American Colonial Rule

immense subterranean changes

Gramscis concept of hegemony
Balibars notion of producing the people

Glenn Mays Ph.D thesis at Yale

Social Engineering in the Philippines: The Aims, Execution and Impact of
American Colonial Policy
Three types of crucial policies
Preparing the Filipinos to exercise governmental responsibilities
Providing primary education for the masses
Developing the economy
In the end, the policies failed and the American attempts at social engineering
brought about little fundamental change.

Changes in
the way people relate or respond to civic events
rituals and symbols
public consciousness
how its shaped, constructed and transformed
how it shapes and transform events, perceptions, subjectivities

We cannot predict how things will turn out; our hermeneutic/genealogical goal
is more modest.

The Fabrication of a Public Consciousness

Benevolent Assimilation
issued on December 21, 1898
by President McKinley

Alfred W. McCoy
the United States quickly decided that it was not really
interested in making the islands a permanent
possession.
the United States established a tutelary colonialism
aimed at preparing the Filipinos for the governance of
an independent nation.

In 1903, Filipinos held 49% of US colonial appointments and

after 10 years, they held 71%.
In 1920, there were 12, 561 Filipinos employed against 582
Americans.
In 1928, from cabinet ministers down to postal clerks was
manned by Filipinos.

Why did the United States wage a costly and

genocidal war and pacification campaign
against the Filipinos - thereby destroying their
Republic and subverting their
independence - if the intention was to prepare
them for independence?

Americans needed to acquire the Philippines for strategic reasons:

Manila Bay was ideally placed

for commercial and naval access
to the China coast.

However, the color of 6 million

brown Filipinos made them
unacceptable to white Americans
as subjects for assimilation.

Tutelary Colonialism
ultimate goal was the creation of an independent nation-state.
P.W. Preston
Having acquired this territory in pursuit of the status of great nationhood. The
US promptly determined to adhere to its espoused democratic ideal and to
prepare the territory for the independence included the tying of the
Philippines economy tightly to that of the US.

Charles Briggs
The establishing of American sovereignty in the Philippines as a guaranty
before the world that the Philippines are for the Filipinos, is by far the most
revolutionary dynamic ever yet introduced into oriental politics. It has released
the pent-up protest of the millions of exploited orientals.
Filipinos ended up thinking that loving America and loving the Philippines
amounted to the same thing.

Bi-nationalism
dual loyalty

The product of the American colonial regime was

not both Filipino and American and indeed was
neither Filipino nor American but rather a remade
identity epitomized.

Imagined National Communities

Benedict Anderson
The immense subterranean shift was brought on by print capitalism and it
meant a radical change in the ordinary persons experience along three
dimensions
from being a member of a large religious community
from being a subject of a lord and a local noble
from living in a time-less life-world to inhibiting one that is historical and
progressive

Print Capitalism is NOT the only route to nationalism.

What makes people a people?

How are individuals nationalized or socialized in the dominant form of
belonging?
Etienne Balibar
All identity is individual but there is no individual identity that is not historical or in
other words, constructed within a field of social values, norms of behavior and
collective symbols. Individuals never identify with one another, nor, however, do they
ever acquire an isolated identity, which is an intrinsically contradictory notion. The real
question is how the dominant reference points of individual identity change over time
and with the changing institutional environment.

The emergence of a new identity that is neither Filipino nor

American is informed by the theoretical points raised by Balibar.
What was achieved culturally by the late nineteenth-century nationalist
struggle that Rizal and Bonifacio inspired?
How was this cultural achievement taken over by American imperialism?
Was it erased, subverted, appropriated, remade?
What were the effects of American colonial rule on Philippine culture, in
particular, on national consciousness?

Under the US, Philippine nationalism evolved through the sponsorship of the
metropolis.
Compared to the Spanish, American rule was benign and enlightened.
Spanish rule produced poets and revolutionaries while American rule produced
orators and lawyers.

A social formation only produces itself as a nation

to the extent that, through a network of apparatuses
and daily practices, the individual is instituted a
homo nationalis from cradle to grave, at the same
time as he or she is instituted as homo economicus,
politicus, religious...

The state plays a vital role in producing the people. The state,
thus, creates its own imagined community that Balibar
explicates is that a community which recognized itself in advance
in the institution of the state, which recognizes its own in
opposition to the other states and in particular inscribes its
aspirations for within the horizon of the state - by formulating its
aspirations for reform and social revolutions as projects of
transformation of its national state.

What happened under American rule was the creation of a new nation-state
that could best further the agenda of the emergent American empire in the
Asia-Pacific region.
The Philippines had to be free and self-governing; as a colony it would be less
useful, if not altogether a liability.

The creation of a new homo nationalis - who would be attached to the socalled American-style values while remaining Filipino

The task of producing the people had been accomplished.

An aspect of this cultural production is the fabrication of a new

public consciousness in which American-style values
predominated.
Tracing the trajectory of Philippine nationalism in terms of two
related phenomena
Genealogy of the Rizal symbol
The way we have imagined ourself in relation to America and Japan

From Resistance to Hegemony

By the time Rizal came back for the second and

the last time to the Philippines to form the La
Liga Filipina in 1892, he had become the center,
the acknowledged moral and intellectual leader,
of the nationalist struggle against the Spanish
colonial regime.

Rizals mythical figure became a

symbol
of
resistance

The first commemoration was

held on December 30, 1898,
when General Emilio Aguinaldo,
on behalf of the revolutionary
government at Malolos, Bulacan,
officially declared that day as a
national day of mourning in
solemn observance of the second
anniversary of Rizals execution.

It was 10 oclock in the forenoon when I arrived in

the pueblo of Lukban. The town was mourning, with
a flag at half mast at each house. I learned later that
it was in commemoration of the anniversary of the
iniquitous and tragic killing of the eminent Doctor
Jose Rizal at the hands of the Spaniards in the
execution ground of Bagumbayan [now Luneta].
-Antonio Guevarra

It was a stroke of genius, therefore, on the part of

the American regime to have seized the symbol
of Rizal to further their own colonial agenda.
However, during the early years of the new
regime, the American appropriation of Rizal was
resisted.

Campbell Dauncey
-an Englishwoman
-arrived in the Philippines on
27 November 1904
-stayed in the country for
nine months

An Englishwoman in
the Philippines (1906)
unbiased impression of
the Philippines as they are in
the form of letters to family
and friends in England

Her observations of the political situation in the

Philippines facing the crucial first four years
of American colonial rule are quite instructive
of the American methods of colonization.
Rizals death anniversary had become not only
a public holiday under the new era but also a
Filipino fiesta.

LETTER 7
(Iloilo, 31 December 1904)
Mrs. Dauncey characterized the Filipino not only as a fun-loving lazy fellow who
knocks off what little work he does to join the merriment of the fiesta, but also
as unhygienic chap who spits in the street.

Moreover, her observations subvert the

American propaganda in 1904 that the country
had been pacified and that the Filipino people
have accepted the American rule.
They are still fighting tooth and nail to get
their own liberty, their own way.

On account of this state of affairs, the natives seize on this

anniversary to give relief to some of their patriotic emotions. The
day is a public holiday, they hang out flags and lanterns, and
every Filipino knocks off what little work he does, and crawls
about the streets and spits, and every one of them who is not
carrying some music instrument, is seen taking a cock to or from
a cock-fight; while the women slouch along in gangs with
myriads of children, who else jolt up and down in hired carriagesand that is the Fiesta. (51-52)

LETTER 39
(Iloilo, 11 August 1905)
Mrs. Dauncey describes the excitement that surround the return visit to Iloilo of
William Howard Taft, the first civil governor (1901-1903) of the Philippines
under the American regime and now revisiting SecWar of the United States.

While the municipal and ecclesiastical dignitaries, etc., were

awaiting the arrival of Secretary Taft, a Government vessel
slowly made her way up the Pasig river filled with the dead and
wounded from the island of Samar. During the stay of the party in
Manila, four native men were brought in from the adjoining
province of Cavite frightfully mutilated because of the proAmerican sympathies.
-17 January 1906 news item from the Manila Times

LETTER 40
It describes in detail the preparations in Iloilo of the arrival of Taft, and contains
perhaps the most revealing passage in Mrs. Daunceys quaintly instructive, if
Orientalizing, account of her Philippine sojourn.

natives excitement over

the coming visit to his
hometown of his hero,
the Filipinos Patron
Saint, Taft

the portrait of Rizal

hung on a wall in
another natives kitchen
as a sort of little
shrine

How these two seemingly unconnected, if not contradictory,

elements were synthesized in the Filipino mind explains the
secret of the success of American hegemony in the Philippines.

The quintessential example of

the success of the American
hegemony is found at Manuel
Luis Quezons autobiography.

When I realized that [President F.D.

Roosevelt] was big enough to assume
and place the burden of the defense of
my country upon the sacrifice of
heroism of his own people alone, I
swore to myself and to the God of my
ancestors that as long as I lived I
would stand by America regardless of
the consequences to my people and to
myself.

Throughout his autobiography, Quezon never

misses an opportunity to proclaim his loyalty
to America.
He disparages General Emilio Aguinaldo, his
former commander-in-chief, for urging
General Douglas MacArthur, in a radio
broadcast on 6 February 1942, to surrender to
the Japanese invaders.

Quezon had so completely identified himself and

his country with the United States that he
construes the refusal to fight the Japanese as a
disloyalty not only to the United States but also
to the Philippines.

I pray that our people may be spread the horrors of

war, but if it comes to us, I shall welcome it for two
reasons: first, that we may show the people of the
United States that we are loyal to them; second, that
you may learn to suffer, and, if needs be, to die.
-Quezons address to the students of University of
the Philippines on Heros Day

The Good Fight (1945)

by Manuel L. Quezon
Introduction
The following pages- showing my life as a rebel against, and as
a supporter of, the United States- are more than mere accounts of
my personal experiences. They, in effect, portray the struggle of
the Filipino people in the quest for freedom, first against and then
in support of the great republic of North America.

The introduction states that

an immense subterranean shift in national
consciousness had taken place
the book is also a story of the suppression of
moral-intellectual leaders such as Rizal and
Bonifacio with the likes of Manuel Luis Quezon
and Sergio Osmea, his sparring partner

the fading away of nationalism as the guiding spirit

and paramount value in Filipino politics begun
when the founding of the Nacionalista party in
1907
-O.D. Corpuz (1989)

Katherine Mayo
- American journalist
- known for denouncing the
Philippine Declaration of
Independence on racialist
and religious grounds

The Isles of Fear:

The Truth about the
Philippines (1925)
lacks the detached, tonguein-cheek cynicism and ironic
wit of Daunceys book

Katherine Mayo on Rizal Day:

Rizal Day was invented by Mr. Taft, and thenceforth celebrated throughout
the archipelago.

No Filipino was thus known to people.

Mr. Taft, in consultation with the best available advice, decided, therefore,
to pick Jose Rizal.
The purpose of Rizal Day was artificially to create Rizal as the Filipino
hero...

so that a much needed ideal might, in time, grow up around that name.

However, she never clarified a

number of things:
1) Who were those who provided the best
available advice to pick out Rizal?
1) Why Rizal?
1) What much-needed ideal did Taft wish to
inculcate on his Filipino subjects?

Rizal Day
Dauncy
to give relief to
some of their
patriotic emotions

Mayo
to demonstrate
against subservience
to America and
against General
Wood

3 major readings of Rizal during the

American colonial period (Ileto)
1) American version, first noted by Katherine
Mayo
promoted nation-wide hero worship of Rizal . . . to
transfer Filipino adoration away from revolutionary
heroes towards an advocate of pacifist nationalism
(Ileto 1984, 92)

2)
The conservative ilustrados view of Rizal
as a
symbol of both opposition of supremacy of
friars and, as Ileto puts it, evolutionary [as
against revolutionary] change.

3) Subversive reading of Rizal

it was this subversive meaning of that was
commemorated when the second anniversary
of his martyrdom was solemnly observed in
all towns under the control of revolutionary
forces.
Survives today in some millennial enclaves
(e.g. Mount Banahaw)

...having died like Christ, Rizal, it was widely

believed, arose from the dead and was hidden in
some sacred mountain or embodied in a person
of unusual powers . . . peasant rebel leaders up to
the 1920s claimed to be Rizal or to be in some
sort of communication with him.

Doomsday story of the Surigao

Colorum (Mayo)
War was coming . . . And all would join the Surigao Colorums in a general
onslaught upon the Government. Together they must kill every government
official - every traitor who refused to join their army.
Then, after four months of fighting, Dr. Jose Rizal would arrive at the
Barrio Socorro . . . They would celebrate the victory in company with the Holy
Child.
During these festivities a plague would break out and sweep the earth
clear of all who had survived the war yet who had refused to join the Colorum
forces . . . Dr. Jose Rizal would be crowned king . . . Everyone would live
happy forever after without paying taxes and without necessity for work.

 Colorum sect did attract a huge following among

peasants

The authorities feared that the colorums would

kill government officials.
The Philippine Constabulary was sent to destroy
and arrest the leaders, which ended in the
massacre of the sect.

John Schumacher (1991, 117)

The martyred figure of Rizal as well as his radical
critique of Spanish colonialism was congenial to
Americans and fitted perfectly into American
efforts to wean Filipinos from any sense of
gratitude to Spain.

Development of a Pro-American
modern Filipino consciousness:
Two Factors:
The patronage politics instituted by Americas colonial
functionaries

The colonial curriculum in the educational system

Imperial Collaboration
Explanation of Philippine colonial politics under the American
regime as the result of an intricate web of patron-client ties
between the local elite.
Colonial Democracy or Compadre Colonialism
- the development of Philippine politics down to contemporary
times

Colonial Education
Fostered a complementary ideology of a lasting special
relationship between the Philippines and the United States
American colonial education did not deny Philippine nationalism

1.Re-writing Philippine History

Textbooks represented the Philippine-American War in a way
that was complementary to Philippine-American friendship
Treated the defeat of the 1896 Revolution as if it was the
fulfillment of Philippine Nationalism

2. Reverence for both American and Filipino

flags in the Elementary Schools
Indoctrination of bi-national values
Saluting the Flag
- When boys and girls salute the flag, they do not merely express their pride
that it is a flag honored over the world. They ought to remember that the flag
represents the country to which there are duties every hour of their lives. All
the time they are receiving blessings from that country, and all the time they
have duties to that country.

Philippine Public School Readers: Book Three

The Flags
1.When the Flags are raised or lowered, or when they pass in
front of you, stand straight and be very quiet. If you are a boy,
take off your hat and hold it near your heart.
2.Never allow the Flags to touch the ground.
3.The Filipino Flag should be at the left of the American Flag or
below it.

3. Inculcating the value of Filipino-American

cooperation through school exams
Civics and Social Life tests for high school students contained damning
critiques of Philippine society and culture, depicting it as immature and
incomplete, but portrayed the Philippine-American relationship as a strong
positive influence for progress.
The test in the book written by two Filipino educators, Conrado Benitez and
Ramon S. Tirona

4. Promoting America and her heroes

through music in the classroom
Philippine Progressive Music Series
Compiled by Norberto Romualdez Imelda Marcos uncle
The book was printed seven times
The 1949 edition contains a song dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur
in commemoration of liberation of the Philippines

5. The lessons from the Colonial curriculum

To you, flag of my nation, I offer my life, heart and strength.
- Lesson about flag reverence (Si Pepe Kag Pilar Nagdu-aw sa Dakbanua)
Theoretical Implications McCoy does not pursue, is twofold:

1.They were mostly written, compiled and published by Filipinos

2.Their publication dates range from 1937 to 1951.
Camilo Osias and Conrado Benitez received their academic training, as pensionados

Two contentious theoretical issues in McCoys thesis

on the Rizal symbol and American hegemony
1.Bi-Nationalism as a dual loyalty - to ones country as well as to the colonial master
which the Filipino elite harbored both under Spanish rule and American rule.
2.The colonial curriculum during the American regime apparently colonized the minds
of only the children of the privileged classes, who as McCoy had noted, remained in
school longest.

The Schurman Commission

The Schurman Commission

Dr. Jacob Schurman
President of Cornell University, NY

The Schurman Commission

Study the conditions in
the Philippines

Submit a
recommendation to the
US President
Arrived in 1899

The Schurman Commission

Gathered as much historical,
ethnographic, geographic, and
other scientific information about
the Philippines
Completed its mission by January
21, 1990

Submitted its report to President

McKinley

Schurman Commissions Recommendation

Withdrawal of military rule and
establishment of civil
government in places already at
peace with America

Establishment of a bicameral
legislature (lower house to be
elective; upper house to be halfelective and half-appointive)

Organization of autonomous
municipal and provincial
governments

Appointment of distinguished
Filipinos to important
government offices

Although there is no
mention of it in its
policy and
recommendations, one
of the things the
commission discovered
was Rizal.

Discovery of Rizal

Discovery of Rizal
Through interviews with Prominent
Filipinos particularly Dr. Trinidad
Pardo de Tavera

Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera

Medical doctor

Sanskrit scholar
Ethnohistorian
One of the first ilustrados who offered
their services to the Americans as
soon as the Spanish regime collapsed

Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera

Provided the commissions first
picture of Rizal

Provided a capsule biography of Rizal

that included a subtle disparagement
of Bonifacio

Capsule Biography of RIzal

When Bonifacio asked Rizal if it would be a good plan to start a revolution,
Rizal opposed and said it would not be suitable. He said that what would do the
country the most good would be for the people to devote themselves to the
improvement and education of the people and look for reformation in peaceful
ways. Bonifacio, instead, told the Filipinos that Rizal had advised the
revolution instead of peace. Rizal had nothing to do with the revolution nor
with the Katipunan

Capsule Biography of Rizal

When the revolution broke out, Rizal was court-martialed

Although it had not been proven that he had anything to do with it, he was
still sentenced and shot by the Spaniards as they demanded it

Discovery of Rizal
Through the works of the
British writer John Foreman

John Foreman
Long-time resident of the Philippines
Published The Philippine Islands in 1890
Revised it in 1899 and 1906

Discovery of Rizal
Through the works of the Spanish
journalist-cum-historian Wenceslao
E. Retana

Wenceslao E. Retana
Pro-friar journalist
Antagonist of Rizal and Blumentritt
Had a change of heart after Spains
defeat

Wrote the first documented full-length

biography of Rizal

Discovery of Rizal
All 3 writers shared a common view of Rizal as:
Multitalented
Liberal
Reformist intellectual who opposed Bonifacios uprising

Most revered of all Filipino patriots

American authorities found this most congenial to their

colonial agenda

Luneta
From Pardo de Tavera
The Americans learned about the centrality of Luneta in the Filipinos
political life. The questions raised by the commission foretell the new
regimes subsequent use of Luneta as the center of national celebrations
and the site of Rizals monument.

Questions Raised
Where was he shot?
Bagumbayan, Luneta
Rizal showed a great deal of selfpossession

Spaniards and Spanish ladies

cried Viva Espana

Questions Raised
Was there a large crowd present?
Enormous
Spanish National Fiesta
La Marcha de Cadiz

Questions Raised
Was he the only man shot on that
occasion?

He was the only man shot

Spaniards demanded that native
soldiers should be the one to
shoot him

Questions Raised
And was that done?
All executions were done by
Spanish soldiers except that
one of Rizal

Questions Raised
Were executions generally made in
Luneta?
Always

Questions Raised
Did they make it an occasion of
rejoicing?
Spanish people went there
believing that it was a just act

Carrying of justice

Questions Raised
Was it habitual for the ladies and
gentlemen to go to see all these
executions, or only occasionally?
Yes, in political executions

Effects of Schurman Commission

The intensive research and observation of the country had had
contrasting effects
Dr. Schurman and Prof. Dean C. Worcester

Effects of Schurman Commission

Dr. Schurman returned to the US
Convert to the cause of the AntiImperialist League
John Dewey
William James
Mark Twain

All regarded war against the

Filipinos as criminal

Effects of Schurman Commission

Worcester settled down in the
Philippines
Became a prominent official of the
colonial government (14 years)
Ethnographer of various hill tribes
Successful businessman
The Philippines: Past and Present

 Richard E. Welch Jr. (1979,118)

Schurman, having realized that the PhilippineAmerican War had become a crucible for
Filipino nationalism, publicly advocated
Philippine independence, declaring that the 3
years of struggle and fighting had produced
among the Filipinos a people and a universal
passion for immediate independence.

 However, as Welch observes (117), the scholars and

writers opposition to Americas war in the Philippines,
although frequently eloquent and occasionally courageous,
was in the end ineffectual.

 Filipinos were unfit for independence and

required American tutelage in democracy and
good government for a considerable length of
time before they could take care of themselves
Worcester, I am firmly convinced that the
Filipinos are where they are today only because
they have been pushed into line, and that if
outside pressure were relaxed they would
steadily and rapidly deteriorate.

 Taft, the important thing was the

Filipinos welfare, not their
independence
To promote this view among the
Filipinos, American Orientalists,
like Worcester of the Schurman
Commission, had to rewrite
Philippine History and reinvent
Rizal.

 Worcester, American rule

was a total blessing on the
uncivilized Filipinos and
that the longer the
Americans stayed the better
it will be for the Filipinos

Quezon disagreed

Worcesters Conclusion
From annotations of Morga and Rizal
Slavery did exist and continues to exist in the Philippines

Rizals Argument
The type of slavery practiced in Europe and Spain does not
and never did exist in the Philippines, and that it was the
Spanish chroniclers and missionaries who pinned the label
of slavery on certain social practices in the Philippines
that they did not fully understand, and which were not
identical to those practiced in Europe.

Quezons Rebuttal
Published in New York Evening Post
Since there is not, and there never was, slavery in the
territory inhabited by the Christian Filipinos, which is part
of the Islands subject to the legislative control of the
Assembly, this house has refused to concur in the antislavery bill passed by the Philippine Commission

Worcester
Whom will the American public believe, Morga, the
historian; and Rizal, the Filipino patriot, or Quezon, the
Filipino Politician?
He had dramatically shown Rizals uses for the American
regime:
To discredit Filipino nationalists who upheld the aims of
the Revolution or advocate independence. Quezon did
not fit into this mold.

Uses of Rizal
Negation of national independence and revolution
Downgrading of the Spanish colonial heritage and the
affirmation of American institutions and values

Schumacher (1991)

Twofold American Ploy

Laud Rizals genius and wisdom
Present him as in fact an advocate of the very things that the
Americans were instituting or carrying out of the
Philippines.
Completely dissociate Rizal with Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution

Taft Commission
Second Philippine Commission
Established by William McKinley on March 16, 1900
Legislative and Executive Arm
William Howard Taft
Replaced the Military government that controlled Philippines
since August 1899

Americanized Rizal
Tangible Effect of the American Colonization
American sponsorship and the enthusiastic Filipino Elite.

Act no. 137

Rizal Province
June 5, 1901
Provinces of Manila and
Morong

Act no. 243

Rizal Monument at Luneta

September 28, 1901

The construction of Rizal Monument
was comprised of wealthy Ilustrados

Act no. 893

1436
$ 15,000
International Competition
for the design of the Rizal
Monument
Dr. Kissling

Act No.
Duty-free entry of all
materials necessary for
construction of the Rizal
monument.

Act no. 345

December 30 official public
holiday.

Memorandum list by W.H.

Taft

Rizal Day

December 21 1906

February 1, 1902

Religious holidays, Fiestas,

and Saints day during the
Spanish Era
Sundays

American Holidays
February 22

July 4
Thanksgiving day

Philippine Legislature
American Colonial Regime
and the Filipino Elite
Philippine Assembly later
called the Philippine
Legislature
1907

Act no. 1892

First Significant Act of the Philippine Legislature passed in
April 19 1910
An Act Providing for the Celebration of the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Birth of Doctor Jose Rizal, and for Other
Purposes
Executed by Proclamation No.9
Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes
June 19 official public holiday

Rizal Day of 1912

December 29 Trinidad (sister of
Jose Rizal) had the his remains.
December 30 Filipinos paid their
respects to Rizal at the Luneta Park

Jose Rizal was

officially announced as the National
Hero of the Philippines.

1. Act No. 2021

enacted on 26 January 1911
- provided for the purchase of the books and other
documents of Rizal, and appropriated funds for
that purpose

- allocated P32,000 for that purpose

2. Act No. 2078

enacted on 9 November 1911
- Appropriated P25,000 for providing public
schools with an adequate biography of Rizal.

A suitably written biography which shall give special attention

to details of his childhood, school life, travels, work etc.
selections from his writings in English that would most likely
interest children

reproductions of his paintings, drawings, carvings, and

modellings
authentic and historically accurate photos of himself and the
people and places notable in his life

3. Act No. 3241

enacted on 27 November 1925
- authorized the secretary of Justice to purchase
the original of Rizals El Filibusterismo

- Appropriated P10,000 for this purpose

The colonial regime wanted to inculcate the

following traits and values in Filipino
children:
devotion to God
reverence for elders and parents
cleanliness
honesty
industry and loyalty
obedience to the state and its laws

However...

The promotion of an official Rizal cult by the

Philippine Commission and Philippine Legislature
went hand in hand with the obliteration of heroes
who had been branded by the colonial regime as
bandits and criminals (through the Anti-Sedition
Law passed by the Philippine Commission).

Macario Sakay
- Filipino general
- took part in the 1896 Philippine
Revolution against the Spanish Empire
and in the Philippine-American War
- Executed after he surrendered (on
account of a promised amnesty that the
government did not honor)

The Legislature has taken the admirable step in several

instances of appropriating funds for the construction of
elementary and other permanent school buildings as memorials
to distinguished patriots, typical of which is are the laboratory
building of the University named Rizal Hall . . . and the
intermediate school building at Morong in memory of Tomas
Claudio, the First Filipino killed in the [First] World War, a
soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces.
- Governor Forbes (1:47)

Dying for America now meant

dying for the Philippines as well.

as long as I lived I would stand by

America regardless of the consequence to
my people and to myself.
- Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon

By the late 1930s, such professions of loyalty

to America were not regarded as contrary to
being Filipino. Quezon was in truth voicing a
common sentiment among the elite and the
educated segment of the population, a sentiment
that was beginning to rub off the masses as well.

In the verdicts of the tribunals that tried the collaboration

cases, the men who were declared to have collaborated with
the Japanese were called traitors, as if those who were loyal to
the United States, and fought the guerrilla war so that the
Americans would return, were any less betrayers of their
nations integrity. The meaning of the nation had been lost; the
Filipinos could only view themselves in terms of other
countries. Madre Espana was gone, but it was now replaced
by mother America.
- O.D. Corpuz (1989, 569)

Insert Title Here

Insert Text Here