The Cry of Mendiola – Revgov, Revgov

In this event, it was more than the numbers that counted. I tried to get into the crowds but with arthritic knees I knew that it would be foolish to wade in. I could be stuck inside. I stayed in the car and watched the crowds gathering from a distance. But there would be enough to make the anger felt. It is no coincidence either that it should be made on Bonifacio Day. This was a revolution of the masa. Revgov na. revgov na was the refrain. How it will develop in the coming days has yet to be seen. It will depend largely on President Duterte’s response.

For me Revgov, Revgov was the equivalent of the tearing of the cedula by Bonifacio and his friends on a day in 1896 to symbolize the beginning of its war for independence against Spain.

This time, the cry for Revgov is for giving revolutionary powers to Duterte. He was elected to lead the change in our system of government needed to reform the Filipino nation. It is not for him or against him but against the system of government to pursue the reforms needed to lift the lives of masang Pilipino.

In Bonifacio’s time the tearing of the cedula was the symbol. In our time it is the tearing of the oligarchic 1987 Cory Constitution. 

It remains to be seen what this brave effort in Mendiola last Thursday will bring. Shall we keep the status quo or begin change? There are those who despite their dissatisfaction with the status quo fear that change would bring losses rather than gains especially to vested interests. Avoiding losses and breaking habits no matter how bad become the overriding factors to retain the status quo. But this condition will only be for a while. Sooner or later the fear of loss will be overcome by dissatisfaction with the present. 

Will that dissatisfaction come? In an essay contributed to this column Constantino Castillo Jr. writes an essay of one example “The Coconut Farmers and Revgov.”

“This question was asked, what is the role of the masses of people in the Revgov, are they a part of it? 

The question refers to the farmers and workers who constitute 70% of the Philippine population. The asker is a coconut farmer who is aware that he belongs to the 10 million coconut farmers representing 30% of the population spread all over the archipelago. Given that the coconut sector is a backbone of Philippine society and its economy, it is important that we address this concern because indisputably the movement for change must be a movement for the emancipation of the poor masses. 

The coconut farmers are said to be the poorest of the farmers of our country. I learned that they have been enslaved for more than 100 years by the old coconut industry which is called the copra system. Taught that only copra other than gata can be produced out of coconut, they have been compelled to turn their crop into copra, that shrivels fresh coconut flesh into a dark material dried over smoke from burning coconut shells and husks for days. 

It is dirty, odorous and poisonous because it is full of aflatoxins. Copra is then converted by refining, bleaching and deodorizing in big coconut oil refineries owned by giant capitalists. Bought cheap from the farmers by middlemen of coconut oil mills owned also by big capitalists, copra has been the scourge of the coconut farmers who have to toil under the coconut trees for the enrichment of just about 100 families controlling the coconut industry. 

Copra oil becomes useful (for cooking oil, soaps and detergents, paints and other chemicals including explosives) only after rehabilitation. Reminds one of drug addicts who can no longer be useful to society unless they are rehabilitated. And the paradox of the poor coconut farmers is they have been bled by coconut levies, first by the Americans during the time of President Quezon and later by the second coconut levy imposed by the Marcos-Cojuangco dictatorship. Thanks to President Quezon who was able to wrangle from Roosevelt the proceeds from the first levy and he used them to fund the Commonwealth government’s economic program – including the building of Quezon City.

So what is our answer to the question of the coconut farmers? The RevGov should be indisputably twofold: 1) Return the billions of pesos of coconut levy to its rightful owners, the Filipino coconut farmers; and 2) Abolish the copra system. 

The first answer is easy, Duterte can just issue an edict that finally rules on the rightful claim of the coconut farmers. The second answer is also easy, Duterte will issue an edict abolishing the copra system within a reasonable period of time. The farmers will be happy to read in the headlines of newspapers one day.

“Stop producing copra.”

On the title of this column, I admit to using poetic license. There is a wide-ranging debate covering the time and place that the cry was ever made. As most Filipinos with only a cursory knowledge of our history I had always associated the Cry of Balintawak as the beginning of the Philippine war of independence from the Spaniards. It was symbolized by the tearing of their “cedulas.”

This background is important because to compare the “Cry of Balintawak” to the “Cry of Mendiola” is more a metaphor than reality.

“The revolution was traditionally held to have occurred in the area of Balintawak, which was distinct from Kalookan and Diliman.

Therefore, while the toponym “Pugad Lawin” is more romantic, it is more accurate to stick to the original “Cry of Balintawak.”

Neither is the date of Nov. 30 associated with the cry of Balintawak but simply because it was designated as Bonifacio Day. 

The Cry, however, must be defined as the turning point when the Filipinos finally rejected Spanish colonial dominion over the Philippine Islands, by formally constituting their own national government, and by investing a set of leaders with authority to initiate and guide the revolution towards the establishment of sovereign nation.

The centennial of the Cry of Balintawak was celebrated on 24 August 1996 at the site of the barn and house of Tandang Sora in Gulod, now barangay Banlat, Quezon City.”

That was when and where the Filipino nation state was born.