tangkapan). The former is a proper parliamentary body elected by the municipal councils to discuss, vote on and pass laws, while the latter is an advisory body of key sectoral groups that propose policy in order to guide both the People's Congress and Central Committee's priorities. The Congress has 3 members per provincial district (usually divided between 300 balangays, or about 500,000-700,000 adult voters on average) elected through proportional representation. The Consultative Assembly on the other hand, is capped to around 300 seats, elected from particular representative bodies, such as those of trade unions, peasant leagues, indigenous groups and academics.
Legislation comes from two sources: popular initiative and process of assembly.
Provincial and local government largely mirrors the national structure, albeit with a unicameral legislature and a singular executive. The true nucleus of the North Filipino body-politic is local government; represented mainly by the nayon (hamlet, barrio) and balangay (town, municipality). These bases adhere fully to a conciliar administration in which publicly-convened workers' and farmers' councils lead the government and often advise the provincial government on daily affairs, not dissimilar to the role of the Consultative Assembly in the national level.
Administrative divisions
North Philippines is made up of 30 Council Provinces (Lalawigan).
Politics
- Communist Party / Partido Komunista - Marxism-DeLeonism, Filipinismo, Irredentism, Councilism
- Workers and Peasants Party / Katipunan ng mga Manggagawa at Magsasaka (KMMP, refounded) - Bolshevik Leninism, Councilism
- New Patriotic Alliance / Bagong Katipunang Makabayan (BAYAN) - Katipunero nostalgia, people's democracy, democratic socialism, filipinismo, left-wing nationalism, irredentism
- People's Struggle Front / Prenteng Pakikibaka ng Masa (PKM) - Democratic socialism, classical DeLeonism, municipalism, Social Ecology, Zapatismo
- Partido Nacionalista (Collectivist) (NC) - Liberalism, cooperativism, people's democracy, north-south rapprochement, left-wing nationalism
Foreign relations
Military
People's Liberation Army (Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, Hukbong Bayan for short)
Economy
North Philippine economic development accelerated during the Cold War with the help of TCI-wide economic assistance; shifting the economy from one based in agriculture and light manufacturing to one based on energy, services, and advanced manufacturing.
Infrastructure
Culture and society
Owing to the participation and considerable presence of radical and leftist nationalists during the Revolutionary period, North Filipino society is considered unique in the long-standing members of the Comintern for its continued attachment to a national and cultural identity. Deeply based around anti-colonialist sentiments and attitudes and an informed approach to Communist internationalism, this newfound identity would become the defining point of much of local North Filipino culture.
This cultural ethos, known as Pulahan ("to be red" or "reddening"), has been described by academics as a "social compromise between the national romanticism and the futurist outlook of the two sides of North Filipinos". It may be seen as a cultural movement of soets mainly defined by syncretizing the modernist and cosmopolitan sensibilities of American Communism and adherence to aesthetics and practices of indigenous and traditional culture. The pervasiveness and popularity of Pulahan has made it invoked by government propaganda from time to time, persisting even through the Militarized Internationalism period of the 70's despite constant suppression.
Art and architecture
Art deco baby ever heard of the Metropolitan Thester I heard BB King played there and everyone lost their shit
"Pacific Deco" and "Pop-Pulahan" (ie. most Filipino artists on twitter rn)
Music
Mostly defined by rock, folk (see: OTL flip communist music), perhaps Luk Thing/Molam style funk pop by way of Indochina, blues rock (see: Jimi Hendrix) as countercultursl thing during the Milintern era
Indie rock is what the kiddies like, rev up those ukelele shit
Sport
I don't even like basketball but I have to put it in
