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1
ON THIS COVER
“Epic pandemic ail” (Tilde Acuña, 2022) Mixed media.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been popular
and persistent calls for the administration under Rodrigo Duterte
to opt for a medical rather than a militaristic solution to the health
crisis. Instead of heeding the people’s demands, his cabal of
incompetent and cold-blooded ocials (mostly retired generals)
took the dreadful state of aairs as an opportunity to consolidate
power, plunder resources, and reign with impunity—characteristic
of bureaucrat capitalism, that serves the interests of landlords,
compradors, and imperialists. In response, the artwork alludes
to gruesome deaths and their heavy consequences depicted
in feudal nether regions of dark fantasy series and games,
which compete with the Duterte regime’s criminal negligence
and fascist reaction versus the ongoing health crisis, the health
workers, and the Filipino people.
PINGKIAN
Journal for Emancipatory and Anti-imperialist Education
Volume 7 Number 1
ISSN-2244-3142
Copyright© 2022 CONTEND and ILPS
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, except for brief quotations for the
purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review,
without permission of the publisher.
Editor
Ma. Diosa Labiste
Issue Editors
Lakan Umali
Francisco Jayme Paolo A. Guiang
Managing Editor
Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Associate Editors
Eric Loyd Hilario
Jay Jomar Quintos
Jheimeel Valencia
Layout
Kristine Camille Sulit
Circulation
Jose Monfred Sy
Francisco Jayme Paolo A. Guiang
Editorial Advisory Board
Delia Aguilar
University of Connecticut
Joi Barrios
University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan Beller
Pratt Institute
Gonzalo Campoamor II
University of the Philippines, Diliman
Peter Chua
San Jose State University, USA
Ramon Guillermo
University of the Philippines, Diliman
Caroline Hau
Kyoto University
Gerardo Lanuza
University of the Philippines, Diliman
Elmer Ordonez
University of the Philippines, Diliman
Robyn Magalit Rodriguez
University of California, Davis
Epifanio San Juan, Jr.
University of Texas, Austin
Neferti Tadiar
Barnard College
Judy Taguiwalo
University of the Philippines, Diliman
PINGKIAN (piŋ-kē-ən), Journal for Emancipatory and Anti-imperialist
Education, is published by the Congress of Teachers/Educators for
Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) and the International
League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Commission 11: Struggles of
teachers and other education workers against imperialism and for
an alternative future. Papers submitted for consideration should be
sent to the editors at pingkian.journal@protonmail.com.
PINGKIAN
Journal for Emancipatory and Anti-Imperialist Educaiton
Volume 7 Number 1
Introduction: Resisting the
Second Coming of the Marcos Dictatorship
Issue Editors
Speeches
On Reading Books and Censorship
Caroline Hau
The Time of a Critic
Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Articles
Myth-Making and History-Writing: Marcosian
Revisionism as Evidence of Therapeutic Historiography
Francisco Jayme Paolo A. Guiang
Pandemya at Panunupil sa Gitna ng Pakikidigma: Ilang
Talang Pangkasaysayan sa Pandemya ng Kolera sa
Katagalugan, 1903
Francis A. Gealogo
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
7
14
23
49
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Reviews
E. San Juan, Jr.’s
Maelstrom over the Killing Fields: Interventions
in the Project of National-Democratic Liberation
Reviews by Paulino Lim, Jr. and Paul Gabriel L. Cosme
Literary
Mula Tore patungong Shopee:
Ilang Libro at Dagling Rebyung Panlipunan
Tilde Acuña
Seven Poems
Felino S. Garcia Jr.
Call for Papers
67
74
84
102
1
The Philippines appears to be in a state of never-ending crisis.
From COVID-19 to Marcos Jr., our country is not lacking in viruses
that aect the lives of millions of people. As of writing, the COVID-19
pandemic has infected 3,688,941 Filipinos and killed 60,455 people
(Reuters, 2022). The government’s inept and militaristic response led
to thousands of new COVID cases, with rates reaching as high as
21,819 new infections a day at the peak of the pandemic in January
2022 (Magsambol, 2022), even amidst the vaccine roll-out. Instead
of mass testing and ecient contact tracing, we experienced brutal
and ill-prepared lockdowns whose primary eect was preventing the
working class from securing an income. Instead of health experts and
doctors leading the COVID-19 response, we had generals and military
men leading the pandemic task force. Instead of strengthening
our healthcare infrastructure, we watched in horror the extent of
corruption when the Senate probed billions of pesos in ghost deliveries
by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp (Romero, 2021). Jeepney drivers
begged on the street for lack of livelihood and government support
(Luna, 2021). Medical frontliners like Honeyleen Casumpang, a nurse
from Negros Occidental, died buried in debt after being infected by
COVID-19 twice (Espina-Varona, 2021). Healthcare workers receive a
pittance, while Duterte’s response to nurses asking for higher pay was
to encourage them to enlist in the Philippine National Police (Esguerra,
2020). Instead of being treated as a healthcare crisis, the COVID-19
pandemic was used as another means to clamp down on dissent.
With the majority of Filipinos trapped in their homes because
of brutal lockdowns, the Duterte administration launched a series of
attacks on freedom and democracy. It compelled its allies in Congress
to deny ABS-CBN a franchise to operate, causing thousands to lose their
jobs and repressing another critical voice of integrity in a substantially
eroded public sphere (Madarang, 2022). It railroaded the passage of
the Anti-Terror Law, emboldening state forces to continue targeting
government critics and opposition gures (Amnesty International,
2020). It facilitated the removal of allegedly “subversive” books from
INTRODUCTION
RESISTING THE SECOND
COMING OF THE MARCOS
DICTATORSHIP
ISSUE EDITORS
2
the libraries of state universities and colleges in an oensive attack
against academic freedom (de Vera, 2021).
Even with the Duterte administration’s total failure at handling
the pandemic, Sara Duterte and her running mate, the late dictator’s
son Ferdinand Marcos Jr., won as Vice-President and President in
the 2022 elections. It was a bitter victory, borne of an elaborate and
well-funded machinery of disinformation and outright lies, voter
suppression and intimidation, and the decades-long failure of our
nation to hold the Marcoses to account. Scroll through social media
platforms like Facebook or TikTok and one enters another world,
where the most outlandish lies are treated as infallible truths to
justify the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang. There, Ferdinand
Marcos Sr. is the proud recipient of gold from the Tallano royal family.
Bongbong was prophesied by Nostradamus to lead the Philippines
to a new golden age. And that President Cory Aquino secretly
masterminded the assassination of her husband. One’s rst reaction
is to weep at the magnitude of deception and nonsense. Thirty-years
of neoliberal education has failed to provide Filipinos with basic
critical faculties but prioritized instead the production of submissive
workers for export. The international market demands workers who
do not question orders or the drastically unequal economic system
which depends on their labor, and the Filipino educational system
is more than happy to produce graduates who t that criteria. This
has also led to the gutting of courses which do not immediately fulll
the needs of global capitalism, such as Filipino and history. With the
election of Marcos Jr., educators face an unprecedented challenge
to protect the teaching of history and defend it from Marcosian
attempts to erase the crimes of Martial Law.
The May 9, 2022 elections have enough irregularities to question
the integrity of the results. There was rampant vote-buying, red-
tagging, the presence of 1,800 malfunctioning vote-counting machines
(Kontra Daya, 2022), intimidation from police and military forces, and
well-documented cases of violence and killings (dela Peña, 2022). If we
were a country like Venezuela or Bolivia, the United States would have
already organized a coup d’etat and Western media would be running
stories 24/7 about the beleaguered Filipino people. But because we’re
the Third World ally of both American and Chinese imperialist powers,
we experience nothing but congratulations from global superpowers
for our “free and fair elections.” Truth and human rights are secondary
to maintaining the hegemony of global capital and the cheap labor
upon which it rests on.
3
The articles in this issue of PINGKIAN confront the twin
catastrophes of the pandemic and the resurgence of a Marcosian
fascism in the Philippines. During such times of intensity, one might
ask: what is the purpose of academic work? Of research? Are we
writing while the world around us crumbles? One is tempted to cite the
perennially quoted Bertolt Brecht (2019) poem: “In the dark times/ Will
there be singing?/ There will be singing./ Of the dark times” (p. 660).
The lines provide us with alternative lens of understanding the world,
and ways forward from the seemingly inescapable doom-and-gloom.
In their essays, Caroline Hau and Neferti X. M. Tadiar compel us to
reevaluate the value of reading, libraries, while Edel Garcellano teaches
us to resist, at a time when state forces are hellbent on stamping out
modes of knowledge deemed too radical or subversive. There are
essays on E. San Juan Jr., the disinformation and propaganda network
of the Marcoses, a critical perspective on the cholera pandemic of 1903,
deeply humane poems on the deeply inhumane series of lockdowns.
They’re not songs about dark times, but oerings of thought and
scholarship, new perspectives on old problems because prevailing
perspectives appear to have damned us to even worse problems than
before.
The editors would like to thank the academics, independent
scholars, and researchers for contributing to this issue of PINGKIAN.
We thank readers for their continued patronage of this journal. And
we hope that Pingkian will be part of our political education, and
that while we continue singing and writing about dark times, we
also continue organizing and mobilizing against the terror. See you
in the streets!
Lakan Umali
Francisco Jayme Paolo A. Guiang
4
References
Brecht, Bertolt. (2019).
The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht
(T. Kuhn & D. Constantine, Translator). Liveright Publishing
Corporation.
de Vera, Sherwin. (2021, November 14). Opposition mounts
against removal of ‘subversive’ books in libraries.
Rappler
.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/opposition-mounts-
against-removal-subversive-books-libraries/
dela Peña, Kurt. (2022, May 20). Int’l observers: May 9 PH vote
falls short of free, fair election standards.
Philippine Daily
Inquirer.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1600309/intl-
observers-may-9-ph-vote-falls-short-of-free-fair-
election-standards
Esguerra, D.J. (2020, August 3). “Want higher pay? Join the police
force, Duterte tells nurses.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1315808/want-higher-pay-
join-police-force-duterte-tells-nurses.
Espina-Varona, I. (2021, September 20). A nurse’s story: Twice
infected, P60,00 in debt, and no special risk pay.
Rappler
.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/nurse-story-twice-
infected-covid-19-in-debt-no-special-risk-pay/.
Luna, F. (2021, August 16). LTFRB aid and subsidies not reaching
transport workers, jeepney drivers say.
Philippine Star
.
https://www.philstar.com/
headlines/2021/08/16/2120389/ltfrb-aid-and-subsidies-
not-reaching-transport-workers-jeepney-drivers-say.
Madarang, C. (2022, May 5). ‘Kapamilya forever’: Tributes
pour in on 2nd anniversary of ABS-CBN shutdown.
Interaksyon
. https://interaksyon.philstar.com/trends-
spotlights/2022/05/05/216558/tribute-abs-cbn-2nd-
anniversary-shutdown/.
Magsambol, B. (2022, January 7). Philippines tallies 21,819
new COVID-19 cases, 40% positivity rate.
Rappler
. https://
www.rappler.com/nation/coronavirus-cases-philippines-
january-7-2022/.
Philippines: (2020, July 3). Dangerous anti-terror law yet another
setback for human rights. Amnesty International. https://
www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/philippines-
dangerous-antiterror-law-yet-another-setback-for-
human-rights/.
5
Report: VCM breakdown in 2022 polls much worse compared to
previous ones. (2022, May 9). Kontra Daya. https://
kontradaya.org/report-vcm-breakdown-in-2022-polls-
much-worse-compared-to-previous-ones/.
Reuters COVID-19 Tracker: Philippines (2022, May 23).
Reuters
.
https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-
and-maps/countries-and-territories/philippines/.
Romero, P. (2021, December 4). Pharmally made P3 billion ghost
deliveries – senators.
Philippine Star
. https://www.philstar.
com/headlines/2021/12/04/2145556/pharmally-made-
p3-billion-ghost-deliveries-senators.
Venzon, C. (2022, May 12). U.S. and China congratulate Marcos
on Philippine election win.
Nikkei Asia
. https://asia.
nikkei.com/Politics/Philippine-elections/U.S.-and-China-
congratulate-Marcos-on-Philippine-election-win
6
SPEECHES
7
Here are just a few of tHe reasons wHy I love books:
1. I love their thingliness. I don’t recall ever wanting to
smell or caress the TV or computer, but I love doing so
with books. I love the heft, texture, color, and scent of
books, their typography and design, their portability.
2. Books are mini-shuttles that transport readers across
space and time, guiding them toward inner and outer
worlds, toward real and imagined ones.
3. I love the anticipation of reading as much as the joy of
reading. I always look forward to opening a book for the
rst time. I’m an avid collector of rst and last sentences.
4. I love collecting books, or used to love collecting books.
I am a recovering Booksale addict.
5. Books are easier on the eyes and less likely to drive
their readers to distraction, compared to the screen.
6. Books are good sleeping pills for adults and paciers
for kids.
Since you are taking part in this Webinar, I think I’m already
preaching to the converted, so let me focus on a few other points with
wider social, cultural, and political resonance and implications.
People read books for pleasure, for the stories that books tell,
for the music of their language(s) and the multiple meanings, even
contradictory ones, they suggest. People also read for instruction, for
the information that books present.
More than that, to open a book is to open a gate of interpretation.
Books lay out arguments that readers can grapple with. There’s
something to be said about the fact that, to quote George Orwell in
1984
, “The best books…are those that tell you what you know already.”
But it is also true that we learn new things from books. Books
have the power to unsettle and disturb, to challenge truisms and
cherished assumptions, even to provoke and oend. They may lead
ON READING BOOKS
AND CENSORSHIP
CAROLINE HAU
Keynote speech during the Reading Rights: Defending the
Right to Read Against Book Banning and Censorship forum,
December 6, 2021.
8
readers to question themselves as well as the societies and world
they live in. Above all, they sharpen one’s thinking.
The usual knee-jerk reaction of the oended, particularly those
in positions of authority who nd themselves under challenge, is to
argue for banning the books.
Indeed, the list of books1 that have been banned or challenged
at one time or another somewhere in the world is quite extensive. They
include not just the usual suspects like Copernicus, Galileo, Voltaire,
Marx, and Darwin, but also Chaucer, Einstein,
The Oxford Handbook
of Clinical Medicine, Alice in Wonderland, Madame Bovary, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, A Farewell to Arms, The Pentagon Papers
documenting
the US involvement in Vietnam, Yang Jisheng’s
Tombstone: The Great
Chinese Famine, 1958-1962
, Pramoedya Ananta
Toer’s Perburuan (The
Fugitive)
, the
Qur’an
, and the
Bible
.
The most famous banned books in the Philippines are Jose
Rizal’s
Noli me tangere
and
El libusterismo.
Let’s look at the
passages in these novels in which the word “terror” or its equivalents
appear:
There’s the Guardia Civil, which has “only this purpose: the
repression of crime by means of terror and force” (
tiene no más que
este n: represión del crimen por el terror y la fuerza
). There’s Sisa,
full of terror (
llena de terror
), driven mad by the injustice inicted on
her sons. There’s Juli, overcome with terror (
rendida por el terror
) at
the thought of the terrible fate that awaits her at the convent. There’s
Matanglawin, formerly known as Cabesang Tales, who is called the
Terror of Luzon (
el Terror de Luzon
) and the reign of terror (
régimen
de terror
) endured by ordinary people who, caught between the
tulisanes and the government, opt to join him.
There’s Simoun, who inspires terror in Basilio and others
before and after Basilio learns of his plan to organize a revolution.
Simoun displays antique jewelry linked to the French Revolution and
the Reign of Terror. Padre Irene hastens Capitan Tiago’s death by
feeding the sick old man’s terror with hair-raising stories (
aumentar
su terror con historias espeluznantes
). At the Quiapo fair, Simoun
makes Padre Salvi faint with terror (
rendido por el terror
) when
Simoun, disguised as the Sphinx, accuses Salvi of having driven
Maria Clara mad with terror and suering (
volverla loca de terror y
de sufrimiento
).
In the chapter titled “Tatakut,” certain persons are said
to have advised the Captain-General “to inspire terror [
inspirar
el terror
] and administer a lasting lesson to the libusteros”. His
Excellency refuses to release Basilio despite the latter’s innocence,
on the grounds that “the punishment will prove more salutary and
9
exemplary, since it inspires greater terror [
como que infunde más
terror
]”.
In other words, it isn’t only Simoun and Matanglawin who
have the ability to inspire terror. Readers understand fully well that
they were driven to do what they did by the injustice and persecution
inicted on them and their loved ones.
The novels also emphasize the fact that it is the government
ocials, the clergy, the police and military, and the state itself
that regularly terrorize individuals and communities. Rizal pointed
out that the abuses committed by authorities are responsible for
fomenting libusterismo. Rizal himself would be tried, condemned,
and executed as the Word Incarnate of libusterismo (
el Verbo del
libusterismo
), or what states would now call a terrorist. Both La
Liga Filipina and the Katipunan, with their clandestine operations,
would have been categorized in our time as terrorist organizations.
And if you look at the commentary on Rizal’s novels over the
past hundred or so years, the most persistent refrain you hear is the
one that laments the fact that modern-day, Filipino counterparts
of the abusados are alive and well and still terrorizing the Filipino
people.
Now let me turn to the topic of book prohibition in more
recent memory. Under martial law, exposés or what Filipinos at the
time called bomba like Primitivo Mijares’
The Conjugal Dictatorship
of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
and Carmen Navarro Pedrosa’s
The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos
were banned.
According to my friends who were students and teachers at
the University of the Philippines (UP) at Diliman, UP library books that
had keywords or titles like “revolution” and “Marx” were removed
from the open stacks and circulation. Even the Campus Crusade for
Christ’s book
Revolution Now!
was removed from the reading room.
These books were not withdrawn from the library collection. Instead,
they were “archived”, which is another way of saying that these
books were kept under lock and key. It is true that in principle the
books could be perused. The problem was that one had to submit an
ocial request to gain access to the books. In this way, the military
was able to keep tabs on who personally requested the books.
At the same time, however, the UP librarians created a parallel
secret archive for the materials— speeches, manifestos, newspaper
clippings, literature, pamphlets and leaets—critical of the Marcos
regime, materials that would form the core of the UP Radical Papers
collection, away from the prying eyes of the military (Subingsubing 2021).
After the People Power Revolution, the materials from both
archives became available for use by students, teachers, and scholars.
10
Access to libraries and their materials
is crucial to critical thinking and research,
as any student or scholar can tell you. For
the past year or so, I’ve been working on
a glossary of the Marcos era, and I have
found that books and other library materials
still provide the best access to fully vetted,
systematically organized and presented data
and debates that can be backed by veriable
sources.
Looking back, I think that the
“archiving” of so-called “subversive” books
and materials did not prevent activists
from becoming activists and resisting the
Marcos dictatorship. Activists found ways
to link up with each other through networks
of solidarities among likeminded people
and, just as crucially, people who didn’t
necessarily agree with each other politically
or ideologically.
Ideas circulated in clandestine and
other forms. More people were learning about
the abuses of the dictatorship by alternative
means, including the mosquito press and
aboveground as well as underground
advocacy inside and outside the Philippines.
More important, they were experiencing
for themselves rsthand the eects of
political repression and the increasingly dire
economic condition in the country, which was
greatly exacerbated by nepotism and crony
capitalism.
And yet, as much as the withholding of books and other reading
materials did not prevent people from experiencing for themselves
the disastrous consequences of constitutional authoritarianism, it
did at the same time have the general eect of restricting access to
information and ltering knowledge about the regime. Restriction and
ltering have had lingering eects even into the present.
The educational system produced textbooks for elementary
and high school students that touted the accomplishments of the
Marcos era but did not give full and accurate information, let alone
encourage teachers and students to think more critically, about the
regime’s failings and their negative consequences.
Looking back,
I think that
the “archiving”
of so-called
“subversive”
books and
materials did
not prevent
activists from
becoming
activists and
resisting
the Marcos
dictatorship.
11
Mainstream press reporting was censored at the time.
Even decades later, with a few important exceptions, it is often
unsystematic and lacking in nuance and context. In the age of social
media, people prefer their echo chambers over informed analysis.
Fewer still bother to read books, especially academic ones, or do
their own research.
Demographic change is clearly a factor behind selective
historical memory, as nearly sixty-ve percent of our total population
is aged 34 and below and a little less than eighteen percent of those
now aged between 35 and 49 years were born only after martial
law was declared, meaning that more than eighty-two percent of
the current Filipino population had either not been born yet or were
still children when the Marcos dictatorship was toppled (Philippine
Statistics Authority 2010).
Those old enough to have lived through the martial law years
have tended to view the period selectively through the rose-colored
glasses of nostalgia, though this attitude in part springs from
disillusionment with the failure of People Power democratization
to deliver on its promise of peace, order, prosperity, and decisive
action to improve the lives of fellow Filipinos.
Which brings me to the current situation and its implications for
Philippine society. We all know that a solid, grounded education makes
for an empowered, conscientious citizenry. The essential ingredients
of a good education are good students, good teachers, good libraries
and laboratories, and supportive administrations.
Withdrawing or banning books from libraries erodes the core
principles of freedom and democracy armed by no less than our
Constitution. There is something very wrong when documents signed
by the government itself, such as the
Hague Joint Declaration of 1992
and the “Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights
and International Humanitarian Law between the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines” of 1998, are among the materials withdrawn from libraries.
Should military and school authorities then also withdraw from
bookshelves the Constitution on which these documents arming the
inviolability of human rights are based?
Academic freedom is based on the freedom of thought and
expression. But educators have no right to use administrative at
to infringe on students’, teachers’, and researchers’ constitutionally
guaranteed rights as citizens to inquire and think for themselves and
engage in free and open discussion.
12
More substantially, the job of educational institutions is to
nurture students’ ability to make their own judgments about the books
they read, whether educators agree with the ideas contained in these
books or not, and especially when they don’t.
Freedom of thought and expression includes the freedom
to speak truth to power, to criticize people in positions of authority,
and demand change for the better. People don’t only have the right
to criticize their leaders and other authorities when these people are
not doing their jobs; they also have the right to defend themselves
against tyranny, oppression, and injustice. Let us not forget that the
1987 Constitution was itself founded on the right of revolution.
People who don’t want other people to read books that they
don’t like assume that people cannot be trusted to gure things out
for themselves. They believe that ideas need to be “processed” and
“guarded”, the better to spoonfeed students. They’re not interested in
promoting debate; as far as they’re concerned, “sa pamamahay ko,
ako ang masusunod”. To understand where authoritarian tendencies
reside, we should begin by looking closely at ourselves, our homes,
and, yes, our schools.
The Supreme Court (Pimentel, et al v. Legal Education
Board, 2019) tells us that “Academic freedom has traditionally been
associated as a narrow aspect of the broader area of freedom of
thought, speech, expression and the press”. Narrow its purview may
be, abusing academic freedom has much broader implications. If you
have no problems undermining the concept of academic freedom, you
also end up undermining every other freedom because, basically, you
don’t think that freedom and democracy matter at all.
Freedom and democracy are foundational to this country and
to the proper functioning of any state, market, and society. Those
who have no respect for these foundational concepts subvert the very
system they claim to be upholding or defending against so-called
communist-terrorists.
It was Antonio Gramsci who in 1919 wrote that “To tell the
truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary
act” (“Workers Democracy” editorial,
L’Ordine Nuovo
[The New
Order]). In this age of fake news and alternative facts, of illiberal
politics undercutting civil liberties and democratic governance, of new
technologies such as articial intelligence that enhance the state’s
power to control its people and are augmenting human reasoning
and decision-making in unforeseeable ways, in this age of historical
amnesia and lionizing of strongmen and their brood, anyone who
adopts a critical stance and works to transform the system is likely to
be labeled a subversive, a terrorist.
13
Well, if telling the truth is a “communist and revolutionary act,”
then may there be more communists and revolutionaries.
Notes
1. See “List of books banned by governments”. (2022).
Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_
of_books_banned_by_governments.
References
Gramsci, Antonio. (1919, June 21). “Workers’ democracy”.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/1919/06/
workers-democracy.htm
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2010). “Population Projection by Age
Group, Philippines: 2020 - 2045”. https://psa.gov.ph/sites/
default/les/Table%201.4_6.pdf
Pimentel, et al v. Legal Education Board, General Register No.
230642, (Philippine Supreme Court, 2019) https://www.oyez.
org/cases/2000/99-1687.
Rizal, J. (2006).
Noli Me Tangere
(H. Augenbraum, Translator).
Penguin Books.
Rizal, J. (2011).
El Filibusterismo
(H. Augenbraum, Translator).
Penguin Books.
Subingsubing, K. (2021, December 5). “Keepers of ‘Radical Papers’
at UP Main Library vow not to yield a page”.
Philippine Daily
Inquirer
. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1523841/keepers-of-
up-radical-papersvow-not-to-yield-a-page
CAROLINE HAU is professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto
University. She is the author of several books, including
Elites and Ilustrados in
Philippine Culture
(2018),
The Chinese Question: Ethnicity, Nation and Region
In and Beyond the Philippines
(2014),
On the Subject of the Nation: Filipino
Writings from the Margins, 1981 to 2004
(2007), and
Necessary Fictions:
Philippine Literature and the Nation, 1946-1980
(2000).
14
Thank you to the organizers of this symposium, especially Led
Villafuerte and Lulu Reyes, for the honor of oering my thoughts on the
legacy of Edel Garcellano’s work. I believe I have on many an occasion
made known my high regard and profound gratitude for Garcellano’s
trenchant critical mind. My words of appreciation for the power of his
thought and poetry appear in three of his books, and I thank him for
his personal inspiration and inuence in two of mine.
On this occasion, I would like to reect on his writing as a literary
critic, and the importance of this critical work, some of it written in the
1980s and 1990s, for our current moment. How might we read Edel
Garcellano the critic in and for these times? How might his work help
orient cultural criticism today?
The time of a critic is a time of reckoning. For Edel Garcellano
(2001f), the time for the “Filipino as Critic” was, and continues to
be, a “Time of War.” In an essay with that title, Garcellano writes, “if
language is a war zone, then its articulators—writers and critics alike—
are combatants engaged in a war of position” (p. 246). Filipino critics,
he argues, are ”already enlisted as active combatants in a eld where
forces of resistance and imperialism are locked in fatal embrace” (p.
249). Writing in the late 1980s, in what he called a “synchronic gesture
with workers/peasants who struck against the presence of American
centurions last November 10, 1989,” and thereby announcing his own
political partisanship, Garcellano calls out the state of aairs that
undergirds this war: “the Philippines is a colonial outpost of the Empire”
(p. 245). In the late 1980s, after the restoration of elite democracy, the
gure of war might have for many in the restored liberal, democratic
class to have seemed out of place (even as it was Cory Aquino who
in fact declared “total war” against the revolutionary movement
persisting in the countryside). Yet Garcellano’s apprehension of both
war and Empire as the historical conditions under which critics wrote,
anticipated what in fact came to dene the post-Cold War era that
was just beginning, that is, global capitalist Empire (a purportedly
achieved state, rather than an active project and process, as the
notion of imperialism continues to denote) and, as spectacularly,
THE TIME OF A CRITIC
NEFERTI X. M. TADIAR
Keynote speech during the Kritika Kultura Lecture
Series in Honor of Edel E. Garcellano, May 6, 2021
15
gruesomely proven in the U.S.-led global
“war on terrorism,” permanent war.
These are most certainly the
prevailing condition of our present. The
recent red-tagging of community pantries
is surely evidence of the threat that
the pantries pose, as an anti-capitalist
communitarian practice, to a state whose
authoritarian, sovereign power cannot ever
nally meet the needs of a people whose
very lives such power feeds on, a power built
on security wars nanced by late capitalist
empire. The red-tagging of the community
pantries also attests to the re-invigoration
of what Garcellano (2001d) identies as
“the iron-hand of anti-communism, a
colonial malaise of rightwing discourse, a
loathing that is the fruit of Cold War schism
and American domination/manipulation in
the realm of literary production—but gloved
in the silk of postmodernist heterodoxy
and ‘reality’” (p. 15). Today, that anti-
communism and anti-Marxism is shared by
liberals and illiberals alike, making common
cause between enemies who in fact
share a deep acceptance of the reality of
capitalism, and therefore an acceptance of
the permanence (and inevitable casualties)
of war.
War for Garcellano is certainly
class war under capitalism. But it is
also a neocolonial war that is waged by
Washington D.C., the ‘author’ of the ‘text’
that is Philippine society under siege.
Cultural critics as well as authors and
readers are invariably situated within
this eld of antagonism, their literary
dierences to be read as “ideologico-
political alignments” and maneuvers in a
war between imperialism and resistance.
Against the tendency of New Critics and formalist writers to uphold
the timelessness of their human truths and values, Garcellano insists
on the political and social locatedness of writers’ locutions, the
The recent
red-tagging
of community
pantries is surely
evidence of the
threat that the
pantries pose, as
an anti-capitalist
communitarian
practice, to a
state whose
authoritarian,
sovereign power
cannot ever finally
meet the needs of a
people whose very
lives such power
feeds on, a power
built on security
wars financed
by late capitalist
empire.
16
historical time-boundedness of their discursive imaginations and
interpretations. His own reading of the universalizing, depoliticizing
approach to literature that many critics embraced attributes this
dominant Philippine hermeneutic program to the transformation of
some sectors of the Philippines to a capitalist mode of production in
the mid-twentieth century, its middle classes, from which most writers
emerged, the most easily conscripted to the liberalism that its U.S.
Cold War capitalist patron proered. Within this universalist spirit,
made reconcilable with a nativist nationalism that de-ideologizes
literature, as exemplied by Gemino Abad’s claims to a nativized
English made homeland for the Filipino soul, Garcellano (2001c)
writes: “The prisonhouse of colonization has become invisible—and
this illusionary freedom must perforce be proclaimed as the real space
of one’s existence. We can now move freely—but within the connes of
the chains that have become our hands, body, brain” (p. 60). What is
the task of the critic as well as the writer if not to reckon with, in order
to potentially break or radically transform, these chains, and in this
way to help redene the very parameters of our collective existence?
Garcellano’s notion of antagonism is neither reductive nor
mechanical. We might compare it to the much maligned concept of
totality, which for Fredric Jameson is a methodological imperative
and key moment of negative hermeneutics rather than simply a
positive reality. Just as the methodological “totality” allows us to
perceive and parse out ne political and cultural dierences within
the symbolic act that is literature, in order to discern points of struggle
and utopic aspiration contained within specic texts ultimately
positioned in a horizon of cultural revolution, so is Garcellano’s
notion of antagonism deployed as a methodological and political
practice that compels us to seek in all the ne poetics of cultural
production (their aesthetics, aect, ideology), the contradictions
they contain. As a critical method, antagonism compels the search
for possibilities of opening against the habits of social enclosure
and repression, of liberation against the tendencies of cooptation
and capture, of revolutionary hope against illusory promises of
fulllment of imminent desires.
This is not a method of static classication, of xing aesthetic
values for all time, as in the mythologization of a native past, which
Garcellano (2001e) nds exemplied in Demetillo’s
The Heart of
Emptiness
is Black
, a work in which, he writes, cultural values are
ironically presented as “absolute, determined by a static, theological—
meaning Christian—doctrine of morality” (p. 29). On the contrary, it
is a critical reading practice attuned to dynamic, shifting historical
realities, which do not exist completely independently of our learned
17
or determined capacities to depict them. As he writes, “what we have
failed to say circumscribes our tongues; what we have failed to see
blinds our eyes”; “meaning nally is the child of ideological war in
the terrain of signs” (2001d, pp. 4&6). Garcellano’s acute negative,
dialectical materialist sensibility, which we among his friends used
to jokingly yet appreciatively refer to as his “negatron” personality,
is what enables him to critique easy positive assessments of even
ostensibly progressive literature and culture. It is this acute sensibility
of the politics of our utterances in a dynamic and shifting terrain of
historical time that leads him to not essentialize either writers or texts
or for that matter theories according to their social origins, but rather
to practice and urge a critical reading and re-reading in specic times
and for other times.
In “A Way of Reading for the ‘80s,” for example, he re-reads
Rogelio Sikat’s short story, “Tata Selo,” against the grain of its accepted
radical populist import. Garcellano observes the subtle transformation
of the subtext of agrarian injustice, which was central to Rizal’s story
of land dispossession in “Kabesang Tales” (which Sikat rewrites for
the 1960s), from central antagonism to mere ‘environment’ for what
in Sikat’s hands has become the real site or terrain of antagonism—
i.e., the female body as space of domination. The re-reading is
instructive for its discernment of new enclosures even in the apparent
continuation of the Philippine radical tradition. Against the elevation
of Tata Selo “an archetype for all seasons,” Garcellano (2001a) reads
“the arming closure of familial tradition that is inscribed no less in
patriarchal (also read: fascist) discourse that...replicates the ethos of
the master” (p. 124). Such a political reading in the 1980s of the short
story’s personalization and masculinization of violence and struggle
(as vengeance) provides in retrospect from the 2020s, an apprehension
of its immanent future which is our own present, marked by a surge
of quasi-anti-colonial, populist sentiment anchored in a revanchist
heteropatriarchal, misogynist, fascist ethos. It also surely signals
Garcellano’s own study of and serious engagement with feminist
criticism in a moment of vigorous feminist activism, demonstrating
the political signicance that an attention to the dynamic, shifting
conditions of historical time makes for reading critically.
Indeed, against Edilberto Alegre’s own reading of the same
short story in terms of a linguistically-dened opposition between
native and foreign, Garcellano (2001a) argues, “what is native is
not a static given, complete upon itself, pure in its origin, but the
very sign/symbol of active, dynamic interrelations on the historico-
materialist plane of collective enterprise where the nativeness of
the native, so-called, is an interplay of relations between the inside
18
and outside, tribal and national, rural and urban, country and town”
(p. 119). Not truer is this dynamic interplay than today, when the
majority of the population is directly connected to the global arena
not only through OFW family members, relatives and/or friends,
but also through the platforms of social media and the multiple
forms of transnational extension of all our communities. How
might we understand the subtle shifts in ideological alignment and
contradiction in the elds of global and local antagonisms today?
These changed times compel a renewal of the legacy of critique that
Garcellano left us. That legacy is incomplete, however, without the
gift of his poetry.
If the time of a critic is a time of reckoning with the antagonisms
dening one’s times, what is the time of a poet? Is it not the time of
poeisis, of “the praxis, so-called of the creative process,” (2001e, p.
32) as he put it? If Garcellano’s criticism might be described as the
calling out and detailed trial of the ideological maneuvers of writers in
a time of war, against the metaphysical truths and values of a reigning
liberal capitalist imagination, his poetry might be described as a
form of rupturing and mourning, litany and lament, truth-telling and
aching, as it remembers the dead, the assaulted, the worn, and the
forgotten, on which the world of warlords, generals, executioners, and
those who humanize them depends. He writes, “Oceans will reclaim/
mountaintops/ and the dead will forever/ swim/ in the old fantasies/
of the living/ that they will be forever/ alive in remembering./ But
the dead will not/ speak otherwise” (2012c). If Edel Garcellano the
critic brings historical materialism to bear on the class and gender
politics of our utterances in the context of war and social struggle,
to parse out the contradictions and draw political lines of dierence,
the poet remembers losses and silences, “Deaths [that] peek behind/
the curtain of words”, creating shifts in alignment by uncovering the
breaches and deepening the crevices of crushed and looted passions
and strengths, which are papered over with neocolonial, capitalist
promises and credit. “O The illusory freedom/ little people cherish/
they’ve bartered/ for promises of imminent desire” (2012a).
To remember our losses is to remember what we live for, what
is vital to our living, which the pursuit of value—the universal currency
of a capitalist mode of life— would so readily diminish and relinquish
as nothing but waste—a waste of time, eort, care.
As I wrote of his poetry in
Vanishing History
and other poems,
“His is a bleak yet also tender vision of passages of time trapped
inside a repeating history, a painstaking lament of lost potential,
unremitting stagnation, ignominious decay, and wretched defeat. Yet
it is also a testament to times trapped in a warp, times which we forget
19
nevertheless continue to exist—persisting, unrecognized, unaddressed,
unaccounted for. Like the lives of revolutionaries and activists which he
pays tribute to—lives lived and perished in the seemingly eternal battle
for a world of possibility beyond this world-history of routine pathos
and cruelty, depravity and futility, untold sorrow and triumphant
iniquity—these nearly invisible times of those left behind are also what
is perhaps most alive in a deadened and deadening social order of
power, value, and success to which we are all condemned. For the
times of ‘time’s outcasts’ bear the stirrings of unrest and discontent.
They are countercurrents of being, pulling against the inexorable ux
of the victors’ history.”
Today, we need new forms of literature, of writing, and of
criticism, that shimmer with such countercurrents of being borne
of unrest and discontent, new kinds of works freed from cherished
literary and critical forms for garnering praise and manufacturing
pretty, consoling lies, for the promises of accumulating value,
literary and otherwise. Garcellano (2012b) gave us a hint of these
forms in the fusion of his poetry and criticism, even as he argued
that, beyond ideologically correct politics, “poetry demands a fresh,
powerful language to totalize the so-called organic and inorganic, the
modern and primitive, the human and angelic, the esh and bone of
experience—indeed the alchemy of heart and mind, past and future”
(p. 185). He also gave us a glimpse of another kind of poetry, in his
tribute to Monico Atienza: “He is not your kind of poet./ His language
smells/ of the elemental earth,/ wind and re,/ and harvest of fruit
trees/ by men and women huddled/ at the edge of the land/ talking
of the coming of the rain” (p. 123-124). Atienza is a poet who doesn’t
have to write his poems because he lives them. This is a kind of poetry
that “takes a long, long time./ Like life itself,” but that bears “his
persistence/to change the order of things” (p. 124).
“Faced with the dominant media control,” Garcellano (2001e)
writes, “the poet, the articulator of subversive countercultures, could
only nd ‘breathing spaces,’ in the words of Renato Constantino,
to confront the enemy within the societal structures” (p. 33). How
particularly resonant this is today, this reminder of how “in the
so-called free ow of information” the poet must confront and
counter the pre-emption, distortion and disguration of native
consciousness, by rediscovering the strength of native languages
and reformulating countermyths. In this way, “The poet as native
alchemist is the revolutionary personied...seeking in the creative
process to advance the cause of primarily the working class” (p. 33).
Today I would argue that in a global political economy where
not just labor but also expendable life fuels capitalist accumulation,
20
with its gluttonous security apparatus feeding on the murders of the
immiserated and the dissident, the working class must necessarily
include all disposable life and the living-labor of their shared social
survival, forms of life-making that might not count as labor but, as
feminists understand, nevertheless support and makes possible the
life of all. I would thus add that the strength of native languages
lies not only in our forms of speaking and writing, but also, as his
own notion of poetry suggests, in our forms of living as struggle
for a transformed mode of life. What I draw from the legacy of
Edel Garcellano then is this expanded, but perhaps more hopeful
understanding of the leftovers of a brutal history as remaindered life,
unconquered and persisting, bearing the possibilities of collective
praxes of thriving.
The poet as critic, the critic as poet, might in this way not just
heed the Angel of History, surveying the carnage that the victors
wreak and prot from as they enter a future that angels are barred
from seeing. The poet-critic might also walk with the many angels of
life-sustenance, cultivating our present with the seeds of collective
ourishing.
References
Garcellano, E. (2001a). “A Way of Reading for the ‘80s.”
Knife’s
Edge
(pp. 113–132). University of the Philippines Press.
Garcellano, E. (2001b). “Partisan Poetry: A Metacriticism.”
Knife’s
Edge
(pp. 171–190). University of the Philippines Press.
Garcellano, E. (2001c). “Philippine Hermeneutics and the
Kingpins of the Hill.”
Knife’s
Edge
(pp. 51–88). University of
the Philippines Press.
Garcellano, E. (2001d). “Post-EDSA Literature and Marxist
Discourse.”
Knife’s
Edge
(pp. 3–19). University of the
Philippines Press.
Garcellano, E. (2001e). “Reportage on the State of Class War
and Philippine Poetry.”
Knife’s
Edge
(pp.20–36). University of
the Philippines Press.
Garcellano, E. (2001f). The Filipino as Critic in a Time of War.
Knife’s
Edge
(pp. 245–249). University of the Philippines
Press.
Garcellano, E. (2012a). “Bossing.”
Vanishing History & Other
Poems
(p. 185). University of the Philippines Press.
Garcellano, E. (2012b). “Monico M. Atienza.”
Vanishing History &
Other
Poems
(pp.123–126). University of the Philippines
Press.
21
Garcellano, E. (2012c). “Zero Sum.”
Vanishing History & Other
Poems
(pp. 1–9). University of the Philippines Press.
NEFERTI X. M. TADIAR is professor at Barnard College, Columbia University.
She is the author of
Remaindered Life
(2022),
Things Fall Away: Philippine
Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization
(2009), and
Fantasy-
Production: Sexual Economies and Other Philippine Consequences for the
New World Order
(2004), winner of the Philippine National Book Award.
22
ARTICLES
23
Abstract
This essay explains how state-sponsored propaganda in the
1970s continues to thrive in the context of the digital world, albeit
in dierent forms. It also analyzes popular Marcosian myths using
the perspective of therapeutic historiography in order to stress
how disinformation is used as a tool for political manipulation. The
essay’s rst section tackles the concept of myth-making and how
state-sponsored propaganda in the 1970s conceived popular myths
about the late dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. The second section
discusses examples of popular myths circulating online, particularly
the Tallano-Marcos myths, and underscores how these invented
narratives distort history. The last section analyzes the Tallano-Marcos
myths using Aviezer Tucker’s (2008) therapeutic historiography
in order to underpin how the Marcos political machinery benets
from the massive disinformation network on various social media
platforms.
Keywords: Marcosian revisionism, historical distortion, disinformation
network, therapeutic historiography, social media
“There are a number of ways in which disinformation
weakens democratic institutions. These include the use of social
media to channel disinformation in coordinated ways so as to
undermine institutions’ credibility” wrote Carme Colomina, Hector
Sanchez Margalef, and Richard Youngs (2021, p. 13) in a study on
the impact of disinformation on democratic institutions and human
rights. The polarizing eect of disinformation has sowed distrust in
various democratic institutions like governments, the courts, public
gures, journalists, and the media. In fact, the authors cite a survey
conducted by the Ipsos Public Aairs and Centre for International
Governance Innovation which shows that because of the “spread
of disinformation, many citizens have less trust in media (40%) and
MYTH-MAKING AND HISTORY-
WRITING: MARCOSIAN
REVISIONISM AS EVIDENCE OF
THERAPEUTIC HISTORIOGRAPHY
FRANCISCO JAYME PAOLO A. GUIANG
24
government (22%)” (Colomina et al. 2021, p. 13). Disinformation
intensied over the course of the pandemic as many have been
relying on various social media platforms for alternative sources
of news and information. For example, unfounded claims about the
coronavirus have been repeatedly posted on social media platforms:
Between 20 January and 10 February 2020, two
million messages posted on Twitter – 7% of the total
– spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus…
According to Reporters Without Borders, as many as
74 % of Internet users expressed their concern about
‘fake news’ on social media. This overload of unreliable
information spread rapidly among the population,
making it hard for people to nd trustworthy sources
and reliable guidance just when they needed it most.
(Colomina et al. 2021, p. 18)
While disinformation has been hostile to democratic
institutions, some governments like those in Iran, Egypt, Turkey,
Russia, and China have stied press freedom in order to downplay
the public’s growing concern for the health crisis (Colomina et al., p.
22). Suppression of press freedom is nothing new to the Philippines.
ABS-CBN, one of the country’s major news outlets, was denied its
franchise renewal by the Philippine Congress in 2020. Many see this
incident as part of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s long-standing war
against mainstream media that remain critical of his government ever
since 2016 (see PCIJ 2020). Indeed, democratic backsliding under
the Duterte regime has further amplied the state of disinformation
because media outlets have been continually demonized by the
political establishment. In the context of the 2022 national elections,
certain political camps have even benetted from the massive
disinformation network on social media. University of the Philippines
(UP) Diliman associate professor Yvonne T. Chua shares the ndings
of a report by Tsek.PH, a fact-checking initiative by the academe
and media, that reveals “a substantial volume of false or misleading
claims about the presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in which
case these are largely positive, in his favor, seeking to promote him”
(cited in Gonzales 2022). Chua further explains how disinformation
distort historical knowledge:
In the case of Mr. Marcos, [these incidents of
disinformation] would be like endorsements that are
spurious from various sectors, from celebrities, or
25
heads of state who are said to have endorsed him when
that is not the case – and of course, a lot of historical
inaccuracies that have been revived or resurfaced in
connection to his father, the late dictator, Ferdinand
Marcos. (Gonzales, 2022)
The disinformation network on social media vis-à-vis the
current political climate in the Philippines is an interesting area of
academic inquiry. Jonathan C. Ong and Jason Vincent A. Cabañes
(2018, p. 9) provide an in-depth analysis into the “architecture of
networked disinformation” involving political benefactors who fund
elite advertising and PR strategists, digital inuencers, and community-
level fake account operators. Interestingly, the intricacies of networked
disinformation had parallelisms with political myth-making during
the Marcos regime. Even before the age of social media, politically-
motivated myths propelled the propaganda machine of Ferdinand E.
Marcos in the 1970s, according to the study of Joseph P. McCallus
(1989). The author argues how, in the early years of the Martial Law,
the “image of Ferdinand Marcos reected the positive myths of the
propaganda drive: Marcos was portrayed as a traditional nationalist
Filipino, he was a hero who triumphantly wrestled with the ‘false’
Filipinos, he was the father of the reborn Philippine society” (p. 133).
This point shows an interesting aspect of the propaganda which
produced a mythicized image of Marcos as a Filipino warrior, akin to
Lapu-Lapu. The author interestingly foregrounds the state-sponsored
propaganda in the context of Marcos’ “authored” works like
Today’s
Revolution: Democracy
and
Notes on the New Society of the Philippines
which foresee the defeat of communism in the Philippines through
a “revolution from the center” (p. 138). The goal of this propaganda
machine, according to McCallus, was to justify that Martial Law was
morally, politically, and culturally correct. Part of the state-sponsored
propaganda during the Martial Law years was the promotion of Marcos’
image as a “prolic intellectual,” a topic discussed in an article written
by Miguel Paolo P. Reyes (2018). Here, the author presents evidence
of “intellectual fraud… ranging from the employment of ghostwriters
to the theft/non-attribution of ideas and “self”-plagiarism…” (p.210).
Reyes debunks the validity of the claim that Marcos was the most
intelligent president of the Philippines because the latter’s works were
simply ghostwritten for him.
In the age of digital media, disinformation aimed at
resurrecting the purported “Marcos golden years” have already
taken many creative forms. For example, Jose Santos P. Ardivilla’s
chapter for
Remembering/Rethinking EDSA
(2016) discusses the
26
proliferation of Marcos memes on social media platforms which
trivialize the complex issues about the history of the dictatorship.
Ardivilla (2016, p. 96) argues that these memes are “a dangerous
political implement for a people more comfortable with nostalgia
than dealing with history, a people who can easily be swayed.” The
same can be said with YouTube videos swamped with myth-making
content and historical falsehoods. Victor Felipe Bautista (2018) talks
about Marcosian historical revisionism created by YouTube vloggers
who claim to know about “hidden truths” in Philippine history.
Bautista (2018, p. 279) explains that the “ideological narrative” of
these revisionist histories chronologically develop from a “glorious
past” during the Marcos era, followed by a coup against Marcos
(“the Fall”) orchestrated by Cory Aquino, and nally a “fallen dark”
present. In a more recent study, Fernan Talamayan (2021, p. 275)
“analyzes the structure and form of whitewashed martial law stories
to understand how the value of truthfulness is produced and attached
to particular nostalgic recollections.” Moreover, the author studies
the “light-darkness-light” framework that is embedded into the
Marcosian “us-versus-them” narrative, evident in the articulations/
comments of Filipino netizens on social media platforms (Tamalayan,
2021).
The existing literature on Marcosian propaganda and
disinformation gives important insights into the nature and structure
of revisionist histories. Taking a slightly dierent approach, this
essay aims to achieve two things: (1) to show how state-sponsored
propaganda in the 1970s continues to thrive in the context of the digital
world, albeit in dierent forms, and (2) to analyze popular Marcosian
myths using the perspective of therapeutic historiography in order to
stress how disinformation is used as a tool for political manipulation.
To contextualize the second point, therapeutic historiography is a
concept dened by the Czech historian Aviezer Tucker (2008, p. 5
& 9) as a revisionist type of history-writing that “ignores evidence”
and relies on therapeutic values which appeal to the “psychological
well-being of their intended audience.” In other words, therapeutic
historiography are narratives based on unscientic claims that may
tap into the emotions of the general public. This concept will be further
discussed in the succeeding sections. For the purpose of this study,
it will only probe into one specic example of a Marcosian myth that
has found its place in the general public’s popular consciousness – the
Tallano gold and the Marcos wealth. This specic myth has generated
many versions posted and shared repeatedly on Facebook, Twitter,
Tiktok, and YouTube. The reception to these dubious “sources” of
history mirror the reality that some Filipinos see Marcos’ gold as a
27
possible solution to the country’s economic problems. Hence, studying
the nature of the Tallano-Marcos myths as evidence of therapeutic
historiography could engender an understanding on its appeal to
some Filipinos and how it benets the Marcos political camp.
This essay is divided into three main parts. The rst section
denes the concept of myth-making and explores how it is used for
the purpose of propaganda, as evidenced in the Marcos propaganda
machine during the Martial Law period. It also discusses how
Marcosian propaganda continues to thrive in the context of social
media and a post-truth world. The second section of the essay is
devoted to a discussion of selected sources of disinformation that
feature the myth of the Tallano gold and the Marcos wealth. This
section attempts to make sense of the dierent versions of the
Tallano-Marcos myth and debunks the historical distortions evident
in these ctional narratives. The last part of this essay explains the
nature of negative historical revisionism and its subtype, “therapeutic
historiography.” Using Tucker’s therapeutic historiography as a lens
of analysis, this section shows how revisionist narratives amplify the
mythicized image of Marcos and how they aect the “psychological
well-being” of the general public.
Myth-Making, State-Sponsored Propaganda,
and the Post-Truth World
Myth-making is one of the basic components of the Marcosian
propaganda machine. The mythicized image of Marcos has endured
throughout time and stuck in the consciousness of many Filipinos.
The nature of myths in relation to historical consciousness is an
interesting point of inquiry that could provide a better understanding
on the potency of political/propagandistic myths. The historian
William H. McNeill (1986, p. 1) explains that “myth and history are
close in as much as both explain how things got to be the way they
are by telling some sort of story.” What distinguishes something as
historical from something that is purely mythical can be determined
by looking at how facts are established and organized to construct
a credible narrative. He expounds that “scientic source criticism
would get the facts straight, whereupon a conscientious and careful
historian needed only to arrange the facts into a readable narrative
to produce genuinely scientic history” (p. 1). But he claries that
though scientic methodology is important, history-writing also
involves “subjective judgments and intellectual choices that had
little or nothing to do with source criticism, scientic or otherwise”
(p. 1). On the concept of scientic objectivity, Brian Winston and
Matthew Winston (2021) argue that “there [discipline of history] it
28
[objectivity] presents a problem because the ‘knower’, the historian,
denied repeatability and incapable of completeness, is – as it were
– ‘contaminated’ (as is the journalist), by subjectivity” (p. 159). This
is the gray area between history-writing and myth-making: there
are certain myths that people mistake as convincing historical
narratives because they employ facts and information that are most
likely inaccurate, distorted, and unfounded.
The appeal of myths to a group of people is usually potent
because they mirror the “sentiments, ceremonies, personalities,
symbols, and legends” that create the identity of its intended
audience (McCallus 1989, p. 131). They are known for “idealized
concepts” and “superhuman protagonists” whose narratives
underpin the cultural imprint of a particular society, which is
why people often nd truths in them (p. 131). Furthermore, the
characteristic properties of myths could explain why the interests
and convictions of vulnerable audiences are easily roused and
captured. Henry A. Murray (1959, p. 215-216) outlines these into ve
essential properties – (1) myths are attractive because they are
portrayed vividly, spectacularly, enchantingly, and mysteriously; (2)
myths evoke empathy, admiration, awe, love, and adoration for a
particular subject over a period of time; (3) myths allow people to
expect a conceivable future that it promotes; (4) myths serve as a
guide for the people’s conduct and behavior who closely relate with
the mythic narrative; and (5) myths aect a large amount of people
who usually come from the same group, society, or religion, thereby
eliciting cooperative participation. He argues that the impact of
myths is measurable in terms of the following: “(1) the extent to
which each of these functions is fullled (especially the educative
function), (2) the number of people who are aected and possessed
by it, and (3) the duration of its inuence” (p. 216). For Murray, the
most compelling myths have “the highest unifying goal or vision of
an individual or of a collectivity, and as such is sacred to those”
(p.216). If myths have the power to inuence the people’s beliefs
and traditions, then they can be used for ideological and political
indoctrination. McCallus (1989) provides a detailed explanation on
the capacity of myths in aecting the consciousness of the general
public:
While the use of myths is a core concept in rhetorical
analysis and especially important in propaganda studies,
two points are emphasized in this discussion. The rst
is that historical myths can be used to place present
and future circumstances in a frame of reference
29
conducive to the speaker’s purpose; the speaker
can create a symbolic environment that ctionalizes
reality on the basis of certain myths. The second is
that myths in communication can be used to form a
narrative structure, a script, and that this structure
builds an identiable public drama. [
emphasis added
]
(pp. 131-132)
Myths are used by a speaker to aect the way an
audience perceives a particular situation. One of the
primary functions of historical myths in rhetoric is to
act as a model for the present and future. Serving as
models for reality, they view the past according to
the needs of the speaker’s condition. Therefore, they
describe the present on the basis of that superimposed
visualization. This way a myth establishes an assumed
connection between past and present; the audience
sees the world through the lens of historical imagery.
[
emphasis added
] (p. 132)
As a tool for state-sponsored propaganda, myths usually distort
existing historical narratives or fabricate new stories and embed them
into existing cultural myths. The purpose of political/propagandistic
myths is to promote certain political doctrines, groups, and/or
personalities. According to Güldeniz Kıbrıs (2019), these political myths
aim to forge a political community that shares a common identity in
relation to a specic past and, more importantly, to justify “why those
who govern have the right to do so and why the community should
obey them” (p. 2). As mentioned earlier, myth-making was the primary
means of disinformation promoted by the Marcos propaganda
machine in the early years of the Martial Law period. McCallus (1989)
reveals the intricately detailed propaganda work of the Marcos regime
in rationalizing the necessity of the Martial Law declaration in 1972. A
“dramatic plot that championed Filipino social and political rebirth” (p.
133) was the most striking aspect of the Marcos propaganda narrative
which can be divided into three thematic stages, each one roughly
corresponding to the events surrounding the Martial Law period. The
rst stage presented the idea of an “imperiled Filipino” who faced
the threats of “imperialistic and exploitative forces” of the “false
Filipino” (p. 133). This obviously pertains to the “threats” caused by
Filipino communism which was the justication for the Martial Law
declaration. The second stage presented the notion of a “cure” to the
existing conditions. Here, the defeat of the “false Filipino” would be
30
realized through the actual declaration of Martial Law (p. 133). Through
his ghostwritten books, Marcos promotes the idea of a “revolution
from the center” that would serve as a catalyst for the birth of the
New Society (p. 133). The nal stage introduced the “reborn Filipino”
in the context of a country under Martial Law and in the process of
a profound renewal. The Marcos propaganda presents a vision for
the New Society where there was “personal and social discipline” and
the unfullled promises of Filipino heroes like Rizal, Mabini, etc. would
nally be realized. In all of these stages, the mythicized image of
Marcos the “true” Filipino was celebrated as a hero and father of the
New Society (p. 133). The aforementioned narrative is a testament to
the complexity of myth-making provided by the Marcos propaganda
machine.
Aside from the idealized story of Filipino emancipation through
Martial Law, Marcos’ persona had numerous romanticized versions.
For example, Marcos was idolized as a modern-day traditional hero,
a “Lapu-Lapu ridding the Philippine people of foreign invaders and
the oligarchy” in order to achieve the New Society (McCallus 1989,
p.146). He assumes the role of a “heroic rebel outside the corrupt
political norm” who can defeat the political elite akin to Andres
Bonifacio and Apolinario Mabini (p. 146). Additionally, he is often seen
as a leader who faces the challenges of the political establishment
where “they [traditional politicians] expect him [Marcos] to be on
their side, to defend the system… But they underestimate the man…”
(Crisostomo 1973, p. 34). To note a more ridiculous example, Marcos
was known to have allegedly inherited Gregorio Aglipay’s anting-
anting before World War II which could explain the former’s “heroic
encounters” with the Japanese forces in the Battle of Bataan in
1942 (McCallus 1989, p. 145). There were also stories about the same
anting-anting which could have bestowed Marcos the ridiculous
ability to “disappear and reappear at will” and “restore the dead to
life” (Spence 1964, pp. 3-4). Despite the absurdity of these stories,
it was nonetheless part of the propaganda machine which enlisted
support for Marcos’ Martial Law. McCallus (1989) perfectly describes
the rhetoric of the New Society’s propaganda: “a manipulation
of cultural myths within an anxiety-purge-rebirth plot structure.
Critical to this strategy was the image of the president which acted
as a cementing agent to bind the dramatic movements together” (p.
145). History notes that the aim of the Marcos propaganda machine
ultimately failed. The premise of defeating “false Filipinos” did not
materialize as the underground movement swelled because of the
dictatorship. The image of Marcos as the “hero” who would defeat
the oligarchy and the corrupt political establishment was a sham
31
because the late dictator institutionalized cronyism and kleptocracy
in government.
Unfortunately, the dismantling of the Marcos dictatorship
did not reverse the eects of the propaganda that the regime had
systematically built. In fact, the Marcoses managed to return to the
Philippines and run for local and national posts from 1992 up to the
present (see PDI 2016). In the digital age, Marcosian revisionism is
used as a tool to reclaim the imagined “golden age” of the Marcos
years. This context, without a doubt, has been advantageous for the
Marcoses. Moreover, there is an apparent “network” that peddles
and promotes political myths about the history of the Marcoses and
Martial Law period. Gemma B. Mendoza (2019) of
Rappler
, an online
news website in the Philippines, explains:
Massive amounts of propaganda and targeted
disinformation produced and amplied by an extensive
network of websites, Facebook pages and groups,
YouTube channels, and social media inuencers appear
to be part of a systematic campaign to burnish the image
of the Marcoses and pave the way for their further rise in
Philippine politics.
The content that this network circulated included
numerous claims that sought to alter public perception of
the Marcoses by either downplaying or outrightly denying
kleptocracy and human rights violations during the
Martial Law years, exaggerating Marcos achievements,
and vilifying critics, rivals, and mainstream media.
Despite the credible and factual studies about the Martial Law
period, Marcosian disinformation penetrates into the consciousness
of many Filipinos at the time when there is distrust in mainstream
media and heavy reliance on alternative sources. This phenomenon
underscores the ill-eects caused by what is called the “post-truth.” As
a concept, post-truth arguably provides the ample “breeding ground”
for invented and alternative facts because its main instrumentality
– social media and digital technologies, for example – “widen the
ambiguous space between truth and lie” (Jandrić 2018, p. 108). Applied
to politics, American historian Timothy D. Snyder, in an article on the
January 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, describes “post-
truth” as a condition for “pre-fascism” that “wears away the rule of
law and invites a regime of myth.” He adds further that “if we lose the
institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend
32
to wallow in attractive abstractions and ctions” (Snyder 2021). The
conditions of the post-truth world – distrust for the credible and belief
in falsehoods – is evident in the present-day context where a massive
disinformation network is linked to the Marcoses and the presidential
campaign of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. It is also clear that the
state-sponsored propaganda in the 1970s has evolved and adapted
to the context of social media where innumerable myths about the
late dictator Marcos are kept alive.
Unmasking Marcosian Revisionism: Tallano Gold
and Marcos Wealth1
In examining Marcosian revisionism, it is best to identify some
examples of myths that have been ingrained in popular consciousness.
One of which is the story of the Tallano gold as the source of the Marcos
wealth. Despite Marcos Jr.’s recent repudiation about his family’s
gold (see Cordero 2022), the myth which surrounds the Tallano clan
remains a curious point of inquiry and there are several versions of it
circulating online. One version can be read at the website of Kilusang
Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement), the political party that
Marcos established in 1978. An anonymously written article entitled
“The Untold Story of the Kingdom of the Maharlikans, now called The
Philippines” (Fig. 1) provides an elaborate story on the alleged source
of the Tallano gold and how parts of it found its way to the Marcoses:
Throughout the Spanish occupation of the Maharlika,
members of the Tagean / Tallano clan have been visiting
Europe since some of their relatives were English and
Austrian. From 1866 to 1898, Prince Julian Macleod
Tallano had also been frequenting the Vatican. In 1934,
under Pope Pius XII, the Vatican negotiated with a
member of the Filipino Royal Family, the Christian
Tallano clan in Maharlika. An agreement was reached
that 640,000 metric tons of the Tallano gold would be
lent to the Pope. This was part of that gold accumulated
by the Southeast Asian Srivijayan/Madjapahit Empire
during its glorious reign of 900 years. In 1939, two
members of the Tallano family and a Roman Catholic
priest, Fr. Jose Antonio Diaz, brought the gold from
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, to the Vatican… After World
War II, he [Fr. Diaz] facilitated the safe return of the
640,000 metric tons of gold from the Vatican to the
Maharlika. A lease agreement was made between the
Tallano clan and the Maharlika government. A total of
33
617,500 metric tons of gold was deposited in the newly
installed Central Bank of the Maharlika to comply with
its requirement for GOLD RESERVE. Under the terms of
the contract, the Central Bank became the HOLDER of
that gold. (KBL n.d.)
Having gained the trust and condence of Fr. Diaz, the
Tallano clan made him the main negotiator and trustee
of their gold. Fr. Diaz, in turn, hired the services of Atty.
Ferdinand E. Marcos, then a highly recommended
brilliant young lawyer having attained notoriety when
he successfully defended himself in the “Nalundasan
Case” in 1939. The Tallano clan paid commission to Fr.
Diaz and Atty. Marcos in gold, 30% from the principal
of 640,000 metric tons. In 1949, the two richest men
in the world were Fr. Jose Antonio Diaz and Atty.
Ferdinand E. Marcos. Between the two of them they
legitimately earned and owned 192,000 metric tons
of gold. Ferdinand Marcos withdrew their share of the
gold from the Central Bank and minted it “RP – CB.”
Sometime later, Fr. Diaz and Marcos brought their gold
to Switzerland, in the Swiss Bank Corporation in Zurich.
(KBL n.d.)
Fig. 1. “The Untold Story of the Kingdom of the Maharlikans, now called The
Philippines” on the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan website.
34
Of course, the narrative presented in the passages above is
loaded with unfounded claims that distort history in many respects.
In an online lecture entitled “Searching for the Gold: Debunking the
Myths on the Tallano Gold and the Marcos Wealth,” Francis A. Gealogo
of the Ateneo de Manila University History Department identied the
falsehoods in this particular narrative. According to Gealogo (2022),
the Tagean/Tallano “royal family” and their alleged visits to the
Vatican are not even mentioned in any primary source included in the
55-volume work edited by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson entitled, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. The “Tagean/
Tallano” names are likewise absent in the sprawling royal family trees
of Western, Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe (Gealogo 2022).
The alleged “agreement” between the Tallano clan and Pope Pius
XII in 1934 proves to be invented as well. Gealogo explains that the
ocial website of the Vatican City indicates that its formal ties with
the Philippines only began in 1951. Hence, no ocial agreement could
have transpired in 1934 because diplomatic relations between the two
nation-states did not exist. Moreover, documents that could prove an
“agreement” between the Vatican City and the Tallano clan are non-
existent after searching through the digitized primary sources of the
Vatican Apostolic Archive website. The purported connection of the
Maharlika kingdom with the larger Srivijaya and Majapahit Empires
is not even mentioned in classic reference materials on Southeast
Asian history such as D. G. E. Hall’s
A History of Southeast Asia
(1955),
D. R. SarDesai’s
Southeast Asia: Past & Present
(1981), and Anthony
Reid’s
A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads
(2015) (Gealogo
2022). Furthermore, history books on postwar Philippines like Renato
and Letizia Constantino’s
The Philippines: The Continuing Past
(1978),
Stephen Rosskamm Shalom’s
The United States and the Philippines: A
Study of Neocolonialism
(1981), and Daniel B. Schirmer and Stephen
Rosskamm Shalom’s (editors)
The Philippines Reader: A History of
Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance
(1987) are
silent about the supposed return of the Tallano gold from the Vatican
City after the Second World War. Even the “lease agreement” between
the Tallano clan and the Philippine government does not appear in
Yusuke Takagi’s
Central Banking as State Building: Policymakers and
Their Nationalism in the Philippines, 1933-1964
(2016) – one of the
most denitive books on the history of central banking in the country
(Geologo 2022). The Marcos narrative begins when a certain Fr. Diaz
hired Marcos. Tallano clan paid the duo “30% from the principal of
640,000 metric tons” as commission, making them the richest people
in the world in 1949. These are unfounded claims as no primary source
have been presented to support the so-called “commission.”
35
Fig. 2. “His Story of Maharlika Revealed” on the YouTube channel of
egYolkTV uploaded on 08 September 2012.
Related to the narrative above, another version of the Tallano
myth seeks to establish the credibility of their clan as rulers of a so-
called Maharlika kingdom during the precolonial period. In a video
content entitled “His Story of Maharlika Revealed” uploaded on
the YouTube channel of egYolkTV, “Prince” Julian Mordem Tallano
was interviewed to expound on the history of his clan as the “royal
family” of the Maharlika kingdom (Fig. 2). Tallano asserts that the
Maharlika kingdom’s territory during its heyday spanned from the
Philippines, Brunei, South Borneo, the Mariana islands, and Hawaii
(egYolkTV 2012). Aside from being the descendant of popular
precolonial gures like Rajah Soliman and Lapu-Lapu, he declares
ownership over the entire Philippine archipelago which could be
proven by three land titles in his possession (Porcalla 2002; Brizuela
2015). To set the record straight, there is no empirical evidence that
could link the Tallano clan to Rajah Soliman and Lapu-Lapu nor are
there any primary source to corroborate the validity of Tallano’s
land titles. On the purported geographical extent of the precolonial
Maharlika kingdom, studies published by the historian William
Henry Scott such as
Looking for the Hispanic Filipino and Other
Essays in Philippine History
(1992) and
Barangay: Sixteenth Century
Philippine Culture and Society
(1994) prove that no singular kingdom
ruled over the entire archipelago during the precolonial period. The
words “Tallano” and “Maharlika” do not even gure in any of the
55-volume work produced by Blair and Robertson (1903). To put this
matter to rest, the Court of Appeals declared in 2002 that the land
36
titles in question were indeed fake (Porcalla 2002; Brizuela 2015).
Furthermore, the land titles along with other spectacular assertions
about the Tallano “precolonial kingdom” were revisited and disproven
by Bob Couttie in his book,
Fool’s Gold: Fraud, Fallacies and Fables
in Philippine History
(2020). Despite the glaring falsehoods in the
Tallano narrative, the YouTube video content has gained more than
700,000 views since posting in 2012 with numerous comments from
netizens who believe in the existence of the Maharlika kingdom and
the Tallano wealth (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Comments section of the video content entitled, “His Story of Maharlika”
uploaded by egYolkTV.
A more ridiculous version that is closely related to the Tallano
narrative explains the supposed backstory of Fr. Diaz. In a video
content entitled “Ang LIHIM na natuklasan | The Marcos and Rizal
UNTOLD STORIES in HISTORY” uploaded on the YouTube channel
of Tuklas ni Kulas, the narrator reveals that Dr. Jose Rizal did not
actually die in 1896 but survived and lived in hiding as Fr. Diaz (Fig.
4). The narration presents an outrightly absurd story: Rizal was
close to several European royal families that wanted to protect
the former by making it seem that he was successfully executed at
Bagumbayan (Tuklas ni Kulas 2021). He went into hiding in Europe
as Fr. Diaz before being elected as the “Black Pope” or the Superior
General of the Order of the Jesuits. Fr. Diaz/Rizal’s name is not
included in the ocial list of Superior Generals because he served
during the wartime years, from 1942 to 1946 (Tuklas ni Kulas 2021).
A point of intersection across all versions of the myth is the meeting
of Fr. Diaz and Marcos with the infamous gold taking a prominent
37
role in the story. Distinctively, in Tuklas ni Kulas’ version, a sizable
amount of gold was entrusted by European monarchs to Fr. Diaz/
Rizal for safekeeping. Fr. Diaz/Rizal collaborated with Marcos, at
that time a “world-renowned” lawyer, in order to establish the so-
called “Wealth for Humanity” that functioned as a “Global Debt
Facility” popularly known as the World Bank (Tuklas ni Kulas 2021).
Their ultimate purpose was to use the gold for altruistic ends.
Interestingly, the narrator of the video reveals a “reliable” source for
all of these claims – Karen Hudes, a former employee of the World
Bank. However, Hudes’ reputation is questionable because even the
World Bank (2014) issued a statement to refute her pronouncements
and actions:
An individual named Karen Hudes has been issuing
correspondence and arranging meetings in the
name of the World Bank. In some communications,
Ms. Hudes has presented herself as the World Bank’s
Acting General Counsel. [
emphasis added
]
Karen Hudes has not been employed by the World Bank
since 2007 and is in no capacity authorized to represent
any arm of the World Bank Group. Any claims otherwise
by Ms. Hudes or her proxies are false and should not
be viewed as credible. [
emphasis added
]
Moreover, the very persona of Fr. Diaz is a matter of dispute.
Who exactly was he? Gealogo (2022) points out that the name “Fr. Jose
Antonio Diaz” cannot be found in any of the credible books on Spanish
colonial history like Nicholas P. Cushner’s
Spain in the Philippines: From
Conquest to Revolution
(1971) and John N. Schumacher’s
Revolutionary
Clergy: The Filipino Clergy and the Nationalist Movement, 1850-1903
(1981). Even the photo used to depict Fr. Diaz in Tuklas ni Kulas’ video
is actually a picture of Fr. Gregorio Aglipay, the founder of the Iglesia
Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) (Gealogo,
2021). It should also be noted that Rizal’s death in 1896 remains an
undeniable historical fact. There are primary sources to prove this and
reliable books on Rizal like Leon Ma. Guerrero III’s
The First Filipino: A
Biography of Jose Rizal
(1971) convey the same narrative. Nevertheless,
this video content managed to gain more than 490,000 views on
YouTube. What is more troubling are the comments of netizens who
actually agree that the myth is credible (Fig. 5).
38
Fig. 4. “Ang LIHIM na natuklasan | The Marcos and Rizal UNTOLD STORIES
in HISTORY” on the YouTube channel of Tuklas ni Kulas uploaded on 20 April
2021.
Fig. 5. Comments section of the video content entitled, “Ang LIHIM na
natuklasan | The Marcos and Rizal UNTOLD STORIES in HISTORY” uploaded
by Tuklas ni Kulas.
39
The mythical stories of the Tallano gold and the Marcos wealth are
remarkably detailed but incredibly outlandish. They cite historical facts
and twist them to satisfy the purpose of myth-making. These myths,
more importantly, curb the public’s perception of the Marcos legacy.
For example, the purported source of the Marcos wealth – whether
from the Tallano clan or from Fr. Diaz/Rizal – challenges evidence of
graft and corruption committed by the Marcoses. The amplication of
Marcosian revisionism on various social media platforms is undeniably
detrimental to the historical consciousness of Filipinos.
History-Writing, Therapeutic Historiography, and the Marcos
Myths2
This last section interrogates Tucker’s concept of therapeutic
historiography and explains how the Tallano-Marcos myths qualify as
evidence of this particular type of negative historical revisionism. But
before probing into these concepts, it is essential to underscore the
nuances in history-writing that produce dierent versions of historical
narratives. Carl L. Becker (1955, pp. 336-337), past president of the
American Historical Association, argues that “every generation writes
its own history… we build our conceptions of history partly out of our
present needs and purposes…” Therefore, the historian’s nal output
– the constructed past – is an imprint of a certain perspective which
resonated with a generation’s collective experiences, ideals, and
biases. Tucker (2008, p.8) posits that “historiographic interpretations
are aected by moral and aesthetic values, by the aliations, political
biases and perspectives of the historians who write them. This is the main
reason for the dierences between historiographic interpretations.”
That is why the existence of contending narratives prove the dynamic
yet complicated nature of history as a discipline. It should be noted,
however, that history, though not completely devoid of biases, should
not prescribe a certain viewpoint or lens as a means to read the past.
Rather, the discipline strives to convey the truth about the past done
through a scientic methodology. Moreover, so much is at stake in the
historian’s craft that posterity relies on their work to gain an ample
consciousness of the past. This ultimately cultivates an individual’s
notion of national identity and sense of belongingness. Hence, the
discipline’s crucial role in shaping the minds of future generations is
precisely why the recent issues about revisionist histories should be
interrogated.
In its most basic denition, historical revisionism involves a
reinterpretation of a past event or a presentation of new narratives
based on newly discovered facts. Reconstructing the past in order to
update it is done by closely following the norms of academic research:
40
ascertaining facts that convey the truth, corroborating contending
views, and producing impartial interpretations. American historian
James M. McPherson (2003) suggests that “revision is the lifeblood
of historical scholarship. History is a continuing dialogue between
the present and the past… The unending quest of historians for
understanding the past—that is, ‘revisionism’—is what makes history
vital and meaningful.” Tucker (2008, p. 1) agrees with McPherson’s
idea of revisionism: “Historiography is a progressive and innovative
discipline composed of various dynamic research programs precisely
because it is capable of revising itself, constantly improving itself,
expanding knowledge and becoming relevant in new historical
contexts.” Indeed, history as a discipline would be static without
the practice of revisionism. The production of academic materials
(e.g. specialized books and textbooks) with “revised editions” are a
testament to the fact that history is an open-ended book.
Following this discussion, historians conduct revisionism
depending on the availability of new sources or the use of fresh
perspectives in interpretation. Tucker (2008, pp. 1-2) calls this as
evidence-driven revision because it relies on the discovery of
new evidence in order to produce new knowledge about the past.
Furthermore, he mentions two other types of revisionism – signicance-
driven revision underscores what historians consider important about
the past and has the potential to incite a better understanding of
the present while value-driven revision highlights a unique set of
values that historians employ in order to evaluate historical events
and its many facets. These three constitute what scholars consider
as “positive historical revisionism.” Conversely, “negative historical
revisionism” is the most heinous form of this practice (see Diokno
2021).3 Italian historian Giovanni C. Cattini (2011, p. 30) posits that “in
common parlance, the word revisionism takes on a pejorative meaning
because it is associated with a vulgar use of certain historical events
manipulated for political ends and with a complete lack of scientic
foundation.” The keywords here are “manipulation” and “lack of
scientic foundation” which are core to negative revisionism. And to
use the inevitability of human bias as an excuse to twist facts and
spread disinformation is a corruption of the historian’s sacred duty
to uphold the truth about the past. Furthermore, Tucker (2008, p. 5)
explains that the existence of negative revisionism placates certain
insecurities among individuals or groups:
Revisionist historiography usually relies on therapeutic
values instead of the standard consensus-generating
cognitive [scientic] values that historians of diverse
41
backgrounds agree on. Therapeutic values rate
historiographic propositions according to their eect
on the psychological well-being of their intended
audience. [
emphasis added
]
These therapeutic values usually compliment political motives
because they (1) deny historical guilt, (2) promote self-respect for an
individual or group, or (3) eliminate a sense of alienation and absurdity
through conspiracy theories. That is why myths and conspiracy
theories, for example, become eective tools for political manipulation
because they aect the psychological well-being of a group of people
by appeasing their frustrations. Tucker (2008) argues, “such faith
in a conspiracy theory has a therapeutic value because it shifts the
responsibility for perceived misery onto someone else and releases the
believer from self-inspection, self-criticism that might well lead to an
acknowledgement of a need to reform and change his culture” (p. 6). A
perfect example of negative revisionism that appeases vested political
interests was the controversial book of David Irving entitled,
Hitler’s
War
(1977). Here, Irving argues that Adolf Hitler had no knowledge of
the Holocaust and that only the likes of Heinrich Himmler were aware
of the genocide. Moreover, the author depicted Hitler as an intelligent
and strategic leader who wanted prosperity for Europe but was
eventually compromised by his incompetent subordinates (see Jackel
1993). Irving’s work blatantly denies Hitler’s guilt of the Holocaust and
dismisses his track record as a fascist despite overwhelming evidence.
Irving is thus guilty of negative revisionism done through historical
negation – an act which disregards evidence in favor of a certain bias.
In its very essence, negative revisionism – in this case,
therapeutic historiography – is harmful because it allows people to
believe in invented narratives that are largely based on questionable/
contentious/manipulated facts and false analysis of data directed at
myth-making. Positive revisionism should thus take the paramount
role in the practice of rewriting history because it is grounded on
scientic methodology. The Tallano-Marcos myths cited in this essay
display how therapeutic values are weaved through their respective
narratives. The Kilusang Bagong Lipunan website asserts that the
source of the Marcos wealth can be traced to the Tallano gold given
to the former for his legal services. The video content by egYolkTV
features the Tallano interview aimed at establishing the “credibility” of
the Tallano “royal family” by historicizing the existence of an alleged
Maharlika kingdom dating back to the precolonial period. The video
content by Tuklas ni Kulas provides a similar narrative about the source
of the Marcos wealth but without the Tallano clan’s role. In a rather
42
outlandish story, Fr. Diaz, who is actually Rizal, entrusted the gold to
Marcos for a supposed “greater purpose.” These invented stories which
boast themselves to be the “hidden/real” history of the Philippines
integrate therapeutic values, as per Tucker’s (2008) analysis, because
they mainly serve the purpose of denying Marcos’ historical guilt and
promoting self-respect for his clan. The myth of the gold created an
altered past where the Marcoses were already wealthy even before
their political heyday. It challenges evidence of graft and corruption
committed by the Marcoses during their regime and dismisses the
fact that they plundered public coers. More importantly, the Tallano-
Marcos myths whitewash the tarnished legacy of the Marcoses in
Philippine history and politics.
These invented narratives remain popular because social
media is being used as a tool to establish a disinformation network
that peddles historical distortion. These myths also target the
psychological well-being of Filipino netizens which is why many
believe in them despite their innate dubiousness. As Murray (1959)
reiterates, myth-making evokes admiration, empathy, and awe
from its audience. This assertion is true for the Tallano-Marcos
myths as evidenced in the social media comments articulated by
Filipino netizens and the virality of these narratives in various social
media platforms. In analyzing conspiracy theories and why people
believe in them, Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton, and Aleksandra
Cichocka (2019) of the University of Kent explain:
… it is argued that people are attracted to conspiracy
theories in an attempt to fulll epistemic [a search
for reason and certainty], existential [to feel safe and
secure], and social [a sense of belonging] motives… we
also argue that conspiracy theories cannot simply be
viewed as something that only the most gullible people
will believe… people will not believe in just anything but
they will believe what is likely to help them satisfy their
motives. (p. 72)
These myths and conspiracy theories satisfy the motives of
Filipinos by giving them a sense of belongingness and security among
people of similar political biases. Marcosian revisionism also became
eective tools for political manipulation because they played with the
Filipino’s nostalgia for the purported “golden age” of the Marcos years.
Talamayan (2021) posits that “empirical evidence from various social
media posts and comments showed that the nostalgia for Marcos’
martial law helps turn the Marcos propaganda into a grammar that
43
frames people’s articulation of their frustrations, discontent, and
aspirations” (p. 300). Richard J. Heydarian (2021) agrees to this
point because nostalgia had been amplied by the “many failures of
democratic politics” which allowed the Marcoses’ political resurgence.
To some extent, Marcosian revisionism became a means for Filipinos
to articulate their dissatisfaction with the post-EDSA Revolution
political establishment which failed to address hopes for genuine
social, economic, and political changes. The Marcoses and their
allies continuously take advantage of this situation by establishing
a disinformation campaign and allowing historical distortion to
propagate in order to preserve the mythicized image of Marcos and
his regime.
Conclusion
This essay has thus shown that Marcosian revisionism was
already well-established by the 1970s, as detailed by McCallus
(1989). The Marcosian propaganda machine created a romanticized
story of Philippine society which saw Martial Law as a necessary
ingredient for the birth of a New Society. Moreover, this myth-making
conceived a mythicized image of Marcos that has been ingrained in
the consciousness of many Filipinos, past and present. This essay has
also presented evidence on how disinformation continues to benet
the persona of the Marcoses at the expense of the Filipino public’s
genuine frustrations. The Tallano-Marcos myths, as primary examples,
have invented narratives which underpin the purported existence of
gold as the source of the Marcos wealth. Analyzing these myths using
the framework of Tucker’s (2008) therapeutic historiography reveal
that these stories ultimately resuscitate the tarnished legacy of the
Marcoses and dismiss the fact that their wealth was ill-gotten. In the
end, Marcosian revisionism is a tool of deception that provokes people
to believe that the only way to solve the systemic problems of the
Philippines is to elect another Marcos to power.
On a nal note, the proliferation of Marcosian disinformation
and revisionism are symptoms of larger problems. First, it reveals the
cracks in the Philippine education system. This stresses a sad reality
that quality education is not accessible to all, making formal schooling
a privilege. It also underscores the relevance of the continuing struggle
to make quality education a right for all Filipinos across various social
classes. Second, it unveils the dicult societal conditions that many
Filipinos have to contend with. Despite the absurdness of the Tallano-
Marcos myths, some believe that the “Marcos gold” will solve the
economic problems of the country and thus raise the Filipino’s standard
of living. This reality makes evident the necessity of genuine social,
44
economic, and political change in the country. Lastly, the existence
and virality of Marcosian revisionism can arguably be considered a
product of cultural imperialism and fascism in the 21st century. What
used to be considered as schemes of Westernization by indirectly
controlling mass media, has now evolved into a more heinous form
that demonizes institutions of credibility – like mainstream media –
and spawns state-sponsored agents of disinformation who peddle
historical distortion on various social media platforms. The way that
the Marcoses have taken advantage of the disinformation network
online has already been proven eective by the political campaign
of Rodrigo Roa Duterte in 2016. Networked disinformation is the new
playbook for political elites who seek political tenure in the future
electoral campaigns.
Notes
1. The examples of Marcosian revisionism cited in this section
of the essay were based on the fact-check materials produced by
Akademiya at Bayan Kontra Disimpormasyon at Dayaan (ABKD).
2. This section of the essay is largely lifted from an article I wrote
entitled, “Historical Revisionism: Concept and Practice” published on
September 25, 2020 at Bulatlat.com, an online media outt in the
Philippines.
3. Dr. Maria Serena I. Diokno, professor emeritus of history
from the University of the Philippines Diliman, discussed historical
revisionism on the Martial Law period in an online lecture organized by
the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVVMC)
on September 21, 2021.
45
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49
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karen-hudes
FRANCISCO JAYME PAOLO A. GUIANG is an Assistant Professor at the UP
Department of History. He obtained his B.A. History degree (cum laude, 2012)
and M.A. History degree (2018) from UP Diliman. Currently taking his PhD
in History in the same university, his research interests focus on Marxism in
historical scholarship, the history of activist and student movements in the
Philippines, and nationalism in the Philippines.
50
Progressive faculty and sta join various sectors in protest
against the proclamation of the Marcos-Duterte tandem.
Commission on Human Rights | May 25, 2022
The UP community stages a protest to demand the Board of Regents
attention to the issues faced by teachers, students, sta, REPS,
and other groups in the university.
March 24, 2022 | Quezon Hall, UP Diliman
51
Abstrak
Mahaba ang karanasan ng lipunang Pilipino sa pandemya. Sa
panahong kolonyal, naging kapuna-puna ang mga pamamaraang
isinakatuparan ng mga nasa kapangyarihan upang masugpo ang
pandemya na nagdulot din ng paghihigpit sa mga pamayanan na
lalo pang nagpalala sa karanasan ng kahirapan, kamatayan, at
pagkakasakit ng mga mamamayan. Makikita ang ilang paralelismo
sa karanasang pangkasalukuyan sa mga karanasan sa nakaraan. Sa
ganitong paraan, naging larangan ng tunggalian ang pagharap ng
mga tao at may-kapangyarihan sa pandemya.
Mga susing salita: kasaysayan ng pandemya, digmaan at pandemya,
pampublikong kalusugan, kalusugan at karapatan, at kolonyalismo at
pandemya
Naging hudyat ang pagkasukol at paghuli kay Emilio
Aguinaldo ng mga Amerikanong mananakop sa Pilipinas noong 23
Marso 1901 bilang pagsisimula ng pagsasakatuparan ng bagong
kaayusang kolonyal sa kapuluan.1 Sa katunayan, ang isinagawa
ng mga Amerikanong proklamasyon ng pag-iral ng “kapayapaan”
matapos ang pagkahuli kay Aguinaldo ang nagbadya ng higit na
panunupil ng mga armadong pakikipaglaban ng mga makabayang
mamamayan laban sa pananakop. Isinakatuparan ng bagong
kolonyal na pamahalaan ang militaristikong pamamaraan ng
pagsupil sa mga armadong puwersang ito. Para naman sa mga
pamayanang sumusuporta sa mga rebolusyonaryo, isinakatuparan
ng mga Amerikano ang pagtatatag ng mga concentration camps
kung saan naging malawakan ang gutom at sakit sa hanay ng mga
mamamayan (Schirmer at Shalom 1987, p. 7; tingnan din Francisco
1985, pp. 298-330).
PANDEMYA AT PANUNUPIL SA
GITNA NG PAKIKIDIGMA: ILANG
TALANG PANGKASAYSAYAN
SA PANDEMYA NG KOLERA SA
KATAGALUGAN, 1903
FRANCIS A. GEALOGO
52
Nasa konteksto ng digmaan ang pagkalat ng gutom, sakit, at
pandemya sa mga unang taon ng ika-20 dantaon. Kahit napasuko
na si Aguinaldo, ang mga pakikihamok laban sa mga Amerikano
nina Luciano San Miguel, Faustino Guillermo, Macario Sakay,
Cornelio Felizardo, Julian Montalan, at iba pang mga armadong
pakikipaglaban ang kapanabay na naganap habang may krisis sa
kapaligiran at kalusugan na nagaganap sa kapuluan, partikular sa
Katagalugan.
Maraming pagkasasalanta sa mga hayop at halaman sa
panahong nabanggit. Ang pagkalat ng sakit ng mga hayop noong
1902-07 ang lubhang nakaapekto sa kalagayan ng produksyon at
kabuhayan ng lipunan. Karaniwang mga alagang hayop para sa gamit
agrikultural at pagkain ang mga matinding naapektuhan. Tinatayang
75-80 (U.S. War Department 1909, p. 87) hanggang 90 (Atkinson 1905,
p. 165) bahagdan ng mga alagang hayop ang kinakalkulang namatay
sa panahong tinatalakay. Nagdulot ang ganitong pangyayari ng
lubusang pangamba sa mga nagtatag ng kaayusang panlipunan
dahil sa kahalagahan ng mga kalabaw, baka, kabayo, at iba pang
hayop sa ekonomiya ng bayan.2 Ang ilan sa mga ulat ng pamahalaang
lokal sa Katagalugan ang nagpapahayag ng ganitong kalagayan ng
pag-aalala at pangamba. Ang mga pinuno ng Tayabas at Batangas,
halimbawa ay nagpahayag ng mga nagsasala-salabid na pahayag.
Ayon sa pinuno ng Tayabas (Quezon 1907):
...Bago ang epizootia, maraming kawan ang
lalawigang ito. Tila punum-puno ng lahat
ng uri ng baka ang malawakang parang ng
Catanauan, Mulanay, Bondoc, at San Narciso,
at gayun din ang kalagayan sa mga parang
ng Sariaya, Candelaria, at Tiaong. Gayunman,
pinatay ng epizootia ang aming mga baka, at
patuloy pang ginagawa nito… (p. 464) [
akin ang
pagsasalin
]
Ayon naman sa puno ng Batangas (Solis p. 1905):
...Muling sumulpot ang epizootia mula
Enero hanggang Hunyo (1904) na ikinamatay ng
56 kabayo, 54 baka, 75 kalabaw at 1,595 baboy,
malubha ang sakit laluna sa Lipa na kung saan
namatay ang 50 hayop sa loob ng dalawang
buwan. Karaniwan nang makikita na ang mga
mahihirap na magsasaka ang gumagawa ng
53
gawaing-hayop dahil sa kakulangan ng huli... (p.
405) [
akin ang pagsasalin
]
Kapuna-puna sa mga nabanggit na mga ulat ang kalubhaan ng
ganitong kalagayan. Higit na makikita ang kalubhaan ng sitwasyong
ito kung titingnan ang aktuwal na bilang ng mga alagang hayop sa
Katagalugan na naapektuhan ng peste.
Lalawigan Tinatayang Namatay sa Bahagdan
bilang sakit (1902)
(1902) Aktwal na bilang
Tayabas 41,649 22,104 53.1%
La Laguna 16,635 7,036 42.3%
Cavite 13,431 5,188 38.6%
Batangas 14,989 4,743 31.6%
Rizal 12,024 3,457 28.7%
Bulacan 29,434 6,371 21.6%
Talaan Blg. 1 Bahagdan ng mga Namatay na mga Kalabaw sa Katagalugan, 1902.
Batis mula sa US Bureau of Census, 1902a, 228.
Lalawigan Kalabaw
1891 1903
%
Pagtaas
(Pagba-
ba)
Baka
1891 1903
% Pag-
taas
(Pag-
baba)
Kabayo
1891 1903
% Pagtaas
(Pagbaba)
Batangas 13,506 8,858 (34.4) 17,469 15, 331 (12.2) 12, 427 15,598 25.5
Bulacan 4,000 22,937 437.4 900 341 (65.1) 2,500 1,781 (28.8)
Cavite 6,640 7,801 17.5 1,988 1,088 (45.3) 4,746 3,316 (30.1)
La Laguna 13,736 8,327 (40.0) 11,100 583 (94.7) 6,801 5,841 (14.1)
Rizal
Kasamaang
Maynila
4,387 9,975 127.4 750 424 (43.7) 1,957 10,203 421.4
Tayabas
Kasamaang
Marinduque
17,000 17,935 5.5 13,008 4,303 (66.9) 8,500 14,301 68.2
Talaan Blg. 2
Bilang ng Kalabaw, Baka at Kabayo sa Katagalugan, 1891 at 1903. Batis mula sa US Bureau of Census,
1902a, 235.
Kung titingnan ang mga naitalang bilang, mapapansing malaki
ang naging epekto ng peste sa pagbaba ng bilang ng mga hayop sa
Katagalugan. Subalit, higit na mahalaga rito ang pagtingin sa mga
alagang hayop bilang gamit sa produksyon, pagkain, at kabuhayan
ng tao. Maaaring makaapekto sa dalawa o higit pang pamilya ang
pagkawala ng isang kalabaw o baka, sa produksyong agrikultural at
54
sa kabuhayan mismo ng lokalidad. Kung kaya’t papaano na lamang
kung magiging dagsaan at daglian ang pagkamatay ng mga alagang
hayop? Ilang pamayanan ang maapektuhan nito? Ilang pamilya ang
makararanas ng dislokasyon?
Oo nga’t likha ng kalikasan ang mga pesteng kumapit sa mga
alagang hayop, mahalaga rin ang ginawa ng tao ukol dito. Kung
ilalagay sa konteksto ng digmaan at insureksyon ang pagkalat ng
sakit ng mga alagang hayop, makikita na bunga na rin ng kagagawan
ng tao ang isang dahilan nito. Hindi lamang isinakatuparan ang
patakaran ng rekonsentrasyon para sa mga tao kundi para na
rin sa mga hayop. Isang tala sa pahayagan ang nagpatunay nito
(“Rinderpest Decimates Cavite Carabao Herds” 1905):
…Ang mga kalabaw na ipinailalim sa
rekonsentrasyon upang maiwasan ang mga
ladrones ang nagpakalat ng sakit... Kumalat na
ang epizootia (rinderpest) sa mga alagang hayop
sa Cavite... ang pagkalat ng sakit at tinatayang
bunga ng rekonsentrasyon ng mga alagang
hayop sa lahat ng mga di-naapektuhang mga
distrito, upang maiwasan ang pagkahuli ng mga
ladrones sa mga ito... Pinangangambahan na sa
panahong payapa na ang lalawigan wala nang
matitirang alagang hayop na magtatrabaho sa
bukid... Ilan sa mga alagang hayop na nadala sa
mga kampo ay yaong apektado ng epizootia at
ang sakit ay mabilisang kumalat sa ibang mga
hayop... (1, kol. 1) [
akin ang pagsasalin
]
Hinahayaang kumalat at dumami ang peste sa mga alagang
hayop bunga na rin ng kalagayan ng pakikidigma at pasipikasyon sa
mga itinuturing na kaaway ng kaayusang kolonyal. Tinitingnan na hindi
maiiwasan ang pagkalat ng peste at hinihinging pangangailangan ng
pagkakataon, bunsod na rin ng mga nagaganap na digmaan. Naging
bunga ng programang pasipikasyon ang pagbilis ng pagkalat ng mga
sakit ng mga hayop at paglala ng krisis sa sakahan at paghahayupan
ng mga pamayanang naapektuhan.
Ang pagkalat ng balang (locust) ang isa pang karanasang
nagpalala ng krisis sa mga pamayanan sa Katagalugan sa panahong
tinatalakay. Ito ang laksa-laksang mga insekto na dumadalaw sa
isang agrikultural na lugar (hal. palayan) at nakauubos ng mga
pananim bilang pagkain. Paglisan nito, halos tangkay na lamang
ang natitira sa pananim. Halos maitatakda sa isang siklo sa bawat
55
taon ang “pagdalaw” ng mga balang sa Katagalugan. Nananalanta
ito sa mga palayan kapag tag-araw at kakaunti ang ulan.
Pagdating naman ng tag-ulan, hindi gaano ang pananalanta nito3
sa kadahilanang hindi ito gaanong makalipad at nangamamatay
sa pagkabasa ng malakas na buhos ng ulan. Sa Katagalugan, halos
nagkaroon ng 10 taon ng pananalanta sa mga balang (Solis 1905,
p. 405) sa pagpapalit ng dantaon at nagbunga ito ng pagbaba ng
produksyon. Kapuna-puna na naganap sa baywang ng Katagalugan
ang pananalantang ito – sa mga sentro ng agrikultural na mga
bukirin at taniman.
Hindi nakaligtas ang mga tao sa malalang krisis dulot ng
mga peste sa mga hayop at halaman. Ang “pagdalaw” ng epizootia
at balang sa mga hayop at halaman ang sinabayan ng pagdalaw ng
maraming epidemya na ikinamatay ng maraming tao. Malaki ang
papel ng kapaligiran sa pagkalat ng mga nakahahawang sakit. Ang
mga ilog at lambak na pinagkukunan ng tubig ng mga kapatagan,
pati na ang mga baybay-dagat na siyang daungan ng mga barko
ang kalimitang siya ring unang pinagkakitaan ng mga sakit.
Halimbawa, noong 1902-03 pinagbawalang lapitan ng mga taga-
Montalban, San Mateo, at Marikina ang ilog Marikina at ang lambak
nito dahilan sa pinangangambahang baka kumalat sa Maynila ang
mikrobyong nagdadala ng sakit (Philippine Islands Department of
Interior, Bureau of Public Health 1905, p. 51). Kinailangang sunugin
ang buong distrito ng Farola sa bunganga ng Pasig sa loob ng Maynila
(Heiser 1936, p. 105) dahil sa pinaghihinalaang pinagmumulan ng
mga mikrobyong nakuha sa mga sasakyang-dagat na magdala
ng mikrobyo ng sakit. Pinaghihinalaan din ang Jala-jala sa Lawa
ng Bay (Laguna de Bay) ang pinagmulan ng sakit nang muli itong
maranasan noong 1905 (“Cholera Outlook Very Reassuring,” 1905).
Ang mga ilog at lawa, bilang tagapag-ugnay ng mga
kapatagan, ang siya ring naging kinilalang tagapagdala at
tagapagkalat ng mga nakahahawang sakit. Dahil maraming bilang
ng lawa, ilog, at kapatagan sa Katagalugan na maaaring magsilbing
lokus ng pagkalat ng sakit, dito makikita ang mga unang kaso ng
mga kumakalat na peste sa Pilipinas. Mahalaga rin ang kalapitan
nito sa Maynila sa dahilang kapag kumalat ang sakit na nagmula
sa ibang bayan, kalimitang sa Maynila ito unang ipinapakilala sa
dahilang ito ang pangunahing daungan sa bansa. Hindi katakataka
na kabilang ang lahat ng lalawigan sa Katagalugan sa unang
15 lalawigang nakapagtala ng unang kaso ng kolera noong
1902, at ang Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite at Bataan ang unang apat sa
listahang ito (Worcester 1909, p. 26). Naging lalong kapuna-puna
sa Katagalugan ang epekto ng mga sakit at epidemya na kumalat
56
sa bansa. Ayon sa Census ng 1903, 13 lalawigan ang nakaranas ng
pagbaba ng populasyon sa pagitan ng 1887-1903. Apat dito – ang
Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, at Rizal – ang mga katabing-lalawigan
ng Maynila, samantalang at tumaas lamang nang kaunti ang
populasyon ng Cavite (U.S. Bureau of Census 1902b, p. 21).4 Makikita
ang ganitong pagbaba ng populasyon sa mga sumusunod na bilang.
Lalawigan 1903 1887 1876
Batangas 257,715 311,180 331,874
Bulacan 223,327 239,221 247,227
Cavite 134,779 135,053 131,658
La Laguna 148,606 169,983 141,145
Rizal 148,502 188,434 191,859
Tayabas 150,262 121,078 121,331
Talaan Blg. 3
Populasyong Kristiyano sa Katagalugan, ayon sa lalawigan (batay sa mga
Senso ng 1903, 1887, 1876). Batis mula sa US Bureau of Census 1902b, 20.
Lalong kapuna-puna ang napakataas ng bilis ng pagkamatay
sa mga nabanggit na lalawigan. Ayon sa mga sumusunod na bilang:
Lalawigan Tantos ng Pagkamatay
1902 1903
Batangas 132.9 39.1
Bulacan 58.3 40.2
Cavite 66.6 46.9
La Laguna 107.1 41.1
Rizal 80.0 50.3
Tayabas 62.7 37.0
Talaan Blg. 4
Tantos ng Pagkamatay, 1902 at 1903. Batis mula sa US Bureau of Census
1902c, 22 at 25.
Isa sa maaring dahilan ng depopulasyon sa Katagalugan ang
pagkalat ng epidemya na nakakaapekto sa populasyon ng tao. Ayon
sa Census ng 1903, naging napakamakabuluhan sa panahong ito ang
pagkalat ng mga sakit sa pagtakda ng dami ng tao sa Katagalugan.
Sa katunayan, isa ito sa mga dahilan na nagbunga ng kamatayan
sa nakararaming Tagalog. Sa paglala ng epidemya ng kolera noong
1902-1904, tinatayang umabot sa 109,461 ang namatay sa kolera
(Torres 2010, p. 128).
57
Marami dito ang nagmula sa Katagalugan. Ayon sa mga
sumusunod na bilang, ang mga naitalang dahilan ng kamatayan ay
bunga ng mga sakit.
Lalawigan Mga Sakit Kaugnay
(bilang ng namatay) Malarya Bulutong Kolera ng Pagtatae Tuberkolosis
Batangas 13,216 44 10,383 2,737 1,753
(34,257)
Bulacan 2,041 248 2,494 688 1,704
(13,015)
Cavite 2,073 289 1,893 885 766
(8,983)
La Laguna 4,877 2 4,763 1,308 1,994
(15,918)
Rizal 1,648 148 3,370 873 1,172
(11,883)
Tayabas 3,501 1 1,569 885 1,077
(1,418)
Talaan Blg. 5
Sanhi ng Pagkamatay sa Katagalugan, 1903. Batis mula Torres 2010,
“The Americanization of Manila, 1898-1921,” 139.
Maaaring suriin ang pagkalat ng mga sakit at epidemya,
pati na rin ang ibinungang pagbaba ng populasyon bilang likha
ng iba’t ibang salik ang penomena ng depopulasyon: kagutuman,
pagkakasakit, kamatayan, at iba pa. Maaaring maiugat ang mga ito
sa mga bagay na likha ng kalikasan: pananalanta ng mga peste sa
hayop at halaman, pati na ang pagkalat ng mga sakit sa mga lugar
na angkop sa pagkalat nito. Ang pagbabagtas ng dalawang ritmo
ng galaw ng kalikasan ang nakaapekto rito. Subalit sa panahong
1902-1907, hindi lamang kalikasan ang aktor-pangkasaysayan ng
nagbigay-katangian sa lipunan ng Katagalugan. Sa panahong ito,
binagtas ng digmaan, pagbubuo ng mga institusyon ng estado, at
pagkabuo ng mga masang pagkilos ang sona ng Katagalugan. Kung
tutuusin, hinubog din ng kalikasan ang mga institusyong panlipunan at
kolektibong kamalayan. Ang pagtatagpu-tagpo ng mga elementong
ito ang bumuo at humubog sa katangian ng sonang Katagalugan.
Nagdulot ng “krisis” ang kalikasan bilang aktor pangkasaysayan sa
pamamagitan ng paghugpong ng dalawang ritmo ng galaw nito.
Sasalubungin pa ang krisis na ito ng iba pang mga krisis na siyang
nagbigay-kataalan sa subersyon ng mga taong-labas sa kaayusang
panlipunan sa Katagalugan.
Sa isang pangunahing pahayagan sa Maynila, sa panahon
ng pagkalat ng epidemya ng kolera noong 1905, naitala ang isang
kapuna-punang pangyayari sa Katagalugan (“Medicine- Men Scare It
O—Cavite Comes Forward with a New Remedy for Cholera, Working
like a Charm,” 1905):
58
Noong nakaraang gabi, mahigit sa 500 tao ang
nagtipon-tipon at matapos makinig sa mga
talumpati ng mga propeta at manghuhula ng
bayan ay nagsimulang purgahin ang lugar ng
parusa ng kolera. Naitala ang ilan lamang ng mga
kaso ng kolera... subalit lubusang naapektuhan
ang katabing-bayan ng Noveleta [Cavite]. Ang
mga pinuno ng bayan at ng mga panatikong
relihiyoso ay nagtulungan sa pagtawag at pag-
ipon ng mga tao at pagbibigay ng mga serbisyo.
Ayon sa hepe ng pulisya ng Cavite, hindi
nagtangka ang mga pinuno ng baryo na turuan
ang mga tao ng pangangailangang linisin ang
kapaligiran at maingat na paghahanda ng
pagkain. Tinawag at tinipon lamang nila ang
mga tao at ipinahayag sa pamamagitan ng
ilang piling salita ang paniniwalang pagdalaw
ng matinding galit ng Poon ang nadaranasang
parusa. Tinagubilinan ang mga tao na magdasal
at palayasin ang espiritu ng demonyo upang
mapaalis ang salot sa kanila. Nagtipun-tipon sila
nang nakaharap sa look, nagsindi ng kandila at
sulo at nagsagawa ng mga kakaibang seremonya
at mga awit, humihiling sa Diyos na pawiin na
ang parusa, kapalit ng pagiging mabuting
mamamayan nila.... [
akin ang pagsasalin
]
Makikita sa nasabing tala sa pahayagan ang pananaw ng
awtoridad reaksyon ng mga karaniwang mamamayan sa pagkalat
ng epidemya. Ikinibit balikat lamang ito ng ilan at sinabing wala
talagang mapapala sa mga makaluma at walang-alam na pagkilos
ng mga tao sa pagharap sa epidemya. Masasalamin sa tala na
tila sinisisi pa ang mga karaniwang mamamayan sa mga maling
paniniwala at mga gawi ng tao ang dahilan kung kaya lumalaganap
ang mga sakit. Sa katunayan, ilang mga reklamo ang ipinahayag
ng mga lokal na pinuno at mga pamayanan sa kawalan ng pagkilala
at paggalang ng mga bagong mananakop sa paniniwala, gawi, at
kaalaman ng mga tao sa pag apula sa sakit (Torres 2010, pp. 131-
133.). Maraming pagkakataon ang makikita na naging lokus ng
pagpapahayag ng pagtutol ng mga mamamayan ang mga pananaw
ukol sa pagkalat ng sakit, at ang ginagawa ng mga mananakop sa
pagsugpo ng epidemya. Isa sa halimbawa nito ang paglalathala ng
59
mga dagli ukol sa epidemya at sakit, na sumasalamin sa pananaw
ng tao hindi lamang ukol sa epidemya, kundi ang pang-aabuso ng
kapangyarihan at panunupil sa mga mamamayan na ibinunga ng
mga programa laban sa kolera. Halimbawa nito ang sumusunod
(“Lumuhod Kayo’t Mamumuno Ako,” 2007, pp. 93-95):
Sa sakit na kolera
Sa mga sanitaryong sikulate
Sa mga nakakagulat na vagon
Sa mga inspektor na abusado
Sa mga medikong walang muwang
Sa mga hirap at sakit sa San Lazaro
Sa mga Amerikanong lasing
Sa mga Amerikanong abusado
Sa mga mandudukot
Sa mga mandarambong
Sa mga hingoista
Sa mga mag-aapi…
Iligtas mo po kami
Ibigay sa atin ang independensiya
Magkaroon ng pagpapantay pantay
Siya na ang pag iiringan
Ihalal ang mga Pilipino ng mangatuto
Magkaisa tayong lahat
Siyang dapat…
Ora pro novis celerastis politcitis sanitariarum
Oh diene ofeciamos permacionem amen
OREMUS
Lahatur nang mga bagay bagayatur sa letaniaturm ay siyang
larawatum ng bayanang Pilipinarum per kahirapan rebentatum.
Indikasyon lamang ng lalim at lawak ng kayang abutin ng
kamalayan bilang kasagutan sa naganap sa krisis ng kapaligiran.
Sa katunayan, patotoo ng Katagalugan ang nabanggit na tala
hinggil sa pananaw at pagtingin ng tao sa mga nagaganap. Naririto
halos ang mga mahahalagang elemento ng salamin ng kolektibong
kamalayan: ang pagkakaroon at pagsasagawa ng ritwal upang
maganap o maisakatuparan ang mga pangyayari ang pagtitipon ng
mga mamamayan (pinuno man o tagasunod) at pagsasama-sama
sa pagsasagawa ng pinaniniwalaan; pagkakaroon ng malayang mga
pahayag at mga talumpati na hindi lamang nagpaliwanag ukol sa
dahilan ng kanilang ginagawa, kundi upang pagtibayin ang sama-
samang paggawa at pagkilos ng mga tao upang maabot ang mithiin.
60
Sa madaling sabi, ang sama-samang pagsasakatuparan ng ritwal na
may relihiyosong katangian ang ginamit upang magbigay-kasagutan
sa mapanganib na babala ng kamatayan bunga ng epidemya ng
kolera. Mahalaga rito ang pagsasalamin ng naitalang nangyari ang
pananaw ng mga Tagalog ukol sa mga sakit. Hindi lang likha ng mga
dumi at mikrobyo ang mga sakit, kundi bahagi ito ng pang-aabuso
ng mga nasa kapangyarihan upang maisakatuparan ang pananakop.
Ginagamit ang epidemya para supilin ang mga mamamayan, at
magsakatuparan ng pagmamalupit sa mga tao. Mahalaga rin sa dagli
ang tunguhin ng paglaya bilang paraan upang masugpo ang pagkalat
ng pasakit dulot hindi lamang ng epidemya kundi ng pananakop.
Sa porma ng dasal isinakatuparan ang dagli na nagpapahalaga sa
pananampalataya bilang pahayag ng pagtutol at paglaban.
Tanda ng pagkakaiba ng mga panukat at pamamaraan
ng pagpapaliwanag ng dalawang magkaibang pananaw (mga
tutol sa pananakop sa isang banda at mga Amerikano at mga
kakampi nito, sa kabilang banda) ang reaksyon ng mga tao ukol sa
isinasagawang pamamaraan ng mga Amerikano upang masugpo
ang mga nagdaang epidemya. Isang mahalagang punto ukol dito
ang kaso ng paglaganap ng kolera sa Katagalugan, noong 1902-03
at 1905. Sa paglaganap ng epidemya, nagsagawa ang Kawanihan
ng Kalusugan ng ilang mga pamamaraan ng pagsugpo at pagpigil
ng mga sakit. Ilan dito ang paghihiwalay ng mga may-sakit sa wala
pang sakit, disimpeksyon ng lahat ng bagay at ang buong bahay ng
may-sakit (at ang pagbabawal ng pagtahan dito sa loob ng hindi
bababa sa limang araw), pagtatatag ng kwarentenas sa Maynila
upang maiwasan ang pagkalat nito sa ibang bayan, pagbabawal
sa mga prutas at gulay na maaaring kainin ng hilaw, pagsasara sa
lahat ng mga balong inuman ng tubig at pamimigay ng dinalisay na
tubig para inumin ng mga tao, pagsunog ng bangkay ng namatay sa
epidemya, at pagsunog ng mga bagay o bahay na pinaghihinalaang
nagkalat ng sakit (U.S. War Department 1905b, pp. 116-117).
Madaling maunawaan ang layunin nito, sa rasyonal at maka-
agham pananaw: dahil sakit na nakakahawa ang kolera at bunga
ito ng pagkalat ng mikrobyo, kailangang sugpuin ang pagkalat ng
mikrobyo o patayin ang mikrobyo upang masugpo ang epidemya.
Kung gayon, may dalawang dapat gawin ang sinumang nais kumontrol
ng sakit: una, ang pag-iwas ng pagkalat ng sakit at pangalawa, ang
pagpapagaling sa may-sakit. Ganito ang oryentasyon ng pagsugpo
ng sakit na isinakatuparan ng mga Amerikano. Subalit ganito rin kaya
ang pananaw ng mga Tagalog ukol sa sakit?
Tulad ng nabanggit na tala noong una, kasama sa pananaw
ng mga Tagalog sa pagkasakit ang pagiging gawa ng Diyos, o
61
kaya ay pang-aabuso ng mga nasa pamahalaan.6 Maraming mga
lumaganap na bali-balita ukol sa kadahilanan ng pagkalat ng mga
sakit. Lumaganap ang mga bali-balita sa panahon ng epidemya na
lason ang inilalagay ng mga Amerikano sa tubig (na ang layuning
disimpektuhin ito) upang patayin ang mga Pilipino7 o kaya naman,
napabalita din na dala ang sakit ng itim na aso na nakitang tumakbo
sa lansangan bago kumalat ang epidemya (Worcester 1909, p. 59).
Noong Setyembre 1903, kumalat na naman ang epidemya
sa Maynila sa panahong maraming nagsasabi na matatapos
na ang unang paglabas ng epidemya. Ilang pagsisiyasat ang
nagpatunay na bunga ito ng pag-inom ng mga tao sa isang lugar
sa look ng Maynila na binubukalan ng tubig-tabang. Sa ilan pang
imbestigasyon, napag-alamang nagmumula ang tubig sa ilang
naputol na tubo ng tubig sa may Tondo (Heiser 1936, pp. 106-107;
“Report of the Chief Quarantine Ocer for the Philippine Islands
For the year ending 31 August 1904,” 1905, p. 282).
Subalit iba ang dahilan kung bakit nagpuntahan ang mga
tao rito. Sinisi ng mga kolonyal na awtoridad ang paghahanap ng
tao sa maiinumang tubig malapit sa kanilang lugar. Pinasaringan
pang dahil sa maling paniniwalang pangrelihiyon ukol sa tubig ang
dahilan ng pag-inom ng mga tao sa ilang mga pinagmumulan ng
tubig. Nagdagsaan daw ang mga taong kumukuha ng tubig at
inilalagay sa anumang sisidlan; naliligo doon at nagsisipagdasal.
Sa kasamaang-palad at hindi nalaman ng mga Tagalog na may
dalang sakit ng kolera ang tubig na nabanggit. Sinubukan ng mga
Amerikano na ipagbawal ang pagpunta roon ng mga tao nang
kumalat ang epidemya (“Report of the Chief Quarantine Ocer
for the Philippine Islands For the year ending 31 August 1904” 1905,
p.282). Naging katunggali ng paniniwala at naging sumpa ang
kwarentenas na isinakatuparan ng mga Amerikano. Kukuha ba ang
mga mamamayan ng tubig na maiinom sa mapagkukunan nito
habang sira ang tubong pinagdadaanan ng maiinom o mamamatay
sila sa sakit sa kolera?
May ilang isinakatuparang pamamaraan ang mga Amerikano
upang maiwasan ang paglaganap ng sakit. Ipinanukala na
kinakailangang panatilihing malinis ang kapaligiran at maayos ang
pagkakaluto ng mga pagkain at uminom lamang ng pinakuluang
tubig (Worcester 1909, p. 59; Philippine Islands Bureau of Health
1908, p. 111). Subalit wala namang pagpapaliwanag kung bakit dapat
gawing nakasanayan ang pag-inom ng pinakuluang tubig lalo na sa
panahong mainit ang paligid, gayong meron namang tradisyunal
na pamamaraan ng mga tao na uminom mula sa naimbak na tubig
banga at gamit ang lumbo (Heiser 1936, p. 111), na tagasalok ng
62
tubig maaari nang makapamatid-uhaw sa sinuman. Hindi malinaw
ang pagkakalahad sa ugnayan ng pag-inom ng tubig sa banga at
ang pagkakasakit ng kolera. Hindi rin madaling maipaliwanag kung
bakit hindi dapat magkamay sa pagkain, at kung ano ang dahilan
upang baguhin ang tradisyong ito (Philippine Islands Bureau of
Health 1908, p. 111).
Nang ipagbawal ang pagtitinda ng kakanin bunga ng
pagsasaalang-alang sa kalinisan, napunang kasabay din nito ang
pagtaas ng halaga ng mga gulay. Dahil inaangkat ang nakararami
sa mga gulay mula sa Canton at Hong Kong, at dahil naunang
naitala sa mga nabanggit na lugar ang kaso ng kolera kaya
nagtasang kontrolin ng mga opisyal ng kwarentenas ang pagpasok
nito sa Maynila (Devins 1905, p. 182). Nagbunga rin ito ng pagtutol
sa mga tao dahil sa kakulangan ng pagkain sa pamilihan at sa
pagbabawal na ipagbili ang ibang dating karaniwang makikita
sa pamilihan. Naging malawakan ang pagtingin na pinapipili ng
kwarentenas ng mga Amerikano ang mga mamamayan kung gusto
nilang mamamatay sa gutom, mamamatay sila dahil sa kawalan ng
kabuhayan o mamamatay sila sa kolera.
Kung bibigyang-pansin naman ang mga pahayag ng mga
karaniwang tao hinggil sa pagkalat ng kolera, lalong makikita
ang kawalang kakanyahan ng mga Amerikano na ipaloob ang
mga nasasakupang mamamayan sa maka-agham na kaisipang
pangkalusugan. Ang mga usap-usapan sa ginagawa ng mga
Amerikano ay nagpadagdag sa kilabot at sindak na likha ng
epidemya. Nang unang matuklasan sa Distrito ng Farola ang kolera,
halimbawa, ipinag-utos ni Dean C. Worcester ang paglikas ng mga
tao at pagsusunog ng buong distrito. Habang naglalagablab ang
buong distrito sa harap ng mga natatakot ng mga Tagalog, kumalat
ang bali-balita na sinusunog ng mga Amerikano ang mga tahanan
ng mga mahihirap upang gawing bodega ng mga mayayamang
Amerikano (Heiser 1936, p. 105). Sa katunayan, lalong nagatungan
ang mga bali-balita dahilang ang mga mahihirap ang karaniwang
natamaan ng mga gawaing pangkalinisan ng mga Amerikano –
nakararami sa kanilang mga kubo ang sinunog upang maprotektahan
ang kapaligiran. Maraming mga gamit ang nasira sa pagpapaaso
(fumigation) ng kapaligiran. Kung ihahambing sa bahay na bato at sa
mga gamit ng mayayaman higit na maraming pinsala ang naranasan
ng mga nakatira sa kubo kaysa sa bahay na bato.
Marami ring mga kumalat na nakapangingilabot na kuwento
ukol sa mga ginagawa ng mga Amerikano sa mga may-sakit. Lubhang
di-matanggap ng mga tao kung bakit kailangan ihiwalay sa kanila
ang kanilang kamag-anak na may-sakit. Taliwas muli ito sa tradisyon
63
ng mga mamamayan ng pagdalaw sa may-sakit. Ang pagtatatag
ng kampo sa pagamutan ng San Lazaro para sa mga biktima ng
kolera (Worcester 1909, pp. 21-22) ang lubusang nagpatakot sa kanila.
Kumalat ang bali-balita na binibigyan ng lason at pinahihirapan
ang mga may-sakit na napupunta sa kampo (p. 22). Kalimitan pa,
nagaganap na may darating na naka-unipormeng mga tao at biglang
bubuhatin ang mga may-sakit upang dalhin sa kampo, nang naiiwan
ang kanilang kamag-anak na hindi pinapayagang sumunod. Sa
maraming mga pagkakataon, makakatanggap na lamang sila ng tala
upang kunin ang namatay nilang kamag-anak matapos ang ilang
araw na kinuha ito ng mga may-kapangyarihan (Heiser 1936, p.106).
Ang mga ganitong paglalapat ng militaristikong pamamaraan sa
karanasan ng pagsugpo sa sakit ang nagbunsod sa ilan na ipaglihim
at huwag sabihin sa awtoridad na mayroong maysakit sa kanilang
kubo. Ang takot ng disimpeksyon (kasiraan sa tahanan at gamit ang
kahulugan) at takot sa pagdala ng may-kapangyarihan sa may-
sakit sa ospital (na kamatayan ang kahulugan sa nakararami) ang
siyang higit na bumabagabag sa kanila. Maraming pagkakataon na
tumatakas ang mga tao sa kampanya ng disimpeksyon dala ang mga
banig, gamit, pagkain at tubig (p. 109), o kaya naman, itinatago nila
ang may-sakit sa mga awtoridad.
Sa kadahilanang tinitingnan na ang pagsusunog ng bangkay
ang siyang pinakamabisang paraan ng pagkawala ng mikrobyo sa
katawan ng tao, tinangka ng mga Amerikanong isakatuparan ito.
Subalit hindi ganito ang pagtanggap ng mga tao dahil taliwas na
naman ito sa kanilang paniniwala. Sa katunayan, laging sinasabayan
ang kamatayan sa mga Tagalog ng mga ritwal ng pagbuburol,
paglalamay, hanggang sa paglilibing – mga gawaing kinakailangan
ng pagsasama-sama ng mga kaanak at kakilala ng namatay. Sa
pananaw ng mga Amerikano, makakasanhi pa ang pagkukumpulan
ng mga tao upang ibayong kumalat ng sakit. Subalit sa tradisyon ng
pakikipagkapwa, kinakailangang makiramay sa mga may-sakit at
namatayan bilang bahagi ng pagsasakatuparan ng pakikipagkapwa
(Torres 2010). Maraming mga pagkakataon tuloy na upang maiwasan
ang pagsusunog ng bangkay o ang dagliang pagpapalibing,
dinudukot ng mga Tagalog ang kanilang patay, inililibing sa kanilang
bakuran; itinatapon sa ilog at hinahayaang anurin sa dagat; o dili
kaya’y ipupuslit na lamang nila sa lalawigan kapag gabi, upang
takasan ang kwarantenas. Higit na mabuti iyon kaysa sunugin ang
bangkay ng namatay na kaanak (Worcester 1909, pp. 22 at 29).8 Hindi
kalimitang nabibigyang-pansin na sa militaristikong pamamaraan
ng pagkasugpo sa mga epidemya, iginupo rin ng ng mga Amerikano
ang tradisyunal na gawain, pananaw at kaalaman ng mga tao ukol
64
sa pagdadamayan, pakikipagkapwa, at paghahanap ng kagalingan
laban pagkakasakit at kamatayan.
Ang paghihiwalay ng mga maysakit sa mga walang sakit; ang
pagsusunog ng bangkay; pagbabawal sa paglalakbay; puwersahang
pagkuha sa mga maysakit upang maipaospital; ang pagsunog sa mga
kubo; ang pagbabawal sa pag-inom liban sa mga pinakuluang tubig
– ang makikita bilang mga pamamaraan hindi lamang ng pagkontrol
sa sakit kundi pagkontrol din sa katawan ng tao.
Hindi bulag na reaksyon ng mga tao ang reaksyon ng mga
pamayanan laban sa institusyonal na paghihigpit ng pamahalaan sa
mga mamamayan. Reaksyon ito ng mulat na pagtanggi at pagtutol
sa pagpapaloob at pagsakop ng kapangyarihang dala ng kaalamang
kolonyal na sumasaklaw sa paggalaw ng mga tao, ng katawan
ng tao, at katauhan ng tao mismo. Nagbunga ang isinagawang
mga pamamaraan ng mga Amerikano ng bukas na tunggalian
at paghaharap ng dalawang magkaibang pamamaraan ng
pagsasakatuparan ng pagharap ng lipunan ukol sa sakit, epidemya,
at pasakit.
Mga Tala
1. Para sa batis primaryang tala ukol sa pagsuko ni Aguinaldo,
tingnan ang L. Segovia
The Full Story of Aguinaldo’s Capture
(F. de
Thoma, Trans.). Manila: MCS, 1969.
2. Makikita ang ganitong tono ng pagkagambala sa mga
sumusunod: “Statement of W.H. Taft to the Senate dated Feb. 20, 1902”
(U.S. War Department, 1909) kasama ang sulat ni L. Maus, Comm. of
Public Health para sa Kalihim Pampangasiwaan, 4 Nobyembre 1904
(Maus, 1904, p. 416); “Report of the Civil Governor to the Philippine
Commission” (1902, p. 6); at U.S. Bureau of Census (1902a, p. 227).
3. Ikumpara ang obserbasyon sa “Report of the Governor of
the Province of Batangas Cavite Gov. D.C. Shanks may petsa 30 June
1904” nasa
5th Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, 1904 Part
1
. (U.S. War Department, 1905a, p. 452).
4. Bagaman isang opisyal na Census, maraming limitasyon at
kakulangan ang nasabing tala. Tingnan ang pagsusuri ni Glenn May
(1987, pp. 66-97) sa populasyon ng Batangas sa kanyang “150,000
Missing Filipinos: A Demographic Crisis in Batangas, 1887-1903.”
Gayunma’y hindi pa rin maikakaila na nakaranas talaga ng pagbaba
ng populasyon ang mga bayan sa Katagalugan.
5. “Lumuhod Kayo’t Mamumuno Ako” ay unang nailathala sa
Muling Pagsilang
, 21 Hulyo 1906.
65
6. Tingnan,
4th Annual Report of the Philippine Commission,
1903 Part 2
(U.S. War Department, 1904) p. 106 at Heiser, 1936, p. 103.
7. Tingnan, Worcester (1909), p. 59 at
4th Annual Report of the
Philippine Commission, 1903 Part 2
(U.S. War Department, 1904), p.
106. Tingnan din, Reynaldo C. Ileto (1995, pp. 51-82), “Cholera and
the Origins of the American Sanitary Order in the Philippines,” nasa
Vicente L. Rafael (Ed.),
Discrepant Histories: Translocal Essays on
Filipino Cultures
at Warwick Anderson (2007),
Colonial Pathologies:
American Tropical Medicine, Race and Hygiene in the Philippines.
8. Tingan muli ang kaibahan ng pananaw ukol sa pagpapaospital
at kamatayan, na makikita sa binanggit na dagli sa itaas.
Mga Batis
Anderson, W. (2007).
Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical
Medicine, Race and Hygiene in the Philippines
. Quezon
City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Atkinson, F. (1905).
The Philippine Islands
. Boston: Ginn & Co.
“Cholera Outlook Very Reassuring.” (1905 Agosto 28).
Manila
Times.
Devins, J. B. (1905).
An Observer in the Philippines or Life in Our
New Possessions
. Boston: America Tract Society.
Heiser, V. (1936).
An American Doctor’s Odyssey: Adventures in 45
Countries
. New York: W.W. Norton Co.
Ileto, R. C. (1995). “Cholera and the Origins of the American
Sanitary Order in the Philippines.” Nasa Rafael, V. L. (Eds.),
Discrepant Histories: Translocal Essays on Filipino Cultures
(pp. 51-82). Manila: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
“Lumuhod Kayo’t Mamumuno Ako.” (2007). Nasa Tolentino, R. B.
at Atienza, A. J. (Eds.),
Ang Dagling Tagalog, 1903-1936
(pp. 93-95). Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University
Press.
Luzviminda, F. (1985). “The First Vietnam: The US-Philippine War of
1899.” Nasa Luzviminda, F. and Fast, J. (Eds.),
Conspiracy
for Empire: Big Business, Corruption and the Politics of
Imperialism in America, 1876-1907
(pp. 298-330). Quezon
City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies.
Maus, L. (1904). “Sulat ni L. Maus, Comm. of Public Health para
sa Kalihim Pampangasiwaan, 4 Nobyembre 1904.” Nasa
Senate Document 331
, Part 1, 57th Congress 1st session
ng US Congress. (n.p.).
May, G. A. (1987). “150,000 Missing Filipinos: A Demographic Crisis
in Batangas, 1887-1903.” Nasa May, G. A.,
A Past Recovered
66
(pp. 66-97). Quezon City: New Day Publishers.
“Medicine- Men Scare It O—Cavite Comes Forward with a New
Remedy for Cholera, Working like a Charm.” (1905
Disyembre 15).
Manila Times
, Vol. VIII, No. 58.
Philippine Islands Bureau of Health. (1908).
Philippine Islands
Bureau of Health Annual Report
. Manila: Bureau of Printing.
Philippine Islands Department of Interior, Bureau of Public
Health. (1905).
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Public
Health Covering the Period from September 01, 1903 to
August 31, 1904.
Manila: Bureau of Printing.
Quezon, M. L. (1907). “Report of the Governor of the Province
of Tayabas Manuel Luis Quezon dated 28 July, 1906.”
Nasa
7th Annual Report of the Philippine Commission
1906, Part I
. Washington: Government Printing Oce.
“Report of the Chief Quarantine Ocer for the Philippine Islands
For the Year Ending 31 August 1904.” (1905). Nasa
4th Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, 1904 Part
2
. Washington: Government Printing Oce.
“Report of the Civil Governor to the Philippine Commission.”
(1902).
Report of the Governor General of the Philippine
Islands
. Manila: Bureau of Printing.
“Rinderpest Decimates Cavite Carabao Herds.” (1905, Abril 14).
Manila Times
, p. 1, col. 1.
Schirmer, D. B. & Shalom, S. (1987).
The Philippines Reader: A
History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship and
Resistance
. Boston: South End.
Segovia, L. (1969).
The Full Story of Aguinaldo’s Capture
(F. de
Thoma, Trans.). Manila: MCS.
Solis, G. (1905). “Report of the Governor of the Province of
Batangas Governor Gregorio Solis dated 15 September
1904.” Nasa
5th Annual Report of the Philippine
Commission 1904, Part I
. Washington: Government
Printing Oce.
Torres, C. (2010).
The Americanization of Manila, 1898-1921
. Quezon
City: University of the Philippines Press.
U.S. Bureau of Census. (1902a).
U.S. Bureau of Census, Census of
the Philippine Island
(Vol. 4). Manila: Bureau of Printing.
_____. (1902b).
U.S. Bureau of Census, Census of the Philippine
Island
(Vol. 2). Manila: Bureau of Printing.
_____. (1902c). U.S.
Bureau of Census, Census of the Philippine
Island
(Vol. 3). Manila: Bureau of Printing.
U.S. War Department. (1904).
4th Annual Report of the Philippine
Commission
, 1903 Part 2. Washington: Government
67
Printing Oce.
_____. (1905a).
5th Annual Report of the Philippine Commission,
1904 Part 1
. Washington: Government Printing Oce.
_____. (1905b).
5th Annual Report of the Philippine Commission,
1904 Part 2
. Washington: Government Printing Oce.
_____. (1909). Special Report of Sec. W. H. Taft to the President
of the Philippines. Manila: Bureau of Printing.
Worcester, D. C. (1909).
A History of Asiatic Cholera in the Philippine
Islands
. Manila: Bureau of Printing.
Si FRANCIS A. GEALOGO ay Propesor at dating Tagapangulo ng Department
of History sa Ateneo de Manila University. Siya ay naging Commissioner ng
National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) at naging editor ng
Diliman Review. Bukod dito, naging Fulbright Senior Fellow siya sa University
of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine at naging Rene Descartes
Senior Fellow in the History and Philosophy of Science and the Humanities sa
Utrecht University.
68
REVIEWS
69
E. SAN JUAN, JR.’S
MAELSTROM OVER
THE KILLING FIELDS
REVIEW BY
PAULINO LIM, JR.
San Juan, E. Jr. (2021).
Maelstrom over the Killing Fields:
Interventions in the Project Of National-Democratic
Liberation
. Pantas Press.
From one who has written innumerable books, this volume
may be viewed as an anthology of San Juan’s best essays. It has
a powerful voice that stirs the maelstrom over “the killing elds,”
a metaphor that came out of the Vietnam War (1955-1975), and most
apt for the Philippines, where the rst killing elds took place when the
U.S. military fought and conquered the insurgents and proceeded to
colonize the country (1899-1912).
The anthology presents an “agenda for change and social
transformation.” It focuses on particular themes, situations and
personages, e.g. the diaspora, pandemic, Jose Rizal and Nick Joaquin.
(Was Rizal gay? How do you account for Joaquin’s “tragic-comic
consciousness?) In each essay San Juan goes deep into the subject,
deploying various analytical tools drawn from history, philosophy
and literary criticism, and synthesizes the ndings into a coherent
“knowledge” or information about the subject. The new information
may add, amplify, or revise previously known “facts.” But does it
constitute Truth? Is the latest interpretation analogous to the self-
portraits that the artist paints in the course of his life? It is up to the
reader to decide.
A critical tool that San Juan includes in the analysis is the
“structure of feeling” that informs not only the interpretation
or criticism itself but also the attitude of the critic himself—a
technique he adopted from Charles Sanders Peirce credited in the
Acknowledgements. In ction, laying the feelings of a narrative is
the equivalent of scoring a lm with music.
A simple exercise is to dene the feeling of some elements
of the Preface. San Juan calls in awe the pandemic as a “planetary
upheaval;” condemns the exploitation by “rapacious” capitalists–with
the aid of Karl Marx (I). He mourns the death in 2020 of 67 Filipino
nurses ministering to Covid-19 patients. He recalls with muted pride
the militant Filipino presence in the U.S. that marked the four-day riots
70
in Watsonville, California, in December 1929. The event pregured the
violence against Asians, Filipinos included, being blamed for importing
the virus from Wuhan.
What convinces the reader as in the case of Rizal and
Joaquin, for instance, is San Juan’s close reading of the author’s
works (poems, essays and novels) and tracing the development
of his “sensibility” reected in the work. San Juan’s nal word on
Rizal is that he was “not a messiah, only a prophetic intellectual of
colonized peoples.” San Juan recalls James Michener’s remark that
Rizal’s novels were “directly responsible for the author’s death.”
San Juan sums up Rizal’s challenge for Filipinos to “ght and win
their independence by their own sacrices.” The essay ends with a
passage from “Mi Ultimo Adios.”
“I die when I see the dawn break,
Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take
Pour’d out at need for thy dear sake,
To dye with its crimson the waking ray.” (p. 89)
What entertains the reader are the human-interest and gossipy
details, embellished by San Juan’s often sardonic comments. Rizal’s
Austrian correspondent Ferdinand Blumentritt tries to console him:
“…but you are one of the heroes who conquer pain from a wound
inicted by women. (p. 64) He met in 1888 a 22-year-old O-Sei-San,
a samurai’s daughter, and “may have experienced carnal bliss.” (p.
65) The historian Ambeth Ocampo has interpreted the recurrence
of snakes as phallic symbols in Rizal’s dreams, suggesting that Rizal
may have been a closet gay. (p. 66) Rizal performed a common-law
marriage ceremony with the “wandering swallow” Josephine Bracken
by holding hands together and marrying themselves. The Catholic
priest Father Obach refused to marry them. (p. 67)
Of particular interest to me is the discourse on the Filipino
diaspora. I write as an OFW (overseas Filipino worker/writer), the
largest segment of the Filipino diaspora. (The discourse provides a
prospectus for M.A. and Ph.D., dening six “theses” to pursue.) I am
glad I am not writing in Myanmar (I am three-fourths Malayan) or
in Hong Kong (one-fourth Chinese). I read
Maelstrom
during Advent
anticipating the birth of Christ. What we got instead was the “second
coming” of Covid-19. Nonetheless, I took Communion to celebrate
the presence, and the booster shot to ward o the pandemic. The
pandemic has introduced new modes of learning, done away with
SAT and college entrance exams, re-examined Ethnic and Women’s
71
Studies, as Delia V. Aguilar explores in the afterword (p. 201).
San Juan’s review of the colonization and decolonization of
the Philippines has been a welcomed corrective to my naive reading
of the country’s history. The structure of my feelings was centered
on gratitude. Gratitude to Spain for bringing the Roman alphabet
and the Catholic Religion; to America for introducing democracy,
public education, and English–the lingua franca of the world and the
Internet; and to Japan, after repulsion by the atrocities the military
inicted in the Bataan Death March, for Buddhism, calligraphy, and
the lms of Ozu and Kurosawa.
In San Juan’s capsule review, “The history of the Philippines
may be read as a long chronicle of the people’s struggle against
colonialism and imperialism for the sake of arming human dignity
and universal justice.”
Gratitude still centers my feelings toward the U.S., despite the
white supremacy movement and the “Big Lie” of the 2020 Presidential
Elections being stolen. UCLA exempted me from paying the $600 out-
of-state tuition fee; now it runs to about $32,000. San Juan earned
his bachelor’s degree in English at the secular University of the
Philippines, modeled after the U.S. state university system. I attended
the Dominican university of Santo Tomas, Manila, with its compulsory
Scholastic curriculum requiring courses in Ethics, Cosmology, and two
semesters of Logic. This prepared me for writing term papers in my
UCLA graduate courses in Linguistics, Drama, and American, Romantic
and Victorian Literatures. (I did my Ph.D. dissertation on Byron.)
Teaching at California State University, Long Beach, gave me
time to research and write. I wrote four interrelated novels dealing with
the Marcos Dictatorship that I call, perhaps inordinately, “The Philippine
Quartet.” It is an homage to Lawrence Durrell whose Alexandria
Quartet fascinated me as an undergraduate. In the rst novel
Tiger
Orchids on Mount Mayon
, the protagonist Mark is a surrogate for Marx.
Mark studied at U.P., joined the teach-ins conducted by the Marxist
professor Saldivar and read Mao Tse Tung’s
Red Book
.
In
Maelstrom over the Killing Fields
, San Juan persuades
Filipinos in the homeland and in the diaspora to act on an agenda
for change and social transformation. No other Filipino approaches
his scholarly output and world-wide stature as an intellectual. I honor
him, as I do the journalist Maria Ressa—the rst Filipino to win a Nobel
Peace Prize. There is so much love in what he writes, so much light in
what he says.
PAULINO LIM, JR. is Emeritus Professor of English at the California State
University, Long Beach.
72
E. SAN JUAN, JR.’S
MAELSTROM OVER
THE KILLING FIELDS
REVIEW BY
PAUL GABRIEL L. COSME
San Juan, E. Jr. (2021).
Maelstrom over the Killing Fields:
Interventions in the Project Of National-Democratic
Liberation
. Pantas Press.
E. San Juan, Jr.’s
Maelstrom over the Killing Fields
brings its
readers through a concise yet critical historical montage of Filipino
struggles from the times inside the Spanish convent to American
Hollywood and during today’s struggles against Rodrigo Duterte’s
impunity and war on the poor. Consisting of eight vastly dierent essays,
San Juan focuses on themes, ideas, and situations that encompass a
wide variety of interests and viewpoints on the Filipino struggle.
The opening essays provide the historical topography of how
the Philippine nation developed as a series of struggles between
local classes and colonial forces, namely the Spanish, American, and
Japanese. San Juan traces briey how each colonizer established
and operated its hegemony. Where Spain put minimal eort to co-
opt the local population, the United States crafted a neocolonial
strategy of assimilating the elite classes through a wide variety of
entryways, primarily, education. During the Second World War, the
Japanese wreaked havoc throughout the archipelago, but none of
this chaos and violence would cease as the Americans reclaimed the
Philippines. Even after independence, the United States’ grip on the
Filipino nation remains strong.
San Juan also highlights the historical phenomenon of the
Filipino diaspora and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) as crucial to
revitalizing the mass consciousness towards Filipino determination.
By engaging the problems of OFWs, a critical pedagogy may be
developed to trigger “acts of remembrances and ultimately deliver
collective redemption.” San Juan’s illustration of Fanny Garcia’s
“Arrivederci,” which is set during the peak of the Marcos-induced
exportation of the Philippines, provides us a glimpse of this pedagogy
as to how putting a critical eye on the diaspora may reenergize the
study of culture in the homeland.
In “Diliman Souvenirs, Diasporic Harbingers”, San Juan
provides us a narrative that concerns the failure of communication
73
in the cultural landscape of his alma mater, the University of the
Philippines – Diliman. Through the tradition of semiotics and literary
theory, primarily through Charles Sanders Peirce, the essay shows
us issues of communication by pondering the faculties’ reception
of San Juan’s “Man is a Political Animal,” an ironic ri on Aristotle’s
idea of the human being as a “political animal.”
He also takes prominent cultural gures, specically Jose Rizal
and Nick Joaquin, and combs through their works, contributions, and
controversies that relate them to the project of national liberation.
By taking apart Rizal’s revolutionary novels, San Juan highlights
how Rizal reects on and encapsulates the intersectional struggles
of gender, class, and the nation into an allegorical network that is
all connected to Sisa’s character. Through this exploration, San Juan
uplifts Rizal’s subversive achievement in contributing to a revolution
through a dangerous occupation during those times—writing.
Meanwhile, San Juan takes up Joaquin, whom he claims as the
artist of the Hispanicized Filipinos and
ilustrados
and argues that his
focus on the ordeal of the “urbanized Indios of Metro Manila” fails
to address the plight of the Filipino holistically as he excludes “the
peasantry and the whole proletarian world of serfs, women, tribal or
indigenous communities marginalized by Spanish and US colonial
domination” (p. 131).
San Juan also does not spare discussing nationalism, its
development, and the history of struggles and resistances that
surround it. He traces various actors and events in Filipino history
that contributed to the nationalist project, which consists of the
ilustrados, the propagandists, the revolutionaries, the proletariats,
artists, and intellectuals, which span from the Spanish colonial era
to the Marcos dictatorship. He illustrates gures such as Isabelo de
los Reyes, poet Benigno Ramos, and Salvador Lopez, among others.
San Juan also highlights the contribution of Filipina writers towards
national insurgency. He engages works by Lualhati Bautista, notably
her
Dekada ‘70, Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa?
, and especially her
Desaparecidos
. A notable critic of the Marcos dictatorship, Bautista
attempts to articulate the Filipina experience during those dark times,
and San Juan uplifts Bautista’s eorts to rekindle our collective
memory and to make visible the disappearing bodies and neglected
stories of Filipinas in the national struggle.
San Juan drives the nail with his exegesis of Duterte’s impunity
and war on the poor while connecting the historical lines between
the political drama and circus between the United States and the
Philippines. From Duterte’s exhibitionist anti-Americanism to his
bloody rampages, San Juan discusses how counter-movements and
74
resistances in the homeland and the United States challenge the
violence and human rights abuses of Duterte’s regime in hopes of
stopping the degradation of the Philippine democracy.
One can say that San Juan’s
Maelstrom over the Killing
Fields
distills his scholarship and writings about the Filipino project
towards self-determination without sacricing depth and brevity. His
interventions on the project of national liberation provide a succinct
yet varying accounts of the “Filipino people’s durable tradition of
counterhegemonic revolution” (p. 200) that are informative and
compelling to all readers. Filipinos, especially intellectuals and
compatriots, may nd San Juan’s work refreshing, challenging, and
seriously provocative. But above all,
Maelstrom
strongly reminds us
of the complicated yet rich history of struggles in the making of the
Filipino nation and its psyche.
PAUL GABRIEL L. COSME is a young Filipino composer and student
at the Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
75
LITERARY
76
MULA TORE PATUNGONG SHOPEE:
ILANG LIBRO AT DAGLING
REBYUNG PANLIPUNAN
TILDE ACUÑA
Imperatibong isakontexto muna ang ipinapalagay na
proyektong kinapapalooban ng piyesa: ang tentatibong pamagat
ay
Mga Lazadagling Shopeelifted
. Sa pinakamadaling sabi (sana),
ito ay koleksyon ng mga “set” ng screenshot ng mga rebyu ng nabili
kong produkto sa online app—rebyung pamproduktong nauuwi
sa minsa’y pilit, minsa’y swabeng rebyung panlipunan, madalas
espontanyong stream-of-consciousness antas id. May sapat nang
nakalap na materyal kahit papaano, pero wala pang tiyak na pinal
na disenyo o anyo ang proyekto; ano ba namang tiyak at pinal sa
panahong maraming variant ng kung anu-ano? Tatlo nang katulad
na set ang ganap nang nailathala: “Rebyu ng ‘Anti-IATField at iba
pang dagling rebyu’” sa
Likhaan: Dx Machina 1: Philippine Literature
in the Time of Covid 19
(2020) ng UP Institute of Creative Writing;
“Damnit: Mga dagling rebyu 2020” sa
Community Quaranzine
(2021); at “Mao Zedong at iba pang dagling rebyu” sa
Points of
Contact: Literary Anthology
(2021) ng
Philippine Collegian
. Ang set
na “Dekodigong 1/100: Mga Master, mga grado, mga dagling rebyu”
ay nakasalang rin para sa konsiderasyon ng isang antolohiya.
Sa mga paratexto ng ilang naunang set, nabanggit na
Mga
Lazadagli sa Shopee
ang tentatibong pamagat ng proyekto. Kung
hindi pa halata, bunga ito ng pag-angkop (angcope?) na personal
sa pandemikong situwasyon at krisis pambansang pinatindi pa ng
pasismo. Trip lang ito noong una, pero habang nalululong (noon,
hindi na ngayon) sa online shopping, napagtanto na mukhang may
mabubuong kung ano rito sa pagpupumilit na iugnay ang rating at
rebyu sa napapanahong isyung kinakaharap habang isinasagawa
ang rebyu. Naging tila “installation” ito sa dalawang mayor na
shopping app. Sa ngayon, isa pa lang ang na-take-down o ipinalagay
na “irrelevant” o “oensive” (bagamat wala sa tema ng kasalukuyang
set, isinama na rin sa ibaba ang bukod-tanging rebyung na-censor
ng admin). Ipalagay na lang sigurong kalkuladong sirkumbensyon sa
alituntunin ng mga app ang dahilan kung bakit sa ngayon, naroroon
pa rin ang lahat ng rebyu, maliban sa isa. Mula installation na site-
77
specic, mga screenshot na ito ngayong isinailalim sa kurasyon at
inilagay sa alanganin: exhibit ba ito, o akdang independiyente, o
ehersisyong bahagi ng borador ng isang kabuuan? Ewan.
Ano ang pinagkaiba ng “Mula Toree…” sa mga nauna nang set?
Unahin na natin ang “Damnit…,” dahil ito lang ang bukod-
tanging hindi mga model kit ng Bandai ang tampok. Inilathala ang
Community Quaranzine
bilang komemorasyon sa santaong lockdown
at bilang sabayang akto ng charity at solidarity sa mga magsasaka at
mga maralitang tagalungsod, kaya may tangka akong ikubli ang luho
sa set na ito. May hiya na nga sa pagbubuyangyang nitong kaburgisan,
ano ba naman ang pumili ng produktong tunay na esensyal (damnit!),
lalo kung lalamanin ito ng zine na pang-kawanggawa?
Sa “Anti-IATField…” naman, pahapyaw na prinoblema sa
pasakalye ang kritikal na konsumerismong nagsilbing gasolinang
nagpapatakbo sa makina ng proyekto, pero sa kalaunan, tiyak na
marami pang mapagiisipan. “Maikling kuwento” ang klasipikasyon
ng naturang set sa online portal ng
Likhaan
journal, tulad ng aking
iminungkahi nang isumite ang piyesa; walang dibisyon kada genre sa
mismong e-book o edisyong print. Ipinakilala sa anotasyon ng set na
ito ang ilang paninda ng Bandai: ang “candy toy” na FW Gundam
Converge, ang “action gure” na NX Edge Style, at ang “model kit”
na may “scale.” Tatlo ang naturang scale ng prangkisang Mobile Suite
Gundam: 1/144, 1/100, at 1/60. Pero ibang usapin pa ang “grado” o
linya. Sipi sa anotasyon:
“May kakanyahan din ang linya ng bawat model kit
kaya may inaasahan sa mga ito. Parehong 1/144 scale
ang HG [high grade] at RG [real grade], pero mas pirmi
(stable) at mura ang una kaysa sa huling maselan
(fragile) at mahal. Bagamat parehong 1/100 scale ang
NG [no grade] at MG [master grade], api ang una dahil
ipinapalagay na pinalaking HG lang itong may ‘weight
issues’ kaya problema nito ang stability balang araw;
samantala, matibay at detalyado ang MG, pero minsa’y
nasasapawan pa rin ng RG kung ganda ng anyo (inner
frame at outer surface detail) ang usapin.”
78
Hindi pala nabanggit ang PG (perfect grade) na 1/60 sa “Anti-
IATField…,” dahil wala akong ganoon; hindi pa kaya, hindi pa handa.
Model kits din ang tampok sa “Mao Zeong…” at “Dekodigong…”;
parehong walang anotasyon, pero nagkakaiba sa isinamang mga
grado o linya: SD at HG ang tampok sa una, samantalang NG at MG
sa ikalawa.
Ilang pabaon na lang siguro bago ipagpasa-mambabasa na
ang set na ito: 1) Hindi model kits ang tampok dito, kundi mga libro
(maliban sa na-censor na rebyu ng HG Leo), pero kailangan lang
linawin na model kits ang bulto ng kinapapalooban nitong proyekto;
2) Hindi tulad ng ilang mga set, walang mga “sub-titulo” o dagdag
na paliwanag sa ibaba, dahil hindi kailangang ng “initiation” sa
“uninitiated” dahil hindi naman “niche” (dapat) ang interes sa libro,
kumpara sa model kits; 3) Apektado ng word limit ang espontanyong
komposisyon at dagdag-bawas ng salita sa rebyu; at 4) Walang edits
sa screenshot at sadyang isinama ang petsa upang magkaroon ng
angkla sa kung anong inirereklamong isyung panlipunan ng mga
rebyu sa saglit na isinulat at inilathala ang mga ito.
Si TILDE ACUÑA ay nagtuturo ng mga kurso hinggil sa araling Rizal,
panitikan, kulturang popular, malikhaingpagsulat, at interdisiplinaryong
pananaliksik sa Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas,
Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Diliman.
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SEVEN POEMS
Felino S. Garcia Jr.
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THE POET UNDER ENHANCED COMMUNITY QUARANTINE (ECQ)
Felino S. Garcia Jr.
I think that if my tongue alone could talk it would swear in any
court that poetry tastes like the iodine in blood, or the copper in spit
and makes a salt stronger than tears. -- Fred Merchant, “The Salt
Stronger” from The Looking Glass (2009)
THERE ARE many ways of writing a poem and if you start
counting the poetry written since the invention of writing it can come
up to uncountable ways not to forget those which had been enunciated
through sound and voice without the benet of writing them down
on parchment, paper, or on the walls of caves or temples or baked
sand tablets. The story of poetry is as ancient as the time when human
beings began to wonder about the world they live in. They must have
started to remember the past generation that lived before them. They
could have speculated on what the future may hold for them. They
might have had toyed with the question which went like this -- will
there ever be a future for humanity’s sake?
In between this continuum from past, present to future, the
human being as individual and the person as a citizen, a nationality, or
in a collective has lived through the vicissitudes brought upon by human
and non-human causes. This fact, inextricably, had characterized
human existence with that of the forces of Nature. Poetry not only
as a form of documenting but also of recollecting, remembering
the universal human experiences of triumph and failure, of war and
death, of love, among others, cannot be separated from the particular,
peculiar moorings of human life in the complexity of its varying
contexts throughout time. While the basic and foundational yardstick
of poetry can be anchored on the power of “understatement,” “ironic
and paradoxical tension,” “objective correlative,” “studied ambiguity”
as signicant factors comprising its diverse and aesthetic construction,
poetry is likewise an art form created by socio-cultural and economic
forces. Hence it is a genre that does not only enable “ words to proclaim
their rueful right to sing,-” according to the poet Antonino Soria de
Veyra. But one that is capable of reection — a kind of self-reexivity
geared towards speaking and articulating diverse human truths in the
face of oppression, abuse of political power, injustice and inequality.
It aims to talk back against such inhuman onslaught and backlash. It
is a kind of artistic agitation both personal and collective, which may
or may not directly call everyone to wage a revolution. What Denise
Levertov says — “an act of living” which heightens collective resistance
and rage against the complacency of the day.
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Poetry emerges from a particular insight or vision articulating
a truth or truths of the human experience. Such vision is particularly
critical when society becomes enamoured with corruption and abuse
of material power. Indeed the role of the poet as an agent provocateur
to create linguistic/discursive unrest in order to stand guard against
and actively resist through verse the debilitating eects of the
unconstitutional restrictions imposed against human rights and civil
liberties. While much of art including poetry is created in deep and
profound silence, the poet Adrienne Rich arms that “the impulse to
create begins often terribly and fearfully in a tunnel of silence. Every
real poem is the breaking of an existing silence.”
The seven (7) poems were written when I was quarantined as
a PUM (person under monitoring) in the town of Dumanjug, eighty
kilometers southwest of Cebu Province. An Enhanced Community
Quarantine or ECQ was imposed on March 15, 2020 which locked down
all airports, sea ports and bus, PUJ terminals for all kinds of travel. I
did not make it to Bacolod City to celebrate my mother’s 79th birthday.
Writing these poems was a way of coping with the psychological
disequilibrium caused by the all too sudden territorial displacement
that happened to me between my place of work (Tacloban City) and
my home (Bacolod City).
The ECQ which was implemented in the island of Negros by both
provincial governments there including their capital cities (Bacolod
and Dumaguete) left me with no other choice but to remain in Cebu
City from March 16, 2020 until I was requested to move out of the
hotel where I was staying on March 26, 2020 due to the forthcoming
hotel’s temporary closure on April 1, 2020. By then, Cebu City will have
been placed under the same ECQ. A cousin learned about what had
happened to me through my sister-in-law. I was asked to proceed
to Dumanjug as soon as I could in order not to be caught “doubly
dislocated” and infected by the Covid virus in Cebu City.
All of the poems in this collection were typed on my phone’s
touch screen Messenger a few days after the 26th of March 2020. I
had a laptop but it needed repair. They are testaments to the dierent
and diverse conditions of human vtulnerability not only in its corporeal
sense but likewise in terms of the psychological. Vulnerability is the
entanglement of the bodily and social. Vulnerability is anxiety, trauma,
dislocation, despair, loss, grief and near-death and even death. All
these dismal contexts brought by the pandemic are tearing apart
human interactions across the globe. The lonely becomes lonelier,
the sad, more sad than usual, the hungry, the poor, the hungrier, the
poorer.
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And still for reasons we all try to comprehend, there are some of
us who insist even under duress or illusion that everything will return to
normal just like what it was before. In other words, we will all emerge
untouched, unwounded, untrammelled from this nightmare. Yet the
famous writer Arundhati Roy has bewailed: “ the human race is entirely
incarcerated.” Poetry in this context comes to terms with all faces of
human suering that is not only personal but reects the magnitude
and depth of social inequalities and abuse of power.
When the quarantine status of both Cebu Province and Bacolod
City was downgraded to a more relaxed and less stringent Modied
General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), I nally crossed Tañon Strait
from Cebu Island through a Ro-ro ferry from Bato Port in Cebu two
hours before midnight of 22nd July 2020 and reached the Port of
Amlan town in Negros Oriental at around 10:45 pm.
At thirty minutes past the rst hour of 23rd July 2020 I had
crossed the border between Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental
through the Bais-Mabinay-Kabankalan route. I reached Barangay
Sum-ag, Bacolod City later at around 2:30 am. I was thereafter sent to
a quarantine facility and stayed there until my swab test results turned
out to be negative. I nally came home on 1st August 2020. Thus my
status as a locally stranded individual (LSI) for almost ve months had
come to an end.
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COMPREHENSION
Felino S. Garcia Jr.
Manila-- a friend of Corporal Winston Ragos who witnessed the
shooting incident maintained that the ex-army was unarmed when
he was shot by policemen in Quezon City on Tuesday.. “
Covid 19
ang kalaban dito hindi tao bakit siya pinaputukan eh wala namang
dalang baril yan
,” said the witness. ( Covid 19 is the enemy and not
him. Why was he shot? He was unarmed. ) trans. mine —ABS CBN
News April 23, 2020 1.
1.
“Words rise to comprehension
when held by language in this
meaning-making universe,”
that was what they told me,
what they’ve heard.
We want to understand when the Covid
dead is nothing but a mortality
rate number and hastily wrapped
and thrown into ames.
We really want to understand
every memory, each pain.
Or without words would
we rather just grieve,
weep and cry.
“Without words bullets
reach their farthest trajectory,”
that’s what they’ve seen,
what they’ve witnessed,
what they couldn’t miss.
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2.
We cannot feel its weight until it has gathered strength—
the dark approaching in broad daylight as if it were some
premonition
like some sudden strange cloud formation or an umbrage of trees
standing on a street corner near a makeshift store.
X marks the spot they are so used in saying, in pinpointing
a subject or an object or whatever works for target practice
whether human or virus – it is all the same.
The same count for the shrapnel breaking the ribs
in the bursting esh but the Covid still unseen remains
at large in this fatal merciless quarantine.
Who exactly is the criminal here?
We want to understand how many bullets have been wasted
and have felled a body before even a faint semblance
of right-mindedness settled in the air.
I used to think and giggle as a child that orange afternoons
were naturally humid and lazy in this tropical country
with their symptoms of infantile drowsiness and languorous sleep.
But the climate has radically changed and I lament,
mourn the loss of another life as if the world has unfurled
its rotten dark side that for quite some time it has tried to hide
including the odor of compost now
of a dead corporal’s body in the afternoon air.
Imagine those black crows or those vultures
encircling the grey overcast sky over some gothic castle.
Beware of a sudden darkness approaching in broad daylight—
the rattling of their boots and the burnt smell of murder in their guns.
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NUANCES
Felino S. Garcia, Jr.
how long have you been
or how long has it been since —
are they both the same line
of questioning
or simply
another fancy way of asking
how are you
or let me rephrase
how long have you been staying
the rst two—
as a “probable” , or “suspect”
in that town eighty kilometers
southwest of Cebu island
how long has it been since the last ECQ
your answers may begin in the past
as far as memory serves you
before the ECQ and thereafter
the present with the ECQ
and the future
if you think there will be one
after the ECQ
will you answer viva voce
or simply write them down
on a piece of paper
but i know it will be
a world that once was
and a world you and I
are facing right now
and a world out there
to be imagined again and again
like will there be hunger
like more mouths to feed
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or will there be shelter
like more houses to build
or will we remember each day
of our quarantine
our forced isolation
and recognize in each other’s voices
the words of hurt
and to listen to each other
the truth of our condition--
how long have we been suering
how long has it been since
our last forced isolation
and will there be more pain
pain and
pain
and....
94
LOCKDOWN
Felino S, Garcia , Jr.
“Philippine President Duterte has extended until April 30 a partial
lockdown of the country aecting an estimated 57 million people
in the northern island of Luzon, his cabinet secretary announced on
Tuesday..”— 07 April 2020
Al Jazeera report
That time you must remember
how we spoke to each other,
how we believed in every word
spilled out of our tongues
like togetherness, vow, sacrament,
faith, love
before the enhanced quarantine,
lockdown—
this closure, instant and deliberate
distantiation where a single breath,
the mere touch or kiss
is poison,
and grievance, even hunger—
a crime.
No simple treatment of a contagion,
the suspect’s pathological body
frightening yet threatened
with murder—
shoot to kill dissent in the heavily guarded
yet deserted streets.
In this lockdown
we disavow, deny the sanctity
of our beliefs, our love of free,
sweet sourish speech,
and curse our faithful togetherness
as we become each other’s
bitter fruit and
enemy.
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TILL DEATH
Felino S. Garcia Jr.
This Death is
ein Meister aus Deutschland
this eye it is blue.
— Paul Celan, “Death Fugue” trans. John Felstiner
“To have and to hold “....and so goes
a narrative of the groom
who had been heard repeating
his deathly promises of eternal love
in a chamber over the deaf ears
of a sound system that soon will emit
poison gas to the next bystander
despite the social distancing—
his PPE fashion conscious bride
who had done much cooking and laundry
lately after some excessive hand washing
before she was handed in as a PUM
surrendering herself in the altar
of faithlessness to the groom who had been seen
somnambulating suddenly
was nowhere to be found—
his vows not held, unheeded and burned
like everyone else in the crematorium
for One Healing and redemption
from the Covid plague.
The bride now and not Frankenstein’s
betrayed by the Covid
lies wretched wasted and intubated
after what must have been a brief parasitic
seance, a trance, a hypnotic,
sinister ploy inside a concentration camp
known as Enhanced Community Quarantine
which for everyone’s blind obedience
is a farce, a fairy tale
that had become a make-believe world--
“ ..to have and to hold till death do us part…”
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PROXIMITY
Felino S. Garcia Jr.
Masked men barged into Jory’s humble beachside shack in Santo
Niño village in Iloilo City’s Arevalo District and shot him eight times
targeting his head and other parts of the body.. — Inday Espina-
Varona, “Opinion: They’re killing aid workers in the Philippines..” May
1, 2020, ABS-CBN News
I know time will come when these words
will lose their violent currency
and acquire new meanings
and free associations.
These are current words
the future will archive
as mere strange curiosities
if not brutal oddities
of a past wayward regime :
ECQ, lockdown, social distancing...
These words hovering now
like some kind of Black Death
above us
spoken, mandated
from high ivory towers –
the vexed speech of
confused ocials and magistrates,
their metal coated tongues
of authority, the soul cloaked,
corrupted by power running fast
a trigger velocity for instance
of eight bullets simultaneously
approaching the tip of a gun
and far beyond....
Words like freedom, truth, justice, equality
can be as generous like sudden gifts of rain
after an unbearable
drought or the yellow grace of fresh
sunshine after the drowning ood. .
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But nowadays what meaning will
for example the word quarantine
or lockdown sustain
except to perpetually perpetrate
the semiotics of compliance,
forced isolation, even severance—
a linguistic accomplice,
a fait accompli,
and prima facie
to each and everyone’s
unnecessary, unwanted suering
and letting it happen
is no less than murder,
murder,
murder....
v
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POEM FOR THE LATE CORPORAL WINSTON RAGOS
Felino S. Garcia, Jr.
“The tomb in Palestine is not the porch of spirits lingering. It is
the grave of Jesus where he lay.” -- Wallace Stevens, “Sunday
Morning” (Collected Poems 1954)
From one
sturm und drang
to another-- a battleeld
that was your life we could imagine, trying to make
a better sense of you and your beginnings
as a boy growing up in Ligao City in Albay,
dreaming to be a soldier one day.
You could just be another boy from the margins
but certainly not when you have been through
puberty, grown up and barracks-trained
to be a future sharpshooter perhaps.
A Criminology graduate and onward to military school,
you have been assigned as a battalion soldier,
singled out as a heavily armed combatant
in the interior hinterlands, virgin forests.
But you could not have foreseen nor predicted
nor even had the tiniest notion your mind had adquired
a strange habit of thinking, pondering about things
beyond the bugle’s call to sudden rapt attention,
the raising of long arms while marching to and fro
unceasingly bothered by thoughts they often mistook you
as dull-witted, slow to act once, twice, and several times
like the number of beatings you would receive
when you underperformed or under timed
while the real wanderer in you,
a pilgrim would crave, long for the unexplored
caverns in your brain. Your fellow troopers
ght it out to the very end from foxholes to the rubble
of houses and mosques which Allah himself
had left and might have forsaken.
And yet in the midst of the haze of unrelenting
gun smoke and re another eld of contestation appears.
A psychic battleground that must have shaken
you out of your wits, a prolegomenon
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to an obsessive compulsive mind.
You did not die at rst and at all if only to hear
and listen perhaps to the muezzin’s redemptive call
from the edge of minarets made mute forever
by the incessant cannonades, the constant artillery
and mortar re, the consistent aerial bombardment
and the silent dangers of mine bombs planted beneath
the good fertile earth and could have blown you up and away
into smithereens at the rst and last wrong step.
They would all come back to haunt you
like phantoms in your waking hours and in your sleep.
You had it coming as if it were some monster
like a
kapre
or a
jinn
out to get and possess you.
You would know as if you had it coming all along
every time you were shouted at to take oense
against your short attention span you thought
you might have lost every instance you were shaking,
shaken to be at rest in a hospital where you would lose sight
of the passing of days until nally they had decided
it was about time for you to call it quits
regardless of how you must have loved your country
above anything else and even more than yourself
or as intense as those bombs that fell one after another,
the bombs that pursued you like thunder
exploding in your mind’s ear drums —
the numerous strange unfamiliar voices
repeating a mantra —
trauma, trauma, trauma...
Oh the dark memories of war throbbing in your veins.
Your heart calmed down yet will not be silenced
by the daily regular dose of medicines.
How you would learn to make peace with the world
with its otherwise quotidian restlessness,
the daily grind of troubles, anxieties; and despair
could just be a wild guess but at the same moment
they might have aorded you even a faint glimpse of heaven.
And one day you decided to go beyond
the unwanted and unnecessary impositions
the ECQ had forced on you-- your feet moving
beyond that fake line, exceeding that articial boundary.
You must have sought a replenishment of your average
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dosage of maintenance drugs and you must have
had expected something more than what your life
expectancy had made you to accept and believe,
beyond the limits of your mental capacity
like empathy, understanding and even love.
But no, not a gesture was extended.
Not a sign not even a hint.,
Never expect love in this time of social distancing.
Accept your fate of being locked down.
Those new guardians of the State had been sworn
to hate schizophrenics-- “an imminent danger.”
A loud terried cry after the judgement call—
“
Ba’t nyo siya binaril ? Wala siyang dalang armas.
”
(Why shoot him? He was unarmed).
We blinked a split- second moment
and you were gone.
101
THANATOS SERIES
(In memory of the dead of the Corona Virus
Pandemic in the Year of Our Lord 2020)
Felino S. Garcia, Jr.
THANATOS 1
“Eli, Eli lema sabbacthani?”
(My God, My God why have You forsaken me?)
There is something wasteful
in the wishes your mind sinks in —
something like a second
of a heartbeat left behind
in every underlying craving
perhaps for a sudden
yet denite ending –
these little suerings mark
the hours, the days of waiting—
the wished for liberation, deliverance
too far-fetched, far-o,
even far hidden in such twisted time
too merciless and unforgiving.
Not much time either to waste
as your mind sinks
in this dark force this death-
wish even not too distant and unfamiliar —
and oh these lives fullled or unfullled —
In fact, they no longer ring a bell,
and are no longer the same
but just wasted,
like those hours of waiting
all wasted,
just the same.
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THANATOS 2: CRYPT
Felino S. Garcia, Jr.
vSo deep the depth
of these not mourned sorrows
over corpses unmarked.
This unending namelessness —
the torched burnt vestiges
of what had been cranium,
bula, or vertebra
that once had held
esh, muscle or limb —
the spirit and the soul
contained.
In this abyss,
this crypt of unnamed
pain and suering –
the nameless ashes
rising, rising
and darkening the sky
and in silence
now
reaching
the dead —
air.
103
THANATOS 3: INERTIA
Felino S. Garcia, Jr.
It might it have been dead.
There must be the surge
of blood from head to toe,
vice-versa and gasps for air —
heavy breathing,
respiration they call it
but your pale lips betray
when they say, unmoving —
nothing through the veins,
those arteries, capillaries
motion is inhibited by inertia
setting the limits,
the direction of moving objects
as I am moved
by the gravity of sorrows,
the heaviness, the weight —
all this lifelessness,
all these bodies motionless,
nally at rest.
FELINO S. GARCIA, JR. is professor at the University of the Philippines
Visayas in Tacloban, Leyte. A native of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, he
has published ction and poetry in dierent publications, participated in
several creative writing workshops and received literary awards. His literary
works are collected in
Heartsong: Poems
(2013),
Sa Pagtunod sang Adlaw:
Mga Sugilanon
(2011),
Idolo: Mga Sugilanon sang Gugma kag Pagbiya
(2012),
and
Ang Pagpamatbat kag Iban pa nga mga Sugilanon
.
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CONTEND ANNUAL CONFERENCE
2022: MARTIAL LAW @50
CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference dates: 11-12 August 2022 (Thursday to Friday)
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2022 (Thursday)
It is a bitter twist of history that the commemoration of
the 50th anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of Martial
Law this 21 September 2022 will be marked by the return of the
Marcoses to Malacañang, with the election of the late dictator’s
son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., as president. The dark years
of the Marcos dictatorship were scarred by horrifying poverty,
deprivation, human rights violations, massacres, environmental
plunder, the robbery of hundreds of billions in public funds, and
the imprisonment, torture, and murder of thousands of Filipinos.
Decades later, Filipinos still struggle to pay o debts incurred by the
Marcos dictatorship and recover their ill-gotten wealth. Marcos Jr’s
victory relied on the Marcoses successfully establishing a complex
and wide-spanning infrastructure of disinformation, consisting of
supporters, social media pages and posts, videos, informational
materials, and other forms of media which whitewash the evils of
the Marcos dictatorship and garner support for the Marcos family.
This system of disinformation is just one factor which led to the
rehabilitation of the Marcoses and the recasting of the dictatorship
years as a golden age. Despite denying the crimes of Martial Law
and refusing to return their stolen wealth, the Marcoses succeeded
in retaking the reins of power through a well-oiled campaign based
on the power of disinformation, political dynasties, and the lure of
money. The upcoming Marcos presidency presents the challenges
of worsening historical distortion and the prevailing culture of
corruption, impunity, and state-sponsored violence.
Considering these challenges, the Congress of Teachers/
Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) will host the
CONTEND Annual Conference 2022 on the theme of “Martial Law
@50.”
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We invite all teachers, scholars, researchers, students, activists,
organizers, and other interested participants to discuss issues
surrounding Martial Law and its legacies. The conference seeks papers
and panels that address the following objectives:
• To highlight new academic works and emerging
scholars on Martial Law
• To bring together academics and researchers
from dierent elds for interdisciplinary
discussions on Martial Law and its legacies
• To combat disinformation and historical distortion on
Martial Law
• To bring Martial Law scholarship to a wider
audience and facilitate public inquiries on the Marcos
dictatorship
Guidelines for Paper Submission and Panel Discussion
Submissions should be double-spaced, size 12 font, and
formatted in APA style. They should be no longer than 20 pages,
including references.
Participants must prepare a 15-minute slide presentation to
discuss their work, and provide a copy in .pptx or .pdf format to the
organizers before the conference.
Participants interested in hosting a panel discussion must nd
two other people willing to discuss a specic topic. They must submit a
brief, one page proposal with a title, description of their topic, pertinent
discussion points, and a list of participants in the discussion.
Submissions and panel proposals will be reviewed according to
their relevance to the conference topic, academic rigor, and freshness
of insight and perspective.
Acceptances or rejection of abstracts will be mailed early in
the week of 7 July 2022.
Selected paper presentations will also be considered for
publication in
PINGKIAN: Journal for Emancipatory and Anti-
Imperialist Education
September 2022 Special Issue on “Martial
Law @50”. Please address submissions and queries to pingkian.
journal@protonmail.com.
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