History of Philippine press / Carson Taylor.

History of the Philippine Press

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The property was later acquired by Ziengenfuss and
Crozier and struggled along under difficulties until about
1907 when it was purchased by George Sellner, who sold it
to the same group that had purchased the Manila Times.
It was soon afterwards sold to the publisher of the Cablenews and combined with that paper under the title Cablenews-American about 1908.
There were five so-called comic or satirical publications
started by Spaniards during the year of 1898, The Ron Leche,
El Cometa, El Bejuco, El Chiflado and La Restauracion. In
demonstrating their idea of the freedom of the press under
were suppressed by the military authorities for indecent
the American government some contracted libel suits, others
illustrations and none long survived.
The Spanish prisoners, the greater number of whom
remained here until the treaty of peace was signed, established a paper called El Soldado Espainol which was discontinued when the spanish soldiers were returned home.
The Filipinos also availed themselves of the opportunity
to enjoy freedom of the press. Before the end of 1898 they
had established several papers. All were printed outside the
American lines but circulated freely in the city of Manila.
The most important was La Independencia, which was
established September 3, 1898.
To quote Retana: "It was published in the orphan's
asylum at Malabon, of which the insurgents had taken possession. The same printing plant which the Frailes had
used so long to produce propaganda against the reformists
was now used by the latter to publish what they pleased
against the former.
"La Independencia was the first paper to advocate
openly, separation from Spain. In fact, so far as is recorded, with the exception of El Ilocano and other publications
by Isabelo de los Reyes, it was the first newspaper published
by native Filipinos in the islands.
(Retana apparently errs in stating that La Independencia was the first paper to advocate independence from Spain.
Epifanio de los Santos, director of the Philippine Library,
states that La Libertad was the first. This paper was suppressed by General Aguinaldo and was succeeded by El Heraldo de La Revolucion Filipina as the official organ of the
revolutionary government. The name was changed to Heraldo Filipino and later to Gaceta de Filipinas.)
"Antonio Luna, who had suffered severe persecution
from the natives because he had not belonged to the Katipunan, whose members had saved his life almost by a