Anything Under the Sun
Iloilo Fiasco (1)
During the Philippine Revolution, there was an incident between the American forces and the Ilonggo revolucionarios which reached the attention of the American press and was called by Harper's Weekly as the "Iloilo Fiasco" thru its correspondent John F. Bass.
On December 24, 1898, the Spaniards surrendered the City of Iloilo to the revolucionarios and left for Spain via Zamboanga. The next day, the revolucionarios made a victory parade in Iloilo.
But three days later, on December 28, an American battleship (USS Baltimore) and three transports (Newport, Arizona and Pennsylvania) arrived at Iloilo Strait.
Aboard were American soldiers of the First Separate Brigade of the United States Eight Army composed of the 18 Infantry, 51st Iowa Volunteer Regiment and a battery of the 6th Artillery under Brig Gen Marcus P. Miller.
Finding the city already in rebel hands, Miller sent ashore a party courteously asking permission from the Ilonggos land.
This reconciliatory attitude of the Americans was due to the instructions of Maj. Gen. Elwell S. Otis, commander of the US forces in the Philippines to Gen. Miller to be soft on the rebels and to avoid clashes with them.
The reason was that the Americans were still waiting for the ratification by the US Senate of the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898 wherein Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States for $20,000,000.
The American leadership then feared that the Senate may not ratify if there is war in the Philippines. In fact, the treaty was ratified later with only a majority of one in the US Senate.