These words are challenging to grasp. An event over a hundred and twenty-five years ago exemplifies its precise meaning.
The date is December 28, 1898, and the place is Iloilo City. 2,000 American troops waited in the harbor, ready to disembark and occupy the city. The president of the Federal State of the Bisayas, Roque Lopez, and his military commander, General Martin Delgado, refused the disembarkation without prior authorization from the central government in Malolos.
To paraphrase their formal reply, the Ilonggos said that while the authority of the United States is based on the Treaty of Paris, the authority of the central government, with whom they are one in ideas and sacrifices, is founded in the sacred and natural bonds of blood, language, uses, customs, ideas, sacrifices, etc." (Facts about the Filipinos, Vol 1, No. 5, page 18 and 30)
The response of the Ilonggos, who had no prior political affiliation with the Tagalogs of Luzon, demonstrated an affinity never before witnessed in the country.
This incident happened when the First Philippine Republic was already a functioning government with a constitution and a congress composed of representatives from the provinces, the judiciary, and the executive branches, with Don Emilio Aguinaldo as president.
Filipino Spirit Defined
The alignment of the Ilonggos with the Malolos government expressed the Filipino spirit, characterized by national consciousness and a sense of identity encompassing a collective understanding of their shared history, culture, and language, accompanied by political belonging and unity for a common goal. This is Filipino spirit.
In pre-Spanish times, Lapu-Lapu similarly resisted foreign domination. However, it was localized. The same goes for pockets of rebellion during Spanish rule. In the same context, the resistance to the Japanese invasion could not be counted because of political and social fragmentation. The second republic, not the exiled Commonwealth, was sovereign; the MAKAPILI took orders from the Japanese Imperial Army and the guerrillas from the USAFFE, a unit of the United States Army.
So, the Filipino spirit first manifested itself during the pendency of the First Philippine Republic of 1898.
Birth of the Filipino Spirit
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 planted the seed of this spirit. With increased commerce due to shorter travel to Europe, many towns, especially those with trading ports like Iloilo, thrived in agriculture and business, allowing families to acquire wealth by exporting tobacco, coffee, sugar, abaca, spices, and other crops.
This provided the means for Filipinos to study abroad and learn the modern concepts of freedom, liberty, and republican government in Spain and other European countries.
As they were called, these propagandists actively influenced the Spanish authorities to implement reforms, but they did not come.
Rizal, among them, must have realized that work had to be done wherever reforms were needed. So, he came home in 1887, and founded the La Liga Filipina in 1892 to unite the country, protect the members, and work for education and reforms. The Liga was short-lived because Rizal was arrested and shot.
Bonifacio led disgruntled members to form the Katipunan, which aimed to separate from Spain. While it gained wide adherents and support, it was defeated at the Battle of Pinaglabanan in San Juan on the outskirts of Manila. The revolution could have ended then, except for the positive developments in the neighboring province of Cavite.
Cavite was liberated in November 1896. However, the success was brief because Bonifacio's two-army defense strategy, instead of Aguinaldo’s one-army approach, allowed the Spaniards to break the rebels' ranks. The election of Aguinaldo in March 1897 as president of the revolutionary government that replaced the Katipunan worsened the relationship between the two leaders, leading to Bonifacio's court-martial and execution.
Aguinaldo escaped to Biak-na-Bato in April 1897 and consolidated the Morong and Central Luzon forces of Geronimo, Del Pilar, Llanera and Natividad, which repulsed successive Spanish attacks. In December 1897, he accepted a truce that provided for the laydown of arms, a sum of money, and the exile of the prominent leaders to another country.
While exiled in Hong Kong, the Filipinos formed the Comite Central de Filipino, or the Hong Kong Junta, which administered the affairs of the revolution. The American offer of military collaboration against Spain with a promise to recognize Philippine independence once gained was viewed by the Junta with suspicion. But when news came of Dewey’s May 1st victory in Manila Bay, the Junta was pressured to send Aguinaldo home to lead a new revolution. The consensus was that if the United States were faithful to her constitution, she would not colonize the Philippines. Still, if she did, the Filipinos would be ready to fight if necessary. The Junta procured and shipped arms to the Philippines initially with the American Consul's help.
Here are the words of Felipe Agoncillo that convinced the Junta to make the decision. He said the President (referring to Aguinaldo), with his prestige, would be able to arouse those masses to combat the demands of the United States if they colonized the country and would drive them, if necessary, to a Titanic struggle for independence, even if they should succumb in shaking off the yoke of a new oppressor (Taylor[I], 505-510). Agoncillo’s words were prophetic indeed.
The Rise of the Filipino Spirit
Aguinaldo came home on May 18, 1898, aboard an American vessel. He raised an army, liberated Cavite and nearby provinces, and sent expeditions to Northern Luzon, Bicol, the Visayas, and Mindanao to help the rebels liberate their territories.
With the victories, Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence on June 12, 1898, and established the first Philippine Republic. However, the Americans did not recognize Philippine independence.
Meanwhile, the Spanish flag was still hoisted in Intramuros under siege by Aguinaldo’s forces. On the other hand, the Americans were building up their forces, which had increased to 20,000 troops by the end of July 1898.
Unknown to the Filipinos, the two powers secretly negotiated for the city's surrender. On August 13, 1898, Manila was handed over to the Americans after a few shots were fired.
Immediately, U.S. President William McKinley ordered the extension of American sovereignty beyond the city. But the 40,000-strong Filipino army stood as an obstacle. On February 4, 1899, fighting erupted.
The Filipinos fought the Americans. On the first day of battle, three thousand Filipino soldiers were killed. One account says that as they advanced toward the enemy position, the Filipino soldiers were heard shouting, “Viva Republica.”
After suffering heavy losses, Aguinaldo retreated to the North and disbanded the remnants of his army, forming the officers and men into guerrilla units of their respective provinces, paving the way for guerrilla warfare.
The shift to guerrilla warfare surprised the Americans, who suffered heavier casualties due to sneak attacks and ambuscades by Filipino guerrillas. The local population provided food, information, ammunition, other supplies, and sanctuary, prolonging the war with no end in sight.
The Americans did not realize until later that they were fighting the whole population, as General Arthur MacArthur himself confessed, viz:
"When I
first started in against these rebels, …I
believed Aguinaldo's troops represented only a fraction. I did not like to
believe that the whole population of Luzon – the native population, that is -
is opposed to us and our offers of aid and good government. But after having
come this far and having been brought much into contact with both insurrectos
and amigos, I have been reluctantly compelled to believe that the Filipino
masses are loyal and devoted to Aguinaldo and the government he heads." (Van
Meter, 366-367; Blount, 23-24)
McKinley faced a 1900 reelection, and a long-drawn war in the Philippines threatened his victory. Under pressure from Washington, MacArthur saw through the complex situation and devised a new war strategy: destroy this civilian support system.
The Assault on the Filipino Spirit
By the middle of 1900, the civilians became the target of attack. People were seized and tortured to reveal the hiding places of guerrillas, supplies, or arms. (Gates, 175)
The Americans recognized only two types of people, a friend and a foe. If one is not an amigo (or friend), he is an insurecto (or enemy). There were no neutrals.
There were widespread reports of atrocities
In Lipa, Batangas, more than 500 people were forcibly locked up in a small building, and several died of suffocation. Also, an elderly citizen was subjected to water torture and, while unconscious, was thrown inside his house, which was set on fire. (Miles, 6-7)
In Igbarras, Iloilo, the presidente or mayor of the town and two of his policemen were similarly subjected to water torture, and all the houses in the town were burned down on suspicion of harboring guerrillas (Testimony of William Lewis Smith to the U.S. Senate).
An old Spanish practice called reconcentrado was widely used. Civilians were herded into a security zone, and any person, animal, food, or item of value to the guerrillas found outside the zone was killed or destroyed.
And there was the infamous burning of Samar. A company of American soldiers stationed in Balangiga was attacked by men from General Lukban’s brigade, aided by villagers, leaving only a few survivors. In retaliation, apart from burning the town of Balangiga and killing every person in sight, Samar was made into a howling wilderness, which someone likened to a place where not even a bird could survive. In that campaign, thousands of civilians were indiscriminately killed. (Herman, 197-202; Storey, 33)
U.S. General Nelson Miles saw the aftermath of the war in Batangas, similar to the destruction in Cebu, Iloilo, Bicol, other Tagalog provinces, and many other places; crops were destroyed, and even carabaos were killed to make planting difficult, if not impossible.
The new strategy worked. Destruction, death, pain, and fear made the civilians withdraw from the conflict, weakening the resistance and ending the war after more than three years.
In his April 16, 1902 surrender letter, General Miguel Malvar cited the measures the Americans took as the reason he surrendered. He was concerned that if the situation prevented rice planting in May, the people and the men in the field would die of hunger.
An American author summed up the war as follows:
126,500 Americans saw service in the Philippines. The peak strength of the American army at any single time was 70,000, and this army suffered battle losses of over 4,200 men killed and over 2,800 wounded. … The financial cost of the war was over $400 million, a figure 20 times the purchase price paid to Spain. The Filipinos suffered battle losses of 16,000 to 20,000 killed. In addition, perhaps 200,000 died of famine, disease, and other war-related calamities. (Welch, 42)
An unverified claim says 1.4 million civilians were killed, calling the war a genocide. According to an American officer, in Luzon alone, one-sixth of the population, meaning 600,000 men, women, and children, died.
An American war protester said that there is no doubt America had destroyed more lives in the last three years than the Spanish did in any century of their misrule. (Minister, 13)
The Demise of the Filipino Spirit
As if the death and destruction wrought by the war were horrific enough, what followed next was disastrous to the Filipino spirit.
The true story of the Philippine conquest would have been an ugly blot on the American long-held tradition of freedom and democracy had it not been for the steps taken to downplay it and make Filipinos forget.
Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison, the only American official awarded Filipino citizenship, described what the Americans did. He said:
“ The exhibition of the Filipino flag, under which they had fought their war against us, was made by statute a criminal offense. Patriotism was never encouraged in the schools, nor were ideas that tended to arouse their own national consciousness. Everything that might help to make the pupils understand their own race or think about the future of the country was carefully censored and eliminated. Nevertheless, the good sound stock of American ideas which they received instructed them inevitably in our own democratic ideals and in our pride in own liberties.” (Harrison, 45-46)
General Artemio Ricarte also had this remarkable observation. He said:
“The truth is America taught our young people the things that commemorate the lives of Lincoln and Washington so that we will forget in our hearts the exemplary deeds of our nation’s great heroes.” (Ricarte[Kabataan], 11-12)
A very damaging step the Americans took involved historical records. Voluminous captured revolutionary and government documents estimated to weigh three tons were shipped to the United States. These were inaccessible to local historians and researchers except those who could travel to the US and were permitted by the US military.
Years of indoctrination in public schools completely changed the Filipinos. They spoke English fluently and knew much about American ideals, history, arts, literature, and music, but not about national heritage and culture.
They usually become very competent professionals but lack one fundamental trait—patriotism.
Think about that: Filipinos were deliberately miseducated to rid them of their sacred history and patriotic legacy. The teaching of foreign ideas to whitewash the American conquest made Filipinos revere America more than their own country.
Governor-General Taft called them “Little Brown Brothers,” meaning they were now one with the Americans and no longer an enemy.
The Philippines case was not only about robbing the people of their freedom. It was also a case of robbing them of their history.
This explains why Filipinos glorify former enemies - McKinley, Otis, Lawton, Taft, and Jones - rather than authentic heroes like Flaviano Yenko or Luciano San Miguel.
Yenko was a student who quit law school, joined the rebels in Cavite, and died fighting the Spaniards. San Miguel was a veteran officer of the revolution who refused to surrender to the Americans and died fighting.
Why was their heroism forgotten? The answer is apparent: Filipinos have no clue because they have lost their sense of history.
George Orwell, a noted British novelist, once said:
“The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their understanding of their history.”
Today, we witness the dominance of the negative attitude of self-first-before-country. How does one interpret the sight of similarly-named candidates with funny party names, campaigning with their oversized election billboards while the constitution's call to settle an urgent national issue is ignored? Or, have we become callous by continuing to show weakness in the face of the Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea that has breached into our national patrimony? These tell us that the Filipino spirit is dead or barely alive.
A noted nationalist historian called this phenomenon the remaking of the Filipino.
It is more like a Filipino tragedy or the death of the Filipino spirit.
Conclusion
There is an urgent need to re-enliven the Filipino spirit. To proceed in this direction, Filipinos must abandon the colonial heritage of the “Little Brown Brother” and embrace the mindset of the Katipunero and the insurecto. The exemplary deeds of the great heroes should be reclaimed, which the enigmatic past has held hostage.
In the same manner that classrooms were utilized to erase the Filipinos' unprecedented achievement from their collective memory, they should be used to teach and memorialize the lost and forgotten histories. By doing so, the younger generation is imbued with pride in their heritage, thus fostering patriotism and hastening the formation of the national consciousness, leading to the resurrection of the Filipino spirit.
This should lead to recognizing and acknowledging Filipinos' capacity to do great things, just as Rizal, Bonifacio, or Aguinaldo had done. It will eventually give Filipinos today the courage and strength to remedy the present and the confidence to approach the future.
Final word
From page 33 of the book, The Filipino Tragedy and Other Historical Facts Every Filipino Should Know:
“Patriotism binds a country together. It inspires the people to make sacrifices for the well-being of the nation. A country can only succeed if its people make sacrifices. But without patriotism, how could there be a sacrifice?”
