The Philippine Revolution

CIRCUMSTANCES

• Illusory Equality
• Economic dislocations
• Foreign ascendancy
• Social and economic discrimination

"[E]conomic progress itself nurtured a popular consciousness more acutely aware of injustice and inequality, the fruit of more efficient means of exploitation."

PH as rice importer

• 19th Century - Feb. 23, 2015

"[W]hile economic development was causing painful dislocation in the life of the masses, it was proving very profitable for numerous foreign firms."

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"[C]apitalist progress meant underdevelopment, for the resources of the country were being used for the development of the metropolitan centers of the world."

The Cavite Mutiny (1872)

• The beginning of a new stage in the escalating unrest
• A localized expression of protests used as an excuse for instituting a reign of terror

Execution of GomBurZa

• Released great waves of resentment
• "[H]aving priests on their side freed the people from intellectual bondage to the friars"

Liberal ideas +
Growing ambitions of the rising classes +
Experience of the masses in struggle
= EMERGENCE OF A NATION

"[T]he stage is set for a national action, world capitalism had remolded the structure of the economyand unified the country."

The Revolution of a Nation

• The quantitative series of rebellions produced a qualitative leap
• The nation was born of the Revolution as much as the Revolution was the expression of a nation being born

Nuclear form of Nationhood

• Scattered and fragmentary uprisings against the Spaniards
• National consciousness began to take form but only through the Ilustrados, as articulators

The New Filipinos

• Creoles as First Filipinos
• The term "Filipino" was limited by property, education and Spanish culture

Having benefited from economic development, the creoles, mestizos and urbanized natives now had an economic base to protect

The Reform/Propaganda Movement

• La Solidaridad (Feb. 5, 1889 - Nov. 15, 1895)

Objectives

• Fight all forms of reaction
• Impede all retrogression
• Hail and accept liberal ideas
• Defend all progess

Demands

• Freedom of the press
• Freedom of speech and ssembly
• Equality before the law
• Participation in government affairs
• Social and political freedom

Reformist Demands

• Most leaders belonged to the clase ilustrada whose primary aim was to secure for their class participation in political rule and a greater share in economic benefits
• Cultural assimilation + tranformation of PH as province of Spain

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The Failure of Reformism

• Since the propaganda writers failed to reach the masses of their countrymen, their influence may be regarded as minimal
• But its influence on the Revolution cannot be discounted

“[A] revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”

La Liga Filipina

• July 1892
• "[T]he new group sought to involve the people directly..."
• Many were attracted, among them, Andres Bonifacio

Liga's Aims

• To unite the whole archipelago into one homogenous body
• Mutual protection in every want and necessity
• Defense against violence and injustice
• Encouragement of instruction, agriculture and commerce
• Study and application of reforms

La Liga Filipina

• A mutual aid and self-help league
• Rizal's arrest on July 6, 1892, 4 days after La Liga was organized

La Liga after Rizal's arrest

• Became inactive, revived by Andres Bonifacio and Domingo Franco
• Apolinario Mabini as Secretary of Supreme Council

The Split

• Cuerpo de Compromisario vs. the Katipunan

From Assimilation to Seoaration

• The means underwent a drastic change; from peaceful agitation for reforms to armed revolution

"[T]his revolutionary consciousness was the fruit of centuries of practice, but its ideological articulation came from the reformist ilustrados."

"[T]he stage was set for an anti-colonial, national revolution whose ebb and flow would depend on which of the two currents was temporarily dominant; the revolutionary decisiveness of the masses or the reformist nature f their allies.

Ambivalent Classes

• Petty-bourgeoisie stratum: Creoles, Clase Media, urbanized Filipinos

The Ilustrados

• Both reformist and revolutionary
• Grievances impelled them to relate to people, but because they regarded themselves as the social superiors of the masses, they also related to the ruling power

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The Ilustrados

• "[T]he higher the economic status, the stronger the tendency toward assimilation and reformism"

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The Masses

• Readily accepted many of the ilustrados' teachings
• Though tempered in the struggle of the centuries, they did not yet have the capability to integrate their experiences

The Masses

• No distinct class consciousness existed yet
• Insofar as peasants were concerned, the nature of their activities and their isolation militated against developing an ideology of their own

Urban Sense of Solidarity

• Large concentration of workers in some factories
• 5 tobacco factories employing 20,000 workers

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Urban Sense of Solidarity

• This inchoate sense of solidarity provided from to the blind, spontaneous unrest of earlier years; later it was to constitute a base support for the Katipunan

Depression in the Countryside

• Cash crops
• Land rentals
• Competition from imports
• Unrest in religious estates

"[T]he importance of the land question and the depth of the grievance against the friar landowners is evident from the fact that the first provinces that rose in revolt were those in which there were extensive friar estates."

Immediate Causes for the Revolution to Spark

• Economic depression (1891-1895) characterized by unstable currency and exchange fluctuations
• Hemp and sugar prices fell, prices of imported goods rose
• Scarcity + higher cost of importation rose the price of rice further
• Locust infestation in CL

The Katipunan

• Original leadership: lower to middle-class

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Andres Bonifacio

• Young orphan
• Quit school to support family
• Was a bodeguero before the Revlution
• ..........................................................

The Katipunan

• It set itself the task of arousing national feeling and working for the deliverance of despotism
• Its approach is racial and anti-colonial

The Katipunan Ideology

• A call for struggle and separation
• A cry for independence, a demand for democracy
• Although the leaders identified themselves with the masses, they still had a residue of hierarchism
• Bonifacio failed to see the dangers of ilustrado ambition

Eventually, the Revolution became a people's war under elite leadership

The Imus Assembly

• Magdiwang invited Bonifacio over to intervene
• Should the Katipunan continue leading the Revolution? Or should it be replaced by a new revolutionary government?
• Magdalo leaders were well-prepared
• "Cavitismo"

Tejeros Convention

• Assembly called to adopt measures for defense of Cavite
• Jacinto Lumbreras, Magdiwang, presiding officer
• Blatant disregard for the Supreme Council of the Katipunan
• March 22, 1987

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• President: Emilio Aguinaldo
• VP: Mariano Trias
• Captain-General: Artemio Ricarte
• Director of War: Emiliano Riego de Dios
• Director of Interior: Andres Bonifacio

"The position of Director of the Interior is an exalted one and it is not proper that a person without a lawyer's diploma should occupy it!"

"I, as chairman of this assembly, and as President of the Supreme Council of the Katipunan, as all of you do not deny, declare this assembly dissolved, and I annul all that has been approved and resolved."

"Hello Garci?"

• Diego Mojica warned Bonifacio of election fraud by D. Tirona
• Absence of representatives from other districts
• Imus agreement, not on paper
• Gen. Artemio Ricarte: "maruming halalan"

"[T]he birth of the Katipunan marked the passage of the leadership from the hands of the Ilustrados to a leadership based on the people; the elections of Tejeros symbolized the seizure by a provincial elite of the leadership of a mass movement that held prospects of success."

"[T]ejeros was the defeat of the revolution of the masses; it was a victory of a clique intent on taking advantage of the historic initiative of the people and the momentum the Revolution had already acquired."

Cavitismo

• All men who took their oath the day after were Cavitenos born and bred
• They also belonged to the elite of Cavite
• Both Magdalo AND Magdiwang

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Bonifacio Outmaneuvered

• Acta de Tejeros
• Naic Military Agreement
• Re-arrest of Spanish officials whom Aguinaldo govt ordered freed

Boni on Trial

• Captured April 28, 1897, trial opened April 29 and lasted until May 4
• Charged with sedition and treason before a court presided by Gen. Mariano Noriel

A Farce

• Members of the Council of War were Aguinaldo men
• Bonifacio's counsel acted more like a prosecutor
• Made-up story by Lt. Col. Giron was given credence by court

Bonifacio's Execution

• May 8, banishment
• Gen. Noriel and Pio del Pilar convinced Aguinaldo otherwise
• May 10, Mount Tala, Major Lazaro Makapagal and 4 other soldiers
• A grave dug by bayonets

The Biyak-na-bato Republic

• Expulsion of friars and the return to Filipinos their lands
• Representation in the Spanish Cortes
• Freedom of the press and tolerance of religious sects
• Equal treatment /pay for Peninsular and Insular civil servants
• Abolition of the power of government to banish citizens

Ilustrado Leadership

• Willing to fight, but ready to retreat
• Capable of fighting bravely but prudently preferring to negotiate in pursuance of their own interest
• Used fighting and the momentum gained by the movement as a leverage for negotiations

Pilipinas for SALE!

• Php 3,000,000
• Counter-proposal was nothing morbut a detailed schedule of payments
• November: Php 1,700,000
• All thanks to Pedro A. Paterno!

Malabar Manifesto

• First published in July 1897
• Reissued in September after preliminary negotiations had begun
• Called on "the brave sons of the Philippines" to switch to guerilla warfare

"[T]he proposition clearly indicated that chief among the wishes was that, before they lay down their arms for the welfare of the country, their future be assured, exempting them from all punishment and providing them with indispensable means of subsistence, either within the national territory or abroad."

Negation and Repudiation

• The Pact of Biyak-na-bato was a shameful repudiation of all that the Revolution has stood for
• It was the logical outcome of the iliustrado's seizure of power at Tejeros
• Principal bone of contention and time lag: THE SUM OF MONEY TO BE PAID

Aguinaldo in HK

• December 27
• Issued a proclamation in which he declared his "sincere desire to aid the Spanish government in the pacification of the Philippine Islands"

Aguinaldo in HK

• All who disobeyed his orders to lay down their arms will be branded tulisanes or bandits, and without right to call themselves revolutionary, and will not be allowed to profit by any charity or benefits under the agreement with the Spanish government

Viva Espana!

• Before boarding the ship to HK, a correspondent of El Imparcial reported that Aguinaldo led in shouting "Vivas" for Spain and "THE PHILIPPINES, ALWAYS SPANISH!"

The Struggle Continues

• Aguinaldo's departure did not mean the end of the struggle
• By March 1989, the struggle had gained new momentum
• Cutting of railway lines, besieging of cable station and telegraph lines (landing place of cable from HK)

Revival of the Katipunan

• Feliciano Jhocson
• Two documents that attest to the fact that the killings, seizure of towns and other actions were conscious efforts of the Katipunan: Jacinto's Sangguniang Hukuman and "the Constitution of the General Executive Committee of Central Luzon

"[T]he pact of Biyak-na-bato ended hostilities insofar as the compromising sector of the revolutionary forces was concerned. The people continued to struggle. Aguinaldo and his clique surrendered, but the people did not."

"Makakasabay ka sa pagbabago sa tatlong paraan:
sa UNAHAN, sa GITNA at sa LIKOD.
Ang nasa unahan ay nangunguna sa pagbabago,
ang sa gitna'y
nagpapatangay naman,
at ang nasa likod ay kinakaladkad ng pagbabago."
- Pilosopong Tasio, Noli Me Tangere

A luta continua!