HISTORY | Deconstructing Filipino Heroes

BY J.D. VELEZ | Blogger

Pinoy Mestizo ilustrados in trenchcoats

Heroes confuse the issue. It's, as if, all is well because we have heroes. They even have titles to match, among them: Mabini, the sublime paralytic; Jacinto, the young general, and Marcelo H. del Pilar, the propagandist. These mostly Tagalog heroes who belong to the indigenous elite class of the 19th century seem like deity when, in fact, they were just ordinary men. Well, many of them were Masons. That probably explains the mystique sorrounding them. (Wrapped in secrecy, those European-educated ilustrados who converted to Masonry mixed with local anting-anting-weilding natives resulting in  a potent mix of urban legend, superstition and shamanism. But I have digressed from the subject.)

We have heroes, hurrah, we are better off. But are we?  Have our problems been solved? Heroes confound the issue. History is far more complex and personalities obscure the bigger picture.Our problems didn't end because we have heroes. Far from it. Our heroes were the children of rich elite Mestizo-Sangleyes and Creoles who, as a logical consequence of increasing economic strength, wanted more say in the affairs of their homeland or in the running of the colony.

In the end, one group of revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo would butcher Andres Bonifacio who founded the Katipunan as the warriors inspired by Ilustrado idealism drifted far from the ideals of their cause.

The US snatched victory from the divided but would-have-been-triumphant Filipino revolutionaries. June 12 Independence Day celebration though significant is misleading. The Tagalog-led revolution was a failure. It ended in defeat as another superpower took over. Manila was designed by Durnham and he carved Baguio from the Cordilleras. The Americans made a lasting imprint on the capital and its public buildings as an American colonial city. So what exactly were we celebrating?

We honor heroes though America defeated them. Let's celebrate victories instead of defeat the way the Americans celebrate 4th of July and the French, the French revolution.

I prefer celebrating People Power 1 at Edsa when we removed a dictatorship. That was real victory. Years later we abrogated a bases treaty with the US. That's real independence from US neocolonial rule. June 12 is plain romantic longing Filipinos triumphed in 1898 and that America didn't arrive to colonize us further.