Military history of the Philippines


The military history of the Philippines is characterized by wars between Philippine kingdoms and its neighbors in the precolonial era and then a period of struggle against colonial powers such as Spain and the United States, occupation by the Empire of Japan during World War II and participation in Asian conflicts post-World War II such as the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The Philippines has also battled a communist insurgency and a secessionist movement by Muslims in the southern portion of the country.

Prehistoric tribal warfares

Archaeological findings dating from prehistoric eras have discovered a variety of stone and metal weaponry, such as axes, arrows and spearheads. Usually used for hunting, they also allowed tribes to battle with each other. Some more elaborate bronze pieces, such as axes and swords, were also part of the native weaponry. The making of swords involved elaborate rituals that were based mainly on the auspicious conjunctions of planets. The passage of the sword from the maker entailed a mystical ceremony that was coupled with tribal beliefs. The lowlanders of Luzon use the kampilan, bararao and panabas, while the Moros and animists of the South still continue the tradition of making kris.
For example, of tribal wars are can be found at the Igorot Society, it was unified after the long clan wars between the Clans and tribes of Ifugao and Kalinga Headhunting warlords because of land resources. This unification established the culturally homogeneous society which led to the building of the Banaue Rice Terraces.

Pre-colonial period (900 AD to 1565)

Champa-Sulu War

The Chams who migrated to Sulu were called Orang Dampuan.
The Champa Civilization and the port-kingdom of Sulu engaged in commerce with each other which resulted in merchant Chams settling in Sulu where they were known as Orang Dampuan from the 10th–13th centuries. The Orang Dampuan were slaughtered by envious native Sulu Buranuns due to the wealth of the Orang Dampuan. The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored. The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa. Sulu received civilization in its Indic form from the Orang Dampuan.

Visayan Raids against China

Antecedent to this raids, sometime between A.D. 1174 and 1190, a traveling Chinese government bureaucrat Chau Ju-Kua reported that a certain group of "ferocious raiders of China's Fukien coast" which he called the "Pi-sho-ye", believed to have lived on the southern part of Formosa.
In A.D. 1273, another work written by Ma Tuan Lin, which came to the knowledge of non-Chinese readers through a translation made by the Marquis D’Hervey de Saint-Denys, gave reference to the Pi-sho-ye raiders, thought to have originated from the southern portion of Formosa. However, the author observed that these raiders spoke a different language and had an entirely different appearance. Some scholars have put forth the theory that the Pi-sho-ye were actually people from the Visayas islands. Furthermore, Boholano oral legends say that people from the Kedatuan of Dapitan were the ones that lead the raids on China.

Resistance movements by Madja-as

According to legend, the Kedatuan of Madja-as was founded following a civil war in collapsing Srivijaya, wherein loyalists of the Malay datus of Srivijaya defied the invading Chola dynasty and its puppet-Rajah, called Makatunao, and set up a remnant state in the islands of the Visayas. Its founding datu, Puti, had purchased land for his new realms from the aboriginal Ati hero, Marikudo. Madja-as was founded on Panay island. The people of Madja-as, descendants of loyalist Visayans from Pannai and Borneo who rebelled against a Chola occupation and Majapahit invasion then conducted resistance movements against the Hindu and Islamic invaders that arrived from the west from their new home-base in the Visayas islands.

War between Sulu and Majapahit

In the mid 14th century, the Majapahit empire mentioned in its manuscript Nagarakretagama Canto 14, written by Prapanca in 1365, that the area of Solot was part of the empire. Nagarakretagama was composed as a eulogy for their emperor Hayam Wuruk. However, Chinese sources then report that in 1369, the Sulus regained independence and in vengeance, assaulted Majapahit and its province, Po-ni, looting it of treasure and gold. A fleet from the Majapahit capital succeeded in driving away the Sulus, but Po-ni was left weaker after the attack. The Majapahit Empire, attempted to reconquer the kingdoms of Sulu and Manila but they were permanently repulsed.

War between the Maguindanao and Cebu

During the early 1400s, Rajamuda Sri Lumay, a Chola dynasty prince who rebelled against the Cholas and sided with his Malay subjects established an independent Tamil-Malay Indianized kingdom in Cebu called the Rajahnate of Cebu, he established his country by waging scorched earth tactics against raiders from Mindanao mainly against the Sultanate of Maguindanao. War between Maguindanao and Cebu lasted until the Spanish era.

Ming Fleet Repulsed at Luzon

The Battle of Manila in 1405 is a battle for the whole Luzon island including Manila, which was attacked by Ming-dynasty Admiral, Zheng He who wanted to incorporate Luzon into the Ming Empire. The Chinese attacked and completely devastated Manila but they were repulsed there by an alliance of local kingdoms. They were forced to settle in Pangasinan were they made the kingdom of Caboloan a vassal-state, and a colony of the Ming dynasty.

Brunei invasion of Tondo and incorporation of Sulu

The Battle of Manila was fought in Manila between citizens of the Kingdom of Tondo led by their Lakan, Sukwu and the soldiers of the Sultanate of Brunei led by Sultan Bolkiah the singing captain. The aftermath of the battle was the formation of an alliance between the newly established Kingdom of Maynila and the Sultanate of Brunei, to crush the power of the Kingdom of Tondo and the subsequent installation of the Pro-Islamic Rajah Sulaiman into power. Furthermore, Sultan Bolkiah's victory over Sulu and Seludong, as well as his marriages to Laila Mecanai the daughter of Sulu Sultan Amir Ul-Ombra, and to the daughter of Datu Kemin, widened Brunei's influence in the Philippines.

Territorial conflict between Manila and Tondo

According to the account of Rajah Matanda as recalled by Magellan expedition members Gines de Mafra, Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz, and expedition scribe Antonio Pigafetta, Maynila had a territorial conflict with Tondo in the years before 1521.
At the time, Rajah Matanda's mother served as the paramount ruler of the Maynila polity, taking over from Rajah Matanda's father, who had died when Rajah Matanda was still very young. Rajah Matanda, then simply known as the "Young Prince" Ache, was raised alongside his cousin, who was ruler of Tondo – presumed by some to be a young Bunao Lakandula, although not specifically named in the accounts.
During this time, Ache realized that his cousin, who was ruler of the Tondo polity, was "slyly" taking advantage of Ache's mother by taking over territory belonging to Maynila. When Ache asked his mother for permission to address the matter, his mother refused, encouraging the young prince to keep his peace instead. Prince Ache could not accept this and thus left Maynila with some of his father's trusted men, to go to his "grandfather", the Sultan of Brunei, to ask for assistance. The Sultan responded by giving Ache a position as commander of his naval force.
In 1521, Prince Ache was coming fresh from a military victory at the helm of the Bruneian navy and was supposedly on his way back to Maynila with the intent of confronting his cousin when he came upon and attacked the remnants of the Magellan expedition, then under the command of Sebastian Elcano. Some historians suggest that Ache's decision to attack must have been influenced by a desire to expand his fleet even further as he made his way back to Lusong and Maynila, where he could use the size of his fleet as leverage against his cousin, the ruler of Tondo.

Battle of Mactan

The Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521, is celebrated as the earliest reported resistance of the natives in the Philippines against western invaders. Lapu-Lapu, a Chieftain of Mactan Island, defeated Christian European explorers led by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan.
On March 16, 1521, the island of Samar was sighted. The following morning, March 17, Magellan landed on the island of Homonhon. He parleyed with Rajah Calambu of Limasawa, who guided him to Cebu Island on April 7. With the aid of Magellan's Malay interpreter, Enrique, Rajah Humabon of Cebu and his subjects converted to Christianity and became allies. Suitably impressed by Spanish firearms and artillery, Rajah Humabon suggested that Magellan project power to cow Lapu-Lapu, who was being belligerent against his authority.
Magellan deployed 49 armored men, less than half his crew, with crossbows and guns, but could not anchor near land because the island is surrounded by shallow coral bottoms and thus unsuitable for the Spanish galleons to get close to shore. His crew had to wade through the surf to make a landing and the ship was too far to support them with artillery. Antonio Pigafetta, a on the voyage who later returned to Seville, Spain, records that Lapu-Lapu had at least 1500 warriors in the battle. During the battle, Magellan was wounded in the leg, while still in the surf. As the crew were fleeing to the boats, Pigafetta recorded that Magellan covered their retreat, turning at them on several occasions to make sure they were getting away, and was finally surrounded by a multitude of warriors and killed. The total toll was of eight crewmen killed on Magellan's side against an unknown number of casualties from the Mactan natives.

The Kedatuan of Dapitan vs the Ternate and Lanao Sultanates

By 1563, before the full Spanish colonization agenda came to Bohol, the Kedatuan of Dapitan was at war with the Sultanate of Ternate, a Papuan speaking Muslim state in the Moluccas, which was also raiding the Rajahnate of Butuan. At the time, Dapitan was ruled by two brothers named Dalisan and Pagbuaya. The Ternateans at the time were allied to the Portuguese. Dapitan was destroyed by Ternateans and Datu Dalisan was killed in battle. His brother, Datu Pagbuaya, together with his people fled to Mindanao and established a new Dapitan in the northern coast of the Zamboanga peninsula and displaced its Muslim natives. In the process, waging war against the Sultanate of Lanao and conquering territories from the Sultanate.

Lucoes Mercenary Activity

Due to the conflict-ridden nature of the Philippine archipelago, warriors were forged in the many wars in the islands, thus the islands acquired a reputation for its capable mercenaries, which were soon employed all across Southeast Asia. Lucoes aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD. At the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya.
The former sultan of Malacca decided to retake his city from the Portuguese with a fleet of ships from Lusung in 1525 AD.
Pinto noted that there were a number of them in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century. The Sultan of Aceh gave one of them the task of holding Aru in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511. Pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521. One famous Lucoes is Regimo de Raja, who was appointed by the Portuguese at Malacca as Temenggung or Supreme Governor and Chief General.

Spanish colonial period (1565–1898)

Major Revolts (1567–1872)

Castilian War (1578)

Cambodian-Spanish War (1593–1597)

Eighty Years' War (1568–1648)

Philippine Revolution (1896–1898)

The Philippine Revolution began in August 1896, upon the discovery of the anti-colonial secret organization Katipunan by the Spanish authorities. The Katipunan, led by Andrés Bonifacio, was a secessionist movement and shadow government spread throughout much of the islands whose goal was independence from Spain through armed revolt. In a mass gathering in Caloocan, the Katipunan leaders organized themselves into a revolutionary government and openly declared a nationwide armed revolution. Bonifacio called for a simultaneous coordinated attack on the capital Manila. This attack failed, but the surrounding provinces also rose up in revolt. In particular, rebels in Cavite led by Emilio Aguinaldo won early victories. A power struggle among the revolutionaries led to Bonifacio's execution in 1897, with command shifting to Aguinaldo who led his own revolutionary government. That year, a truce was officially reached with the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and Aguinaldo was exiled to Hong Kong, though hostilities between rebels and the Spanish government never actually ceased.
The first battle in the Philippine theater was in Manila Bay, where, on May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey, commanding the United States Asiatic Squadron aboard the, in a matter of hours, defeated the Spanish squadron, under Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón. Dewey's force sustaining only a single casualty — a heart attack aboard one of his vessels.
After the battle, Dewey blockaded Manila and provided transport for Emilio Aguinaldo to return to the Philippines from exile in Hong Kong. Aguinaldo arrived on May 19 and, after assuming command of Filipino forces on May 24, initiated land campaigns against the Spanish. After the Battle of Manila on the morning of August 13, 1898, the Spanish governor, Fermin Jaudenes, surrendered Manila to U.S. forces under Dewey.
On June 12, 1898, with the country still under Spanish sovereignty, Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence from Spain, under a dictatorial government then being established. The Act of the Declaration of Independence was prepared and written in Spanish by Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, who read it at the proclamation ceremony. The Declaration was signed by ninety-eight persons, among them an American army officer who witnessed the proclamation. The insurgent dictatorial government was replaced on June 23 by an insurgent revolutionary government headed by Aguinaldo as president. The government included a Department of War and Public Works under which was placed the Army of Liberation of the Philippines, a volunteer army to be organized as soon as possible.
The Spanish–American War was formally concluded on December 10, 1898 by the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain. In that treaty, Spain ceded the Philippine Archipelago to the United States, and the United States agreed to pay US$20,000,000 to the Spanish government. The United States then exercised sovereignty over the Philippines. The insurgent First Philippine Republic was formally established with the proclamation of the Malolos Constitution on January 23, 1899.

American colonial period (1899–1941) and Japanese occupation (1942–1945)

Philippine–American War (1899–1913)

The Philippine–American War was a conflict between the United States and the First Philippine Republic from 1899 through at least 1902, when the Filipino leadership generally accepted American rule. A Philippine Constabulary organized in 1901 to deal with the remnants of the insurgent movement and gradually assumed the responsibilities of the United States Army. Skirmishes between government troops and armed groups lasted until 1913, and some historians consider these unofficial extensions part of the war.
In 1917 the Philippine Assembly created the Philippine National Guard with the intent to join the American Expeditionary Force. By the time it was absorbed into the National Army it had grown to 25,000 soldiers. However, these units did not see action.
The first Filipino to die in World War I was Private Tomas Mateo Claudio who served with the U.S. Army as part of the American Expeditionary Forces to Europe. He died in the Battle of Chateau Thierry in France on June 29, 1918. The Tomas Claudio Memorial College in Morong Rizal, Philippines, which was founded in 1950, was named in his honor.

World War II (1939–1945)

The first Filipino military casualty during the Second World War was serving as an aviator with British forces. First Officer Isidro Juan Paredes of the Air Transport Auxiliary was killed on November 7, 1941, when his aircraft overshot a runway and crashed at RAF Burtonwood. He was buried at Great Sankey Churchyard Extension, but later repatriated to the Philippines. Paredes Air Station in Ilocos Norte, was named in his honor.
World War II Veterans are members of the following:
Related articles:
The Philippines joined the Korean War in August 1950. The Philippines sent an expeditionary force of around 7,500 combat troops. This was known as the Philippine Expeditionary Forces To Korea, or PEFTOK. It was the 4th largest force under the United Nations Command then under the command of US General Douglas MacArthur that were sent to defend South Korea from a communist invasion by North Korea which was then supported by Mao Zedong's China and the Soviet Union. The PEFTOK took part in decisive battles such as the Battle of Yultong Bridge and the Battle of Hill Eerie. This expeditionary force operated with the United States 1st Cavalry Division, 3rd Infantry Division, 25th Infantry Division, and 45th Infantry Division.
The Philippines was involved in the Vietnam War, supporting civil and medical operations. Initial deployment in 1964 amounted to 28 military personnel, including nurses, and 6 civilians. The number of Filipino troops who served in Vietnam swelled to 182 officers and 1,882 enlisted personnel during the period 1966–1968. This force was known as the Philippine Civic Action Group-Vietnam or PHILCAG-V. Filipino troops withdrew from Vietnam on December 12, 1969.

EDSA Revolution (February 22–25, 1986)

On February 22, 1986, former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces of the Philippines Vice Chief of Staff and chief of the Philippine Constabulary Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos withdrew their support for President Ferdinand Marcos and led the EDSA Revolution by Corazon Aquino. On February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino was sworm in as the 11th President of the Philippines. Marcos and his family were ousted from power by a combination of the military, people and church members to end the 20-year dictatorship of Marcos.

Persian Gulf War (1990–1991)

The Philippines sent 200 medical personnel to assist coalition forces in the liberation of Kuwait from the stranglehold of Iraq then led by Saddam Hussein.

Iraq War (2003–2004)

The Philippines sent 60 medics, engineers and other troops to assist in the invasion of Iraq. The troops were withdrawn on the 14th of July, 2004, in response to the kidnapping of Angelo dela Cruz, a Filipino truck driver. When insurgent demands were met, the hostage was released. While in Iraq, the troops were under Polish command. During that time, several Filipino soldiers were wounded in an insurgent attack, although none died.

Communist insurgent groups in the Philippines

Early 1950s to present
Late 1960s to present

List of coups d'état

*