U.P. AT THE ADVENT OF ITS CENTENNIAL: STRUGGLES, DIRECTIONS AND ROLE AMIDST A NATION IN CRISIS
- Roland G. Simbulan, Professor and Faculty Regent, U.P. System
(Keynote address before the U.P. System-wide Student Congress, Makiling Hall, Student Union Building, U.P. Los Banos, September 1, 2006)
I am happy and honored to address the 10th U.P. system-wide Students’ Congress in U.P. Los Banos.The coming centennial of the University of the Philippines less than two years from now, at a time when the nation is at its worst political and economic crisis, has thrown into sharp relief the imperative to urgently assess the role of the University in Philippine society.
The perennial emphasis of every U.P. administration on lifting the university from its financial difficulties in its strategic plans focus attention on government neglect not only of the university but also on the entire educational system.
The deterioration of its physical plant, the low salaries of its faculty and employees, and its lack of adequate laboratory equipment – all these actually constitute an indictment of the current dispensation, emphasizing the low priority it places on education because of its emphasis on debt servicing so that it can again acquire more foreign loans, and on the creation and maintenance of a military machine for popular repression.
Many times in its history, the University has seen efforts to re-orient the University from its traditional commitment to liberal arts education towards technical education to meet the manpower needs of the multinational corporations, and more recently for “economic globalization.”If anything, UP has contributed to the nation a number of Philippine presidents, justices of the Supreme Court, congressmen, senators or cabinet members who were UP graduates.
Also the number of UP graduates in the upper levels of the bureaucracy, both past and present, should suggest only that UP has had – and still has – a crucial role in the formulation and implementation of policies advantageous to foreign, landlord and big business interests detrimental to the interests of the broad majority of the people.
It is now less than two years before U.P. will be celebrating its Centennial or 100 years of existence. Our University officials are feverishly preparing for this momentous occasion.It was exactly on June 18, 1908, that the passage of Act No. 1870 was promulgated by the Philippine Legislature “by authority of the United States.” This is what is now known as the U.P. Charter – “An Act for the Purpose of Founding a University for the Philippine Islands, Giving it Corporate Existence, Providing for a Board of Regents, Defining the Board’s Responsibilities and Duties, Providing Higher and Professional Instruction, and for other Purposes.
”The smoke had not yet been fully cleared, and after 9 years of colonizing and initiating a bloody pacification campaign that turned Samar island into a “howling wilderness”, the invading force –the United States – installed an American Governor General, who appointed the first members of the U.P. Board of Regents in 1908: Newton W. Gilbert as Chair in his capacity as Secretary of Education, David P. Barrows, Leon Maria F. Guerrero, Enrique Mendiola, Rafael V. Palma, Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera and Jose Rosales. Of the 7-member appointed Board of Regents in 1908, 2 were Americans, and this membership would later on be expanded to 12 members in the present composition of the Board of Regents.
For all its colonial origins, the establishment of the University of the Philippines was a far cry from the obscurantist orientation of the Philippine educational system which had been characterized by its sectarian and religious orientation at the heyday of Spanish colonization. U.P. ’s Charter in 1908 promised to give “ advanced instruction in literature, philosophy, the sciences, and arts, and professional and technical training … to every qualified student, irrespective of age, sex, nationality, religious belief, or political affiliation.
”This new orientation formed the core of the University’s traditional commitment to liberal education, even amidst a new colonial dispensation. But from its very inception, the University was an instrument for the cooptation of the consciousness of the revolutionary intelligentsia, as well as for the creation of a new intellectual class. Filipino freedom fighters like General Artemio Ricarte, Macario Sakay, Ipe Salvador, the Pulajanes and the rest of the so-called “insurgent bandits and outlaws” all over the islands were still actively resisting American colonization when the Philippine Assembly, composed of local coopted Filipino aristocrats and their representatives, established the University of the Philippines on June 18, 1908.
Nevertheless, the establishment of a secular, progressive university like U.P. with a liberal admissions policy was a big improvement from the Spanish educational system with its feudal orientation, discriminatory admissions policies and medieval curricula.U.P. was a major force in the consolidation of American colonial control, ending the dominance of the defective, parochial and obscurantist system of education that Spain had established. It helped shape an educational apparatus that conformed with the new colonizer’s world view and interests. The new educational system had the twin tasks of destroying the old culture and of creating a new one supportive of the new colonial order and steeped in the language, values and ideas of the new colonizer.
Thus, began the contradictory, albeit dual, character of the University. The University helped consolidate colonial rule by contributing to a number of Filipino colonial intelligentsia and a class who became Philippine presidents, justices of the Supreme Court, congressmen, senators and assemblymen who were U.P. graduates for the formulation and implementation of colonial, neo-colonial and pro-landlord and pro-comprador policies detrimental to the interests of the broad majority of the Filipino people. But on the other hand, the University also unleashed the liberating power of knowledge to Filipinos. It helped create conditions for the nurturing of nationalists and progressives who assumed leading roles in the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation.
This dual character of the University exists even today as the University’s traditional commitment to liberal education is besieged by the forces of market-driven economic globalization that seek to re-orient the University from this progressive commitment. U.P.’ s dual character has thus produced its hallmark of excellence –in producing the country’s excellent oppressors as well as excellent liberators of the Filipino people.In recent years, attempts to improve the “global competitiveness” of the University by integrating this goal into its short and medium term plans, have only exposed the fact that the plans of UP are in the contest of the integration of the University within the international capitalist market and attuning of the University’s existence to the demand of private corporate enterprise. “Resource generation”, the privatization on non-revenue raising units such as UFS, the UP Printery, janitorial services, etc. and the commercialization of UP’s assets as well as the proposed tuition fee and miscellaneous fee increases fall within this context.
“Globalization” or the global village as popularized by World Bank technocrats is after all a catch word to entice Third World Countries to open up more widely their economies to the penetration of TNC capital in search of cheap labor and material resources. These are all being implemented within the globalist guidelines of the World Trade Organization(WTO) , which is controlled by the Group of 7 capitalist countries.The World Bank concept of globalization is sugar-coated with such technologies as the internet which has facilitated the centralization of production and the international movements of capital. It must be remembered however, that the move of Third World Governments towards globalization includes the policy of the privatization of state corporations, which has been made a basic conditionality of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) for its loans to developing countries since the late 1980s.
Privatization of government corporations in the eyes of the IMF will contribute to the raising of revenues for its debtor countries to enable them to amortize their loans properly. As is known, the Philippine government has been automatically allocating around 40% of its annual budget to service its foreign debts.
In relation to UP, the Philippine government’s letter of intent to the IMF assures the Fund that internal cash generation, including receipts from privatization, of the 14 major public non-financial corporations, including UP, will be a major concern for the government.Observe the wording of the Philippine government’s letter of intent to the IMF: “The internal cash generation of the 14 major non-financial corporations is targeted to be about 1.3 percent per year… This level of cash generation will result from comprehensive structural measures, including a reduction in the size of the public corporate sector, tariff increases, receipts from privatization, and improved cost recovery and collection efficiency. (Memorandum of Economic and Financial Agreement, March 6, 1989, paragraph 12)
The above underlined phrase as translated into the operation of UP spells the commercialization of UP assets and the increase in the tuition fees of UP students through the so-called Socialized Tuition Fee Assistance Programs(STFAP). Added to this is the rationalization program being implemented in the government bureaucracy, including U.P., to reduce the level of rank and file employees by 30%.The de-emphasis of our administrators on programs in the arts and the social sciences (except for developing a strong program on English for global competitiveness) and emphasis on business and engineering is alarming. This bodes ill for a developing nation like the Philippines.
In this era, where the study of the interactions of nations and cultures should be undertaken both on the particular and general levels of analysis, in order to discover aspects of disharmony and exploitation and possible areas of cooperation, a fetish for academic technological programs places the Philippines under the mercy of the global corporations with their advanced technological capacity. Even if we would give priority to the basic sciences, this must be accompanied by a similar emphasis on the arts and social sciences. After all, even the basic sciences are highly specialized studies and are incapable of providing that wholistic outlook for a human being to build a just society.
Concepts of justice, democracy, equity, nation, beauty are not forged and refined in the laboratories of the material sciences but in the discourses of the arts and the social sciences. And a people like the Filipinos, who are often at the losing end in the marketplace of the world, very well need the human sciences ( as the Germans call the cultural disciplines, including the social sciences) to assert their role in the making of human civilization.In the proposed new UP Charter pending in Congress, the University seeks to maintain the centralized management of the UP system in the UP system, preserving the highest policy making powers of the Board of Regents as provided for by the obsolete UP Charter of 1908 , which was crafted by the American colonial regime to serve their ends in controlling the education of the Filipinos. No mention is made of the proposal to revise the UP Charter to democratize student, faculty and administrative personnel participation in the running of the University.
The thrust and philosophy of the current UP Plan is the integration of the University within the global system of capitalism, contributing to its advancement by providing for its human resources. Concomitantly, the University is being geared to work very closely with business by the establishment of technology parks and the participation of private industry in the making of its curricula in technical subjects. UP will thus be more and more attuned to the profit rationale of capitalism, which has opened the grounds for the commercialization of the University through the creeping privatization of its assets.The face of privatization in the cost of UP education has already begun to emerge with the introduction of STFAP in 1988, and is becoming more conspicuous with the proposal of adding one more bracket to the categorizations of students under this program.
The moneyed elites are becoming more dominant in UP as in the case of commercialized exclusive schools in the Philippines . As a result, the quality of UP education will suffer which becomes the fate of all commercialized schools. No amount of rationalizing an increasing tuition fee as a form of socialization can hide its true intent – that is, to generate more revenues for the University. And hovering above all these changes transpiring with the UP system is the dark outline of the arch-capitalist institution, the IMF, which is desperately seeking to preserve what it believes is the capitalist hegemony in the world.
Struggle for Faculty Rights and Welfare
During my campus visitations for consultations with the faculty, I have emphasized that it is essential for the academic union of the U.P. system to root and strengthen itself -- side by side with the student movement – at the level of departments, colleges and CUs as the mass base of a strong national center. A strong rank and file membership at the unit level is a prerequisite for the academic union’s formal recognition by the administration. Our university has had a colorful history of faculty activism. U.P. ‘s history cannot be written without such faculty organizations such as the Samahan ng Guro sa Pamantasan(SAGUPA), the Samahan ng Makabayang Siyentipiko (SMS) in the 70s; the UP Faculty Organization, Samahan ng mga Guro sa Ikauunlad ng Pamantasan(SAGIP-UP), Association of Faculty, Research and Extension Employees of U.P. ( A FREE UP), and the United Teachers and Employees of the U.P. System (UNITE-UP) in the 1980s. The UNITE UP which was formed during the Angara administration, is the predecessor of the ALL UP Academic Union and the ALL UP Workers’ Union. There is also a Chapter of the Congress of Teachers for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) in U.P. Diliman.
A University of De-stabilizers?
This University should consider it a distinct privilege and honor to be branded by the Secretary of Justice as a university that produces de-stabilizers and students who like to have sunburned skins in their whole body. The Oblation is not only the embodiment of academic freedom which is the source of independent knowledge, values, and criticism. It embodies our uncompromising quest for true excellence and the naked truth, and also the moral obligation to defend that truth. Yes, we are proud to produce de-stabilizers, social critics who in their strong commitment to serve the Filipino people, are willing to fight corruption, are willing to fight those who cheat and steal elections and who stand against those who make a mockery of the national sovereignty and dignity of this nation. This is why we are not only the University of the Philippines; we are the University of the Filipino People.
Providing quality education for Philippine society is just a component of our larger objective in the University namely, the transformation of U.P. into an agency for the democratization and transformation of Philippine society, a society which is traditionally elitist. For the role of the university is not limited to producing the human power for the national development programs of Philippine society, whether for government, private sector or NGO sector. It includes the traditional function of the university as a social critic.
What is the learning we acquire for? Is it to putter around the peripheries of basic questions that need resolution? What is needed is a university culture that continuously engages in clarifying reality, dissenting, to make the intellectual life of the scholar both exciting and meaningful. Otherwise, we will only be training hirelings of a department store of future clerks, salesmen, junior executives or aspiring apolitical technocrats.
The Philippine state and its political and economic system have only experienced a state of decay and decomposition: politicians are like vultures feeding on the carcass of a moribund Philippine society. But among the outstanding features of Philippine political life over the last two decades in the 1980s and 1990s has been the development of strong community and sectoral organizations put up by real development workers and their supporters from U.P. and other schools and universities. Some of you have probably lived, laughed with them, ate with them.
Whether organized as components of broader political movements or as independent initiatives aimed at promoting self-reliance and self-sufficiency, these organizations have, over the years, significantly advanced the cause of popular empowerment. They play a crucial role in advancing Philippine grassroots politics now and in the future development of this country. They facilitate the articulation of grassroots demands, and help crystallize popular visions. That is why they are the targets today of state-sponsored violence, a phenomena of which we should not be surprised since this is a historical response of a moribund state and sick social order of the Philippine oligarchy to a surging and effective popular movement of the masses.
The democratizing potential of our non-government and people’s organizations all the more become significant because of the historical weaknesses of the traditional elite party system in the Philippines, which is moribund, corrupt and decaying no matter how they deodorize it with such proposals as a parliamentary form of government. Many times, I have suggested the closer links of U.P. in partnership with dedicated community organizers who continue to play a key role in the expansion and consolidation of people’s organizations nationwide. This brings us closer to the vision of U.P. as a real University of the People.
If the people and their organizations have not taken the historical initiative, then it is the task of the people’s scholars in our University to help them discover the roots of inertia and find ways and means of overcoming them. Hence, the value of studies on the power structures of the elites that paralyze the masses and the search for new structures that will allow self-activity from below.
Solidarity with the Filipino People
In these times of national turmoil and crisis, it is imperative for the University’s faculty, REPS, admin staff and students to collectively join hands in resisting repression and state violence in the larger classroom of Philippine society. The creeping repression in our midst threatens academic freedom and free speech in the University. The two UP students on fieldwork in Bulacan, Ms. Karen Empeno and Ms. Sherlyn Cadapan who were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan by military operatives are still missing. In connection with this abduction, the student regent and I have written President Roman about facilitating the immediate convening of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) which was created in the 1992 Memorandum of Agreement between the U.P. System and the DILG-PNP/Department of National Defense regarding arrests of faculty, employees and students of U.P.. Both the Faculty and Student Regents are members of the JMG.
If we were not vigilant last February 2006 after the declaration of a state of national emergency, the Arroyo administration would have eventually declared Martial Law and even established a dictatorship. I am proud of the U.P. College of Law faculty and the U.P. Diliman University Council in denouncing Proclamation 1017 and offering the U.P. Diliman campus as a sanctuary to all victims of political repression. And when I recently attended the Subic Rape Trial in the Makati Regional Trial Court, I saw the commitment of our UP College of Medicine-PGH Faculty like Dr. June Pagaduan Lopez who is daily assisting the rape victim in this high-profile case that will test the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement(VFA).
I was so proud to ba a U.P. Faculty member.As faculty regent, I also became Convenor of the People’s March (Anti-ChaCHa campaign), Convenor of the Tigil Paslang, and Convenor of the Free KA BEL Campaign. The Office of the Faculty Regent also issued public statements on the extra-judicial killings of advocates, Proclamation 1017, and the proposed tuition fee increases.Let us forge unity within our ranks, let us strengthen our links with other sectors of the University; and let us forge the University’s solidarity with the struggles of the Filipino people.
The basic character of U.P. as instituted by the American colonizers in 1908 still prevails
today. U.P. is still a potent instrument for the perpetuation of the power of the Philippine ruling oligarchy and class, an effective center for the dissemination of the ideology of this dominant class, and a prolific supplier of high level manpower and basic research findings for its ideologies. But U.P.’s history has never been static. Each stage in its history, has been a struggle between the forces of reaction and the forces of progress. The struggle is fundamentally between the dominant efforts to maintain the U.P. as an effective apparatus of the dominant ruling class, and the determination of the progressive forces to develop a U.P. in the service of the masses of people.
It is inspiring to note that in the 98 years of the university’s existence, our faculty and students have always constituted a source of alternative progressive thought, whether on issues like state repression, martial rule, commercialization, the U.P. Charter, tuition fee increases, etc.I
n a society in turmoil, progressive forces in the University have been gaining ground. A great number of U.P. Faculty, alumni and students have immersed themselves in the service of the Filipino people in their various fields of expertise or for the liberation of the Filipino people. Let us use U.P.’s progressive education so that we can contribute to the final liberation of this country from the decadent forces that dominate it.
Source: http://www.yonip.com/main/articles/UP-001.html
MISSION: To foster FILIPINO NATIONALISM. "Shake the foundations." Seek knowledge/understand/think critically about roots of socioeconomic-political predicaments in our homeland; educate ourselves, expose lies/hidden truths and fight IGNORANCE of our true history. Learn from: our nationalist heroes/intellectuals/Asian neighbors/other nations;therefrom to plan/decide/act for the "common good" of the native [Malay/indio] Filipino majority. THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR PROFIT.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Assessing the function of the University (U.P.)
FILIPINO NATIONALISM -is the bottom line;sine-qua-non for the common good of the native (Malay/Indio)Filipino majority. Nationalism must precede any plan/action in dealing with globalization.
EDUCATION- being educated is beyond just being schooled towards a profession or practical vocation; we need the Humanities/liberal arts to develop/apply CRITICAL ANALYSIS/THINKING to understand, identify, plan, act & safeguard the needed fundamental and/or systemic changes towards economic/political progress, social justice, and social transformation.
GOVERNMENT - its raison d'etre is to lead/serve the native majority, foster nationalism via its institutions, ensure the masses are critically literate to have real democracy.
FREEDOM & DISSENT - free thought is necessarily aggressive and critical; we protect the freedom to discover truth; we encourage dissent, not for sentimental reasons, but because we cannot live without it. PATRIOTISM is NOT: " My country, right or wrong;" but " if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right!"
RELIGION/BELIEFS: No Deus ex Machina. No established religion. Humanism/Existentialism.
Friday, October 27, 2006
On Renato Constantino and our Americanized Minds -
Here's an interesting exchange I had with Gil, a reader:
Many thanks for your emails on Tato Constantino's "Mis-Education of the Filipino(s)". Allow me to put in my two-bits thinking at the this point.
As some of us in the FEU group (I was with them occasionally in the campus from 1950-52 until I decided to drop out of college and never came back--for any degree but to teach as I do now) pointed out to Tato in our coffee sessions (regulars were faculty members Ike Joaquin, Salvador Laurel, Benito Reyes,Nick Joaquin, students Dante Calma, Ernesto Banawis, Tony Joaquin, Arsenio Fabros, Isabelo Crisostomo, Jose Abcede, Greg Datuin, Alfonso Policarpio, artist Duldulao and others whose names I can't remember): he was too much negatively affected by his hate for the Americans that he forgot to use the situation to the Filipinos' advantage.I regard(ed) it like jujitsu: throw the enemy by his own weight and use his own mass against him.
The Americans can be beaten in their own game--in their own language too. I think of Tony Escoda, Tony Arizabal, Al Valencia and myself who had become correspondents and bureau chiefs in the Associated Press and AP-Dow Jones here and abroad. Think of Mike Marabut, Joselito Katigbak and Ernie Mendoza who had been bureau chiefs of Reuters, or Teddy Benigno of Agence France-Presse. Or authors Frankie Sionil-Jose,the Tiempo couple etc. Or Sixto K. Roxas who was vice chair of American Express International, Bobby Romulo of IBM in his younger days. There were also one Victoriano Yamzon who was the most successful correspondent(better than the American reporters) of the old Manila Tribune in 1910 in the judgement of his American editors. A lot more name there are.
My point is our educational system must include a subject on how teach the Filipinos the hard facts of life--of geopolitics and international relations, andinternational political-economics. Teach them how to work out for themselves in the field of international competition. Learn more of the enemy because without that information we are dead meat even before we start. Work with what is possible and improve on our national lot. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
Cheers Gil
4:01 AM
Bert M. Drona said...
Hello Gil,Thank you for your response.Though I have read, reread and keep many of Constantino's published works, I never came to know him personally and do not know whether he really hated America and/or Americans as a people. As you may know, nationalism is a sentiment and may serve as an ideology too.
Like you I believe in education as a possible solution to the long-term improvement of the Filipino masses; an education that teaches a means to decent livelihood AND a means to understand his and society's realities, to identify the symptoms versus the roots of his daily personal misery and that of his society.
Of course such education will need to touch on the geopolitics of international economics, capitalism in terms of individual persons as investors versus corporate/transnational and institutional investors, etc. In a globalized economy the ordinary, individual investor is really a nonfactor. We seem to forget that, although we hear a lot of talk (propaganda or advertisement) about the "foreign investors", there are in reality not much individual foreign investors (vis a vis foreign multinationals/transnationals).
I understand your valid points especially on education. However, the prior questions that we need to address are: how do we implement that kind of education, how and who will finance it?
Can we see that happening in present realities where the national leadership have been/are corrupt and have only demonstrated selfish and subservient interests? Can we see that occurring when our educational system is designed to follow the IMF/WB/ADB "recommendations" as preconditions to continuing loans; and we know these supposedly neutral and benevolent international institutions are prophets of economic and cultural globalization (neocolonialism)?
I frankly do not see such an education being realized without a strong motivation from a leadership, supported by a nationalistic populace, that would push for a nationalistic educational program. Here again, the prior issue asks how can we have a nationalist leadership and a nationalistic majority? Not from the recent, present and foreseeable governments and institutions. But it really has to start somewhere, somehow.
It is discouraging indeed. I feel and think that we Filipinos seem to have significantly lost nationalism among the younger generations since the Marcos Dictatorship, but we just have to continue fighting for nationalism (that's what I try to do in my own little way).
Else, a nation of decolonized Filipinos will not come to reality. And the Filipino will perpetually be having his "damaged culture," continually living his life of selfish individualism inherited from his culture and reinforced by the historical neglect from his government; with no sense of national community beyond his circle of family and friends.
A country not his own since it will not be under his control, and therefore not a nation he can call his own. A bleak future for a country and a people that oftentimes only a thinking Filipino can appreciate and sadly long for especially when he looks at his homeland from afar, in a foreign soil.
4:25 AM
Anonymous said...
Hi Bert:This is not April Fools line.I appreciate your emails. It's good to know you are one of my friends who think of the mother country from the other side of the Pacific.
We as a people are not hopeless. The education of the Filipino we want will certainly not come during our time (since we have only 75 more years to go each, wanna bet?), but it surely will. Because it is evolutionary. See where the Chinese were in the 19th century,and where they are now? This is not to say I am endorsing the Mao-type of governance. Not at all. I surely hope we do not have to go a bloody cleansing phase in our history. That's why our evolution will take longer than the Chinese.
I only hope this present-day frustration over the rotten political setup spreads to the grassroots much faster so the slumbering rural folks finally wake up to the needs of the times.Gil
4:50 AM
Bert M. Drona said...
Hello Gil,Happy April Fools's Day!
Speaking of the mainland Chinese. Coincidentally, two days ago I watched "55 Days in Peking" movie (Heston) after 30+ years ago when I first saw it. What a difference years make. Then, I love to watch such movies, but now after learning more about history (am an engineer), I see things with a critical if not cynical eye. As you may know, a lot of Hollywood movies then and now have differing, if not questionable, assumptions, intended or unintended.
The movie of course was set or based on the early 20th century (1900) "Boxer rebellion," when the Chinese people were beginning to be nationalistic (maybe the term was not invented yet). The Chinese resented the foreigners (Europeans and Japanese) who have divided the country into agreed spheres of influences. Thus the Chinese Boxers started attacking and killing the foreigners; therefore the Europeans with the help of the American government (via John Hay who made arrangements to help them but, as a new imperial power, America demanded an "open door" policy) joined together and defeated the native Chinese.
Gil, note that the Chinese had a Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung who were all nationalists (though of course latter was known more as a communist). The Chinese communist party has gradually since Deng Xiao Ping become a proponent of a mixed economy: State/Party capitalism with private capitalism; but obviously the country is a nation, a united people, proud. They are all nationalists wanting to preserve their national identity and sovereignty.
And that (nationalism) as you know is what we Filipinos do not have. I do not believe in evolution since it implies natural inevitability. Nationalism MUST be willed, rekindled and fostered to propel social transformation. With the way we are right now, it may take a generation even if the political conditions would allow it.
I see now with globalization a similar parallelism where our homeland is being deluged with other foreigners in addition to the present Americans, Chinese, and Japanese. The only difference is we do not see much foreign troops getting involved (though there are reports that US troops, 4 officially unconfirmed killed, really are participating in attacking MNLF/MILF rebels down south. Thanks to Estrada regime with the signing of the VFA and unquestioned by the Arroyo regime).
With the present regime hastily selling out, i.e. 100% foreign ownership and/or operation on mining, etc. and the agenda of foreign interests in the proposed Cha-cha revision, our homeland becomes de facto under an "open door" policy.
As modern history shows, the US will use military force when its business or economic interests are threatened; and it will do so, as it has enthusiastically demonstrated in Iraq given that it's the only superpower now. That's why it's emboldened to go unilaterally and ignore the rest of the world.
Of course, as you alluded to, the question is how fast we can politicize and mobilize the majority. It may take a generation or longer than the 10-15 years it took to rebuild nationalism prior to the Dictatorship, as many of the nationalist politicians are gone and the educational system is not in that nationalist groove.
Maybe we would not see it in our lifetimes. But still, we the so-called educated class should just go on ranting so we ourselves and the ignorant majority become conscious and concerned about our national predicament and its roots and act in correcting it. Regards
Many thanks for your emails on Tato Constantino's "Mis-Education of the Filipino(s)". Allow me to put in my two-bits thinking at the this point.
As some of us in the FEU group (I was with them occasionally in the campus from 1950-52 until I decided to drop out of college and never came back--for any degree but to teach as I do now) pointed out to Tato in our coffee sessions (regulars were faculty members Ike Joaquin, Salvador Laurel, Benito Reyes,Nick Joaquin, students Dante Calma, Ernesto Banawis, Tony Joaquin, Arsenio Fabros, Isabelo Crisostomo, Jose Abcede, Greg Datuin, Alfonso Policarpio, artist Duldulao and others whose names I can't remember): he was too much negatively affected by his hate for the Americans that he forgot to use the situation to the Filipinos' advantage.I regard(ed) it like jujitsu: throw the enemy by his own weight and use his own mass against him.
The Americans can be beaten in their own game--in their own language too. I think of Tony Escoda, Tony Arizabal, Al Valencia and myself who had become correspondents and bureau chiefs in the Associated Press and AP-Dow Jones here and abroad. Think of Mike Marabut, Joselito Katigbak and Ernie Mendoza who had been bureau chiefs of Reuters, or Teddy Benigno of Agence France-Presse. Or authors Frankie Sionil-Jose,the Tiempo couple etc. Or Sixto K. Roxas who was vice chair of American Express International, Bobby Romulo of IBM in his younger days. There were also one Victoriano Yamzon who was the most successful correspondent(better than the American reporters) of the old Manila Tribune in 1910 in the judgement of his American editors. A lot more name there are.
My point is our educational system must include a subject on how teach the Filipinos the hard facts of life--of geopolitics and international relations, andinternational political-economics. Teach them how to work out for themselves in the field of international competition. Learn more of the enemy because without that information we are dead meat even before we start. Work with what is possible and improve on our national lot. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
Cheers Gil
4:01 AM
Bert M. Drona said...
Hello Gil,Thank you for your response.Though I have read, reread and keep many of Constantino's published works, I never came to know him personally and do not know whether he really hated America and/or Americans as a people. As you may know, nationalism is a sentiment and may serve as an ideology too.
Like you I believe in education as a possible solution to the long-term improvement of the Filipino masses; an education that teaches a means to decent livelihood AND a means to understand his and society's realities, to identify the symptoms versus the roots of his daily personal misery and that of his society.
Of course such education will need to touch on the geopolitics of international economics, capitalism in terms of individual persons as investors versus corporate/transnational and institutional investors, etc. In a globalized economy the ordinary, individual investor is really a nonfactor. We seem to forget that, although we hear a lot of talk (propaganda or advertisement) about the "foreign investors", there are in reality not much individual foreign investors (vis a vis foreign multinationals/transnationals).
I understand your valid points especially on education. However, the prior questions that we need to address are: how do we implement that kind of education, how and who will finance it?
Can we see that happening in present realities where the national leadership have been/are corrupt and have only demonstrated selfish and subservient interests? Can we see that occurring when our educational system is designed to follow the IMF/WB/ADB "recommendations" as preconditions to continuing loans; and we know these supposedly neutral and benevolent international institutions are prophets of economic and cultural globalization (neocolonialism)?
I frankly do not see such an education being realized without a strong motivation from a leadership, supported by a nationalistic populace, that would push for a nationalistic educational program. Here again, the prior issue asks how can we have a nationalist leadership and a nationalistic majority? Not from the recent, present and foreseeable governments and institutions. But it really has to start somewhere, somehow.
It is discouraging indeed. I feel and think that we Filipinos seem to have significantly lost nationalism among the younger generations since the Marcos Dictatorship, but we just have to continue fighting for nationalism (that's what I try to do in my own little way).
Else, a nation of decolonized Filipinos will not come to reality. And the Filipino will perpetually be having his "damaged culture," continually living his life of selfish individualism inherited from his culture and reinforced by the historical neglect from his government; with no sense of national community beyond his circle of family and friends.
A country not his own since it will not be under his control, and therefore not a nation he can call his own. A bleak future for a country and a people that oftentimes only a thinking Filipino can appreciate and sadly long for especially when he looks at his homeland from afar, in a foreign soil.
4:25 AM
Anonymous said...
Hi Bert:This is not April Fools line.I appreciate your emails. It's good to know you are one of my friends who think of the mother country from the other side of the Pacific.
We as a people are not hopeless. The education of the Filipino we want will certainly not come during our time (since we have only 75 more years to go each, wanna bet?), but it surely will. Because it is evolutionary. See where the Chinese were in the 19th century,and where they are now? This is not to say I am endorsing the Mao-type of governance. Not at all. I surely hope we do not have to go a bloody cleansing phase in our history. That's why our evolution will take longer than the Chinese.
I only hope this present-day frustration over the rotten political setup spreads to the grassroots much faster so the slumbering rural folks finally wake up to the needs of the times.Gil
4:50 AM
Bert M. Drona said...
Hello Gil,Happy April Fools's Day!
Speaking of the mainland Chinese. Coincidentally, two days ago I watched "55 Days in Peking" movie (Heston) after 30+ years ago when I first saw it. What a difference years make. Then, I love to watch such movies, but now after learning more about history (am an engineer), I see things with a critical if not cynical eye. As you may know, a lot of Hollywood movies then and now have differing, if not questionable, assumptions, intended or unintended.
The movie of course was set or based on the early 20th century (1900) "Boxer rebellion," when the Chinese people were beginning to be nationalistic (maybe the term was not invented yet). The Chinese resented the foreigners (Europeans and Japanese) who have divided the country into agreed spheres of influences. Thus the Chinese Boxers started attacking and killing the foreigners; therefore the Europeans with the help of the American government (via John Hay who made arrangements to help them but, as a new imperial power, America demanded an "open door" policy) joined together and defeated the native Chinese.
Gil, note that the Chinese had a Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung who were all nationalists (though of course latter was known more as a communist). The Chinese communist party has gradually since Deng Xiao Ping become a proponent of a mixed economy: State/Party capitalism with private capitalism; but obviously the country is a nation, a united people, proud. They are all nationalists wanting to preserve their national identity and sovereignty.
And that (nationalism) as you know is what we Filipinos do not have. I do not believe in evolution since it implies natural inevitability. Nationalism MUST be willed, rekindled and fostered to propel social transformation. With the way we are right now, it may take a generation even if the political conditions would allow it.
I see now with globalization a similar parallelism where our homeland is being deluged with other foreigners in addition to the present Americans, Chinese, and Japanese. The only difference is we do not see much foreign troops getting involved (though there are reports that US troops, 4 officially unconfirmed killed, really are participating in attacking MNLF/MILF rebels down south. Thanks to Estrada regime with the signing of the VFA and unquestioned by the Arroyo regime).
With the present regime hastily selling out, i.e. 100% foreign ownership and/or operation on mining, etc. and the agenda of foreign interests in the proposed Cha-cha revision, our homeland becomes de facto under an "open door" policy.
As modern history shows, the US will use military force when its business or economic interests are threatened; and it will do so, as it has enthusiastically demonstrated in Iraq given that it's the only superpower now. That's why it's emboldened to go unilaterally and ignore the rest of the world.
Of course, as you alluded to, the question is how fast we can politicize and mobilize the majority. It may take a generation or longer than the 10-15 years it took to rebuild nationalism prior to the Dictatorship, as many of the nationalist politicians are gone and the educational system is not in that nationalist groove.
Maybe we would not see it in our lifetimes. But still, we the so-called educated class should just go on ranting so we ourselves and the ignorant majority become conscious and concerned about our national predicament and its roots and act in correcting it. Regards
FILIPINO NATIONALISM -is the bottom line;sine-qua-non for the common good of the native (Malay/Indio)Filipino majority. Nationalism must precede any plan/action in dealing with globalization.
EDUCATION- being educated is beyond just being schooled towards a profession or practical vocation; we need the Humanities/liberal arts to develop/apply CRITICAL ANALYSIS/THINKING to understand, identify, plan, act & safeguard the needed fundamental and/or systemic changes towards economic/political progress, social justice, and social transformation.
GOVERNMENT - its raison d'etre is to lead/serve the native majority, foster nationalism via its institutions, ensure the masses are critically literate to have real democracy.
FREEDOM & DISSENT - free thought is necessarily aggressive and critical; we protect the freedom to discover truth; we encourage dissent, not for sentimental reasons, but because we cannot live without it. PATRIOTISM is NOT: " My country, right or wrong;" but " if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right!"
RELIGION/BELIEFS: No Deus ex Machina. No established religion. Humanism/Existentialism.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Trip to Mexico City - A Journal Entry
A trip to Mexico City
I want to share with you my recent and pleasantly surprising trip to Mexico City. As always, travelling through the non-touristy way is much more enlightening, adventurous and enriching while also being cost-effective and safe.
Last August, I was at a loss where to go with my expiring Delta Airlines voucher and my daughter Charmaine suggested I should try Mexico City. I said I don’t like to go there. It’s like going to the Philippines: hot, humid, heavily polluted, dense with people, goons and corrupt, big-bellied policemen. She asked whether I was racist (she has several Latina friends). So for another $48, I booked a “red-eye” to Mexico City and then picked a Mexico City guidebook.
I went to SFO airport on the midnight of August 18 and immediately thought it would be a bad day. The airline clerk said I am allowed only one hand carry (I had two backpacks, the smaller one was filled with 5 lbs of grapes and other snacks). I told him I was never told at the ticketing office about this limitation. And I started getting irritated. I thought these people are just as bureaucratic as government workers. Any way, I argued my case and the clerk called his boss. They said that it was AeroMexico’s policy. I explained that I’ll have enough time to eat all the food on the flight to Dallas and put the daypack inside the large one. So I was let go.
All the way on the flight to Dallas I was still unsettled about going to Mexico City. I thought I should just stay in Dallas and drive down to Houston to see Charmz’s godfather. Or cut short my stay in Mexico by staying in Dallas for a day and spend the rest in Mexico City. At the Dallas airport, I went to AeroMexico’s waiting lounge and saw as expected mostly Mexicans. With all the stereotypes we have been hearing, seeing and reading about, I have all these preconceptions telling me not to go. Anyway, I finally went and joined them when the boarding call was made.
The flight was smooth and took about 2.5 hours. It was early morning. The city view from the plane showed a vast valley ala Los Angeles but bigger. I was expecting hassles upon arrival at the airport but nothing of the sort. It was quick. I guess my “buenas dias” with a smile worked with the immigration lady. Outside there were many people but not as crowded as back in our old country. I started using my forgotten Spanish words: “donde esta Zocalo”…”Quanto…” They worked! I asked about the taxi fare to the El Centro or Zocalo, about $20. I thought of walking but I asked a salesgirl how far Zocalo is, I was told 4 miles, so the cheap me walked to the metro station and took the train. To my surprise, the walkways and streets to the Metro were clean, the underground metro stations were neat; it seems you can lie down and sleep, really! Beats BART and downtown SFO or any Bay Area city.
The train ticket was 1.50 pesos (13 US cents). Wow, it’s exceedingly cheap. I asked the station police for direction and took the appropriate train. To my great surprise again, the train cars are clean, no graffiti, no trash, seats are clean, well lit. On a transfer station, I asked a guy for direction. Surprisingly, he went along and accompanied me through two transfers till the last one. I asked him “Como se llama usted ? “ Donde tu trabajar? Etc.” It was fun digging some Spanish words from my memory banks filled up during college. He is salesperson for Telemex. I gave him my box of cookies, there goes my snack-lunch and asked for his address so I can send him a 49er shirt. The Zocalo metro station underground is surprisingly clean.
Upon reaching the top of the stairs, one immediately sees Mexico City’s well-known “Catedral Metropolitana” –the largest in South America; and the vast Zocalo Square, said to be only smaller than Moscow’s Red Square (Zocalo is at the center of the city). I asked for the Hostal Monada –a youth hostel-and found it within a two blocks. It was full. The host told me to check out Hostal Catedral (that’s how it’s spelled) in which I was able to get in. It’s only within 100 feet from the back of the Cathedral. The 5-floor hostel is clean, modern interior, well lit with an internet café and bar at the ground floor, a kitchen and veranda at the top floor! Great view -almost half the square and the rest of the surrounding streets and buildings are seen. Hostal Monada may have been quieter than Hostal Catedral but there was not much street noise, no honking of horns. The Aztec dancers started about noontime at the square.
After unloading my stuff in my room, I went for a walk but keeping within the four blocks from the square as recommended by the guidebook. The sights were filled with truly large, block-sized, quaint centuries-old buildings, a few dilapidated, apparently abandoned by their rich owners. Most of the buildings have retail or commercial businesses. I went to the city’s West side which was clean and walked into a couple of old churches. The streets were busy but not noisy, lots of small businesses, with peddlers at intersections roasting corn-on-the-cob or making what looks to me as “binatog” without the ground coconut as in our old country. On the sidewalks I checked the pictures and publications being sold and saw a lot of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Ended up in the East side public market and found it too crowded like any Philippine market place and turned back. The locals are physically built quite different from the Mexicans we see in the US. The locals are more like the Indians we see in the movies: shorter brown, with long and flowing black hair, etc. In comparison, Mexicans in the US, mainly from northern Mexico, are mestizos.
For dinner, I went for a rotisserie chicken, and got bread and orange juice from a large panaderia that sells baked goods, has an eatery on the side; dinner was 27 pesos ($3). Then I went to the hostel veranda and had my dinner. A white guy from New York introduced himself, and said he was a college instructor at a Black school in Georgia and was doing a paper about Latin America. We started to have a pretty interesting conversation about racism, rednecks, guns, etc. until the mosquitoes start bugging me. He was still talking. I excused myself.
Went back to my room and met my roommates: two Americans and a Dutch, all young guys in their 20s. After conversing about where, what, when and looking at maps we decided to go out altogether to eat (another dinner for me) to a 24-hr restaurant named “El Popular.” So we walked to El Popular. One of the us asked who are we all anyway? So he introduced himself as Mike, apparently Jewish and history teacher from New York. He has been throughout Mexico in the last 2 weeks; Dennis from Phoenix is a student and part-time adventurer –said he has been in fishing vessels from the bottom of the western hemisphere to Alaska, and plans to go down to Guatemala by Sunday. Michel the 6’4” Dutchman is working for his Masters (marketing) and will fly to Honduras thereafter. We had our orders brought in, I had a good, hot and spicy chicken soup and beer –all of us had beer. BTW, in ordering beer, I selected “Corona & Victoria” and they all laughed. Apparently, it’s either-or. I had Victoria then. Total bill for us four was 134 pesos; so we gave 150 ($17).
2200 hrs. The night was still young and so we headed for Plaza Garibaldi where all the mariachis are supposed to hang out. I haven’t seen mariachis except in a movie and CD covers. The plaza is past the 4 blocks mentioned in the book. Lazaro Cardenas is a main road to the Plaza and still busy. One starts seeing colorfully attired mariachis along the street negotiating with the car drivers and/or party goers. The mariachis are for rent for any shindig; about $200 a night or at the plaza, $10-15 a song. On the way, we looked at CDs that sell for 15 pesos, DVDs for 30 pesos. We bought fresh coconuts which were opened for us, drank its water to which a shot of local vodka was added, all for 10 pesos. The nuts were mature,not young ones so their meats are wasted.
The plaza was amazingly packed with mariachi groups and spectators or tourists. We estimate about 200-300 individuals belonging to several groups. A group can be 8-12 people. People approached us if we wanted to hear them play. Several bars lined the plaza, so we went to one mariachi bar. The bar was full and music was really loud as we watched people dance to the music. It was actually a family atmosphere. Apparently, that place did not have women-for-hire –nobody said we were looking for them anyway. Back at the hostel, we spent an hour talking and chasing mosquitoes, since we left a window open. Mike was headed back for New York early in the morning.
Saturday morning, I decided to check out the Palacio Nacional, the Catedral Metropolitana and others. They surround the Zocalo. The Palacio Nacional is huge, deep and occupies one full block. It was originally built by Hernan Cortes back in the 1500’s, destroyed by pro-church rioters in the 1624 and rebuilt four years later. It is the official presidential palace but recent presidents prefer the second residence at Chapultepec.
This palace is heavily guarded by soldiers. In fact, one feels safe at Zocalo, with the numerous police in riot-gears and soldiers around the palace and the Zocalo and throughout the blocks I have walked. You need a photo-ID (driver’s license does) to leave with the soldiers guarding the entrance. On the walls of the second floor, Diego Rivera has painted murals showing Mexican history, from the Aztec times, through Spanish brutal conquest and exploitative colonization, the fight for independence from the Spaniards and the civil revolution of 1910-1920. The murals indicated the anti-Catholic (a priest ravishing a woman) and Marxist leanings of Rivera and if one spent some time studying them, they’re quite instructional about Mexican history, and impressive.
The big Cathedral was built out of materials from the ruins of an Aztec pyramid demolished by the conquerors then located at the now Zocalo plaza. It took two and a half centuries to finish it. The foundation is on soft soil (reminds one of Pisa or Venice) and the structure is sinking unevenly; so the government worked to prevent further deterioration. I still saw some structural support on the columns inside the cathedral. Inside, the sides has 14 chapels, a choir at the center separates the main altar from the naves.
It’s remarkable that the main altar has a 25 meters high large wooden carvings background filled with saints, angels, etc and painted in gold. I noted even the small and old churches I visited have similar gold leaves. One of the chapels has a vase containing the remains of Emperor Agustin de Iturbide, who led the fight for independence against the Spaniards. The churches are similar to ours in the Philippines (expectedly since the Philippines and Mexico were former Spanish colonies).
I also went to visit a small church Iglesia y Hospital de Jesus Nazareno located south of the Zocalo. It was the first hospital built by the conquistador Hernan Cortes whose remains are on a wall at the altar. The church, as in the cathedral, has the Black Nazarene. Reminds one of Quiapo. All these churches/cathedral feature the “Virgin Lady of Guadalupe” who has apparently been fused with Mexican identity. A big deal every 12th of December throughout the city and country.
Sunday, I decided to see the famous Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan. I took a train to the central bus station. The North bus station is large, clean and not chaotic. The bus ride is about an hour and costs 21 pesos. It was quite a pleasant ride, not crowded and the bus was air-conditioned. It was Sunday and the museum is free! So I saved about 27 pesos (all museums are free on Sundays). At first sighting from the entrance to the site, one sees a site so vast and amazing and one immediately feels deep appreciation and admiration for the history and heritage of the Mexican people. They ought to be proud and I think they are.
The structures were supposedly built between 100 BC and 250 AD. North to South, the site is about a mile long and a quarter mile wide. The largest and tallest structure is the Pyramid of the Sun at about 70 meters high, bottom is about 220 meters square. It’s now a World Heritage Site and its maintenance and protection is supported by this international organization. It’s good it was not completely obliterated by the Spaniards. Conquerors, here, in Europe and elsewhere in the world tend to destroy the heritage and culture of the vanquished. The latest being the destruction of the Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan by the radical Islamic Talibans.
I started to walk towards the big Pyramid of the Sun which apparently was most popular since it has the most people, climbing up and down. The first level stairs were wide and easy but gets narrower from the second level and higher. The steep climb from the ground to the first level was easy. The next one to the second was steeper tough. I estimate a 35 degree or more slope. I felt my knees weakening fast and almost buckling and I had to reach for the rubber railings. Upon reaching I sat down for about 25 minutes and mulled whether I should continue.
I was almost ready to go back down but I noticed much older people with infants continue up. So I said to myself: if they can do it, I should be able to. And I was already there, I might as well do the job. I took an aspirin (helps blood flow and prevents clotting)to improve breathing. The climb to the third and the top levels was slow because of their narrower, smaller steps and the large crowd of people. It was like an uphill, stop-and-go procession. Finally I made it and felt having accomplished something. I have pictures to prove it, hehe.
The view at the top was great. Seeing the vast ancient settlements, the architecture, the design concepts. One thinks of the genius of the Aztecs.I did not climb the other smaller, less ascended, pyramid. The Mexicans really ought to be proud of their ancestry. Apparently, they have some superstition about the pyramids and so they go there like pilgrims. On the bus ride back to the city, I noted the houses at the outskirts of the city were of concrete bricks, unpainted, indication of its share of poverty but apparently not as bad as back in the Philippines. No nipa huts so far.
Back in the city that Sunday night, I decided to catch and observe a Mariachi Mass at the Cathedral, that is, music provided by a mariachi group. And true enough it was and a bishop said the rites. It was pretty impressive. The cathedral was packed with lots of old and young people. I noted the religiosity and faith of the people from their active participation. One downside I felt was the way the bishop addressed the faithful each time: “Hermanos”, I thought that he was still macho, as the Latin culture still maintains, for not addressing the women folks. Anyway, the experience was memorable. I like that feeling of belonging when they have that “peace be with you” line.
The following day, I flew out of Mexico City thinking that I had a very pleasantly surprising vacation. I told Charmz when asked that I enjoyed my trip and she said, “See!” I brought her a couple of Indian-made necklaces. I have begun to have a different viewpoint about and better appreciation of Mexicans across the border. I surely will go back again to Mexico City and maybe stay a little longer.
I want to share with you my recent and pleasantly surprising trip to Mexico City. As always, travelling through the non-touristy way is much more enlightening, adventurous and enriching while also being cost-effective and safe.
Last August, I was at a loss where to go with my expiring Delta Airlines voucher and my daughter Charmaine suggested I should try Mexico City. I said I don’t like to go there. It’s like going to the Philippines: hot, humid, heavily polluted, dense with people, goons and corrupt, big-bellied policemen. She asked whether I was racist (she has several Latina friends). So for another $48, I booked a “red-eye” to Mexico City and then picked a Mexico City guidebook.
I went to SFO airport on the midnight of August 18 and immediately thought it would be a bad day. The airline clerk said I am allowed only one hand carry (I had two backpacks, the smaller one was filled with 5 lbs of grapes and other snacks). I told him I was never told at the ticketing office about this limitation. And I started getting irritated. I thought these people are just as bureaucratic as government workers. Any way, I argued my case and the clerk called his boss. They said that it was AeroMexico’s policy. I explained that I’ll have enough time to eat all the food on the flight to Dallas and put the daypack inside the large one. So I was let go.
All the way on the flight to Dallas I was still unsettled about going to Mexico City. I thought I should just stay in Dallas and drive down to Houston to see Charmz’s godfather. Or cut short my stay in Mexico by staying in Dallas for a day and spend the rest in Mexico City. At the Dallas airport, I went to AeroMexico’s waiting lounge and saw as expected mostly Mexicans. With all the stereotypes we have been hearing, seeing and reading about, I have all these preconceptions telling me not to go. Anyway, I finally went and joined them when the boarding call was made.
The flight was smooth and took about 2.5 hours. It was early morning. The city view from the plane showed a vast valley ala Los Angeles but bigger. I was expecting hassles upon arrival at the airport but nothing of the sort. It was quick. I guess my “buenas dias” with a smile worked with the immigration lady. Outside there were many people but not as crowded as back in our old country. I started using my forgotten Spanish words: “donde esta Zocalo”…”Quanto…” They worked! I asked about the taxi fare to the El Centro or Zocalo, about $20. I thought of walking but I asked a salesgirl how far Zocalo is, I was told 4 miles, so the cheap me walked to the metro station and took the train. To my surprise, the walkways and streets to the Metro were clean, the underground metro stations were neat; it seems you can lie down and sleep, really! Beats BART and downtown SFO or any Bay Area city.
The train ticket was 1.50 pesos (13 US cents). Wow, it’s exceedingly cheap. I asked the station police for direction and took the appropriate train. To my great surprise again, the train cars are clean, no graffiti, no trash, seats are clean, well lit. On a transfer station, I asked a guy for direction. Surprisingly, he went along and accompanied me through two transfers till the last one. I asked him “Como se llama usted ? “ Donde tu trabajar? Etc.” It was fun digging some Spanish words from my memory banks filled up during college. He is salesperson for Telemex. I gave him my box of cookies, there goes my snack-lunch and asked for his address so I can send him a 49er shirt. The Zocalo metro station underground is surprisingly clean.
Upon reaching the top of the stairs, one immediately sees Mexico City’s well-known “Catedral Metropolitana” –the largest in South America; and the vast Zocalo Square, said to be only smaller than Moscow’s Red Square (Zocalo is at the center of the city). I asked for the Hostal Monada –a youth hostel-and found it within a two blocks. It was full. The host told me to check out Hostal Catedral (that’s how it’s spelled) in which I was able to get in. It’s only within 100 feet from the back of the Cathedral. The 5-floor hostel is clean, modern interior, well lit with an internet café and bar at the ground floor, a kitchen and veranda at the top floor! Great view -almost half the square and the rest of the surrounding streets and buildings are seen. Hostal Monada may have been quieter than Hostal Catedral but there was not much street noise, no honking of horns. The Aztec dancers started about noontime at the square.
After unloading my stuff in my room, I went for a walk but keeping within the four blocks from the square as recommended by the guidebook. The sights were filled with truly large, block-sized, quaint centuries-old buildings, a few dilapidated, apparently abandoned by their rich owners. Most of the buildings have retail or commercial businesses. I went to the city’s West side which was clean and walked into a couple of old churches. The streets were busy but not noisy, lots of small businesses, with peddlers at intersections roasting corn-on-the-cob or making what looks to me as “binatog” without the ground coconut as in our old country. On the sidewalks I checked the pictures and publications being sold and saw a lot of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Ended up in the East side public market and found it too crowded like any Philippine market place and turned back. The locals are physically built quite different from the Mexicans we see in the US. The locals are more like the Indians we see in the movies: shorter brown, with long and flowing black hair, etc. In comparison, Mexicans in the US, mainly from northern Mexico, are mestizos.
For dinner, I went for a rotisserie chicken, and got bread and orange juice from a large panaderia that sells baked goods, has an eatery on the side; dinner was 27 pesos ($3). Then I went to the hostel veranda and had my dinner. A white guy from New York introduced himself, and said he was a college instructor at a Black school in Georgia and was doing a paper about Latin America. We started to have a pretty interesting conversation about racism, rednecks, guns, etc. until the mosquitoes start bugging me. He was still talking. I excused myself.
Went back to my room and met my roommates: two Americans and a Dutch, all young guys in their 20s. After conversing about where, what, when and looking at maps we decided to go out altogether to eat (another dinner for me) to a 24-hr restaurant named “El Popular.” So we walked to El Popular. One of the us asked who are we all anyway? So he introduced himself as Mike, apparently Jewish and history teacher from New York. He has been throughout Mexico in the last 2 weeks; Dennis from Phoenix is a student and part-time adventurer –said he has been in fishing vessels from the bottom of the western hemisphere to Alaska, and plans to go down to Guatemala by Sunday. Michel the 6’4” Dutchman is working for his Masters (marketing) and will fly to Honduras thereafter. We had our orders brought in, I had a good, hot and spicy chicken soup and beer –all of us had beer. BTW, in ordering beer, I selected “Corona & Victoria” and they all laughed. Apparently, it’s either-or. I had Victoria then. Total bill for us four was 134 pesos; so we gave 150 ($17).
2200 hrs. The night was still young and so we headed for Plaza Garibaldi where all the mariachis are supposed to hang out. I haven’t seen mariachis except in a movie and CD covers. The plaza is past the 4 blocks mentioned in the book. Lazaro Cardenas is a main road to the Plaza and still busy. One starts seeing colorfully attired mariachis along the street negotiating with the car drivers and/or party goers. The mariachis are for rent for any shindig; about $200 a night or at the plaza, $10-15 a song. On the way, we looked at CDs that sell for 15 pesos, DVDs for 30 pesos. We bought fresh coconuts which were opened for us, drank its water to which a shot of local vodka was added, all for 10 pesos. The nuts were mature,not young ones so their meats are wasted.
The plaza was amazingly packed with mariachi groups and spectators or tourists. We estimate about 200-300 individuals belonging to several groups. A group can be 8-12 people. People approached us if we wanted to hear them play. Several bars lined the plaza, so we went to one mariachi bar. The bar was full and music was really loud as we watched people dance to the music. It was actually a family atmosphere. Apparently, that place did not have women-for-hire –nobody said we were looking for them anyway. Back at the hostel, we spent an hour talking and chasing mosquitoes, since we left a window open. Mike was headed back for New York early in the morning.
Saturday morning, I decided to check out the Palacio Nacional, the Catedral Metropolitana and others. They surround the Zocalo. The Palacio Nacional is huge, deep and occupies one full block. It was originally built by Hernan Cortes back in the 1500’s, destroyed by pro-church rioters in the 1624 and rebuilt four years later. It is the official presidential palace but recent presidents prefer the second residence at Chapultepec.
This palace is heavily guarded by soldiers. In fact, one feels safe at Zocalo, with the numerous police in riot-gears and soldiers around the palace and the Zocalo and throughout the blocks I have walked. You need a photo-ID (driver’s license does) to leave with the soldiers guarding the entrance. On the walls of the second floor, Diego Rivera has painted murals showing Mexican history, from the Aztec times, through Spanish brutal conquest and exploitative colonization, the fight for independence from the Spaniards and the civil revolution of 1910-1920. The murals indicated the anti-Catholic (a priest ravishing a woman) and Marxist leanings of Rivera and if one spent some time studying them, they’re quite instructional about Mexican history, and impressive.
The big Cathedral was built out of materials from the ruins of an Aztec pyramid demolished by the conquerors then located at the now Zocalo plaza. It took two and a half centuries to finish it. The foundation is on soft soil (reminds one of Pisa or Venice) and the structure is sinking unevenly; so the government worked to prevent further deterioration. I still saw some structural support on the columns inside the cathedral. Inside, the sides has 14 chapels, a choir at the center separates the main altar from the naves.
It’s remarkable that the main altar has a 25 meters high large wooden carvings background filled with saints, angels, etc and painted in gold. I noted even the small and old churches I visited have similar gold leaves. One of the chapels has a vase containing the remains of Emperor Agustin de Iturbide, who led the fight for independence against the Spaniards. The churches are similar to ours in the Philippines (expectedly since the Philippines and Mexico were former Spanish colonies).
I also went to visit a small church Iglesia y Hospital de Jesus Nazareno located south of the Zocalo. It was the first hospital built by the conquistador Hernan Cortes whose remains are on a wall at the altar. The church, as in the cathedral, has the Black Nazarene. Reminds one of Quiapo. All these churches/cathedral feature the “Virgin Lady of Guadalupe” who has apparently been fused with Mexican identity. A big deal every 12th of December throughout the city and country.
Sunday, I decided to see the famous Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan. I took a train to the central bus station. The North bus station is large, clean and not chaotic. The bus ride is about an hour and costs 21 pesos. It was quite a pleasant ride, not crowded and the bus was air-conditioned. It was Sunday and the museum is free! So I saved about 27 pesos (all museums are free on Sundays). At first sighting from the entrance to the site, one sees a site so vast and amazing and one immediately feels deep appreciation and admiration for the history and heritage of the Mexican people. They ought to be proud and I think they are.
The structures were supposedly built between 100 BC and 250 AD. North to South, the site is about a mile long and a quarter mile wide. The largest and tallest structure is the Pyramid of the Sun at about 70 meters high, bottom is about 220 meters square. It’s now a World Heritage Site and its maintenance and protection is supported by this international organization. It’s good it was not completely obliterated by the Spaniards. Conquerors, here, in Europe and elsewhere in the world tend to destroy the heritage and culture of the vanquished. The latest being the destruction of the Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan by the radical Islamic Talibans.
I started to walk towards the big Pyramid of the Sun which apparently was most popular since it has the most people, climbing up and down. The first level stairs were wide and easy but gets narrower from the second level and higher. The steep climb from the ground to the first level was easy. The next one to the second was steeper tough. I estimate a 35 degree or more slope. I felt my knees weakening fast and almost buckling and I had to reach for the rubber railings. Upon reaching I sat down for about 25 minutes and mulled whether I should continue.
I was almost ready to go back down but I noticed much older people with infants continue up. So I said to myself: if they can do it, I should be able to. And I was already there, I might as well do the job. I took an aspirin (helps blood flow and prevents clotting)to improve breathing. The climb to the third and the top levels was slow because of their narrower, smaller steps and the large crowd of people. It was like an uphill, stop-and-go procession. Finally I made it and felt having accomplished something. I have pictures to prove it, hehe.
The view at the top was great. Seeing the vast ancient settlements, the architecture, the design concepts. One thinks of the genius of the Aztecs.I did not climb the other smaller, less ascended, pyramid. The Mexicans really ought to be proud of their ancestry. Apparently, they have some superstition about the pyramids and so they go there like pilgrims. On the bus ride back to the city, I noted the houses at the outskirts of the city were of concrete bricks, unpainted, indication of its share of poverty but apparently not as bad as back in the Philippines. No nipa huts so far.
Back in the city that Sunday night, I decided to catch and observe a Mariachi Mass at the Cathedral, that is, music provided by a mariachi group. And true enough it was and a bishop said the rites. It was pretty impressive. The cathedral was packed with lots of old and young people. I noted the religiosity and faith of the people from their active participation. One downside I felt was the way the bishop addressed the faithful each time: “Hermanos”, I thought that he was still macho, as the Latin culture still maintains, for not addressing the women folks. Anyway, the experience was memorable. I like that feeling of belonging when they have that “peace be with you” line.
The following day, I flew out of Mexico City thinking that I had a very pleasantly surprising vacation. I told Charmz when asked that I enjoyed my trip and she said, “See!” I brought her a couple of Indian-made necklaces. I have begun to have a different viewpoint about and better appreciation of Mexicans across the border. I surely will go back again to Mexico City and maybe stay a little longer.
FILIPINO NATIONALISM -is the bottom line;sine-qua-non for the common good of the native (Malay/Indio)Filipino majority. Nationalism must precede any plan/action in dealing with globalization.
EDUCATION- being educated is beyond just being schooled towards a profession or practical vocation; we need the Humanities/liberal arts to develop/apply CRITICAL ANALYSIS/THINKING to understand, identify, plan, act & safeguard the needed fundamental and/or systemic changes towards economic/political progress, social justice, and social transformation.
GOVERNMENT - its raison d'etre is to lead/serve the native majority, foster nationalism via its institutions, ensure the masses are critically literate to have real democracy.
FREEDOM & DISSENT - free thought is necessarily aggressive and critical; we protect the freedom to discover truth; we encourage dissent, not for sentimental reasons, but because we cannot live without it. PATRIOTISM is NOT: " My country, right or wrong;" but " if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right!"
RELIGION/BELIEFS: No Deus ex Machina. No established religion. Humanism/Existentialism.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Andres Bonifacio - Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog (A Neglected Hero, Updated 12/04/2012)
"Those who profess to favor freedom
and yet deprecate agitation
are men who want crops without
plowing up the ground;
they want rain without thunder and
lightning.
They want the ocean without the
awful roar of its waters.
This struggle may be a moral one
or it may be a physical one
or it may be both moral and physical
but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a
demand
It never did, and never will." – Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Lecturer, Author and Slave, 1817-1895)
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Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog
Andres Bonifacio
Itong Katagalugan, na pinamamahalaan nang unang panahon ng ating tunay na mga kababayan niyaong hindi pa tumutulong sa mga lupaing ito ang mga Kastila, ay nabubuhay sa lubos na kasaganaan, at kaginhawaaan. Kasundo niya ang mga kapit-bayan at lalung-lalo na ang mga taga-Hapon, sila’y kabilihan at kapalitan ng mga kalakal, malabis ang pagyabong ng lahat ng pinagkakakitaan, kaya’t dahil dito’y mayaman ang kaasalan ng lahat, bata’t matanda at sampung mga babae ay marunong bumasa at sumulat ng talagang pagsulat nating mga Tagalog.
Dumating ang mga Kastila at dumulog na nakipagkaibigan. Sa mabuti nilang hikayat na diumano, tayo’y aakayin sa lalong kagalingan at lalong imumulat ang ating kaisipan, ang nasabing nagsisipamahala ay nangyaring nalamuyot sa tamis ng kanilang dila sa paghibo. Gayon man sila’y ipinailalim sa talagang kaugaliang pinagkayarian sa pamamagitan ng isang panunumpa na kumuha ng kaunting dugo sa kani-kanilang mga ugat, at yao’y inihalo’t ininom nila kapwa tanda ng tunay at lubos na pagtatapat na di magtataksil sa pinagkayarian. Ito’y siyang tinatawag na "Pacto de Sangre" ng haring Sikatuna at ni Legaspi na pinakakatawanan ng hari sa Espana.
Buhat nang ito’y mangyari ay bumubilang na ngayon sa tatlong daang taon mahigit na ang lahi ni Legaspi ay ating binubuhay sa lubos na kasaganaan, ating pinagtatamasa at binubusog, kahit abutin natin ang kasalatan at kadayukdukan; iginugugol natin ang yaman, dugo at sampu ng tunay na mga kababayan na aayaw pumayag na sa kanila’y pasakop, at gayon din naman nakipagbaka tayo sa mga Insik at taga-Holandang nagbalang umagaw sa kanila nitong Katagalugan.
Ngayon sa lahat ng ito’y ano ang sa mga ginawa nating paggugugol ang nakikitang kaginhawahang ibinigay sa ating Bayan? Ano ang nakikita nating pagtupad sa kanilang kapangakuan na siyang naging dahil ng ating paggugugol! Wala kudi pawang kataksilan ang ganti sa ating mga pagpapala at mga pagtupad sa kanilang ipinangakong tayo’y lalong gigisingin sa kagalingan ay bagkus tayong binulag, inihawa tayo sa kanilang hamak na asal, pinilt na sinira ang mahal at magandang ugali ng ating Bayan; iminulat tayo sa isang maling pagsampalataya at isinadlak sa lubak ng kasamaan ang kapurihan ng ating Bayan; at kung tayo’y mangahas humingi ng kahit gabahid na lingap, ang nagiging kasagutan ay ang tayo’y itapon at ilayo sa piling ng ating minamahal ng anak, asawa at matandang magulang. Ang bawat isang himutok na pumulas sa ating dibdib ay itinuturing na isang malaking pagkakasala at karakarakang nilalapatan ng sa hayop na kabangisan.
Ngayon wala nang maituturing na kapanatagan sa ating pamamayan; ngayon lagi nang gingambala ang ating katahimikan ng umaalingawngaw na daing at pananambitan, buntong-hininga at hinagpis ng makapal na ulila, bao’t mga magulang ng mga kababayang ipinanganyaya ng mga manlulupig na Kastila; ngayon tayo’y nalulunod na sa nagbabahang luha ng Ina sa nakitil na buhay ng anak, sa pananangis ng sanggol na pinangulila ng kalupitan na ang bawat patak ay katulad ng isang kumukulong tinga, na sumasalang sa mahapding sugat ng ating pusong nagdaramdam; ngayon lalo’t lalo tayong nabibiliran ng tanikalang nakalalait sa bawat lalaking may iniingatang kapurihan.
Ano ang nararapat nating gawin?
Ang araw ng katuwiran na sumisikat sa Silanganan, ay malinaw na itinuturo sa ating mga matang malaong nabulagan, ang landas na dapat nating tunguhin, ang liwanag niya’y tanaw sa ting mga mata, ang kukong nag-akma ng kamatayang alay sa atin ng mga ganid na asal. Itinuturo ng katuwiran, na wala tayong iba pang maaantay kundi lalo’t lalong kaalipinan. Itinuturo ng katuwiran, lalo’t lalong kaalipustaan at lalo’t lalong kaalipinan. Itinuturo ng katuwiran, na huwag nating sayangin ang panahon sa pag-asa sa ipinangakong kaginhawahan na hindi darating at hindi mangyayari. Itinuturo ng katuwiran ang tayo’y umasa sa ating at huwag antayin sa iba ang ating kabuhayan. Itinuturo na katuwiran ang tayo’y magkaisang-loob, magkaisang isip at akala at nang tayo’y magkaisa na maihanap ng lunas ang naghaharing kasamaan sa ating Bayan.
Panahon na ngayong dapat na lumitaw ang liwanag ng katotohanan; panahon nang dapat nating ipakilala n tayo’y may sariling pagdaramdam, may puri, may hiya at pagdadamayan. Ngayon panahon nang dapat simulan ang pagsisiwalat ng mga mahal at dakilang ani na magwawasak sa masinsing tabing na bumubulag sa ating kaisipan; panahon na ngayong dapat makilala ng mga Tagalog ang pinagbuhatan ng kanilang mga kahirapan. Araw na itong dapat kilalanin na sa bawat isang hakbang natin y tumutuntong tayo at nabibingit sa malalim na hukay ng kamatayan na sa ati’y inuumang ng mga kaaway.
Kaya, O mga kababayan, ating idilat ang bulag na kaisipan at kusang igugol sa kagalingan ang ating lakas sa tunay at lubos na pag-asa na magtagumpay sa nilalayong kaginhawahan ng bayan tinubuan.
Source: http://www.filipiniana.net/publication/ang-dapat-mabatid-ng-mga-tagalog/12791881588022/1/0
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“The HISTORY of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed myth of its conquerors.” – Meridel Le Sueur, American writer, 1900-1996
UPDATED 12/09/2012: Remembering a Neglected Hero
BONIFACIO
The efforts of a determined few to honor the memory of Andres Bonifacio at a way that befits his true stature have been deterred somewhat by the supercilious conviction which prevails in the upper classes that Rizal cannot be replaced as the hero of the Filipinos.
This conviction has even acquired the nature of an official one, a fact that can easily be seen in the almost complete indifference of the national government to the City of Manila's determination to impart a more substantial meaning to the celebration of Bonifacio's centenary.
And yet, nothing could be more harmful than the cultivation of an artificial rivalry between Rizal and Bonifacio. Nothing could be more revealing of the ignorance of social and revolutionary action on the part of the so-called Filipino educated class than the insidious campaign it is waging that the man from Calamba and the man from Tondo were poles apart in their aims and purposes.
The simple truth, we believe, is that like the famous bow and arrow of longfellow, Bonifacio and Rizal were useless each without the other. They complemented each other, although they identified themselves with the use of apparently divergent means. There was, to be sure, a difference in view asto the future of the Philippines, but this difference was dictated by the difference in their character and in their basic orientation.
All this may sound paradoxical, even contradictory. But not when it is considered that in the Philippine revolution, as well as in all the classic revolutions which have shaped human institutions, there was always a division of labor instinctively arrived at.
Rizal and his group in the Propaganda Movement were the men who laid down the theoretical foundations, the justifications and the morality of the Filipino grievance against Spain. It was they who, by the power of the written word or by the urgency of vocal appeal, opened the eyes of their countrymen to their own plight and who inspired them to aspire for dignity. Rizal then was essentially a man of thought. He was the encyclopedist, the pamphleteer, the philosopher, the poet who wrote and sang of love of country. He was the theorist, immersed in thought and rendered incapable of action, not only by the corrosive effects of "thinking too precisely on the events," but also by his implacably safe and middle-class background.
But after he has achieved his assigned task --after, in other words, the man of thought had reached the end of the tether -- the man of action had to take over and give reality to what had been said and discussed before.
The man of action in Philippine history was Andres Bonifacio. here was a man who could not boast of the profundity of learning and of the eloquence of the men of the propaganda Movement. But here, also, was a man who had been endowed with the gift of action.
Bonifacio saw the situation steadily and he saw the whole, and he acted on what he saw. he acted, not by propounding more theories or indulging in more philosophical vacillations, but in laying the foundation of the Katipunan the one and only purpose of which was to fight a necessary and timely revolution. (12-01-1963)
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Man of Action
Andres Bonifacio could have no place in a society ruled by people who are motivated by special sectarian and economic prejudices. His ideas would be suspect as long as the conviction that the well-being of the nation can be secured only by a dependence on a great power is dominant. Moreover, in such a society, his birth and background would be an affront to the tender sensibilities of the upper classes.
The story of the emergence of the Katipunero as a national hero is also the story of the evolution of our nationalism. Hence, the manner in which Bonifacio was reduced in status during the early period of the American regime is not so much a reflection of Americans, who after all, were engaged in the grim task of developing a colony, as on the Filipino leaders who, by their silence, encouraged the colonizers.
But, of course, the attitude of the Filipino leaders will become understandable if it is remembered that their aim, at least from December 23, 1900 to October 16, 1907, was to make the Philippines a permanent territory of the United States. It was these leaders who could not subscribe to the ideas of bonifacio and who considered his revolutionary activities as something less than legal. They felt that if his egalitarian ideas were to supercede the meliorist tendencies of Rizal, their economic and social position would be endangered.
After 1907, however, the Federelistas passed on into the footnotes of history. A new set of Filipino leaders who were dedicatd to independence of a sort ("immediate, complete and absolute') took over, and the name of Bonifacio began to be mentioned in some of the more fiery speeches.
It was not until 1922 when Senator Lope K. Santos, himself a plebeian, authored the law making the birthday of Bonifacio a national holiday that the Founder of the Katipunan was officially recognized as a Filipino hero. But even after the passage of this law, the celebration of Bonifacio day was lmost the exclusive affair of the peasants turned urban workers who lived in the squalid sector of Tondo bordering Trozo. The so-called Filipino middle class, composed of real estate owners and import/export merchants, remembered Bonifacio only because his birthday happens to be one of the four consecutive holidays toward the end of November.
Offical Neglect
But it is a tribute to the man's innate worth and to the soundness of his views on what the Philippines should be that he has survived the subtle efforts to relegate him to the category of Class-B hero. Today, when more and more people are realizing the futility of dependence and the dangers of unequal alliances, Bonifacio is coming to his own.
And no wonder, for with every passing day we are learning the hard lesson that to save ourselves we have no source of aid and comfort but the spirit of the Revolution. We have begun to feel that to defend our national interests we have to be truly independent. And so, slowly, but surely and perhaps unconsciously, we are turning back to those basic ideas of the revolution which sustained Bonifacio
and which inspired him in all his greatness. Those ideas inevitably should have a contemporary ring and they are, among others: independence, Filipino-Frist and Filipinization of the clergy. (11-30-1958)
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Remembering a Neglected Hero
If appearances are to be believed, the present generation of Filipinos might yet be exposed to the salient features of the nation's history, learn some valid lessons from those features, and thus acquire the means with which to redeem itself. So many things have been and are being done which shaped the destiny of the country.
The birthday anniversaries of our past leaders are automatically public holidays. Their deaths are remembered, and even heroes of recent vintage have been elevated to what is considered as their proper niche.
Thus, only last year, the Filipinos witnessed the centenary of Jose Rizal. And only the other day, they celebrated their declaration of independence on the day that this great event really took place.
In their present patriotic mood, the Filipinos might do well to take a re-appraising look at the manner in which they celebrate the birthday of a neglected hero: Andres Bonifacio. It is true that his birthday is a national holiday. But the necessary act of recalling his achievement, his simple heroism and his courage is confined mostly to the lower orders to which he belonged. It seems that the celebration of his birthday anniversary, unless remedied, is fated to be a class celebration.
Class "B" Hero
The official neglect of Bonifacio is easily gleaned from the fact that at this late date nothing has been done about his coming cnetenary. One might even say that there is no official cognizance of this event, or if there is, the official intention of doing something about it is totally absent.
On can, of course, expalin this cavalier attitude as a vestige of American authority and influence. For it was Americans who did everything possible to denigrate Bonifacio. They were, however, justified by necessity. They felt that the conquest of the Filipinos could not be made complete if they were allowed to celebrate the deeds and achievements of a man who led the revolution against foreign rule.
But the Filipinos have no excuse now to abide by the example of the Americans. There is no reason to fear that the proper celebration of Bonifacio day and the proper observance of his centenary will lead to risky enterprises. certainly, there is no reason to hold the patriotism of Bonifacio suspect.
Indeed, if only in the name of gratitude, the Filipinos should pay the right kind of homage to a man who unfettered by the vacillations of his intellectual contemporaries, chose action rather than thought. he knew the futility of temporizing with a regime which had nothing left but force to maintain itself. he was aware of the impossibility of reforms. In brief, he knew what o'clock it was, and he acted, not senselessly, but with the calm deliberation of one who had weighed the factors and who was prepared to take the risk.
And so, the greater compulsion for giving Bonifacio his due is that if he had not lived and if he had not acted the way he did, the Propaganda Movement would not have had even its partial fuifillment. (6-17-1962)
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Logical Rallying Point
It was during the Empire days that the lgiht on andres Bonifacio, the non-intellectual reader of "The History of the French Revolution" and the fiery leader of a popular revolt against Spain, was turned off. The Empire days was a time of troubles for the new rulers of the Philippines. Worcester and other adventurers, under the guise of explorers and scientists, as the editorial writers of El Renacimiento put it, were on the cmpaign for imperialist booty. The Filipinos, suppressed by superior arms, were in a restive state,. It would be bad policy therefore to allow them to be inspired once again by the memory of a a man of action, a revolutionist like Andres Bonifacio.
Very deliberately, the Americans cultivated the cult of Rizal, the man of thought, the firm believer in reforms. Undoubtedly Rizal was a great man, but his greatness is not such as to overshadow the greatness of Bonifacio. But Rizal was an intellectual and was considered safe. His satires on the friars had become academic and could not possibly instigate people into action.
Bonifacio, however, preached the egalitarian doctrines of the French Revolution; he led the movement against foreign domination; and he began a successful revolt for freedom and independence. The ideas he stood for were considered dangerous ideas, and he was allowed to survive in the minds of the people as a minor figure, as a relic of the past and better forgotten era of militant nationalism.
If Bonifacio is still a neglected figure today, it is partly for the reason that the Filipinos --the majority of them-- have not gorwn out of their early indoctrination. And yet, today, more than ever before, Bonifacio is the logical rallying point of Filipino nationalism, not because he was a votary of violence, but becase he deeply believed in real independence as the one and only salvation of the Philippines.
He had great faith in the capacity of the Filipinos to govern themselves. he did not want any ties with Spain, even with Spain willing to grant reforms. He wanted independence; he wanted freedom from foreign influence. he knew the dangers and obstacles ahead, but with the faith and conviction of a simple man, he was confident that the nation would survive.
Bonifacio lived and worked sixty years ago when the whole mass of Filipinos were unschooled in the ways of democracy. But this did not prevent him from fighting for independence. he was, in a manner of speaking, an angel who rushed in where the timid fered to tread. This, we believe, is the reason why vast numbers of Filipinos of the present have found it convenient not to grow out of their early indoctrination and have contented themselves to remember Bonifacio only once a year and pay nothing but lip-service to his greatness. They fear that Bonifacio's brand of nationalism might lead, as surely it will lead, to inconveniences and sacrifices. And so, they decided to embrace the nationalism sactioned by the state department and judiciously propagated by the Lions, Jaycees and Rotarians. (11-30-1955)
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Bonifacio and Rizal
Bonifacio Day and Rizal Day are separated by barely a month, and yet no two days in Philippine hisotry could be more apt, more distinct from each other in ideological content and significance.
The difference has not been sufficiently appreciated by a vast majority of the Filipinos, but by celebrating the birth of the revolutionist and the death of the reformer, they display something like fortuitous wisdom which does them more credit than they usually deserve.
A number of them who feel the tragedy of being grooved have realized the terrible blunder of acceding to the systematic propaganda of relegating Andres Bonifacio to the status of a second-class hero. And some of them, with a prescience that comes along with time, are beginning to understand the meaning of the fact that when Rizal was hard at work laying the foundation of La Liga Filipina and preaching the notion that the Philippines should not separate from Spain and that the Filipino should be contented with reforms, Bonifacio was organizing a secret society aimed at the overthrow of Spanish domination.
While the intellectual middle class awaited confidently the reforms asked for and promised," Teodoro M. Kalaw, one of the nation's real historians, wrote 28 years ago in the Philippine free Fress, "Bonifacio, with the instinct and discernment of the masses, had already lost faith in Spain, and while many of his countrymen were satisfied to lead a life of ease in the Oriental fashion, without giving a thought to their position as slaves or to the future of their country, he prepared the masses for a moral revolution by describing to them their sad plight and speaking to them of a new day which, he said, would come only through union, discipline and sacrifice."
ut the tremedous truth in these phrases and clauses have fallen on the ears of Filipinos who have been subjected from birth to senility to the propaganda about the greatness, courage and wisodm of Rizal.
The Rizal cult has grown to such proportions that an execrable word --Rizalist-- had been coined to describe thae fatuous boobs who are still shouting at the international conferences that the Martyr of Bagungbayan "spoke 19 languages," as if proficiency in languages had any relevance to the grim business of changing society.
But it has become the truism to say that Rizal is a safe hero, particularly in those places in the suburbs where time does not seem to move. And the inhabitants of suburbia have not stopped thanking the Americans for their choice of Rizal as the national hero, for even today, despite a heresy here and a heresy there, Rizal fulfills the need for permanence.
The almost secure position of Rizal in the national pantheon, however, is more a reflection of the deterrirating character of the Filipinos than a tribute to his greatness. For there was a time, not so long after the coming of the Americans in 1898, when the Filipino intellectuals --the professionals mostly --looked up to Bonifacio rather than Rizal for the inspiration of their nationalism.
One of them and perhaps one of the most eloquent of them was Fernando Ma. Guerrero. He came from Ermita, not Tondo, but he knew what Bonifacio stood for, and for what it was worth, he sang the man's praises. Teodoro Kalaw was another, and the whole membership of Philippine masonry during the era when being a mason meant something, worshi[pped at the shrine of Bonifacio.
But the replacement of these people by a race of middle men, by a race of jaycees and Rotarians seem to have doomed the Founder of the Katipunan to an inferior category.
The relegation, it is becoming increasingly clear, will not last forever. Already the rising generation of Filipinos has begun to see more than the symbolism of Bonifacio Day and Rizal Day, and seeing, they might learn that the choice of heroes is their exclusive prerogative. (11-30-1968)
Source: SOLIONGCO TODAY, A Contemporary from the Past..Edited by Prof. Renato Constantino, 1981
NOTE: As alluded to in the Preface: Mr. Indalecio (Yeyeng) P. Soliongco was editorial writer/columnist of the Manila Chronicle from the late 1940s to 1971. He wrote over 8000 columns in his "Seriously Speaking" column. He discussed various subjects but concentrating on day-to-day sociopolitical developments; exposing the hypocrisy, lack of intellectual and moral integrity of many public figure.
A number of them who feel the tragedy of being grooved have realized the terrible blunder of acceding to the systematic propaganda of relegating Andres Bonifacio to the status of a second-class hero. And some of them, with a prescience that comes along with time, are beginning to understand the meaning of the fact that when Rizal was hard at work laying the foundation of La Liga Filipina and preaching the notion that the Philippines should not separate from Spain and that the Filipino should be contented with reforms, Bonifacio was organizing a secret society aimed at the overthrow of Spanish domination.
While the intellectual middle class awaited confidently the reforms asked for and promised," Teodoro M. Kalaw, one of the nation's real historians, wrote 28 years ago in the Philippine free Fress, "Bonifacio, with the instinct and discernment of the masses, had already lost faith in Spain, and while many of his countrymen were satisfied to lead a life of ease in the Oriental fashion, without giving a thought to their position as slaves or to the future of their country, he prepared the masses for a moral revolution by describing to them their sad plight and speaking to them of a new day which, he said, would come only through union, discipline and sacrifice."
ut the tremedous truth in these phrases and clauses have fallen on the ears of Filipinos who have been subjected from birth to senility to the propaganda about the greatness, courage and wisodm of Rizal.
The Rizal cult has grown to such proportions that an execrable word --Rizalist-- had been coined to describe thae fatuous boobs who are still shouting at the international conferences that the Martyr of Bagungbayan "spoke 19 languages," as if proficiency in languages had any relevance to the grim business of changing society.
But it has become the truism to say that Rizal is a safe hero, particularly in those places in the suburbs where time does not seem to move. And the inhabitants of suburbia have not stopped thanking the Americans for their choice of Rizal as the national hero, for even today, despite a heresy here and a heresy there, Rizal fulfills the need for permanence.
The almost secure position of Rizal in the national pantheon, however, is more a reflection of the deterrirating character of the Filipinos than a tribute to his greatness. For there was a time, not so long after the coming of the Americans in 1898, when the Filipino intellectuals --the professionals mostly --looked up to Bonifacio rather than Rizal for the inspiration of their nationalism.
One of them and perhaps one of the most eloquent of them was Fernando Ma. Guerrero. He came from Ermita, not Tondo, but he knew what Bonifacio stood for, and for what it was worth, he sang the man's praises. Teodoro Kalaw was another, and the whole membership of Philippine masonry during the era when being a mason meant something, worshi[pped at the shrine of Bonifacio.
But the replacement of these people by a race of middle men, by a race of jaycees and Rotarians seem to have doomed the Founder of the Katipunan to an inferior category.
The relegation, it is becoming increasingly clear, will not last forever. Already the rising generation of Filipinos has begun to see more than the symbolism of Bonifacio Day and Rizal Day, and seeing, they might learn that the choice of heroes is their exclusive prerogative. (11-30-1968)
Source: SOLIONGCO TODAY, A Contemporary from the Past..Edited by Prof. Renato Constantino, 1981
NOTE: As alluded to in the Preface: Mr. Indalecio (Yeyeng) P. Soliongco was editorial writer/columnist of the Manila Chronicle from the late 1940s to 1971. He wrote over 8000 columns in his "Seriously Speaking" column. He discussed various subjects but concentrating on day-to-day sociopolitical developments; exposing the hypocrisy, lack of intellectual and moral integrity of many public figure.
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Hi All,
The below link will show a short list of my past posts (out of 540 posts so far) which I consider as basic topics about us native (indio)/ Malay Filipinos. This link/listing, which may later expand, will always be presented at the bottom of each future post. Just point-and-click at each listed item to open and read.
Thank you for reading and sharing with others, especially those in our homeland.
- Bert
PLEASE POINT & CLICK THIS LINK:http://www.thefilipinomind.com/2013/08/primary- postsreadings-for-my-fellow. html
“The HISTORY of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed myth of its conquerors.” – Meridel Le Sueur, American writer, 1900-1996
" Fear history, for it respects no secrets" - Gregoria de Jesus (widow of Andres Bonifacio)
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PLEASE DONATE CORE SUBJECT BOOKS TO OUR HOMELAND (i.e. your hometown public schools, Alma Mater, etc.). Those books that you and/or your children do not need or want; or buy books from your local library during its cheap Book Sales. Also, cargo/door-to-door shipment is best. It is a small sacrifice. [clean up your closets or garage - donate books.THANKS!]
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FILIPINO NATIONALISM -is the bottom line;sine-qua-non for the common good of the native (Malay/Indio)Filipino majority. Nationalism must precede any plan/action in dealing with globalization.
EDUCATION- being educated is beyond just being schooled towards a profession or practical vocation; we need the Humanities/liberal arts to develop/apply CRITICAL ANALYSIS/THINKING to understand, identify, plan, act & safeguard the needed fundamental and/or systemic changes towards economic/political progress, social justice, and social transformation.
GOVERNMENT - its raison d'etre is to lead/serve the native majority, foster nationalism via its institutions, ensure the masses are critically literate to have real democracy.
FREEDOM & DISSENT - free thought is necessarily aggressive and critical; we protect the freedom to discover truth; we encourage dissent, not for sentimental reasons, but because we cannot live without it. PATRIOTISM is NOT: " My country, right or wrong;" but " if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right!"
RELIGION/BELIEFS: No Deus ex Machina. No established religion. Humanism/Existentialism.
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