The history of the Philippine Army began in during pre-colonial era as different tribes established their own citizen force to defend the Balangays from intruders. Army was organized forces through the years who fought Spanish oppression and even other invaders such as Dutch and British who attempted to conquer the Philippines in early centuries.
Battle before Colonization The beginnings of the Filipino land forces dates back before the Spanish and American colonial period. In that time, clans and barangays from different regions form their own armed groups primarily composed of hunters and land fighters. They served as defenders of the tribes or as warriors sent on strike missions against other barangays. On occasions, some clan forces would form alliances to attack more powerful opponents. Conventional weaponry during the pre‐colonial era includes Kris and Kampilan, Blowguns, and Lantaka. War-fare instruments of the Filipino forces continued to develop over time.
Spanish era
Spanish annexation and pacification of the Philippine islands was made possible with the recruitment of the native ally that helped the limited numbers of Spanish soldiers in the late 16th century. The conquest of Manila example, would not have been possible without the helped of the Visayan natives who sees the Rajah Sulayman of Maynila as an enemy. Most colonial soldiers throughout the islands are natives, outnumbering non-native soldiers. Most of the non native soldiers in the Philippines during the early part of colonization are Criollos, Mestizos and Natives of New Spain.
Philippine Revolution
The first organized Army was the secret society that lead to revolution against Spain. It was led by Andres Bonifacio that fought during the first phase of the revolution. The society was called Katipunan or officially known as Katastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan. The movement reached to 20,000 from Luzon and Visayas Islands, upon its discovery Bonifacio gathered all his members and organized an army armed with Bolo, Lancers, Archers, and amulets. Few pistols and rifles was gathered but it was not enough to face the Spanish Army and Guardia Civil, in the early engagements it resulted to massacre as Katipuneros resorted to frontal attacked at the muzzle of rifles, cannons, and bayonets. However, Katipuneros from other provinces was successful due to better tactics and strategy especially in Nueva Ecija under General Mariano Llanera and Cavite under General Mariano Alvarez and General Emilio Aguinaldo. In 1997 in the Tejeros convention General Artemio Ricarte an Ilocano teacher was elected as Captain General that will lead the Revolutionary Army. One of the first action he did was to put all units in one command under the Revolutionary Government under General Emilio Aguinaldo.
Independence from Spanish and Fil-American War
On June 12, 1898, Philippines gained its Independence after 333 years under the Spanish rule. With the help of United States Navy under Commodore George Dewey, Spanish Fleet was defeated in the battle of Manila Bay. Revolutionary Army surrounded Walled City of Manila in Intramuros but Americans had a secret arrangement of purchasing Philippines from Spain. President Emilio Aguinaldo appointed General Antonio Luna as Chief of Operations for Republican Army. The Army this time is under the Department of War under Secretary Baldomero Aguinaldo. General Luna established Academia Militar in Malolos, Bulacan to train officers in Military Tactics and Strategies. However, this was short lived due to the outbreak of the Filipino-American War. General Luna gave the Americans a hardtime in his delaying tactics, however his plan was not put into use after his death and all forces started to crumble until President Aguinaldo was captured in Palanan, Isabela.
Insular Government The Philippines was governed by a US insular government from 1901 to 1945; there was no standing Philippine Army during this period. The Philippine Scouts, Filipinos formerly working under the US Army, remained an active organization until they were disbanded in December 1948. The insular government organized the Philippine Constabulary to help quell criminalities and help put down insurrections such those of Moros in Sulu, Lanao, and Cotabato. This includes also the Sakdalistas and Asedillo in Laguna. The Constabulary was eventually disestablished in the 1990s.
The only time a large number of men organized as an Army unit was during World War I, Americans organized the Philippine National Guard. However, that was disbanded in 1919 as the war ended. The Constabulary and Philippine Scouts maintained the security and peace in the Philippine Archipelago in the period following World War I.
Commonwealth of the Philippines President-elect Manuel L. Quezon convinced his friend, General Douglas MacArthur (Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army), to organize a national army with Franklin D. Roosevelt's agreement in the summer of 1935. MacArthur had unusually-broad authority to deal with the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff as military adviser to the commonwealth government to organize a Philippine national army.
MacArthur had broad authority to deal with the United States Secretary of War, his successor as the Army Chief of Staff, and the United States Army Philippine Department and its commander Major General Lucius R. Holbrook (who had been told that his most important peacetime mission was to assist MacArthur in forming a Philippine force capable of defending the islands). MacArthur selected Majors Dwight D. Eisenhower and James B. Ord as his assistants; they and a committee at the Army War College prepared plans for the defense of the Philippine Commonwealth, with a target of independence in 1946. The plan called for a small regular army with divisions of about 7,500 men, conscription of all men between twenty-one and fifty years of age and a ten-year training program to build a reserve army, a small air force and a fleet of torpedo boats capable of repelling an enemy.
The National Assembly of the Philippines' first act was the passage of the National Defense Act on December 21, 1935, with initial plans for a 10,000-man regular force based on the incorporation of the Philippine Constabulary, a 400,000-man reserve force by 1946.
Philippine Military Academy To train new corps of officers a West-Point-type military academy was agreed to be established, the Philippine Constabulary Academy in Baguio on Luzon was in transition to be a formidable military academy. Lieutenant Colonel Amado Martelino a Philippine Scout was appointed as its Superintendent. The first graduate for the 4-year course was in 1939 and followed by 1940 and 1941 before the war begun.
When the war with Japan began, the Philippine Army was six years from its founding in December 1935 and about five years from the 1946 date at which it was to be fully operational. The naval force which was to protect it against a first-rate naval power was in ruins at Pearl Harbor; the Japanese had pilots standing by fueled-and-loaded bombers in Formosa, prepared to strike the Philippines.
Initial establishment and training The Army of the Philippines was initially organized under the National Defense Act of 1935 (Commonwealth Act No. 1), of December 21, 1935. The Act specified that presidential appointments to grades above third lieutenant should be made from former holders of reserve commissions in the United States Army and former Philippine Scouts and Constabulary officers.
After the establishment of the commonwealth, Manuel L. Quezon, its first president, sought the services of General Douglas MacArthur to evolve a national-defense plan. On December 21, 1935, the Army of the Philippines was established. The act set forth the organizational structure of the army and enlistment and mobilization procedures.
The army's development was slow. In 1936 a general headquarters and camps were built, cadres were organized and instructors, drawn largely from the Philippine Constabulary, were trained. The commander of the Philippine Department provided Philippine Scouts as instructors and detailed U.S. Army officers to assist in the inspection, instruction and administration of the program. By the end of the year, instructors were trained and camps (including general headquarters) established.
The first group of 20,000 to 40,000 men was called up on January 1, 1937, and by the end of 1939 there were 4,800 officers and 104,000 men in the reserves. Infantry training was provided at camps throughout the Philippines; field-artillery training was concentrated near the U.S. Army's Fort Stotsenburg (near Angeles in the province of Pampanga, about fifty miles north of Manila) and specialized training was provided at Fort William McKinley, south of Manila. Coast artillery instruction was carried out at Fort Stotsenburg and Grande Island, in Subic Bay, by personnel supplied largely by the American commander at Corregidor.
Mobilization, July 1941 With the threat of war with the Empire of Japan imminent, on July 26, 1941, a new U.S. command in the Far East, the United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), was created under Douglas MacArthur (who also became a Philippine Field Marshal). That day, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a presidential order (6 Fed. Reg. 3825) calling "all the organized military forces of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines" into the service of the U.S. armed forces. Despite the order's wording, it did not order all the military forces of the Philippine Commonwealth government into the service of the United States; only those units and personnel indicated in orders issued by a general officer of the United States Army were mobilized and made an integral part of the USAFFE, and only those members of a unit who physically reported for duty were inducted. With an annual appropriation of almost ₱16 million, the mobilized units trained new Filipino members in defense.
The Philippine Army was drawn from local Christian and Muslim Filipinos, including native Filipinos, Filipino-Mestizos, Spanish-Filipinos, Chinese-Filipinos and Moro-Filipinos. By the time of the Japanese invasion the 10 reserve divisions were about two-thirds mobilized, for a force of 100,000 "poorly equipped and trained" troops. The Philippine Scouts numbered about 12,000.Chapter III: The Reinforcement of the Philippines The Fall of the Philippines US Army in WWII: The War in the Pacific p50 The army was primarily infantry, with some combat engineers and artillery.Chapter IV: Prewar Plans, Japanese and American p58
At that time there were two regular and ten reserve divisions in the Army of the Philippines, spread across officers in general headquarters, camps in Manila and across the country. This included the North Luzon Force under Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright; the South Luzon Force, activated on December 13, 1941, under Brig. Gen. George M. Parker; the Visayan-Mindanao Force under Maj. Gen. William F. Sharp in the southern islands (61st, 81st, and 101st Infantry Divisions and three other infantry regiments), and the reserve force. The North Luzon Force included the 11th, 21st, and 31st reserve infantry divisions. The South Luzon Force included the 1st (regular) Division and the reserve 41st, 51st and 71st Divisions.After the war ended, the Army was reorganized into the Armed Forces of the Philippines. President Manuel Roxas appointed General Mariano Castañeda Sr as Chief of Staff. The Armed Forces is now composed of Philippine Army, Navy, Air Force, and Constabulary. Army and Armed Forces still shared headquarters and personnel. In post-war Philippine Army relegated to fighting dissidents.
Korean War