In addition to the Spain that colonized the Philippines from the 16th to the 19th centuries, there was Fascist Spain that purportedly stayed neutral in the Second World War.

This Spain was antipathetic to democratic practices and the Allied cause from the start to the conclusion of WWII. In the Pacific Theater of the War, the Philippine Section of the Falange Espanola was awarded a formal decoration for its invaluable undercover assistance to the Japanese invasion forces in their capture of Manila. [Renato Cons-tantino and Letizia R. Cons-tantino, The Continuing Past, p. 10]

That was on January 5, 1942. By March 10, 1945, US President Roosevelt instructed US Ambassador Armour on American relations with Spain: "The fact that our Government maintains formal diplomatic relations with the present Spanish regime should not be interpreted by anyone to imply approval of that regime and its sole party, the Falange, which has been openly hostile to the United States and which has tried to spread its fascist party ideas in the Western Hemisphere. Our victory over Germany will carry with it the extermination of Nazi and similar ideologies."

On September 26, 1945, President Roosevelt's letter to Armour on American relations with Spain was released to the press: "As you know, it is not our practice in normal circumstances to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries unless there exists a threat to international peace. The form of government in Spain and the policies pursued by that Government are quite properly the concern of the Spanish people. I should be lacking in candor, however, if I did not tell you that I can see no place in the community of nations for governments founded on fascist principles."

The Falange was "a fascist organization constituting the official ruling party of Spain after 1939." [The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language, 1975]. And Spain had sent a Catholic Blue Division to join the Nazi army in invading the Soviet Union. [www.reformation.org/holoc20.html]

Falangist Spain survived World War II and signed a co-operation agreement with the US providing for the establishment of bases for joint use. Then Generalissimo Franco died, and Juan Carlos took over as King of Spain in 1975.

In 1978, Spain was redefined as a parliamentary monarchy, and by 1982, the democratic transition reached a milestone when the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) obtained a parliamentary majority.

Last March, the Socialist Workers Party and Prime Minister Zapatero were reelected. Spain today is a participant in the War on Terror, having its capital, Madrid, bombed in 2004 by Al-Qaeda and the jihadists.

With all these developments, the Philippines is renewing its view of Spain. The symposium on "Studies of Philippine-Spanish Relations: Evaluation and Prospects" organized last June 20 by Dr. Ferdinand C. Llanes, chairman of the History Department of the University of the Philippines, threw up a trickle of interesting spots.

Maria Dolores Elizalde Perez-Grueso of the Instituto de Historia, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, CSIC, averred that the present is the right moment to review and even re-write Philippine history given that Spain and the Philippines, which are two democratic countries free from both the burden of the past and from restrictive doctrines, are now able to "appreciate all the good that has been done, yet we are also capable of judging critically what is least convincing for us."

Perez-Grueso, who is working on the meanings of the Philippines in the international world of the 19th century, reported on the trends of Spanish historiography on the Philippines, the first having been that of the religious orders at the end of the colonial period with their subjective perspectives.

The second trend is linked to Americanism and focuses on specific Spanish institutions in our Archipelago.

Then, some 20 years ago, researchers with backgrounds in economic history or international relations began to study Philippine history with new premises.

Antonio Garcia Abasolo, for instance, works on the Spanish-Chinese encounter in the Philippines, while Florentino Rodao tackles Spanish-Philippine relations in the 20th century with a special devotion on the actuations of the Franco Regime.

Perez-Grueso concluded: "We Spaniards are not quite familiar about the development of pre-Hispanic Philippines and the international dynamics that influenced and shaped South East Asia then. Likewise, we need to study, without fear, the Spanish colonial past in the Philippines, with the aim to re-situate the Spaniards in a manner radically different from the way it was done in the past."

In that same symposium that commemorated the 6th Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day, UP Prof. Emmanuel Luis A. Romanillos told the audience that while Filipino historians have come a long way in approaching the matter of bilateral relations, some still carry their old baggage, handing down erroneous information (Fr. Pedro Pelaez was a full-blooded Spaniard born in Laguna, not a mestizo) and repeating common blunders (Spanish influence can only be found in loan words, denying the continued existence of Chabacano, which is spoken by almost half a million Filipinos in Cavite and Mindanao).

Romanillos, in his "Analytical Survey of Studies on Spanish-Filipino Relations," reported on the findings of Rogelia Pe-Pua that documented Filipinos in Spain in 2003 reached 40,000, that Filipino domestic workers are constantly in demand and preferred over other nationalities, that Filipina housemaids play significant roles in Spanish households, and that the integration of Filipino migrant workers into Spanish society should be a concern of both governments.