Storied Cruiser Highlights Filipino Festivities

By Chris Rivera

On Saturday, local Filipino-Americans began their week-long celebration in honor of the Philippine independence from Spain on June 12, 1898. Festivities annually kick-off with a flag raising ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Olympia, which bears striking historical significance. History buffs know the Olympia was originally commissioned during the Spanish-American War to Commodore George Dewey as his flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay, when he defeated the Spaniards and claimed the Philippines as a territory of the U.S.

Bright sun and warm air welcomed many local Filipino-Americans, and guests from all over the nation on Saturday to the Philadelphia waterfront, also known as Penn’s Landing, where a little known historical icon sits anchored. The U.S.S. Olympia, a C-6 protected cruiser originally commissioned from 1895 to 1922, has been visited by many tourists throughout its tenure as a national historic site, most of whom know little of the ship’s storied past, and even more of whom know nothing of the ship’s impending demise. Although visited by many, the Olympia is in need of a benefactor, otherwise it may go the way many of its contemporaries from long ago…lost at sea.

Early Saturday morning, the crowd gathered on the deck of the over a century-old ship, some dressed in traditional Filipino formal attire, others in uniform, and yet others came as pure observers, adorned with sun visors and cameras. Both the flags of the Republic of the Philippines, as well as that of the United States of America, of which the Philippines was a territory until the end of the second World War, were raised to the live playing of “Taps” and a seven-gun salute, reserved as the highest gun salute from aboard a ship. Speakers included local Filipino-American community leaders, local government representatives, as well as a keynote address from Maj. Gen. (ret.) Antonio Taguba, known for a distinguished service record of almost four decades, which relatively ended in 2004 with the Taguba Report, in which he reported on abuse of prisoners of the Abu Ghirab prison in Iraq.

Local community was represented by the Philippine Folk Arts Society, Inc. (PFASI), Filipino Executive Council of Greater Philadelphia, and VFW Post 1063, all of whom are annual guests at the ceremony. PFASI paid tribute to the armed forces by performing the fight songs of each branch. The Philippine Independence Week, sponsored by the Executive Council, continued yesterday, June 7^th, with a memorial mass at the Olde St. Augustine Church. St. Augustine’s parish was revived in the late-80’s by local Catholic Filipinos who now flock to the church located in Old City, which boasts a Filipino parish sub-committee. The celebrations culminate in a community picnic on June 13^th, held waterside in nearby Cherry Hill, NJ, at the site of a replica of a statue of the physician, author, rebel, and martyr, Jose Rizal, M.D., whose death sparked the rebellion that led to Philippine independence from Spain in 1898. Presentations and performances by many local Filipino organizations will fill the day, while those very same organizations will provide food potluck-style for the hundreds of guest that will come and go throughout the day. The Executive Council will hold their own dinner/dance after the week’s celebrations, on June 20^th.