Kung nakalimutan na natin ang mga tinuro sa atin sa Sibika noon, ito lang ang suma total nito:
Nagsisimula ang pagiging makabayan sa pagkakaroon ng pake.
Kung nakalimutan na natin ang mga tinuro sa atin sa Sibika noon, ito lang ang suma total nito:
Nagsisimula ang pagiging makabayan sa pagkakaroon ng pake.
“History is alive whether we say so or not.”
Thank you, Philippine Star, for inviting me to write about history on your anniversary. The article was born out of the debate in my head—an attempt to make sense of the value of history in the context of what’s happening now. It’s me pouring my heart out and sharing why I love History and why it gives me hope amidst the darkness.
It came out TODAY online and in print.
You can read the online version HERE.
“Do not forget: We Filipinos are the first Asian people who revolted against a western imperial power, Spain; the first who adopted a democratic republican constitution in Asia, the Malolos Constitution; the first to fight the first major war of the twentieth century against another western imperial power, the United States of America. There is no insurmountable barrier that could stop us from becoming what we want to be.”
- Jose W. Diokno
Seventy five years ago, halfway across the world, in San Francisco, California, in the United States, representatives of 50 nations gathered solemnly in a historic event culminating from the years of war, volatile peace, and grief at the tremendous loss of millions of lives. Embarking on yet another impossible dream, but holding onto hope that humanity’s shared experience of strife and destruction would reap a shared vision of lasting peace—these representatives stood, at noontime in the United States, at approximately 3:00 am in Philippine local time, just as the Philippine sun was about to rise.
*Photos of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (25 April-26 June 1945). From the United Nations Organization.
At the time, across the world, the Axis Powers, led by Nazi Germany, have been defeated in Europe. As smoke cleared, to the shock of the entire world, Nazi gas chambers were uncovered, and the bones and ashes of around 6 million gassed Jewish lives were found. The Holocaust, long having been denied by much of the West, including the United States, have been confirmed.
In the Pacific, the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia have been pushing back against the fascist Imperial Japanese forces, then on the retreat. Amidst the total destruction of the Philippine capital, (Manila was next only to the city of Warsaw as the most destroyed Allied capital of World War II), Filipinos, as well as their kindred Asian peoples who suffered under the Japanese, have begun picking up the pieces for rebuilding their nations anew, as the colonial apparatus in Asia have been shaken. The Allied forces have embarked on a push towards the final landing on Japan itself, as millions of Japanese civilians succumb to famine, carpet bombings, and a torn military leadership who still fanatically refused to surrender.
The ambitious project that would be the United Nations was long in coming. At the cessation of hostilities in the First World War, an organization of nations called the League of Nations tried to restore order, set rules for humane engagement in war, and tried to broker piece in continental Europe and w/ rising powers in the East such as Russia and Japan. But the seeds of inequality in treaties overseen by the League, and an apparent misrepresentation and unfairness it unintentionally imparted, as well as self-interest among its members, led to its disintegration and the outbreak of the Second World War. At the time, the Philippines was yet to achieve its independence from the United States.
The Japanese-occupied Philippines had been amply represented by the late President Manuel L. Quezon, who led the Philippine Commonwealth government-in-exile in Washington, D.C., when the talks of organizing a “United Nations” began in 1942, even as his health deteriorated.
*President Manuel L. Quezon, sitting with world leaders (3rd from the left), circa 1942. The Philippines signed the UN Declaration on 10 June 1942. From the United Nations Organization website.
*A 1943 propaganda poster of the Allied forces, with the Philippine flag included (at the far right). Courtesy of the Peace Palace Library.
With the Leyte Landings, the restoration of the government on Philippine soil, and the subsequent reclaiming of Malacañan Palace in February 1945, the new President, Sergio Osmeña, gladly accepted the invitation of the Allied Powers, the Big Four—namely the United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain, the United Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Republic of China—for the Philippines to attend a historic event, the signing of the Charter of the United Nations.
Osmeña sent Carlos P. Romulo, Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the United States, and 7 others representing the Senate, Congress, the Philippine defense forces, and the academe, to attend the United Nations Conference on International Organization, or what would be known in history as the San Francisco Conference. Beginning from 25 April to 26 June 1945 (around 62 days), the Philippine delegation, together with the other 49 nations, with their 850 delegates and 3,500 secretariat personnel, have struggled to reach a consensus of this new world order of peace.
Painstakingly debated, each line and wording were carefully crafted, that now compose the historic United Nations Charter:
We the Peoples of the United Nations determined,
To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
And for these ends,
To practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of peoples,
Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to present CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS and do hereby establish an international organization known as the UNITED NATIONS.
On this day, seventy five years ago, at the War Veterans Memorial Building in San Francisco, each delegation stood up, with the Republic of China having the honor of being the first, for having been the first victim of the Axis Powers with the Japanese encroachment on the Chinese mainland and their horrifying experience in the Rape of Nanjing. On a round table, lit up brightly by spotlights, surrounded circularly by 50 flags of these nations, laid two documents to be signed—the Charter of the United Nations, and the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Poland, at the time, having suffered the worst in Europe, have yet to form a government to represent them, but a space was left for their signature on the documents, for having contributed so much to the Allied victory in Europe.
*The United Nations Charter is signed by each delegation of the 50 nations that declared war against Germany and Japan, and/or signed the UN Declaration in 1942. Photo courtesy of the United Nations Organization.
*On 27 June 1945 (dawn, Philippine time/ 26 July in San Francisco U.S.A.), Carlos P. Romulo, as Resident Commission of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to the United States, signs the UN Charter.
The Philippines, upon the signing of the documents, is one of the 50 core members of the United Nations, despite not having yet full sovereignty and independence at the time. The Philippines was also one of the only 4 Asian countries to sign these documents. Given our proven commitment on human rights from the time President Manuel Quezon opened the doors of the Philippines to the Jewish refugees when most of the world powers were closing their doors on them, the Philippines had proven itself worthy of becoming a responsible player in the geopolitical balance in the Pacific. The signatory on the nation’s behalf, Carlos P. Romulo, would soon serve as the Chairman of the United Nations Security Council from 1949 to 1950, the first Asian leader to assume the position.
The United Nations would not yet exist, as these representatives would go back to their respective countries for their legislatures to ratify the Charter. On 24 October 1945, the ratification of these member states were all in, and as such, the United Nations was established on that day.
But beyond the rhetorics and the painstaking effort to talk amidst ethnic, linguistic, social, political, and religious barriers, the miracle of this date should never be taken for granted. For upon the establishment of the United Nations was a lasting world order of peace that the world had not yet seen.
It is this same international order that is now being threatened by demagogues in different parts of the world today. This order built an environment across the world, imperfect though it might be, conducive for international cooperation in the sciences and humanities, in the expansion of human knowledge (especially now that scientists all over the world are researching on finding a cure in this COVID-19 pandemic), innovation, and even in the peaceful arbitration between opposing modern states. This peace remains fragile and must be preserved.
Today, there are many challenges that the Philippines faces. Despite the country’s historic victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016, the current government has failed to follow through with using this victory and the force of our influence in the U.N. as leverage in the growing encroachment of China in the West Philippine Sea. It was only recently that our own foreign affairs department had been vocal. Moreover, the country’s commitment to the universal ideals such as human rights have largely been diminished, thanks to the concerning policies of the current government, which have also knowingly lambasted the U.N. This is utterly unfortunate, for those who came before us have laid for us a track record that many nations look up to.
May the Filipino people never forget, and continue to hold fast to this heritage—the ideals of freedom, human dignity, and human rights—universal ideals we share with the rest of the freedom-loving peoples of the world.
“The Nation’s Fiscalizer” was the title that the Philippines Free Press had given this rising vocal senator in 1968 who have voiced his opposition on the growing authoritarian ways of the Marcos administration in every step of the way. His oratory skills in the Senate floor was legendary. He was but among the several cacophony of voices that were raised in the legislative chamber, if only in proportion to the growing discontent of people, manifested by the massive street protests that were ignored. At the time, the country have boasted then the free-est and most noisy democracy in Asia, true to our brand as Filipinos. It was, after all, the Philippines before the proclamation of Martial Law.
This senator would be injured by a bombing, subjected to threats, and imprisoned—not unique at all when you see the like-minded leaders of the time such as Ninoy Aquino, Jose Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Eva Kalaw, etc. But perhaps the most unique feature of Jovito Salonga was his faith. He was, after all, raised in a robust Protestant faith that was rooted in the 16th century Protestant Reformation—that whirlwind that turned the church and state in Europe upside down and helped give birth to the modern world. And as we would see, in a nation that aspired freedom of religion, through Salonga, no matter what religious upbringing you come from, each one has a space and an opportunity to enrich our democracy and body politic.
Jovito “Jovy” Reyes Salonga was born of humble parents on 22 June 1920 in Pasig. His father, Esteban Salonga, pastored a Presbyterian church, while his mother Bernardita Reyes worked as vendor. He was fifth and youngest of the five children. The classic Protestant work ethic as worship to God was imbibed by “Jovy” as he diligently studied while earning as a proofreader under his brother’s publishing company. With the outbreak of the invasion of Japan, Jovy was already a student in the U.P. College of Law. Under the Japanese occupation, Jovy postponed his plans on taking the Bar Exam, as he decided to join the underground guerrilla movement at great risk to his life, heeding the call to defend his country. Unfortunately, the Japanese captured him in 1942, and he was sentenced to 15 years in forced labor, which would be cut short when he was pardoned in 1943. The scars he bore from those days imbued him with a spirit of iron-clad courage.
In 1944, Jovy decided to take the Bar exam. He became that year’s Bar topnotcher from the University of the Philippines, as his score tied with Jose Diokno, who was allowed to take the Bar even without a law degree. Their score, the highest at the time, was 95.3%. Able to obtain a scholarship from Harvard, Salonga studied for his master’s degree there in 1948 and was given a special recommendation by Prof. Manley Hudson (who used to sit as member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration) to Yale University. Salonga was conferred his doctorate in jurisprudence there in 1949. Such sterling credentials gave him an opportunity to become faculty of Yale. But once again, heeding the call of his country after the devastation of the Second World War, he declined, and opted to go back to the Philippines.
*Jovito Salonga (on the far left) with his colleagues at Yale University, 1948. Esteban Salonga Collection.
Salonga’s entrance to politics in 1961 was only because of the encouragement of then presidential candidate Diosdado Macapagal. It was a steep challenge for Salonga, who ran as Congressman of Rizal’s 2nd district under the Liberal Party ticket, upon which he contended with a political dynasty. He clinched his win, as his party-mate Macapagal also won the presidency. Severely reduced in support with the 1965 win of the Nacionalista Party, Salonga still won the most votes when he ran as Senator at the time.
From here on out Salonga and the like-minded senators, and even the independent ones, saw the gradual erosion of civil liberties under the Marcos administration, as people reacted in street protests that only intensified as years went by. Salonga, upon convening his partymates for the approaching mid-term legislative elections, invited the Nacionalista but independent-minded Senator Eva Kalaw to be LP’s guest candidate. On 21 August 1971, however, at the Liberal Party’s miting-de-avance at Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Salonga was one of the LP candidates who was severely injured in the suspicious bombing blamed by the Marcos administration on the Communists.
*Photo of Jovito Salonga after the Plaza Miranda Bombing, from the Esteban Salonga Collection.
*Injured candidates of the Liberal Party from the bombing at Plaza Miranda, as featured in the Philippines Free Press, 1971. Presidential Museum and Library Collection.
*LP candidates with Salonga (3rd from the left) campaigning after the Plaza Miranda Bombing. Presidential Museum and Library Collection.
Despite this, Salonga and his partymates won 6 of the 8 senatorial seats. He was just one among the many loud voices of the opposition until the declaration of Martial Law on 23 September 1972. Under the 1935 Constitution, Congress was set to open on 22 January 1973, but Salonga and the others found it padlocked.
During those years of the dictatorship, Salonga understood that his Christian faith was inseparable from the morality that should be exhibited in the political public square. It was here, as a Protestant that he associated himself with like-minded church leaders from mainstream Protestant and Evangelical denominations, such as Rev. Cirilo Rigos of the Cosmopolitan Church Manila (United Church of Christ in the Philippines) and Rev. Isabelo Magalit of the Diliman Bible Church and Philippine representative to the Lausanne Congress 1974 (the largest Evangelical congress/synod composed in history). In 1973, Salonga, together with the Protestant pastors and church leaders drafted the document, entitled We Believe:
We believe that over and above all things, over and above all loyalties, is the primacy of God’s sovereignty;
We believe that God is concerned not only with spiritual matters but with things that are material to man–food and clothing and shelter, his government, his institutions, and his society. To confine God to purely spiritual things is to separate Him from the world He made, the same world for which Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, gave His life.
We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every human being created in God’s own image, and because of this He is entitled to the respect and concern of His fellowmen;
We believe that the Great Commandment—love of God and love of fellowmen–can be fulfilled only if society is just and free. Wherever there is injustice or oppression, there is need for redemption not only from the evils that produce them but from the structures that make them possible.
We believe that the Christian Churches have a prophetic ministry to perform. We believe that this prophetic ministry means—
—that the Churches must deal with specific problems, not with platitudes and pieties if they are to be faithful to their task. They cannot pretend to be blind and dumb in the face of poverty, exploitation, and injustice. By their silence, they become involved in the very injustice they fail to speak and do something about.
—that we shall respect the laws, but in the event of conflict, prefer to obey God rather than man. We desire order but only when it is balanced with the human aspiration for freedom, equality, and human dignity.
This “statement of faith” is nothing short of extraordinary, comparable to the Barmen Declaration of 1934 that German churches drafted in opposition to the Nazi regime. Salonga would initiate conversations even from the leaders of the Marcos leadership, inviting AFP generals and Marcos technocrats to be guests in forums of lay ministers and evangelists of Protestant denominations. Several times did the Marcos regime try to shut down church events that tackle on socio-political issues. Even the National Council of Churches in the Philippines office was not spared from military raids. But in those difficult times, these denominations looked to Salonga for support.
After the toppling of the Marcos dictatorship through EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986, Salonga’s advocacy was not yet over. After having been the first chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) serving from 1986 to 1987 tasked to sequester the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses, he ran for the Senate under the new 1987 Constitution, and won and became President of the Senate.
It was perhaps the utter expression of the Senate’s independence from the Chief Executive, when in 1991, despite President Corazon Aquino’s push to renew the U.S. Military Bases Agreement, the Senate (as ratifier and reviewer of all treaties entered into by the Philippine government with other foreign governments) rejected the renewal. The rejection of the agreement which authorized the presence of U.S. military bases in the Philippines and a byproduct of the 1946 negotiations, had come full circle, for Salonga, at the time fresh from law school, firmly opposed the agreement.
*Jovito Salonga in his office as President of the Senate of the Philippines, 1988. Esteban Salonga Collection.
Summing up his life, one gets the impression that when a Filipino stands on what it is right and true with faith, courage, and conviction, that person would not be bound or boxed by petty partisan categories. For Salonga, his ultimate loyalty and faith is to his God and to his country, and always in the defense of freedom.
Considered as one of his famous words, and echoing Rizal on the concept of freedom and human dignity, Salonga said:
“Freedom is the bedrock of human dignity, the one value we should never compromise or surrender. Freedom is the catalyst in all our efforts toward national development; it is the precondition and the objective of our collective endeavor. For a nation of sheep can never be great.”
In one of the clearest exposition of his political philosophy was the short essay Salonga wrote in 1966, on what it means to love the Philippines, in light of Marcos’s “New Society” propaganda. He said:
“In other places, love for country can so blind the eyes of men—to their failings, to their weaknesses, and to their vices. Love of country is indeed a virtue—but the matter does not end there. The more important question is whether we have the capacity to love our country in the right way. We do not love our country in the right way when we magnify our vices, extol our follies, and surrender the day to the demagogues who cater to our baser appetites and to our wildest passions.”
As Rizal would say, true love for country is, as painful as it might be, being brave enough to expose our own malignant “cancer” to “the steps of the temple” so that anyone can “present a remedy.” As Salonga demonstrated in his life, loving the country the right way is not becoming a “nation of sheep” but becoming a nation where truth is adhered to and where justice reigns.
Two days ago, we commemorated the centennial birth anniversary of this awesome Filipina Senator. Through a string of tweets, I posted her story on Twitter. I transformed it into a full feature article via the SubSelfie blog.
Today, she passed away at the age of 95. Known by her stage name “Anita Linda”, Alice Buenaflor Lake (1924-2020) was acknowledged as the oldest Filipina living actress honored at the celebration of the Centennial of Philippine Cinema last year.
Rest in power.
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*Portrait of Filipina actress, Anita Linda, by Fernando Amorsolo.
It was around 10:00 pm, on a quiet night of 24 April 1980. In a remote barrio called Bugnay, in Tinglayan, Kalinga, nestled in the mountains of the Cordilleras in northern Luzon, the festivities and revelry of the Butbut tribe have just been concluded. Residents have already gone to their homes, and the barrio sat quietly and soundly, with their lights turned off.
Suddenly, two Ford Fiera vehicles rushed through the narrow streets hugging the mountains into the quiet barrio. From the two vehicles alighted two military men armed with a Browning automatic rifle and an M-16 armalite. They knocked loudly on the door of a humble house.
“Macli-ing, come out!” they shouted, awakening the dogs.
From the house came a voice of an old man. “Whatever it is you want of me, let us talk about it in the morning.” The two military men struck the door in response. Macli-ing Dulag, the pangat or leader of the Butbut tribe, and elected barrio captain of Bugnay, stood up and quickly closed the door, and with the lamp now lit and with his wife holding onto the door, Macli-ing attempted to fix the lock. The men outside quickly fired bullets on the door hitting Dulag on his left breast and right pelvis, instantly killing him.
But unknown to these two murderers that night, they were about to reap the whirlwind.
For Macli-ing Dulag was not just a simple man murdered at the dead of night. He was a visionary, born and raised in the indigenous culture of the Kalinga, as sturdy and as lofty as mountains they inhabit. Dulag’s dream was animated by an all-consuming vision for his own people. He stood approximately 5 feet and 6 inches, wearing a G-string like a true proud Kalinga, and wherever he went, different disparate tribes in the Cordilleras were drawn to him and his words.
No one knows when Macli-ing Dulag was born. Like many of the Philippines’ indigenous groups, many of the Kalinga were not formally schooled, but as anthropologists, sociologists, and cultural workers could attest, this didn’t mean they were any less educated. For education comes with the ability to sustain themselves, to adapt to their environment, to form their own unique cultural expression rooted in centuries old history that had been virtually free from colonial intrusion. In so doing, they have preserved their peculiar indigenous identity and their way of life and have added another dimension into this imagined community of peoples we call the “nation.”
*Kalinga woven fabrics were sourced from bark fibers which were turned into intricately designed skirts for women and loincloths for men. Kalinga later on adapted to cotton and polyester material to depict their love of their environment as believed to have been bestowed to them by their god, Kabunian—the stars, the vegetation, mountains, and anthropomorphic patterns. The Kalinga use red, black, yellow, and green threads to reflect their worldview.
*”Rice Terraces in Baguio” (1944) by Fernando Amorsolo.
*Rice terraces in Bontoc, Philippines, from Vogn Laron.
And indeed, the peoples of the Cordilleras, not just the Kalinga, have become economically sufficient. They have carved mountains into wonders that make the world gasp, done farming on seemingly impossible terrains, pushing the boundaries of engineering hundreds of years ago. Their cultures, while strange to modern eyes, have been shaped by this harsh terrain, forming a mutual and beneficial relationship between man and his environment. This is because of their spirituality, their belief in the god Kabunian, who provided them with the land. For them, the land is sacred.
From this worldview that have shaped generations of his people, came Macli-ing Dulag. This worldview was about to be tested.
It all started when the Chico River Basin Development Project began to be implemented by the Marcos regime. The plan was initially drafted in 1965, but only began rolling out in 1973, at the height of the dictatorship, when accountability and public scrutiny were gagged (free press was shackled), to give way to cronyism and plunder. German engineering and consulting company, Lahmeyer International (now Tractebel), and the Engineering and Development Corporation of the Philippines (EDCOP), submitted the plan to the government, to be funded by the World Bank. The plan was to build four dams along the Chico River, a major river in the Cordilleras forming river tributaries across the mountainous region, to generate approximately 1,010 megawatts of electricity. But the dams would submerge numerous villages, rice fields, and displace populations, many of them indigenous communities who have called the lands about to be submerged their own. Even when the government offered financial aid and relocation, it seemed to Dulag that they were not making an effort to understand the culture and history of his people—human beings whose livelihood and spirituality were tied to the land. The land, as Dulag and his people have insisted, is sacred. Dulag was most famous for uttering these heart-wrenching words:
“You ask if we own the land and mock us saying, “Where is your title?’ When we ask the meaning of your words you answer with taunting arrogance, ‘Where are the documents to prove that you own the land?’ Titles? Documents? Proof of ownership? Such arrogance to speak of owning the land when we instead are owned by it. How can you own that which will outlive you?”
The Kalinga, like the rest of the diverse cultures in the Cordilleras, have conflicts that, on occasion, manifest in bloodshed. But the Kalinga culture also provides a way out of these conflicts, in what would be termed as the bódong, a peace conference between two warring tribes that seals a peace agreement, and ends in festive dance and song. Dulag, in numerous occasions, imbued with his vision and how he saw the Marcos government displace lowlanders & the indigenous in the highlands, have manifested his skill in Cordilleran diplomacy by initiating numerous bódongs in the course of his leadership. Dulag initiated the largest bódong recorded in 1979, attended by 2,000 Kalinga and Bontoc, upon which, all the tribal elders designated him as their spokesman. Dulag issued these words to National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) President, Gabriel Itchon:
“If you, in your search for the good life destroy life, we question it. We say that those who need electric lights are not thinking of us who are bound to be destroyed. Or will the need for electric power be a reason for our death? Your proposal of building dams along our river will mean the destruction of all our properties on which our very life depends. We Kalinga were once known for our well-kept peace, but your dam project has brought only trouble among us. We, therefore, ask you, forget your dams. We don’t want them.”
Soon, communities in the Cordilleras, even those of Bontoc and others who would not be directly affected by the dam project stood behind Dulag. In an effort to neutralize the growing opposition of the now combined voices of the Kalinga and the Bontoc, President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 848, forming the Kalinga Special Development Region. Despite intimidations, false charges, and imprisonment, Dulag and the people stood firm. Perhaps some of those who would read this blog may dismiss Dulag and his movement as Leftist. But the indigenous never cared about ideologies. Lin Neumann, a human rights volunteer affiliated with the United Methodist Church, said, “I had been told, before entering the village [Bugnay] that the Left was a great influence… but I never found that these people of the Cordillera took any real interest in ideology. They were people of the land and their land was threatened. Macli-ing was their guardian and emissary.”
The murder of the Cordilleran leader planned by the culprits upon whom Lt. Leodegario Adalem and his group from the 44th Battalion took their signal to kill, seemed the logical step. But Dulag was ready to die. In 1978, in one bódong, he said on those present
“We, in Bugnay, have become used to hardships. We have suffered deaths in our community, but this will not discourage us in our fight to survive.”
Dulag’s death awakened a shackled press from slumber. Thanks to the great effort of journalist Ma. Ceres Doyo, and the formed coalition of ecumenical groups, the Catholic Church, journalists, cultural workers, lawyers of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) led by former senator and opposition leader, Jose W. Diokno, Dulag’s martyrdom was a milestone in those years of dictatorship. It shook people amidst the growing discontent under the corruption of a regime that knew no accountability but ruled with shameless impunity. And most importantly, the government was forced to stop all plans for the Chico Dam construction.
*Photo of the banners around Bugnay, after Macli-ing Dulag’s murder, documented by journalist Ma. Ceres Doyo.
After the toppling of the dictatorship, a move was done to officially acknowledge the Cordilleran peoples’ will to self-determination. Talks were initiated between the new Philippine President Corazon Aquino, the representatives of the Cordillera Bodong Administration, and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army in September 1986. On 15 July 1987, the president issued Executive Order No. 220, forming the Cordillera Administrative Region to grant the Cordillera peoples’ aspiration for autonomy.
In honor of Macli-ing Dulag and his role as the unifier and voice of the indigenous communities in the Cordilleras, April 24 was designated by virtue of Proclamation No. 893, s. 1992, as Cordillera Administrative Region Day, or Cordillera People’s Day/Cordillera Day, commemorated in the entire region. Dulag’s name is also inscribed in the Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City, honoring him as one of the fallen heroes and martyrs of the country during the Marcos dictatorship.
*The Bantayog ng mga Bayani Wall of Remembrance, where Macli-ing Dulag’s name is inscribed together with other heroes and martyrs of the Philippines under the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986). Photo by Alternativity (Wikimedia).
Doyo, who wrote about the 1980 expose article of the Kalinga leader’s murder, even when intimidated by military authorities, was acknowledged by the international press. Her article was later awarded in the Catholic Mass Media Awards in February 1981 with Best Feature Article Award trophy bestowed on her by none other than Pope John Paul II. She wrote the book, Macli-ing Dulag: Kalinga Chief, Defender of the Cordillera that came off the press in 2015, which won in the National Book Awards that same year, and is the main source of this blog post.
Today, the Duterte administration continues to push for the Chico Dam project, but this time, under Chinese funding. Indigenous communities in the Cordilleras, despite being red-tagged by the administration, continue to resist.
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In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of Macli-ing Dulag, and in solidarity with the People of the Cordilleras on Cordillera Day 2020.
They say that 75th year anniversaries are appropriate to look back and commemorate milestones that have changed people’s lives forever. When the Second World War in the Philippines began on 8 December 1941, Filipinos were still in disbelief that the Americans would be defeated by Japan with its invasion of the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia. As the occupation went on, most Filipinos had begun passively resisting, and others mounted fierce guerrilla resistance in the mountains. Still others collaborated with the Japanese—some out of convenience or fear/false sense of security, while others out of sheer thirst for power.
Months before the Japanese occupation of the Philippines ended, the war, as people would not have foreseen, would turn out for the worst. Inflation was an all-time high. Food was scarce. Banditry and thievery were all around. As the Japanese took whatever they could from Filipinos, the Filipinos were forced to ration their resources. Some even relocated to the provinces, learned farming to support themselves. When the news of the Leyte Landing in 1944 was heard from underground transistor radios, Filipinos were anticipating a quick liberation from the enemy occupying force. None of them knew that the worst was still to come.
The Japanese themselves, refusing to surrender despite the impending defeat in the Philippines, chose Manila as the battleground for their last ditch effort to slow down the American advance, and perhaps stall for a few days the Allied invasion of Japan. The Japanese knew that the Americans would make Manila a staging ground for that invasion, and so they decided, if they are going down, they’re going to include everyone with them, including unarmed civilians.
But as leaders of the opposing forces and the combatants saw this big picture, the residents of Manila never cared for this, other than to hope for freedom, and to live for another day. All they thought of was how to secure their families and loved ones, and hope against all hope that they would all, in the end, survive. Nobody knew how painful and dark it would be until sunrise. But as history would have it, one of the most beautiful cities in Asia, Manila, would be decimated and razed to the ground. It would be the second most destroyed Allied capital of the Second World War, next to Warsaw Poland. The destruction was so absolute, that even after 75 years, one could still see the scars of it, along the disorganized alleys of Tondo and Binondo, the worn-down buildings along Rizal Avenue. One could even see that the sites burned and destroyed had the most high-rise buildings in Manila. But like all other cities destroyed by war, life survives, continuing to resist time and forgotteness. There are still glimpses of this charm of old Manila, what Nick Joaquin, the National Artist, used to imagine.
*A perspective map of the Battle of Manila 1945 by artist Rodolfo Ragodon of the Sunday Times Magazine (23 April 1967 issue)
*Pedro Gil Street in Manila after the battle. From LIFE Magazine.
*Agriculture and Commerce Building (now the National Museum of Natural History), in Luneta in 1945. The angle of the photo faces the Teodoro Kalaw Street. Courtesy of John Tewell.
But more than the buildings, the romantic esteros and bridges, the neo-classical buildings and old Spanish churches of Manila that have been erased by war and destruction, were the people themselves—the Manileños. Around 150,000 non-combatant city residents (or maybe more) died on this battle. With no hope of escape, as the Japanese severed all exits to the city, tragedy was bound to happen.
In commemoration of the 75th year anniversary of the Battle of Manila, we are going to remember some extraordinary lives that were snuffed out by the destruction of the city. It will remind us that in war, the civilians and the countless dreams and possibilities they possess, would always be in peril. And with their loss, come the tremendous loss of an entire nation.
This reminds me of how the late National Artist Nick Joaquin, like a bard singing of the destruction of Manila, wrote to life his fictional characters, Don Lorenzo Marasigan and his two daughters, Candida and Paula, in a play entitled “The Portrait of the Artist as Filipino.” Joaquin bestowed upon these three characters the ideals that he believed the Old Manila stood for. These lines always bring tears to the eyes:
“They are dead now—Don Lorenzo, Candida, Paula—they are all dead now—a horrible death—by sword and fire… They died with their house and they died with their city—maybe it’s just as well they did. They could never have survived the death of old Manila.
And yet—listen!–it is not dead; it has not perished! Listen Paula! Listen Candida! Your city—my city—the city of our fathers—still lives! Something of it is left; something of it survives, and will survive, as long as I live and remember—I who have known and cherished these things!
Oh Paula, Candida—listen to me! By your dust, and by the dust of all generations, I promise to continue, I promise to preserve! The jungle may advance, the bombs may fall again—but while I live, you love—and this dear city of our affections shall rise again—if only in my song! To remember and to sing: that is my vocation.”
Let the city rise again, if only in our song.
“Panahon na ngayong dapat na lumitaw ang liwanag ng katotohanan; panahon ng dapat nating ipakilala na tayo'y may sariling pagdaramdam, may puri, may hiya at pagdadamayan. Ngayon, panahon ng dapat simulan ang pagsisiwalat ng mga mahal at dakilang aral na magwawasak sa masinsing tabing na bumubulag sa ating kaisipan.”
-Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro, “Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog” (c. March 1896)
#BonifacioDay #QOTD #bonifaciomonument #igersmanila #PH #kasaysayan #history #Filipino #dignity #PhilippineRevolution (at Bonifacio Monument)
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