Celebrating our independence

Tomorrow we celebrate Independence Day. 

President Duterte’s statement is the fitting tribute to all of us when he said, “We will separate from America.” The audience mostly Filipinos gave it a resounding applause. He said it on his first trip to China. I was surprised at how lustily they clapped as if this was something they wanted to say all along but did not have the courage to do so.

I had thought that ordinary Filipinos had grown apolitical and would not have understood the gravity of that statement. More so because he made it in China. Different interpretations of the statement were made in media the next day. Some thought it was belligerent and uncalled for.

America’s deceit about freeing the Philippines happened long ago. The surprise is how the memory had stayed on and lingered even if there were no Filipino leaders who will lead them to say so. That is why Duterte is such a refreshing Filipino leader. He said what they wanted to hear and admired his willingness to say it without fear. The Philippines will conduct its foreign policy by being a friend to all nations and be independent of what Americans want us to be.

There are many things that could be said for and against Duterte but on this day we remember the boldness with which he expressed what thinking Filipinos have long suppressed in their minds. Duterte as Philippine president was speaking for many when he did so and in all places in China. America’s rival for superpower.

By doing so, Duterte turned our small country, the Philippines, into a powerful nation capable of changing the balance of power. He was the leader who salvaged the sacrifices and hardship of our heroic ancestors who went through two successive wars against superpowers.

But by a single mistake their willingness to die for country was in vain. O.D. Corpuz tells it in his book Saga and Triumph:

“There cannot be any celebration of Independence Day on June 12, 1898 without honoring Emilio Aguinaldo. It was he who put together the formal elements of nationhood for the Philippines from writing a proclamation of independence to the making of a flag.

If we celebrate June 12, 1898 as our Independence Day then we must honor Emilio Aguinaldo for his efforts to organize the institutions that follow a revolution. When the new colonizers came baying at the door he moved to outmaneuver them by formally declaring its independence. That was the reason for June 12.

OD Corpus writes that the declaration of independence read out in Kawit that day was not as he and his fellow freedom fighters wanted it to be. It was flawed. Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista who had been assigned to write the independence proclamation was pressed for time. He was asked by Aguinaldo to write a draft on June 10 for June 12. In his haste, he committed “Gen. Aguinaldo and his countrymen to an uncertain future by writing the US role of protector into the independence proclamation.”

This was a mistake and should not have been in the proclamation of independence. No wonder Aguinaldo abruptly left the ceremonies.

The misunderstanding on what he was told by Americans or what he was made to believe by Admiral Dewey was not the central issue, although some history books written by Filipinos sometimes give undue importance to it. We look to June 12 simply as a day set aside to celebrate the Philippine victory of its war for independence against Spain. That still holds true.

We should be aware of the flaw in the proclamation of independence. Nevertheless we can celebrate today for two other statements made during that Kawit event. The first is that “the Filipino nation begins on this day to have a life of its own.”

The second affirms that “the iniquitous measures employed by Spain to suppress the flowering of the tree of liberty in our land only caused it to flourish more and more, until, the last drop having been drained from the cup of our afflictions ­– the revolution began.”

“To the fighting men who were in attendance in Kawit and those in the field who later on were sent out copies of the proclamation, the familiar and repeated magic words “libertad” and independence” were shining justifications of their sacrifices in the national struggle. These parts of the proclamation touched the Filipinos,” continues Corpuz.

We are now just beginning to retrace our steps to discover our authentic history. There is a palpable desire to find out for ourselves what really happened. The story of June 12, 1898 and Emilio Aguinaldo is one of them.

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With the postponement of the ARMM elections, we can expect even more bitterness from our Muslim kababayans. Remember the furor by the opposition then if there should a transitory period because of constitutional reform? An extension of term like the appointment of OICs instead of election has no place in a democracy, the alleged lovers of democracy cried. But this is what is happening now. Why? Is it because there is a double standard, one for the rest of the country and another for the Muslims? If they do not get equal treatment in this republic why should they want to keep themselves in it? It has only added fuel to accusations that imperial Manila, like the foreign colonizers before, decides what is good for them.

That puts us back to square one. How many know that both Muslims and non-Muslims fought side by side against colonial masters at one time. There is a powerful argument for reviving that historical partnership.

Jamal Abbas, a Muslim intellectual, once wrote that he does not believe we can achieve peace unless we work at it through our search for identity. “Bangsamoro can only be achieved if both Christians and Muslims rediscover their commonality when they fought colonialism.”

Filipinos’ quests for Identity and Peace should be pursued together, for only a clear and comprehensive understanding of the Christian Filipinos’ quest for identity and the Moros’ desire to reclaim their sovereign identity separate from the rest of the Filipinos can there be true peace in the land. And only a thorough understanding of history by all parties can bring about the needed change,” he writes.