While Washington was in deadlock, arguing on whether or not the most recent wave of insurrection in their South-Pacific holdings required immediate action or simple reprisal, the colonel in charge of Manila's garrison had taken it upon himself to act without orders from the suits in charge.
Frankly speaking, Colonel James Whitford had run out of patience in dealing with these attacks from a reactive standpoint.
Their Rules of Engagement were woefully inefficient; they were waiting to be attacked in order to return fire.
And the hit-and-run tactics the enemy used made that damn near impossible to fight effectively. Because of this, he had summoned the big guns.
The Philippines were not exactly a territory teeming with armor, but artillery? They had some leftover guns from the Spanish-American War and the first Philippine Insurrection that could get the job done.
