THE FILIPINO IDENTITY
Guillermo Gómez Rivera and José Mario S. Alas
Since the Philippines is now witnessing a world full of turbulence and incertitude, trudging on a road leading almost to hopelessness (and quite possibly another world war), it is high time that we Filipinos should wake up and face the facts, and to discern the real cause behind all this farce and evil.
We Filipinos were stripped of our national identity upon the arrival here of our so-called liberators: the North Americans, particularly the Thomasites. From that time on, the Republic of the Philippines (the Anglicized translation of La República de Filipinas) has never been the same again. Everything that is Filipino was literally mangled, especially during the 1945 massacre of Manila courtesy of the Yankee soldiers (see WARSAW OF ASIA: THE RAPE OF MANILA by José Mª Bonifacio Escoda). Therefore, before anything of the same tragedy happens again, we better arm ourselves with the powers of historical research and delve into the truth amidst all the lies taught to us by some “idiotcators.” Remember that the past is our gateway to the future.
The Filipino identity is the product of the Filipino State that began to exist in Spanish on 24 June 1571. The Filipino State was founded together with Manila on that same date, with the government having Spanish as its official language (THE FILIPINO STATE by Gómez Rivera as published in emanila.com).
In 1599, the previously existing native ethnic states went into the Filipino State as co-founding members. They incorporated themselves with the Filipino State when they elected the Spanish King (Rey Felipe II) as their natural sovereign (page 23 of THE HISPANIZATION OF THE PHILIPPINES by John Leddy Phelan, University of Winsconsin Press, USA, 1959). This election was verified during a synod-plebiscite held also that year.
From that time on, and after forming part of the 1571 Filipino State, our pre-Hispanic ancestors also accepted Spanish as their official and national language with their respective native languages as auxiliary official languages. Thus, the previously autonomous Ethnic States that existed before 1599 were respectively the ones that belonged to the Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Pampangueños, Bicolanos, Visayans, Mindanáo Lumads, and the Moro Sultanates of Joló and Maguindanáo.
Aside from these indigenous or native Ethnic States, the pre-Hispanic Chinese of Mayi-in-ila Kung shing-fu, or what is now known as Manila, likewise joined the Filipino State when they accepted the King of Spain as their natural sovereign. More so, because they knew that they would become the chief benefactors of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade that would in turn last for 215 years.
Hence, all of the above mentioned people became, ethnographically and politically, Filipinos as well as Spanish citizens or subjects when they freely accepted the Spanish King (Rey Felipe or King Philip II) as their natural sovereign in 1599, resided in the Philippines to do business, and paid taxes to His Majesty’s Manila government. It is because of this historical event that the Spanish language is an inseparable part of every Filipino’s individual, collective, and national identity. Because of this fact, Philippine education today, to be truly Filipino, must have Spanish as its medium of instruction as was the case before the Americans came, since without a notion of this language no Filipino can say that he is truly Filipino in his identity (Caviteños and Zamboangueños should, and can, start with their own Chabacano vernacular).
This is why a nationalist of the stature of Claro M. Recto declared that: “Without Spanish the inventory of our national patrimony as a people will be destroyed, if not taken away from us since Spanish is part of our flesh and blood as Filipinos.”
Teodoro M. Kálaw, another great Filipino, also said that: “The Filipino national identity, as well as what we know and recognize as Filipino culture, remains primarily articulated and manifested in Spanish because this is its original language. The Filipino Civilization is a beautiful blending of the Spanish and the indigenous civilizations. Without Spanish and its beneficial influence, we betray our own rights to dignity as a people and stop being Filipinos in order to sadly become economic slaves of another power.”
It is therefore a very condemnable crime against the Filipino people, in the words of Cebuano Senator Manuel C. Briones, to educate the new generations of Filipinos without any Spanish as, at least, one more subject in their curricula.
“More so,” added then Senator Manuel C. Briones, “because Spanish is also a world language!” And this is totally true because, at this writing, Spanish has around five hundred million primary speakers and another seven hundred million people as second-language speakers.
Should present-day Filipinos be left-out?
However, that is not the complete point. The main argument is that we Filipinos, before joining the battlefield against imperialism/neocolonialism, should very well know who the real enemy is. Moreover, we should realize that whenever we throw punches at the enemy, the only ones who we hit are ourselves due to the ignorance that we have about who we are and what we were. Our language, our culture, as well as our history and identity, were all distorted (this can be observed through the fiery writings of Recto, Kálaw, Briones, Jesús Lava, Renato Constantino, and even Nick Joaquín, regarding this matter; among those mentioned, perhaps it is Recto who divulged the most scathing truth on the agenda of the Americans and what they did to our country).
Even national hero José Rizal can be considered as an American-invented hero in some sense (see VENERATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING by Constantino). This is not to say that Rizal’s heroism was horseplay. Rizal was an ardent nationalist, a great writer and scholar, bar-none. He has every right to be our national hero for he instilled in his followers the importance of nationalism and national identity. However, the American regime managed to distort everything about him, and even used his tussle with the Spanish government in the Philippines when in truth, Rizal, who was a Freemason, was solely against the Spanish friars particularly the Dominicans who ordered the expulsion of his family, together with other Calambeños, from Calambâ, Laguna due to a land dispute.
The scheme of using Rizal’s “hatred” (kunô) against Spain was taught in all the schools, public and private, from pre-school up to college, little by little conditioning the minds of young Filipinos into accepting the absurd notion that the real villains were the Spaniards and that our saviors were the Americans. This alarming lie being done in our school systems still exist, quite obviously.
So now that it is made clear what a Filipino is, perhaps the question should be rephrased: should present-day Filipinos remain unconcerned about what those foreign oppressors did to us and are still doing to us?
circa 2001
*******
GUILLERMO GÓMEZ y RIVERA — is a Filipino writer, journalist, poet, playwright, historian, linguist, polyglot, and scholar of Spanish and British descent. He was appointed Secretary of the Committee on National Language for the 1970-1971 Constitutional Convention. In 1974, the Department of Education condecorated him for his work as teacher and writer with the Plus Ultra Filipinas Award. In 1975, he was awarded the Premio Zóbel, the oldest literary award in the Philippines. And if I go on, this profile of Señor Gómez would have outworded the foregoing essay. 😀
JOSÉ MARIO “Pepe” ALAS — is just an ordinary blogger with simple dreams but higher hopes. 🙂
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I met a Spaniard several years ago who I think was connected with the Spanish embassy in the Philippines. His name is Fernando Palanco. He gave an informal talk about Filipino Identity which I missed. So I asked for a written copy of what he talked about. He said he does not have a copy at that moment but told me he may be able to provide me with one if I can come back the following day. Unfortunately I told him I was not sure I could still spare another day to come back due to other concerns which were serious and needed my close attention. I was not able to come back. A year later, I tried to get in touch with him thru an email address (fernandopalanco@yahoo.es) he gave me but failed to reach him. He wrote about “Diego Silang’s Revolt: A New Approach” for Philippine Studies Volume 50 (2002): 512-537 Fourth Quarter, Ateneo de Manila University Press. It was translated by José S. Arcilla, S.J. This could be quite an interesting information coming from a Spaniard and from someone who based on his “Diego Silang…” work, has plenty of documented sources as basis.
Another good source of information on Filipino Identity is Elizabeth Ann Medina Santiago who now I guess is based in Chile.
I hope some of us with means of contact can get in touch with them which might be a big help in consolidating and synthesizing a framework for an authentic, biological, historical and organic based Filipino Identity.
Oh yes the report of Guillermo Gómez Rivera is quite extensive and valid. Valid even by just inspecting the relationship of our deteriorating situation with the cause as provided in his report. By logic of cause and effect, his report is valid.
My answer to the last question is, it is not enough that majority of us Filipinos be presented with the truth. The truth should be packaged to: be convincingly the truth; be relevant to the personal life of each one of the majority of us Filipinos; be the only solution to our problem even if the result would take a long time; replicatable in disemination.
This is still a long journey. That is why we need teamwork and pooling of resources.
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Sir, Arnaldo Arnáiz and I have reviewed your website many times already. It appears that you share the same ideals and aspirations that we both have with Señor Guillermo Gómez Rivera. I invite you then to join us in this struggle to help our fellow Filipinos realize their true roots.
For the past decade, I’ve been looking for someone to help me in continuing Señor Gómez’s noble cause. We have to accept the fact that the good scholar is not getting any younger. And unfortunately, I do not have the same intellectual capacity that Señor Gómez has, the reason why I’ve been looking for like-minded people (besides, I’m already a family man; I cannot fully focus on this struggle). Many times I’ve failed in my search; other people even thought that I was going crazy with all my talk of Filipino identity and this leyenda negra against our Spanish past. But I really have to look for a partner who shares the same advocacy. I cannot do it alone although old man Gómez believes in me. That is why I am thankful to God that I’ve met Arnaldo more than a year ago. He’s been searching for like-minded people as well.
Señor Gómez, Elizabeth Medina, and I are pioneer members of the online group Círculo Hispanofilipino. Many members are from other Spanish-speaking countries. Unfortunately, the group focuses more on the conservation of the Spanish language in our country and not about Filipino identity. Alas, they’re even losing focus themselves — nowadays, they talk about topics unrelated to the círculo‘s cause. I tried many times to convince members to take physical action of our mission and not to just sit down in front of their PCs and enage others in a payabañgán contest of what they know about the Spanish language (and other unrelated languages) and the Philippines’ Spanish past. But it seemed to me like I’m writing letters to ancient Greek statues. That is why many times, I find that group virtually useless.
But now we found you, at last. There’s another one who has potential — his name is Glenn Martínez. But he’s mostly into travels. And recently, Typhoon Ondoy rendered him helpless at the moment.
I invite you, then, to join me, Señor Gómez, and Arnaldo. We have frequent meetings in Señor Gómez’s house in Ciudad de Macati and we travel a lot. I fervently hope that you could join us in some of our discussions. I am 100% sure that the old man will be delighted to have you in our team. My mobile phone number is in my Facebook account.
By the way, Señora Medina is a good friend of Señor Gómez. And she’s been communicating online with Arnaldo for many months now. When I meet up with Señor, I’ll ask if he knows Fernando Palanco. I bet he does.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Un abrazo,
José Mario “Pepe” Alas
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Learning Spanish may benefit our country even more, even in the long term. To be able to push it as another medium of instruction besides English (and Tagalog of course), we can reconnect ourselves to the Spanish speaking world. Most especially to our faraway bros in Latin America. I’d love to see a stronger relationship with Latin American countries especially Mexico, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and my favorite country: Venezuela.
viva la Republica Filipina y los pueblo Filipino.
gracias. 🙂
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Pepe, señor Gómez, Arnaldo, etc ..
Por que no articulais una alternativa política para las elecciones del proximo año ?
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sa rizal subject ko nalaman na pro-spain si rizal… he just want the philippines to have a voice in spanish governemennt in spain..
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siguro nga..
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SMILE:
I have a friend in California, pure white American. His wife is Filipina (her parents moved to the US before she was born). One of his children told me, when he was about 6 years old, “My mom and my brother and I are Filipino. Our dad’s American.”
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Our pre-Hispanic ancestors had their own identity once. Though there were simpler choices back then, it was a simple identity. They even had their own code of writing & simple literature.
Then the spaniards came.
When you accept some foreign king as your natural sovereign,
You have lost authority over yourself.
You are now ruled under law.
We lost our homeland’s name, and it was replaced with “Philippines”
A name after their king.
Even worst, after we accepted spain, we were not citizens of spain.
We were not Spanish, We were now “Filipinos”
A name which eventually means subjects of King Philip II of Spain
They have denied us our original identity & did not share their own.
They even created one for us.
Spanish may be part of our current identity but is not original, nor should it be part of it at all. We should also be asking ourselves what these foreign oppressors (spain included) did to us and are still doing to us?
Can we find an identity free from sovereign rule.
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REPLY AND REFUTATION TO JAIRUS ARAGÓN
JAIRUS: “Our pre-Hispanic ancestors had their own identity once. Though there were simpler choices back then, it was a simple identity.”
GGR: WRONG. OUR PRE-HISPANIC ANCESTORS HAD THEIR OWN RESPECTIVE, UNDERLINE RESPECTIVE, TRIBAL OR REGIONAL IDENTITY, BUT NEVER A NATIONAL IDENTITY WHICH WE HAVE SINCE 1565 AS FILIPINOS.
JAIRUS: “They even had their own code of writing & simple literature.”
GGR: WRONG AGAIN. They had SEVERAL codes of writing. Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera made a Chart of ancient pre-Hispanic Filipino writings MEANING SEVERAL AND DIFFERENT CODES OF WRITINGS. This is so because the Tagalogs had their own set of Alibatas or Baybayins. So with the Visayans, the Pampangos, the Ilocanos, etc. Let us no misled people by making it appear that there was ONLY ONE SINGLE PRE-HISPANIC CODE OF writing. This is false.
ANOTHER ATENEAN, RAUL MANGLAPÚS, WROTE IN HIS BOOK “FREEDOM, NATIONHOOD, AND CULTURE (P. 179): “BEFORE SPAIN (THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY) there was NO PHILIPPINES, NO FILIPINO, only a group of some seven thousand islands intermittently invaded by Malays, Proto-Malays, Indonesians and swept by the tide of the South East Asian Empires, the Shri-Vishaya and the Madjapahit, and the Chinese of the Mings.”
JAIRUS:”Then the Spaniards came.”
GGR: TRUE, THE SPANIARDS CAME AND THEY FOUNDED MANILA IN JUNE 24, 1571 AS THE CAPITAL CITY OF THE FILIPINO STATE, EL ESTADO FILIPINO. AND IN THE SÍNODO-REFERENDUM OF 1598-1599, ALL THE HEADS OF ALL THE PREHISPANIC ETHNIC STATES OF THE TAGALOGS, THE VISAYANS, THE PAMPANGOS, THE ILOCANOS, THE BICOLANOS, THE MOROS, THE MINDANÁO LUMADS, AND THE MAYI-MAI-BAI CHINESE ALL ACCEPTED THE KING OF SPAIN AS THEIR “NATURAL SOVEREIGN” NO LESS. (THE HISPANIZATION OF THE PHILIPPINES by John Leddy Phelan, Wisconsin University, USA). From then on, they all became subjects of Spain, subjects because Spain was a Kingdom. But when Spain became a Republic by the 1800 Cádiz Constitution, ALL Filipinos became SPANISH CITIZENS. ON the other hand, the US invaders of these Islands NEVER made ALL FILIPINOS U.S. citizens. This is one fact many Filipinos today, like Jairus, do not know. That is why they disdain Spain based on the falsities and ommissions taught to them by our present Americanized system of miseducation.
JAIRUS:”When you accept some foreign king as your natural sovereign,
You have lost authority over yourself. You are now ruled under law.”
GGR; This is a falsity and a lie because when the pre-Hispanic ethnic tribes accepted the King of Spain as their natural sovereign, the Tagalogs, for example, did not lose their Tagalog idenitity but they added to that native identity of theirs the National Identity of FILIPINOS. So was it with the Pampangos, Ilocanos, Bicolanos, Visayans, Lumads, etc.
JAIRUS: “We lost our homeland’s name, and it was replaced with “Philippines”
A name after their king.”
GGR: JAIRUS CAN NOT GIVE THE PREHISPANIC NAME OF THIS COUNTRY BECAUSE THERE NEVER WAS ONE SUCH NAME. HE CAN GIVE ONE OF THE MANY ETHNIC TRIBAL NAMES LIKE TAGALOG, VISAYAN, ETC., BUT NEVER A SINGLE NAME REPRESENTING THE UNITY AS ONE PEOPLE AND ONE COUNTRY UNDER ONE FLAG AND ONE NAME, THAT OF “FILIPINO”, AS DERIVATIVE OF THE NAME FILIPINAS. “PHILIPPINES” IS BUT A TRANSLATION MADE BY THE U.S. INVADERS OF THE NAME FILIPINAS.
JAIRUS:”Even worse, after we accepted Spain, we were not citizens of Spain.
We were not Spanish, We were now “Filipinos”. A name which eventually means subjects of King Philip II of Spain
GGR: “EVEN WORSE…. than what? JAIRUS OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT KNOW THAT BEING A SUBJECT AND BEING A CITIZEN IS ONE AND THE SAME THING. IT DEPENDS ON WHO IS HEAD OF STATE. IF IT IS A KING, THEN ALL ARE SUBJECTS. IF IT IS A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT, THEN ALL ARE CITIZENS. WE ALREADY EXPLAINED THAT ABOVE.
JAIRUS: “They have denied us our original identity & did not share their own.
They even created one for us. ”
GGR: SPAIN AND THE SPANISH CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES AND CONQUISTADORES DID NOT DENY ANY PRE-HISPANIC IDENTITY. TAGALOGS CONTINUE BEING TAGALOGS, VISAYANS CONTINUE BEING VISAYANS, ETC. BUT ALL ARE UNITED UNDER ONE SINGLE FILIPINO IDENTITY, THANKS TO CATHOLIC SPAIN.
JAIRUS: “Spanish may be part of our current identity but is not original, nor should it be part of it at all. We should also be asking ourselves what these foreign oppressors (spain included) did to us and are still doing to us”
GGR: SPAIN DID NO SUCH THINGS HERE. JAIRUS SHOULD INSTEAD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WHAT THE AMERICAN WASPO INVADERS DID IN 1899 WHEN THEY DESTROYED OUR FIRST REPÚBLICA DE FILIPINAS UNDER AGUNALDO BY THE MASSACRE OF THREE MILLION FILIPINOS (OUT OF THE TEN MILLION OF THAT TIME AS POINTED OUT BY GORE VIDAL) AND BY THE THEFT OF THE GOLD AND SILVER RESERVE OF THAT REPÚBLICA WORTH OVER ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS.
IT IS SURPRISING HOW MISEDCUATED OUT YOUTH ARE WITH ENGLISH AS OUR COMPULSORY MEDIUM OF SO-CALLED EDUCATION.
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APOLOGIES & DEFENCE OF JAIRUS ARAGÓN.
My good sir, I am no historian & I apologize for my mis-informed post. May you see it as a personal opinion or a poem rather than a statement or fact.
There was but a poetic ambience in which i wove my words & I was clearly being dramatic about it.
It is obvious that your stance on the matter differs from what we are taught in both elementary & high school. I mean no disrespect, but allow me to champion my thoughts. Please appreciate the time I invested to prepare a proper defence.
—————
JAIRUS: “Our pre-Hispanic ancestors had their own identity once. Though there were simpler choices back then, it was a simple identity.”
JAIRUS2: I concede the fact that we did not have our own national & collective identity, but our ancestors each had their own regional identity and interacted with other ethnic state almost in the same manner the ancient greek city states did.
“But while early communities in the archipelago did not constitute a single and recognizable Philippine polity, they did contain elements of social organization, material life, and interisland contacts that would contribute to the present nation-state.” (State and Society in the Philippines, Patricio N. Abinales & Donna J. Amoroso)
JAIRUS: “They even had their own code of writing & simple literature.”
JAIRUS2: I concede the fact that there was no unified pre-hispanic code of writing, but we had a code of writing & simple literature nevertheless.
JAIRUS: “Then the Spaniards came.”
GGR: “Spain became a Republic by the 1800 Cádiz Constitution, ALL Filipinos became SPANISH CITIZENS.”
JAIRUS2: Figuring out the time the Spanish Constition went to effect & was truely enacted in the philippines can be tricky. The Cadiz Constitution was established on 1812, but King Ferdinand VII repealed it and reinstated absolutism in 1814 and again in 1820. Absolutism was again superseded in 1837. There was the Glorious Revolution of 1868 & Queen Isabella II was overthrown & a 1845 Constitution was made. A Unborn (1856) Constitution was made, though not enacted & scrapped by the new Government. In 1876, Spain was declared a Republic & A Glorious Revolution Constitution was made.
An chronological grid of the constitutions of spain can be found here:
Unfortunately it is a wikipedia entry. It is not 100% reliable, but easily verified.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutions_of_Spain
Now let’s assume the best case scenario in which the constitution was immediately effective 1800 & that Spain’s rule started at 1571 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1898.
It meant the natives were not Spanish Citizens for a good 229 years. That’s 70% of the Spanish Settlement. (worst case scenario, using 1876 is 93%)
Here’s the ultimate worst case scenario:
“The Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy of 1876 did not apply to the Philippines by express mandate of its article 89, according to which the Provisions of the Ultramar, among which this country was included, would be governed by special laws” (Philippine Citizenship and Naturalization, Ramon M. Velayo 1965)
“The book begins with the citation of the principal provisions made for its application and of the Royal Decree of April 7, 1881, by which it was ordered promulgated in the Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, not applying in the Philippine Islands because these are directly and immediately subject to the jurisdiction of the King.” (Los Codigos Espanoles, annotated and reconciled by Joaquin Abella)
GGR: “This is one fact many Filipinos today, like Jairus, do not know. That is why they disdain Spain based on the falsities and ommissions taught to them by our present Americanized system of miseducation.”
JAIRUS2: True, I did not know of this until now. Though not knowing of a constitution that was barely enacted, if at all, would warrant as a miseducation.
GGR: “AND IN THE SÍNODO-REFERENDUM OF 1598-1599, ALL THE HEADS OF ALL THE PREHISPANIC ETHNIC STATES OF THE TAGALOGS, THE VISAYANS, THE PAMPANGOS, THE ILOCANOS, THE BICOLANOS, THE MOROS, THE MINDANÁO LUMADS, AND THE MAYI-MAI-BAI CHINESE ALL ACCEPTED THE KING OF SPAIN AS THEIR “NATURAL SOVEREIGN” NO LESS.”
JAIRUS2: They did not freely accept the Spanish King. By the sword or by the cross, they had to be pacified into submission, which was the very intention of Spain’s Colonialism.
“Miguel Lopez de Legazpi left Puerto de la Natividad in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-four, with five ships and five hundred men, accompanied by Fray Andres de Urdaneta and four other religious of the Order of St. Augustine. After sailing westward for several days, he opened his instructions, and found that he was ordered to go to the island of Luzones and there endeavor to pacify them and reduce them to the obedience of his Majesty,…”
“Martin de Goiti, having to treat with the chiefs and their people concerning the peace and submission which he demanded, found it necessary to come to blows with them. The Spaniards entered the land by force of arms, and took it, together with the forts and artillery, on the day of St. Potenciana, May nineteen, one thousand five hundred and seventy-one. Upon this the natives and their chiefs made peace and rendered homage; and many others of the same island of Luzon did the same.”
“From this post he continued to prosecute the pacification of the other provinces of this great island of Luzon and the surrounding districts. Some submitted voluntarily; others were conquered by force of arms or by efforts of the religious, …”
“,the pacification of the islands was continued, especially that of the province of Camarines, by Captain Pedro Chaves, who often came to blows with the natives, until he conquered them and received their submission.”
(History of the Philippine Islands Vol I, Antonio De Morga)
JAIRUS: “When you accept some foreign king as your natural sovereign”
GGR: “This is a falsity and a lie because when the pre-Hispanic ethnic tribes accepted the King of Spain as their natural sovereign”
JAIRUS2: They seem like the same statement.
Jairus: “,You have lost authority over yourself. You are now ruled under law.”
GGR: “the Tagalogs, for example, did not lose their Tagalog idenitity but they added to that native identity of theirs the National Identity of FILIPINOS. So was it with the Pampangos, Ilocanos, Bicolanos, Visayans, Lumads, etc.”
JAIRUS2: The natives had to let go of their culture & beliefs, to embrace a more civilized, more spanish, and more christian identity. We were baptized, from ‘heathens’ to ‘Indios’. They even made us an enemy of our brothers in the south & christened them as ‘Moros’, forgetting an era when we were once both of one blood and one race. The spanish speaking pant-wearing christianized Tagalogs of spanish era will never be the same as the tatoo decorated spirit worshiping Tagalogs of the preHispanic era.
“Untattooed Filipinos who wore pants and did not decorate their teeth considered themselves a different people from mountain tribes now considered barbaric. College graduates who called themselves Filipinos bitterly resented being lumped together with headtaking Igorots as indios, expecially on the streets of Madrid” (Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino, William Henry Scott)
“For the friar, religion was a tool of both liberation and subordination. Imbued with a deep sense of righteousness and moral ascendancy, the friar hoped the conversion of the “heathens” would bring about their salvation.” (State and Society in the Philippines, Patricio N. Abinales & Donna J. Amoroso)
“Religious differences became a basic alienative factor between Christianized ‘Indios’ and ‘Moros.’ Whatever ties of race and culture had previously existed were replaced by suspicion and antipathy since Christianized natives were regularly conscripted for the wars against the Muslims” (A History of the Philippines, Renato Constantino)
JAIRUS: “We lost our homeland’s name, and it was replaced with “Philippines” A name after their king.”
JAIRUS2: I conceed the fact that there was no pre-hispanic name of the islands as a whole, and that “Filipinas” was the original spanish name of the country. although it still was a name after their king.
“The islands also, losing their former name, took – with the change of religion and the baptism of their inhabitants – that of Filipinas Islands, in recognition of the great favors received at the hands of his Majesty Filipo the Second, our sovereign” (History of the Philippine Islands Vol I, Antonio De Morga)
JAIRUS: “Even worse, after we accepted Spain, we were not citizens of Spain. We were not Spanish, We were now “Filipinos””
JAIRUS2: I have to admit that my terminology is in error. I could have used the proper word “Indio”, but it would not have been poetic. I apologize.
“In those days a Filipino was a Spaniard born in the Philippines, an insular, while natives were ?Indios.? Rizal and friends took the derogatory term, turned it around and wore it as a badge of courage to become the ?Indios Bravos?” (“Intsik, Moro, Indio, Filipino”, Ambeth Ocampo 2011)
“Indios: natives of the Philippines (born of native parents). In 1898, the Indios were called Filipinos by Governor-General Basilio Agustin in order to elicit loyalty from them.” (History of the Filipino People, Teodoro Agoncillo 1990)
“The Spanish referred to the new Christians of Luzon and the Visayas, who would eventually comprise the majority population of the Philippines, as indios or naturales (natives).” (State and Society in the Philippines, Patricio N. Abinales & Donna J. Amoroso)
JAIRUS: “They have denied us our original identity & did not share their own. They even created one for us.”
JAIRUS2: (same argument of above for GGR: “the Tagalogs, for example, did not lose their Tagalog idenitity)
GGR: “BUT ALL ARE UNITED UNDER ONE SINGLE FILIPINO IDENTITY, THANKS TO CATHOLIC SPAIN.”
JAIRUS2: This is purely my conjecture, but given time, the philippines would have been united to form a single identity. I speculate that being subjugated by a foreign source so early in our formation as a country could have been detrimental to the formation of a more solid, authentic & original identity.
“Spanish colonialism arrested the natural development of the native communities, but it also laid the basis for a unification of the archipelago which was to be the very cause of an awakening that would end the days of Castilian overlordship in this part of the world” (A History of the Philippines, Renato Constantino)
JAIRUS: “Spanish may be part of our current identity but is not original, nor should it be part of it at all. We should also be asking ourselves what these foreign oppressors (spain included) did to us and are still doing to us”
GGR: “SPAIN DID NO SUCH THINGS HERE.”
JAIRUS2: I may yet again be mistaken when i refered to Spain as oppressors. Although Spanish individuals did enrich themselves with the land, labor, tithes & taxes of the natives. They also abused their positions of authority. I fear sounding subjective and baseless so let me add some excerpts:
“…But these limitations on the encomenderos did not prevent them from committing abuses. The encomienda system was generally characterized by greed and cruelty. The benevolent tenor of the terms of the encomienda concealed the basic purpose of this grant—as the grantee saw it. For the encomendero, this grant was nothing more than anopportunity to enrich himself, and he used every opportunity open to him whether in the collection of tributes or in the unlawful exaction of numerous services”
“The tribute-collectors—alcaldes mayores, encomenderos, governadorcillos, andcabezas—often abused their offices by collecting more than the law required and appropriating the difference. The act itself of collecting was the occasion for much cruelty”
“In addition to the tribute, men between the ages of sixteen and sixty except chieftains and their eldest sons were required to serve for forty days each year in the labor pool or polo… Forced labor often resulted in the ruin of the communities the men left behind. Since polo laborers were seldom paid, their villages were forced to provide them with a monthly allowance of four pesos worth of rice to keep them alive. This burden was madedoubly onerous by the fact that the absence of these men caused a manpower shortage”
“…With the help of corrupt surveyors and other government officials, religious corporations were able to expand their land holdings. Additional hectares of land outside original boundaries of friar property were simply gobbled up each time a new survy was undertaken. Many times, the priests just claimed pieces of land, drew maps of them, had them titled, and set themselves up as owners.” (A History of the Philippines, Renato Constantino)
I also found other credible books that may be relevant to my point, unfortunately though i am unable to find an online copy:
Chapter VII Exploitation of Labor
(“The Hispanization of the Philippines”, John Leddy Phelan)
(Slavery In The Spanish Philippines, William Henry Scott)
GGR: “JAIRUS SHOULD INSTEAD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WHAT THE AMERICAN WASPO INVADERS DID IN 1899 WHEN THEY DESTROYED OUR FIRST REPÚBLICA DE FILIPINAS UNDER AGUNALDO”
JAIRUS2: I concede to this fact.
GGR: “BY THE MASSACRE OF THREE MILLION FILIPINOS (OUT OF THE TEN MILLION OF THAT TIME AS POINTED OUT BY GORE VIDAL)”
JAIRUS2: I can’t seem to find an account of a massacre of 3,000,000/10,000,000 filipinos. Other sources claim the filipino death toll of the entire war was only around 200,000 to 1,500,000
“In 1908 Manuel Arellano Remondo, in general geography of the Philippine Islands, wrote: “the population decreased due to the wars, in the five-year period from 1895 to 1900, since, atthe start of the first insurrection, the population wasestimated at 9,000,000, and at present (1908), the inhabitants ofthe archipelago do not exceed 8,000,000 in number.” (The Savage Wars of Peace, Max Boot 2003)
“The death toll in three years, according to scholars, was gruesome on both sides, though the Filipinos suffered by a lopsided margin. United States: 4,234 dead and 2,818 wounded. The Philippines: 20,000 military dead; 200,000 civilians dead. Some historians, however, put the toll higher – closer to 1 million Filipinos becase of the disease and starvation that ensued.” (A first taste of empire, Emil Guillermo 2004)
GGR: “AND BY THE THEFT OF THE GOLD AND SILVER RESERVE OF THAT REPÚBLICA WORTH OVER ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS.”
JAIRUS2: I can’t seem to find an account of this, but i will concede this as well.
GGR: “IT IS SURPRISING HOW MISEDCUATED OUT YOUTH ARE WITH ENGLISH AS OUR COMPULSORY MEDIUM OF SO-CALLED EDUCATION.”
JAIRUS2: As my personal opinion, I fear there is a truth in this statement.
Spanish & English are but tools of communication.
In the research I did for my defence, I found the English tool to be more useful. Most historians published books in English. Websites were in English, heck this post is in English.
I then noticed the voice in my head was also English. Embeded deep within me was a language that influences how I mold my Identity. I highly appreciated English TV shows and easily read English books while I shunned Tagalog Movies & Tele-novelas, and syllabicate out loud while reading Tagalog text. It would seem that I am unconsciously compelled to favor English things.
Although I’m regret the same argument would hold true for the use of Spanish as our compulsory medium of education. In our quest for a truly Filipino Identity, we must be wary of even the language we use to seek it.
“The point is not how we use a tool, but how it uses us.” – Nick Joaquin.
I apologize for my English post.
¡Perdón! ¡Perdone! ¡Lo siento!
PS. There are now digital formats of history books online. Hard to find but easier to search through.
Online Bibliography:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27924443/Philippine-Citizenship-and-Naturalization-Pp-1-67
http://www.scribd.com/doc/97789586/Renato-Constantino-a-History-of-the-Philippines
http://www.scribd.com/doc/87117986/State-and-Society-in-the-Philippines
http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=iILVWGikouAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fil&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutions_of_Spain
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110412-330790/Intsik-Moro-Indio-Filipino
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20040208&id=gbIaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GEUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5222,6070988
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Jairus Aragón has written his “historical poetic etc.” piece with candor. This we can see. But this is where it is most depressing because we have here, until otherwise proved, a young intelligent Filipino who has been grossly misled by the way our history is taught today in our schools, even in our Catholic schools. A young Filipino who does not seem to realize that we are still very much under a colonial system run by a powerful USA who has re-written Filipino history to hide its atrocities and theft, and to justify its actual stranglehold on the Filipino material patrimony and politics. With injustice, it has succeeded in brainwashing Filipinos like young Jairus to believe that the USA could not do any wrong and that all the bad things were done by the Spanish and the Filipinos themselves. This is the cliché. America is good and Spain, together with the 1898 República de Filipinas, are both bad. And that’s it.
That is why, what we have are EVASIVE ANSWERS and half truths. There is a strong element of prejudice and bigotry against Spain and the 1898 República de Filipinas just because the White Anglo Saxon PROTESTANT (and Masonic) invaders were, and are, victorious and both Spain and the 1898 República de Filipinas were defeated. It is the history of the winner who is a bully and a liar of the first order that simply wants to cover up its atrocities and brutalities with the reinvention of RP history to justify itself and all its errors by making their WAR propaganda pass off as RP history to be taught to all Filipinos.
Bwcause of that, this is how Jairus Aragón answers us while not giving any credit to what we have said.
(1) “they did contain elements of social organization, material life, and interisland contacts that would contribute to the present nation-state”…
YES THEY DID, BUT STILL, THEY DID NOT ORGANIZE THE FILIPINO STATE LIKE SPAIN DID AND CALLED IT “FILIPINAS”. So the answer given is evasive. It is not an answer.
(2) “but we had a code of writing & simple literature nevertheless.”
THIS AGAIN IS NOT AN ANSWER, BECAUSE WE HAVE POINTED OUT THAT FROM SEVERAL CODES OF WRITING, A SINGLE AND UNIFYING ONE WAS NEVER PRODUCED BY THE PRE-HISPANICS UNTIL A Spanish-speaking CHINO CRISTIANO LIKE TOMÁS PINPÍN DECIDED TO IGNORE ALL THESE “CODES OF WRITING” AND ADOPT IN THEIR PLACE THE ROMAN ALPHABET AND THE EUROPEAN SYSTEM OF WRITING FOR ALL OUR NATIVE LANGUAGES WHICH CAN BE SEEN VERY CLEARLY UP TO TODAY. Regarding Literature, there was no such thing since the printing press was introduced here by Spain in 1593. It was with the introduction of the Printing press by Spain when we began to have literature. Before that, we had ORAL TRADITIONS which when written down by the Spanish missionaries also became our literature. But Jairus apears to insist in ignoring this fact.
(3) “They did not freely accept the Spanish King. By the sword or by the cross, they had to be pacified into submission, which was the very intention of Spain’s Colonialism.”
AGAIN, THIS is NOT A VALID ANSWER TO WHAT WE HAVE POINTED OUT BECAUSE, I REPEAT, THE NATIVE CHIEFTAINS OF EACH TRIBE OR ETHNIC STATE “WAS FERIED TO MANILA” (SAYS PHELAN) AND ASKED IF THEY ACCEPTED THE KING OF SPAIN AS THEIR “NATURAL SOVEREIGN” AND THEY ALL SAID YES, EXCEPT THE 25 IGORROTE TRIBES OF THE CORDILLERA WHICH WERE LATER PACIFIED BY CORCUERA. BUT IT IS THE MAJORITY THAT SAID YES AND THESE MAJORITY IS WHAT BECAME THE FILIPINO OF TODAY, EXCEPT THE MOROS, WHO SAID YES (ALIMUDÍN ET AL) BUT, AS USUAL, BACKTRACKED. BUT IN SPITE OF THAT, THE FILIPINO WAS STILL FORMED BY THE MAJORITY OF THE ETHNIC STATES THAT ACCEPTED THE KIND OF SPAIN AS THEIR SOVEREIGN, THEREBY BECOMING SPANISH SUBJECTS AND/OR CITIZENS, SOMETHING THE US OCCUPATIONAL FORCES NEVER, NEVER, DID FOR FILIPINOS. AND EVEN IF FILIPINOS TODAY ARE ENGLISH ISPOKENING, THE AMERICANS DID NOT BOTHER TO MAKE RP A STATE OF THE USA BECAUSE, IF JAIRUS READS NICK JOAQUÍN’S “THE AMERICAN INTERLUDE”, HE WILL SEE THAT THE REASON WAS GROSS RACIAL DISCRIMINATION.
(4) “ I may yet again be mistaken when i refered to Spain as oppressors. Although Spanish individuals did enrich themselves with the land, labor, tithes & taxes of the natives…”
AGAIN JAIRUS ARAGÓN IS WRONG HERE BECAUSE NO SUCH THING EVER HAPPENED. BY AND LARGE, THE SPANISH CROWN HAD TO GET MEXICO, ITS OTHER OVERSEAS PROVINCE, TO SEND HERE AN ANNUAL SUBSIDY TO FOOT THE EXPENSES OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT IN MANILA AND ALL OVER THE ISLANDS. AND A STUDY OF TAXATION DURING SPANISH TIMES, JARIUS WILL SEE THAT THE SPANIARDS ONLY MADE FILIPINOS PAY 6 KINDS OF TAXES IN COMPARISON TO THE US REGIME’S IMPOSED TAXES AND IN COMPARISON TO TODAYS HUNDREDS OF TAXES, FROM THE IVAT TO INCOME TAX. TODAY WE HAVE THE HIGHEST ELECTRICITY RATES BECAUSE MOST OF RP MONEY HAS TO PAY THE FOREIGN DEBT THE AMERICANS FORCE UPON OUR FILIPINO LEADERS. OR IS JARIUS IGNORANT ABOUT THIS REALITY. THE OPPRESSORS IN THIS SENSE ARE NOT PRECISELY THE OLD SPANISH WHO WERE HERE AT THAT TIME. BUT THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT THERE WERE NO DEFECTS SINCE NOTHING CAN BE TOTALLY PERFECT. BUT AT LEAST, THE FILIPINOS OF THAT TIME WERE NOT TAXED AS THEY ARE BEING TAXED TODAY TO PAY A FOREIGN DEBT TO THE USA BANKS. Nor made to pay so many taxes, high electricity rates, potable water (which was given free by Carriedo since 1882), medicines, food, etc…
(5) Jairus Aragón ALSO POINTS OUT “exploitation of labor by the Spanish” but he forgets that it was the Spanish that abolished slavery in this Islands since the slave owners, the Maharlika, did exploit the labors of their alipin. They even used their alipin as money to buy things and pay their debts. What about the exploitatin of Filipino labor by the US and by the surugates today of US colonialsim here? What about the OFWs? Are they better off than the pre-Hispanic alipins or the paid servants during Spanish times?. John Leddy Phelan may be a WASPo but at least he brougth up, even if grudgingly, the Sínodo referendum of 1588-89 while William Henry Scott is a perfect scoundrel writing about pre-Hispanic Filipinos when there were still no Spanish here but will attack the Spanish at a time frame when they were not yet there. It is with this balderdash that Jairus has formed his “history of RP”.
(6) LASTLY, Jairus Aragón, goes out of his way to mitigate the GENOCIDE the 1898 Americans committed here against Filipinos. Fr. (1908) Manuel Arellano Reymondo points out the effect of this massacre in his geography book. Of the nine million (in reality ten million) Filipinos that there were in 1890, the massacre of THREE MILLION by the US WASPo invaders in the 1900s, reduced the population to SEVEN MILLION by the 1905 census. In contrast when Spain came Legaspi counted only 500,000 natives all over these Islands. And in 1898 those 500,000 natives became ten million as pointed out. With Spain the number of catutubo Filipinos increased twenty times. With the US WASPo invaders the number of filipinos decreased by THREE MILLION after the GENOCIDE they did against the 1898 República de Filipinas.
Mr. Jairus Aragón, we are sorry to say, is the product of US WASPo colonialism here and we surely understand (because he might not be even aware of this), but not tolerate, his gross errors and judgments about the pre-Hispanic and the Hispanic History of this country. Unwittingly, we wish to say, Mr. Jairus Aragón is the kind of Filipino that destroys himself and his own country. But then, if fate so wills it, the moment Mainland China takes over this country, all these foolishness brought about by US WASpo colonialism and economic exploitation and oppression in these Islands will probably be swept away for good. We don’t wish this to happen, but there is a prophesy that this will happen because the Filipino mis-educated in English, according to Claro M. Recto, “is a calamity because a slavish pro-American nincompoop, being feeble-minded at one hand and a criminal a la US gangster or a corrupt politician, on the other.”
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JAIRUS ADMITS HAVING BEEN MIS-EDUCATED AND BRAINWASHED.
WE HOWEVER HAVE TO COMMEND JAIRUS FOR ADMITTING THAT HE IS MIS-EDUCATED AND BRAINWASHED DUE TO HIS MIS-EDUCATION IN COMPULSORY ENGLISH.
To our: “IT IS SURPRISING HOW MISEDCUATED OUR YOUTH ARE WITH ENGLISH AS OUR COMPULSORY MEDIUM OF SO-CALLED EDUCATION.” Jairus Aragón replied: “ As my personal opinion, I fear there is a truth in this statement.”
AND HE, JAIRUS ADDS: “In the research I did for my defence, I found the English tool to be more useful. Most historians published books in English. Websites were in English, heck this post is in English. (IT IS ALL IN ENGLISH BECAUSE US WASPO COLONIZATION WILL NOT ALLOW ANY OFFICIAL SPACE IN RP FOR OTHER LANGUAGES THEY FEAR LIKE SPANISH AND TAGALOG. THAT IS WHY SPANISH WAS REMOVED IN RP AS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE BY THE CORY CONSTITUTION. AND ALL GOVERNMENT FORMS DO NOT CARRY THEIR TAGALOG COUNTERPART IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THE SAME CORY CONSTITUTION ADMITS TAGALOG AS ALSO AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. THIS IS HYPOCRISY, PURE AND SIMPLE COURTESY OF US WASPO COLONIALISM, HERE IN RP UP TO THE PRESENT TIME, AND SLAVISHLY OBEYED BY OUR FILIPINO POLITICIANS MISEDUCATED IN ENGLISH. GGR)
AND JAIRUS FURTHER ADDS: “I then noticed the voice in my head was also English. Embeded deep within me was a language that influences how I mold my Identity. I highly appreciated English TV shows and easily read English books while I shunned Tagalog Movies & Tele-novelas, and syllabicate out loud while reading Tagalog text. It would seem that I am unconsciously compelled to favor English things.” (THIS IS A PERFECT ADMISSION THAT JAIRUS ARAGÓN HAS BEEN BRAINWASHED. THE PROBLEM HERE IS THAT HE HAS YET TO SHAKE OFF THIS HORRIBLE AND NUMBING BRAINWASHING DIRECTLY CAUSED BY HIS MIS-EDUCATION IN COMPULSORY ENGLISH. THAT IS WHY ENGLISH SHOULD BE OPTIONAL IN OUR SCHOOLS.
AND JAIRUS CONCLUDES: “Although I’m regret the same argument would hold true for the use of Spanish as our compulsory medium of education. In our quest for a truly Filipino Identity, we must be wary of even the language we use to seek it. “The point is not how we use a tool, but how it uses us.” – Nick Joaquín. BUT JAIRUS HAS YET YO FOLLOW IN PRACTICE THAT NICK JOAQUÍN DICTA. BUT THEN, WILL HE?
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I think we can still find our own identity if only the Filipino scholars in history, literature, and law gather and discuss the sequence of events in our history on what are our custom, tradition, laws and etc. during the pre-durins-post hispanic time. And create a Constitution based on our real identity without copying other country in their form of government.
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It is very clear that our present state as Filipinos is a product of Spanish colonization, and our Filipino identity is virtually a Spanish creation. Sr. Guillermo Gomez Rivera and history blogger, hermano Pepe Alas, doesn’t rely much on history books publish by historians like of Agoncillo’s kind or historians who glorify our pre-Hispanic roots which are not descriptively “Filipino” in the first place.
We have to understand that there was no Philippines before the Spaniards came. There was no common identity for these pre-Hispanic peoples. The only ones present that time, is inter-tribal or inter-balangay wars and thalassocracy – rajahs, sultans, and datus fighting each other for maritime dominance and control of sea trade routes.
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Hi! I am a Filipino. I just believe that the reality is we all are of the same race. I mean everyone in the world share the same blood. I think we shouldn’t argue about the authenticity of one’s race because the reality is that man started when God created Adan and Eve. But I believe that as time flies, we and everyone else encountered our distinct characteristics because of too many factors. I mean whatever happened in the past, let’s live our lives today as we are. I am learning Spanish because mahilig ako sa languages. Pero ano man ang pagaralan kong language, at the end of the day Pinoy pa din ako. Sure ako sa sarili kong pilipino ako. Just my opinion. Thanks and more power!
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” the reality is that man started when God created Adan and Eve”
Could you please look up the real definition of the word reality? I am appalled you consider a clusterfuck of lies and delusions compiled in a bunch of ancient texts as “reality”. The mere fact you confidently expatiate it is already disturbing.
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Hello PHguy,
Next time, please refer to the ON COMMENTING page of this blog before you comment.
After reading that page, be it known that this will serve as your final warning.
Thank you.
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Oh by the way, visit my blog!
The Savvy Filipino | Learn to become a Savvy Pinoy
http://filipinosavy.com
http://thesavvyfilipino.wordpress.com
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I would like to help. I have made a page too, to know more about the real Filipino Identity. it’s named “Philippines’ Re-Hispanization Community”. I you have a page with same missions as mine, I’m going to support it. I’m just 22 and starting to learn Spanish by the internet and searching for the real roots of Filipinos.
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I applaud you for this mission. I too would like to help. I’ve been educating both Filipinos and other Hispanics about out identity. Hispanics are more open to embracing us as their Hispanic brothers than Filipinos themselves. Sad but true. I started Viva Filipinas on Facebook. Let me know what I can do to help. Also anyone interested in moderating Viva Filipinas contact me, I can use some hands to help promote more info about our Hispanic identity.
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Jimmy
I agree with your statement. I am a Mexicano by blood but my family has lived in the United States for over 120 years. I still consider myself as Mexican and my language as Spanish. I visited your country, Las Islas Filipinas, last year. I think you have a beautiful country. How I wish I had encountered Filipinos that knew Spanish. It is sad that the gringo occupation of your country only contributed to the loss of identity. I hope that one day, the Filipino people will, again, speak the same language, as their Latin American brothers…….Vivan Las Islas Filipinas
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Filipinos are not hispanic
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Why do you say that ? What is the culture that Filipinos have in the Philippines ? Please do not be an ignorant.
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OK. I will not be an ignorant. I will be a deodorant from now on. Fair enough?
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My reply was for Jane P.
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Ooops. Sorry. My bad. Anyway, I think I’m still a deodorant, nonetheless, hehehe (I actually smell one; I’m that cuddly and nice)…
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