Many Filipinos today know that Independence Day is celebrated every 12th of June. Of course, they remember it because it is always declared as a holiday. But do they really know the real essence of being independent? On what is genuine independence?
Allow me to share the speech I delivered way back 12 June 2022 when I was invited by Mayor Felipe Remollo to serve as guest speaker for the 124th anniversary of Philippine Independence Day.
Have you ever asked yourself, “why are we here?” Every year we celebrate Independence Day on the 12th of June, and every year, all of you come to Quezon Park – dressed in your Filipiniana attire and uniforms – and every year, you listen to speeches about the relevance, importance, and meaning of Independence Day.
But what does it truly mean to be independent? How far have we really come? What exactly has Philippine history taught us about independence?
Allow me to take you back in time as we recall our fight for independence against three foreign colonizers. Let us first begin with our struggle for independence against the Spaniards.
It cannot be denied that our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal became the main inspiration for leaders like Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. Did you know that both of them were admirers of Rizal, and both of them willingly listened to his advice?
But their admiration had a limit because when the crucial time came to initiate a revolution, Rizal, who was still quite ambivalent about waging a revolution, pointed out that the time was not yet ripe, and that the Filipinos were not yet united in words and deeds.
Still, even with this observation of Rizal, Bonifacio and Aguinaldo made the decision to start the revolution.
This would come back to haunt the both of them as the revolution ended up as a failure, with Aguinaldo eventually ordering the execution of Bonifacio.
Rizal, indeed, was right all along – the Filipinos lacked unity.
And then we have the coming of the Americans and the onset of the Spanish-American War, Aguinaldo then returned to the Philippines with an advantage, and defeated the demoralized Spanish troops.
By 12 June 1898, he declared independence even when the Americans had occupied Manila.
Months after, America bought the Philippines for $20 million. The Philippines at that time had a population of around $7 million – that means they bought our independence for around $3 per person.
When the Americans took over, they gave us a chance – of course, with their close supervision – to govern ourselves at the local and then ultimately at the national level.
Along the way, prominent figures like Manuel Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, and Manuel Roxas continued with the struggle for independence, not through a revolution but by lobbying for it in their many missions for independence as they travelled back and forth to the US.
In the end, they were able to establish the Commonwealth government. But then the promise of independence was cut short due to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.
The Japanese occupation of the Philippines was a dark period in our history. It was a period characterized by Japanese brutality and violence that caused a Filipino death toll estimated between 500,000 to 1,000,000 civilian and military casualties.
During this time, many local heroes arose, heroes who were willing to risk their lives to attain independence from the Japanese.
Speaking of local heroes, one of those who local heroes was Mariano Perdices, does that name ring a bell? The main street of Dumaguete City is named after him. But did you know what he did that made him become an exemplary public servant, and, in my opinion, a hero?
Mariano Perdices played an important role in saving lives, and mitigating the suffering of the Dumagueteños when he served as wartime mayor of Dumaguete. His story is not usually emphasized in the local history books, but it was actually Perdices who became the bridge between Lorenzo Cimafranca and Engr. Eduardo J. Blanco, otherwise known as E.J. Blanco (yet another street in Dumaguete, E.J. Blanco)
As the story goes, Cimafranca was a guerrilla operative who was tasked to get blueprints of Sibulan Airport from Engineer Blanco. These blueprints were of utmost importance as it would help the American bombers pinpoint the locations of the armory, oil storage, ammunition dump, barracks, and Japanese fighter planes.
To achieve the mission, Cimafranca, who did not know Blanco personally, asked the assistance of Mayor Perdices to reach out to Engineer Blanco. It was actually Perdices who talked to Blanco about the mission, and told Cimafranca that Blanco was willing to accept the task. After Blanco finished the blueprint, he passed it on to Cimafranca, who clandestinely gave the blueprints to the guerrillas in the hinterlands. The guerrillas then relayed it to the American forces.
On 12 September 1944, the Americans were able to conduct several bombing missions over the marked targets with pinpoint accuracy, which made the Japanese forces suspicious.
Nevertheless, the mission was a success. Due to the suspicion of the Japanese, the Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police) arrested, tortured, and ultimately executed both Engineer Blanco and his assistant, Engr. Jovenal Somoza. They also arrested Perdices but later on, set him free as they did not have enough evidence against him.
These courageous acts by public servants evince their desire to break free from Japanese colonialism – they did what they thought was the right thing to do, and faced the ramifications for it, even if it meant risking their lives.
Perdices inevitably survived the war, and became a well-loved politician, thereafter, serving as mayor of Dumaguete once again in the 1950s, and as an undefeated governor of Negros Oriental for three terms, from 1960 to 1972. He was indeed a man of his times, an honest and courageous public servant – only a few politicians, like him, remain today.
On 4 July 1946, we finally became an independent and sovereign nation, free from foreign rule. But the question remains, what does it truly mean to be independent?
Some say that when you are colonized, you lose your identity. But now that we are free from colonial rule, how come there are still colonial vestiges of American occupation in our laws which allow foreign exploitation of our natural resources which then contribute to the worsening poverty in our country? How come the political elites, who are also considered as vestiges of American colonial rule, still remain heavily entrenched in local and national politics?
In hindsight, allow me to talk about some of the ideas of Jose Rizal and Apolinario Mabini on the true meaning of independence and the problems of Philippine society during their time,
Firstly, for Rizal, one of the problems that the Filipinos faced during his time was that they were afraid of people in authority. The Filipinos of Rizal’s time mostly did not speak against any form of injustice. This is one of the mistakes that we are repeating at present. To be truly free one has to fight injustice; one has to have the conscious decision to speak out; and one – like Perdices, Blanco, and Cimafranca – has to be courageous enough to face the consequences of doing the right thing.
Those elected in government positions are public servants and as public servants they should serve us and not themselves. So, we should not be afraid of them; if we do not speak out, they will continue to neglect their duties and abuse their authority.
Of course, not all public servants are abusive and corrupt. There are still some who uphold the values of honesty and integrity, and to them, I say thank you!
Rizal has a common saying where he attested that he feared that the slaves of today (referring to the Filipinos of his time) would be the tyrants of tomorrow if they are given independence too soon. The fear of Rizal apparently became reality during Marcos Sr.’s Martial Law era. At present, some revisionist historians and blind loyalists have been romanticizing the declaration of Martial Law as a moral imperative to preserve Philippine democracy; but we know, as professional historians, that this is not the case. Clearly, Marcos Sr. was only trying to prolong his reign of power; clearly, Marcos Sr. became the tyrant that Rizal foreordained.
In essence, there is no denying the fact that there was economic development at the outset of Martial Law and a multitude of infrastructure projects during Marcos Sr’s rule; however, extensive human rights violations, crony capitalism, curtailment of press freedom, and Marcos’ plunder has superseded it.
This is what Rizal feared – when Filipinos are given independence prematurely, they would follow the steps of previous tyrants (the Spaniards) and as a result, Filipinos are now oppressing fellow Filipinos.
What I fear now is that history will be distorted and people will forget the victims of Marcos’ Martial Law.
I hope with the new government that there will ultimately be atonement; that President-elect BBM will ask for forgiveness and pay reparations especially for the Martial Law victims and their relatives who have been severely affected by this other dark period in our history. This is what we need – for us to truly move on and to achieve the promised UNITY.
In the case of Mabini, true liberty can only be achieved if the people who ran the government do not fail in providing for their constituents what they needed, which was a government free from corruption.
Sadly, if we use Mabini’s measure of true independence, the Philippines would not be considered as truly independent by his standard as corruption has been institutionalized or is heavily ingrained in our political system.
It seems that all the efforts done by our heroes, those who have risked and sacrificed their lives for our independence, have been put to waste because of the current state that our country is in right now. Poverty levels are high; there is no social justice – as justice is and has always been for the rich; corruption has become ineradicable for years; and we can hardly stand on our own against other nations who continue to bully us in our own territory like China.
The theme for 2022 is “Pagsuong sa Hamon ng Panibagong Bukas.” Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini, Perdices, Blanco, Cimafranca – these are all heroes who have, one way or another, helped our country achieve freedom and independence.
But what constitutes heroism?
How does one become a hero? Rizal and all of these heroes started out as regular citizens. Yes, just like you and me. Believe it or not, anyone can be a hero as long as we have the courage and the moral compass to serve as a guide for our actions. All of us can be heroes when we speak up against tyranny, corruption, and injustice.
It is our turn to unite and fight together as a people against a common enemy from within. We need to make sacrifices for our country – that is the true essence of heroism; that is the true meaning of independence.
At present, not a lot has really changed in the Philippines. The same problems of corruption, as I’ve previously mentioned, and the continuation of the political elites’ dominance in Philippine politics still are issues that we have to really resolve.
One thing has changed though, and that is the break-up of what once was a formidable UNITEAM of the Marcos and Duterte family. Sadly, this has led to further divide in our country’s politics – paving the way for more diehard fanatics who blindly idolize politicians to the point that they tend to overlook their [the politicians’] shortcomings.
A good example is the whole cult-like veneration of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who has recently been detained by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Netherlands, and who’ll face trial for crimes against humanity.
Some might think that there’s no more hope for the country, especially with the possibility of another Duterte presidency in 2028.
But for me, I still continue to do my part and teach young university students about history – on Rizal and Philippine History – and make them understand the value of learning from the past.
There are still a lot of things to be learned, but so far – from the students I’ve had in the past few years – I’m still quite optimistic that there will come a time that the Philippines will improve and that the Filipinos will really start to clamor for genuine change and reforms in our government. We must not lose hope.
__________________________________
Author’s email: JJAbulado@norsu.edu.ph
