Alternate History of Southeast Asia (1910)

An imaginary alternate history visualized and narrated by Anonymous Kabataan

Another part of my vision of my imaginary alternate history of Southeast Asia. In this scenario, something tragic happened, the First Philippine Republic was defeated by the U.S. in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) like in our real timeline but the difference would be that Philippine Republican Army General Antonio Luna was not assassinated in Cabanatuan and continued to fight until he was totally surrounded by the Americans at the Battle of Cordillera that made him be a prisoner of war and sent to Guam then after the imprisonment at Guam he did not swear allegiance to the United States that made himself exiled to other countries particularly to Japan together with another Philippine Army General Artemio Ricarte. Another difference would be that the Philippine Republican Navy gave up at least a serious fight against the more powerful U.S. Navy at the Battles of Aparri, Legazpi, Balayan, Calapan, and Cavite. Many of you would ask, what happened to Andres Bonifacio? He suffered the fate when he was captured after he and his compatriots were surrounded by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Cordillera then he was sent to Guam until he died of starvation. As the Philippine-American War concludes, the United States Government back in Washington D.C recommended forming the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands from the U.S. Military Government via the Taft Commission thus making the conditions lighter for the life of Filipino citizens under American occupation.

Like in our timeline, this alternate history created the Philippine Organic Act which made the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church as the state religion where it was implemented during the Spanish Colonial Era. In 1904, Taft negotiated the purchase of 390,000 acres of church property for $7.5 million. In effect, the Insular Government successfully investigated the land titles of the friars and restore them to the patrimony of the Filipinos. The Insular Government then established a land titling system for these lands. After few years after the completion and publication of a census, a general election was conducted for the choice of delegates to a popular assembly. An elected Philippine Assembly was convened in 1907 as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the Philippine Commission as the upper house. In the year 1909, the U.S. Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act was implemented for providing free trade with the Philippines. Every year from 1907, the Philippine Assembly (and later the Philippine Legislature) passed resolutions expressing the Filipino desire for independence.