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.

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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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