Rizal's last walk resulted to a legacy of courage, dignity, and grace. Bonifacio led a life of constant war for Philippine autonomy. He was Rizal's opposite in the style of fighting, but they died for the same cause -- a leviathan Rizal had accepted could not be killed by the tabak but by education, but Bonifacio tried anyway. Ninoy's stubborness in fighting the same leviathan and eventually dying for it brought us to the world's map of Firsts after his death resulted into the first peaceful Revolution ever in the history of the world.
They weren't fighting a visible enemy. They fought for what we've lost after our identity had been wiped out by a conquering powerful nation. They fought for a legacy we might have lost by being blind of what we can be.
What we didn't have, though, is unity. Having small kingdoms/states in main islands that were independent of each other meant the Philippines before colonial times were divided. We don't have one government, one language, one religion, one system. Early visitors noticed that we didn't have a king that rules all. We, essentially, was not one nation.
Imagine what it was like before electricity and cellphones and the Internet?
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| ancient Philippine jewelry |
When Magallanes landed in Cebu, he wasn't the first European the early Cebuanos have seen. The Portugeuse had visited the island before Magellan, who happened to be a Portuguese but carried with him Spanish men. He was welcomed by then Rajah Humabon, who immediately embraced the Catholic faith. Humabon then convinced Magallanes to fight Lapu-Lapu of a neighboring island because he disliked him. It was a poor judgment because he died there in a description that made him out to be a martyr and a hero and Lapu-Lapu and his men like heathens who slayed him in a scene that that is like those low-rated cannibal movies shot in Brazil which depicted the cannibals like ungraceful savages. The chroniclers happened to be Spaniards.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred people. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off.
I mean, what the heck? 49 Spaniards attacking a community with 1,500 (approximately) men led by a datu who had the reputation as a fierce leader? That's just stupid. So no, Spanish colonization did not happen when Magellan came. It started when a much ruthless conquistador came in the name of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, a.k.a. El Adelantado. And it did not happen when he first landed in Cebu in Feb. 13, 1565, (actually, they just anchored at sea because pre-modern history Cebuanos did not welcome them), or when he landed in Samar, or Limasawa, or Bohol where he'd done blood compacts with their datus. The colonization started after Legazpi went back to Cebu in April 27, now with men from the islands he'd befriended, and overpowered the datu who'd challenged them in the first place, then named the first colony "Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús" (Town of the Most Holy Name of Jesus) after finding the Sto. Niño left by Magellan to Humabon's wife. (I wonder if there's a story there. Oh well, lost in time, as well.) I can't help but notice how their use of religion somehow made their conquests romantic. I can't help but not be subjective or not treat this as something personal instead of a history of this part of our world which we can't do anything about. They had just started an era of greed, injustice, death and they were about to erase our history, our story, our identity. Doesn't that make my teeth grit dirt? Oh, yeah. Major major po. Hurr.
OK, be warned. Major ranting next. I've been out of practice but...
How can our pride, our quality of being hospitable to visitors, started our downfall?! While growing up, history books (our own history books) made it seem that when the Spaniards came, our ancestors are like indigenous people who knew nothing about trade, had no cultural roots, had no semblance of education, dirty, used prehistoric tools, uncivilized, and virtually like savage monkeys. Since leaving school I have learned that pre-Spanish Colonial Filipinos were educated, neighborly, good in trade, fierce warriors, industrious, honorable, and civilized. Of course there should be the scraggly ones, as there always are two sides to a coin. But there was a time when I thought that when the Spaniards came (technically, since Magellan was a Portuguese), we're like an archipelago that had existed separate from other nations and had been living in an era that preceded the dinosaurs.
Since then, I have learned that there were royal bloods, the datus who had familial ties to the Maharaja, sheikhs, English royalty through inter-marriages. That our islands, before we became the Philippines, had relations with other countries near us from the Muslim side (because we used to be Muslims), had traded, and inter-married with China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, and Malaysia. That because of the monsoon winds, ships that sail followed the silk trade route or the spice route that had been a secret to the Europeans that are geographically far away than the Muslims. That Magellan and his crew weren't the first Europeans who had landed in Cebu because when Magellan landed in Malhou, residents there told them they had already seen men like them before. We weren't isolated from other countries. Our history of trading pre-Spanish colonization might have perished in fire and blood, but accounts of what we had been survived in the annals of these neighboring countries. We had an identity. We had a story. And it has started emerging, slowly, in the present day.
On the other hand, I can make up a story. Remember that this is just a story conjured up by my overactive imagination after trying to read/research about the subject.
| foreign merchants visiting zabag |
Magellan and his crew came. They obviously need help, sailing that long in turbulent seas and getting "lost" here looking for the Spice Islands. Humabon welcomed them, dined with them, drank with them, changed religion for them. Their stories of this god, their kingdom, their opulence, their warriors, their women, their king and queen, might have put the "natives" into a state of wonder. Or Humabon might have a hidden agenda cooking up his sleeve, like pitting the foreigners with the pesky Lapu-Lapu? Maybe the visitors have told stories about their bravery, their glory, like when ancient European countries rape, kill, and pillage each other for gold and a piece more of muddy land -- which is a kind of trend during the time. Anyway and anyhow, I see two people getting friendly because of ulterior motives. And the story goes.
Then I wonder about the glory of the gold mines that was rumored to come from the kingdoms of Zabag and Sanfotsi, (purported to be the lost ancient Malay kingdom Srivijaya), and Tarshish and Ophir (another location in the East where the Egyptians, and then Solomon and Hiram traded for spice and precious metals). There is a spice route during the ancient times that became possible because of the winter monsoon winds (remember, ships then sailed, which meant they needed wind to be able to go somewhere) that enabled trade ships to follow a route to China and back to Africa via the Philippine corridor in the South China Sea. The secret about the monsoon trade winds had been jealously kept by the Arabs to control spice trade. When the Italians first learned of the monsoons, religion had been a powerful tool in keeping them from using it, meaning they couldn't pass through Muslim territories because Catholics and Muslims had been leery of each other since, well, forever. So it is logical that ancient trading of spices coming from the East should reach Pakistan, Africa, Persia, Greece and Egypt first, before Italy and France, England, Portugal and Spain which was on the other end of the landmass.
According to the annals, Arabs from the East travel the monsoon winds to trade for spices, ivory, and precious metals. Before the Arabs, Egyptians also sent expeditions to the East for same products. Then, of course, there was King Solomon of Israel and King Hiram of Tyre and the mysterious Ophir where they get the same Asian products of spices and precious metals. Their success in trade had ushered them into their respective golden age, while the Europeans were suffering from the dark ages. Asian spices, gems, plants, silver and gold mysteriously appear in Africa from somewhere in the East. If Europeans had heard about the gold mines, they couldn't try to find it by land--they'd be passing Arab/Muslim territories which they couldn't touch. There was a rumor persisting that Magellan was obsessed on finding "Tarsis" and "Ofir" before he finally found a way to sail with a Spanish crew via the other way (Pacific Ocean, discovered after Columbus found the Americas, which he initially thought to be Asia when he was trying to find a way to get to "spices" and "gold") that landed him in the Visayas. So I wonder, of those who had survived and was able to get back to Spain to report of their journey, what stories had they told?
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| 900AD |
Legazpi has a clear vision of his mission. After conquering Cebu, he sent Goiti to explore the Northern region. He followed with 100 something of his own men, and again, about 600 of Visayans from Panay and Cebu. They arrived in Batangas, and after further exploration, found Manila Bay. After befriending Sultan Tariq Suleiman (Raja Sulayman III), he "asked" to use the bay to establish trade with China, which basically says "I'm going to take your business away from you." Of course, the sultan, who was a vassal under Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei, refused. And with the ruthlessness of a snake, Legazpi now did not ask. He attacked Manila Bay together with Ilonggo mercenaries and colonized Cebuanos. And here I thought Manila Bay was conquered by a force of Spanish fleets, when actually, it was Visayas who'd conquered Luzon. It's just that Spain took credit. If these two factions only united and faced Legazpi... well, but that's how the story went.After that, a series of revolts to overthrow the Spaniards and reclaim land and property and sovereignty followed. A number of traitors, too, ran parallel with the revolts. There was Rajah Tupas in the Dagami Revolt, a Filipino woman married to an Spaniard in the Pampanga Revolt, Antonio Surabo of the Tondo Conspiracy -- and oh wait, there's the Magalat Revolt, wherein after being defeated by the Spanish troops, Magalat was executed/assasinated by his own men. by this time I just stopped this direction in my reading. To make the long story short, the Spaniards used the technique of divide and conquer, and they splendidly succeeded, thank you very much.
Do you know why Pampangueños learned to eat bugs in the forests later on? Spaniards made use of the men to build more ships and more weapons, leaving the women to tend the fields. Employment system and wages were introduced and the bayanihan system became obsolete as a practice because labor now needed to be paid. With women tending the fields, fields yielded less and less crops, reulting into an outbreak of disease and hunger. You can't buy crop when there is no crop, can you? Therefore, bugs.| pre-hispanic map of Philippines |
But now, facts were coming out. We have an identity, an honorable heritage. We weren't just indigenous people living in the forests, mountains and hills but a mixed race of wanderers, traders, missionaries, warriors, engineers and explorers. Though colonization stripped us of our identity and dignity, centuries of suppression did not strip us of our spirit. We remain one of the best colonized nations in the world, wherein we've made use of the good things offered by our conquerors to emerge competitive in the next era that followed after rampant colonization and conquering of territories were phased out. Being exposed to different cultures and races made us flexible when we step out of our country to find greener pastures or to provide better opportunities for our families. Majority of us do not blindly follow religion or priests. We have arrived in a spot wherein much still can be changed for the better. After all our trials, after being purged, we did not emerge the best. We've survived, yes, and not the least.
The best thing is, we are constantly evolving and learning. United, we were able to manage the first, ever, bloodless revolution in the whole world. Millions of French perished in the French Revolution. Millions of Russians perished in the revolution after the fall of the Romanovs. But in our history, millions of Filipinos perished not in the hands of fellow Filipinos, but in the hands of conquering nations. But put the Filipinos to work and they accomplish something luminous. Something that proved what kind of people we are.
That's what Rizal knew. He knew that given time, education, and rediscovery of what we were, we would be an unstoppable force--a good force that will not waste our time in conquering and owning what others owned but enriching what we already have. We are not perfect. But always, always, we do our best, and improvement has always been marked by unified, collective steps. We stumble from time to time, but you can never get a good race down.
The Filipinos are worth dying for. We're at work forming a new identity. We are a passionate people who will smile in the face of challenges and plow on even when the going gets tougher than tough. We are a universal nation who could get anywhere without losing our home. We are a beautiful race whose beauty lies in innate grace.
We are not perfect, and we make mistakes, but the learning child in us will always save us from disgrace.
Most of all, we are a race who do not go to maim, kill and hurt. We have little depth to pay to the universe, and so much more to collect. We are a nation of today, a citizen of the future. And we will look on to the new world with the enlightened eyes and the ancient understanding of always, an indomitable spirit.
suggested links for more stories about pre-hispanic Philippines:
http://sambali.blogspot.com/2009_05_08_archive.html
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t217224.html
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=200263
http://pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=437263
