By calling the 1899 battle outside manila between american and filipino soldiers the philippine insurrection, the us government signaled that

They signaled that they were in charge there. An insurrection is when someone fights authority or government and this is what the Filipinos did, but since it was their government and their country and the United States called it an insurrection, the US believed that it was their territory since after the Filipinos won their independence from the Spaniards.