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INM BANWA_MO ENEWS BULLETIN

 
A REJOINDER:
The Ilonggo "Nation" Movement
(by: dinggol a. divinagracia)

GREETINGS!!!

At the risk of being called impertinent by our "kasimanwas" and misunderstood by the "kababayans"; the "Ilonggo Nation Movement" never intended nor entertained the idea of secession.

We envision a free and democratic society of a united Philippines, "The League of Filipino Nations" led by men and women of integrity and competence; idealistic and strong-willed; under any form of government acceptable to its citizens and composed of political and geographical set-up, viz:

I - MINDANAO

a) THE BANGSA MORO NATION; of our Muslim brothers exist because it is a "force to reckon with". United and determined to preserve their cultural and religious patrimony. The BANGSA MORO NATION must not be led by the "has beens" but by modern day "Salahdins".

b) THE CHRISTIAN MINDANAO NATION; "Land of Promise" aspiration that inspired the early settlers; the brave and adventurous ancestors of Christians in the south."TraPos" should never interfere in its leadership.

c) OTHERS, shall fall within respective jurisdiction of the above.

II- VISAYAS

a) THE ILONGGO NATION of Western Visayas; The Land where time began; the birth of the "Malayan Filipino" race. The cradle of ancient Filipino civilization.

b) THE CENTRAL VISAYAN NATION; Home of heroes; the brave "Lapu Lapu" and courageous "Dagohoy". With Cebu, as the "Seat of Central Government" for practical reasons and strategic location.

c) THE WARAY-WARAY NATION of Eastern Visayas; Battle-scarred history of daring people fighting unsurmountable odds against foreign aggressions, never ending social injustice and constant furies of nature.

III- LUZON

a) THE METRO MANILA(and its environs)as ONE NATION; with its seemingly uncontrollable Metropolis problems, might be decongested giving residents ample breathing spaces. Tondo, birthplace of the "Great Plebeian" Andres Bonifacio, a true National Hero. Awaiting another of his kind, but a little more alert on political "in-fighting".

b) THE CORDILLERA NATION; An autonomous region; now known as C.A.R. These undefeated highlanders of the north won their battles against outside intrusions and foreign subjugation. Thereby, preserving their identity as a people.

c) THE ILOKANO NATION; The frugal, industrious and indigenious people of Ilocandia, produced the likes of Diego and Gabriela Silang and other noble heroes. Contributed two of their illustrious sons to the presidency; Elpidio Quirino and Ferdinand Marcos. (We respect both who are departed)

d) THE CAGAYAN"VALLEY"NATION; We Salute! the good people of Isabela Province for their victory in the last Election. They proved that well-entrenched Political Dynasties, notwithstanding their three "G's" and political machineries could be defeated by a physically handicapped (polio stricken) but mentally competent young lady. With unity and determination change is possible.

May your tribe increase! and may your triumph set a precedent in many parts of the archipelago that are still under the strangelehold of conscienceless political dynasties.

e) THE CENTRAL LUZON NATION; Vast wealth concentrated to the elite-in-power who circumvented the laws to protect their vested interests. Hotbed of perennial agrarian conflicts caused by greed of the few at the expense of the many; the poor, suffering and landless farmers (deprived of their lands and dignity due to legal maneuvers). Desperate "Masa" willing to "kapit sa patalim" even to a Godless ideology just to breath a temporary sigh of relief.

From Tarlac, first woman president Corazon C. Aquino led a relatively bloodless EDSA-I revolt that created a new phrase in global dictionary; the famous "PEOPLE'S POWER REVOLUTION", emulated worldwide by freedom loving people under the yoke of tyrants. Sad to say, however, the famous event was followed by the infamous "Shame-and-Scandal-in-the-Family" because of the blatant anomalies of the "Kamag Anak, Incorporated" and amorous misadventures of some family members.

Pampanga produced "Father; Daughter" presidents.Nationalistic Diosdado Macapagal, poor boy from Lubao, became 9th President. During his term Philippines rank second among the economic giants of South East Asia. He revived "Philippine Independence Day" celebration to its proper date, 12th of June. President Diosdado Macapagal, is assured a revered page in Philippine history.

Incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Economist; trying hard to up-lift second to lowest economic rank of the country. Presently parrying inside the political boxing arena: the"Right hook" of the Rightist; the "Left hook" of the Leftist; the "Upper cut" of some Clergies; the "Lower cut" of the Estrada fans; the "Jab" of the jobless and "Straight punch" of Political Opposition and "TraPos". She is eagerly waiting to be saved by the bell by dancing the Cha-Cha. Otherwise, she might end-up in "TKO".

f) THE SOUTHERN TAGALOG NATION; To include both CALABARZON and (MIMAROPA-?). The first "Tagalog Nation" came into being when the group of Datu Puti settled the fertile banks of Batangas river(ilog). He left Panay Island to be ruled by Datu: Paiburong, Bangkaya and Sumakwel. Datu Puti, a Shri- Vijaya Sultanate Minister of Bornay (Borneo) went home to face uncertain fate.

Left behind to explore Luzon and the remaing islands were the six bornean tribes of Datu Dumansil,Dumalugdog, Balkasusa, Paduhinog, Balinsusa, and Lubay. Many great Filipino Patriots and Heroes descended from these equally great ancestors. Among them, Dr. Jose P. Rizal considered "The Pride of the Malayan Race"

g) THE BICOL NATION; Also suffered and sacrificed in the fight for freedom and democracy. Katipunan leaders Domingo Abella of Camarines Sur and Simon A. Ola of Albay, fought the foreign invaders. Simon Ola, last revolutionary leader to surrender to the Americans on September 5,1903. This is being disputed by Batanguenos who insist on Gen. Miguel Malvar.(Our opinion; both are correct; Ola-the Leader and Malvar-the General).

Bicolanos also honor the memories of anti-martial law martyrs of Camarines Sur; The young Jallores brothers, and many others. But most of all, Dr. Juan B. Escandor, cancer specialist of Sorsogon who died under mysterious circumstances on March 31, 1983.

We wish to share to our readers the homily delivered by Msgr. Angel Dy of the Sorsogon Diocese during the memorial services:

"FRIENDS, We honor the memory of Dr. Juan Barrameda Escandor, Johnny to others, Jerry to his friends. After years of painful effort, the reality of a "good life" was for him near at hand. Yet he chose to serve the toiling masses for he could not bear to enjoy life while his brothers cry in despair. He, like a thousand others, have been sacrificed in the altar of some men's ambitions. These merit the respect of the Filipino People. For even in the face of extreme provocation, monetary enticements, a seat in power, they remained true to their principles. They offered their lives, unbowed even in torture, a witness to the greatness of the human spirit".
----------------------------------------------

THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM: WHERE DO YOU BELONG ?

 
The Political Spectrum:

WHERE DO YOU BELONG?

The Filipinos of today, wherever they may be, belong to these political spectrum:

1) The Sige lang...
2) The Walang Paki???
3) The Tama na!!!

I- "THE SIGE LANG.."

A- The first group are those; who at all cost shall do anything and everything to preserve the status quo. With rampant graft and corruption in all levels of government, they never had it sooooo good!

1) The Oligarchy: the modern day illustrados, more often than not also controls the political landscape in their respective fiefdom. It is common knowledge that these few big landlords circumvented the laws at the expense of the many poor farmers; deprived of their land, life and dignity due to legal maneuvers, just so these vultures of society could expand their "Emperium Negosiurum".

2) The Nouveau Riche: Mostly high ranking government officials who provided for their future during the heydays of martial law and the present day smart (illegal) operators with right connect. See their big businesses and palatial homes, yes with an "s" in exclusive enclaves around the country, even abroad.

3) The Political Dynasties: The "Pseudo Royalties". The father is "King Congressman", the mother "Queen Governor", the son "Prince Mayor" the sons wife, "Princess Board Member" the other son "Duke Councilor" etc., etc. etc. and their constituents pobresitos and pobresitas.

4) The Traditional Politicians: These "trapos" believe in the dictum "sometimes you win; sometimes you loss". Behind the political cloud the sun also rises. The political merry-go-round spins like the windmill of their mind never ending, no beginning. But the perpetual poverty of their constituents remain.

It is regretable, indeed, that even idealistic officers of the law, those who have steadfastly avoided the "ogres" that had swallowed Filipino society; sometimes had no choice but to follow the whims and caprices of the afore-mentioned group against the "taong bayan" because of their sworn duties. While those brute "Moonlighters" always serve their masters blindly.

B- The second group are what we call: the "Innocent Bystanders" These people are still hoping against hope for a miracle of a clean, honest and orderly election to come. POR DIOS POR SANTOS!! ANO BA KAYO! With the present maladies that afflicts our nation, the systematic vote buying at iba pa! When will you realize its futility? That's what we call "Suntok sa buwan, jab sa langit" or in latingo lingo (latin-ilonggo), "Asalom Tubolum".

II- "THE WALANG PAKI??" This group, I hope does not comprise the majority of our "kababayan" who see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. They are comfortably contented, mindless of the apathy and injustice around them and prefer to play stupidly safe. Bahala na! Their favorite song "Que sera, sera" Whatever will be will be. The truth of the matter they are the cowards of the country. The hotest spot in hell is reserve for this kind of people with no conviction.

III- "THE TAMA NA!!!"

A- The first group comprises the young and the young once from all sectors of Filipino society including advantaged Filipino expatriates with patriotic fervor, who silently shed their blood, sweat and tears to keep Philippine economy afloat. This group are feed-up and wanted a change by whatever means as long as for the betterment of the Filipino People.

B- The second group are the armed elements in the Philippines:

1) The Military Reformist:
While some who have tasted power during the martial law era wanted "the return of the comeback!" sabi da..to sing "Happy days are here again" there are still others who are seriously taking things with noble purpose. If we could blend the vim, vigor and vitality of these idealistic young officers in active duty with the experience and wisdom of likewise, idealistic retired officers who had tried hard but nonetheless failed to cure the "Cancer of Filipino Society" what a relief it would be.

2) The NDF-CPP-NPA:
The seemingly never ending struggle for national democracy of our brothers from the left shall only be supported by majority of their kababayans if and when they abruptly renownce the 'Godless Foreign Ideology", that is gradually fading in the global scene.

In short: NDF, maybe! - NPA, maybe! - but CPP, a "BIG NO!!" NEVER! The question: why wage war with the lowly soldiers and policemen just doing their duties?? Why not with the "ogres" themselves?? I wonder why? I really wonder why?..

Instead of fighting each other, since they share common objective: to defeat the "ogres" and reform society, why not do your patriotic duty and offer these few "Incorrigibles" in the altar of righteousness. It would be hypocritical to say you do not know these people, as we're sure you do.

To sacrifice simultaneously 5 or 10 in every Region is relatively very low compared to the millions of Filipinos who shall be benefited. And more importantly, the impact to discipline the whole Filipino Nation.

Yes, mga kababayan "Discipline is the name of the game"... and very soon! ... or forever perish as a people.

Where do you belong?

dinggol a. divinagracia

(TIP:  Use Cursor for better viewing on darken portion) 

FILIPINO PERSPECTIVE:
by: Felimon "Monching" Jocson
(INM-VirginiaUSA)

After 330 years of subjugation by the sword and the cross, the Philippines developed to the brink of nationhood under Spanish nurture and oppression and with immoral and abusive theocracy.

Unfortunately, the Americans intervened in the Filipino Revolution with their typical mixture of savagery and idealism. After a successful policy of subjugation by massacre, starvation and co-option, the Americans set out to be the world's best loved imperialists that succeeded the Spanish colonialists. Filipino national pride was thwarted and has never recovered.

Since the so-called EDSA-I Revolution of 1986, which restored the old time politics and the oligarchy, and which democratized corruption, the well-being of the people has continued to decline. What government we have since then is not only corrupt but incredibly inept.

Meaningful land reform is democratically impossible as modern illustrados who controls the political landscape circumvents the law and blatantly maneuvers the legal system to satisfy their greed and selfishness at the expense of the poor peasants.

The past and current political crisis in the country should be blamed on the corruptions that start during elections when mighty and dynastic local politicians who ruled their political "kingdoms" for decades systematically "spread the sunshine" with the intention of R.O.I. plus interest by cornering juicy government contracts to the detriment of their constituents.

Since Philippine Independence "kuno" was given to us by the Americans on a silver platter on July 4,1946; record show that there was no sense of permanency in the national condition as national leadership changed hands every presidential election. Until Ferdinand Marcos became President but whose reelection was attended by corruption and massive frauds.

Today the Philippines is a backwater of Asia; although not many years ago we were among the best off in the whole continent.

The prevailing condition of the country has become so precarious and shaky that another blow against it, might cause a devastation so difficult to cope, and would place to kingdom come, the very roots of our existence as a free and sovereign nation.

================================================                                    (COMMENTARIES):

Dear Mr. Jocson,

There is no question as to the veracity of your statement that the local politicos "spread the sunshine" during election with intention of R.O.I. plus more. That is common knowledge, and that is what their voters are expecting come election time, yet complain afterwards of their incompetence. Although they deserve each other.

The system of patronage politics has been going on for decades, which enable these dishonest and "brainless" elected officials without integrity nor relevant program of government to serve in Congress as members of the "Comite de Silencio". All they need is give commercial advantage to their big financiers, the oligarchy and crumbs to their constituents.

Basically, this feudal structure is not only in the electoral process but also in all sectors of Philippine society that makes our country remain not only backward and underdeveloped but worse of all retrogress and perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

Unless we rid ourselves of patronage politics, economic and political power will always be concentrated on the few elites, who represents less than two percent of the Filipino people.

A radical approach is needed to win the war against poverty that is keeping this "Ogres" alive.

How, when & where do we begin?----any suggestion?

Duol ra sa pikas, Ric Quililing
(INM-DumagueteCityPh)

================================================                                                               Dear Ric:

Just to refresh the memory of my "Kakausa: doul ra sa pikas", hereunder is copy of the initial article of INM-Banwa-Mo eNews Bulletin last Dec.27, 2005.

It is worthy to note that in the annals of history; the duly constituted head of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines formally surrendered to only two cantonal governments: The Independent Negros Republic on November 6, 1898 in Bacolod City and to the Federal Republic of the Visayas on December 25, 1898 at Plaza Libertad in Iloilo City. Both comprised the Ilonggo Nation.

That was before Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo was proclaimed President of the first Philippine Republic during ratification of the Constitution and its inauguration in Malolos, Bulacan on January 23, 1899.

Incidentally, the Treaty of Paris where Spain ceded the whole archipealago to the US for $20-million to end the Spanish-American War was officially consummated and became internationally binding only on APRIL 11, 1899.

Therefore, the Philippine purchase was anomalous.

Reference:(A Chronology: The Ilonggo Nation) 

Cheers!

Segunda N. del Mar (INM-Banwa_Mo:WashDC Cyberzone)

--------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Joining Banwa Mo: Ilonggo Nation Movement

Dear Organizer,

All information recently forwarded the last few hours had been understood, digested and internalized. God Bless.

We will need to inlist indeed all loving Ilonggos to help the Province of Iloilo rise from where it is stuck today.

More Ilonggos are born, the schools are getting crowded, the streets are getting constricted with the rising and never-ending volume of vehicles running in the city and nearby towns. And yet the ambience around the province is still one that is slow, sleepy and laggard. Seemingly everyone loves to live a very simple life such as selling peanuts, grinding peanuts into butter, selling pinasugbo and biscocho, and all other small things that earn very little like selling bananas and pandesal. But the surprising thing is that Ilonggos have very simple joy, happiness and satisfaction. And for as long as they can play mahjong and drink Tanduay and tuba every day, they are already the happiest in the country.

Who will wake these people up? (To be continued.... Thanks)

BGen. Michelangelo H. Siscar, PAF(AFP)
(INM-MetroManilaPH)

==============================================

Quo Vadis Pinoy?
by: NestorSulpico(INM-NewYorkCityUSA)

Maayo gid kag masadya ini nga paghinong-anon naton diri sa "cyberspace":

As I read the "general's" article, I could not stop but laugh hysterically the way he describes it so keen, sharp, and true that I figured out downstream we could laugh at ourselves despite the sorry state of affairs of our homeland.

But we have to sober things up before we go to the next level of evolving into a "Nation" like Indian Nation, Bangsa Moro, or Cordillera Nation, etc...while there are many schools of thought about revolutions, we wanted to do a proactive role on
whether we want the "revolution to be bloody", "peaceful, prayerful"....ad libitum!

We would have a land of promise the revolution had given us..nonetheless...it's the same "ogre" that changes its color each time we change through structural, people power or electoral processes.

The prognosis and prescription would be that due to advance technological discoveries in this age of Information; thru empowerment of Information, we might be able to concoct an evolution of revolution that INM Banwa_Mo moderator is telling us.

We let history, the lessons of the past, guide us. But tapestry of events will lead us into a genesis instead of exodus of a Nation.

In short, we shall overcome most of the obstacles and lead us not into temptation but deliver us into our land of promise.

I believe in the saying "tremendous powers derived from the people as that of public office were only as fair and just and constitutional as the men and women who wielded them".

Let us be Ilonggos, as what you may deem it fit to be one, but we were not borne Ilonggos for nothing whether as a tribe, village, or nation.

We shall act now to do this general cleaning in our own backyard, let us resonate the mantras of ilonggos, "banwa ko, palangga ko!" But the "question lies not in our stars, Brutus but in our hearts!"

Madamo sa aton may mahatag nga bulig pero ang mga tao lang nga may (PANAN-AW)VISION ang madali makahangop sang nagabakhu naton nga dutang gin taliwan pero ari kita diri naga sakripisyo para mapigaran ang paglunsad sang "economic ruin" nga kon indi sa nagasalimuang sa paglaghap sang maayo nga trabaho para maluwas naton ang aton pamilya kag pungsod dira wala na Quo Vadis?

Ilonggo, Bangon, Bugtaw na kita nga OFW! OFW have the power to turn the tide. Pero dapat naton higugmaon ang aton ginhalinan kay madamo sa aton corrupted, indi lang ang politician pati na ang ido nga nagalagaw lagaw sa Calle Real.

Has our country gone to the Dogs?, Long time ago! Are they all Dogs? I don't know. But I'm giving the benefit of the doubt. Some Ilonggos who had been in power were instrumental in creating these ferociously greedy dogs, unleashed, ravishing the coffers of our land, sucking every drop of our blood, weakening the spirit of hardworking people, and fanning the fire of corruption prompting the exodus of our people from their Motherland.

A new phenomenon, that a country such as ours, patriotic we may be, is confronted with the braindrain syndrome, as our teachers, health professionals and even priests are leaving the country at a very alarming rate. Quo Vadis Pinoy?

I hate to see this happen when our country is reduced only, to an Archipelago, plain and simple.                                 
================================================                                      (COMMENTARIES):

Re: QUO VADIS PINOY?

KANAMI MAN magbasa sang mga hiligut-on naton sa tagipusu-on kon kaisa pero laban guid nga nagadabdab kag nagamakot ang kaakig kon madumduman naton bala ang mga makahalanuklog nga mga nagakatabo sa aton banwa nga luhaan.

Has our country gone to the dogs? Buhay ron pero, wara timo kamaan? Pagtabok mo sa taytay antes kang banwa ka Oton, ang panawag karan "ayam buang!"

Somewhere in this website, my partner in the MyPinoyWorld. com , si kasimaryo ko Perry Diaz, nagapalanog kang budyong kag agong nga ang panahon nagakinahanglan sang pagsolosid-ing agud ma-islan naton ang panan-aw naton sang aton maragtas bilang isa ka banwa, isa ka isganan nga pumuluyo kag isa ka nasyon nga nagatindog sa isa komun nga panghunahuna kag dalamguhanon sa aton palaabuton. I cannot in any way disagree with him. I share the belief and the insight to look back into our history and know ourselves kay ang bansagon nga Pilipino nga si Gat. Jose Rizal naghambal kag ini nakita ko sa pulong nga Hiligaynon dira sa kilid sang dalan sa CHICKS area sang Negros Occidental: "ang tauo nga waay makahibalo sang iya nga ginahalinan, hindi maka-abot sa iya nga padulongan!" Naga-arko sa dalan nga ginbalay sa mga puno ka kawayan, may dibuho sang cut-off pyramid nga may triangulo sa ibabaw kag may mata sa sentro.

Pareho guid, Toto Nestor, sang One Dollar bill nga nagabaruron sa purongko-an ka taxi nga nakita mo rugyan sa East Coast. Makatilingala, hindi bala? Ano ang relasyon sining dibuho sa arko nga kawayan nga yadto sa banwa ka Ilog kag sang One Dollar bill kag ni Jose Rizal? May inscription man nga "Annuit Coeptis" kag "Novus Ordo Seclorum." Makatilingala nga may kulto didto nga amo sini sa bukid kang CHICKS area sa Negros Occidental nga nagsanto ang panghunahuna kag painu-ino sang mga Founding Fathers kang Estados Unidos!

Sa akon kubos nga panghunahuna isa ini ka panaghoy sang kalag nga gusto ipa-abot sa kalangitan! Isa ka pangamuyo sang kasingkasing nga sa kalooy sang Diyos, sa nagakaigo nga panahon, ang isganan nga pumuluyo sang Western Visayas region magabugtaw sa kamatuoran kon sa diin maghalin ang Pungsod nga Pilipinas kag kon ano ang iya madangatan!

In the reassessment of our history as a people and as a nation, there are certain truth that we must, by all means,imbibe in order that we may be able to clearly know the purpose and goals of nationhood. Our present predicament as a a country is not at all pleasing and honorable to us. It is because our history made it so. Jose Rizal in his essay, "The Philippines A Century Hence" had seen this. We failed as a nation because we failed to answer the call of destiny. We did not answer the call of destiny because our eyes were shrouded with the mantle of ignorance brought about by centuries of Colonialism and Imperialism made more confusing to us by the kind of Christianity peddled to our fathers by the minions of the powers that subjugated our will and national weal. Our being the only Christian and English-speaking nation in Asia is an anomaly as glaring as the anomaly of the single sun in our solar System! This anomaly is not only a symptom of the malignancy that drove Jose Rizal to write "Noli Me Tangere" but is the root of the cancer that needed a systematic surgery.

Was there ever a birth of a nation without a revolution? Itudlo abi kon sa diin ang isa ka pungsod nga nagtuhaw kag natauo nga waay sing isa ka rebolusyon antes sini?

The creative genius of the Filipino will allow the birth of a new nation without a violent revolution. The Pinoy Expat is doing it already without being conscious about it.

BenjieEstuche(INM-OklahomaUSA)


THE "CULTURAL DIVIDE"... Controversy over the existence of the "CODE OF KALANTIAO"..

(Excerpt from - A Chronology: The Ilonggo Nation): 

"...  For about 300 years before the coming of the Spaniards, the Ilonggos lived in comparative prosperity and peace under an organized government, the "Katiringban et Madia-as" or the Confederation of Madya-as and with such laws as the Code of Kalantiaw...."

-----------------------------------------------------------------
jimmy lagun said...
maayong adlaw dinggol,

 I admire the passion and effort you put into the ilonggo nation  movement... keep it up... i thought you would be interested in this  contrarian point of view regarding the 'code of kalantiaw', once  considered a constant in panay and philippine history..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Kalantiaw

The Code of Kalantiaw was a fictitious legal code said to be written in  1433 by Datu Kalantiaw, a chief on the island of Negros in the Philippines.
---------------------------------------------------
Hi! Jimmy:

Thanks for the encouragement... I'm aware of the conflicting views regarding the existence of the "Code of Kalantiaw".

After careful study and thorough consideration; I decided to rely on "Sentido Comon" that there must have been something like, if not really  that of Datu Kalantiaw... Rules and Laws our ancestors abided....otherwise anarchy not harmonious relationship prevailed.

These Datus were exposed under Sultan Makatunaw's governmental rule.. with alleged repressive but still laws to follow. Maybe, they made  theirs...here.... more humane.

Undeniably, Datu Puti was the first leader..after him other leaders but  certainly these leaders always had set of Codes for their constituencies.

So whether it's the Code of Kalantiaw or Datu Puti, Pula, etc.. does not really matter. What is certain there existed then and now "Code of  Laws" for the populace.

Unless and until the veracity of this dispute is finally settled, I would prefer to be in the PRO because of the mystery and intrigue that  surrounds it that makes the "Code of Kalantiaw" even more colorful.
 
Sa liwat.. Jimmy...Salamat!...dinggol..                                                                                                            -------------------------------------------------------------                                                                              From: "Vicente" <ginesdemafra@gmail.com>
 
Subject: "There must have been..." Difference between history and speculation
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:24:05 -0000

When a historian asserts a fact, it's his moral duty to show proof in support of his assertion. But when one begins with "there must have been" or "surely, they should have had" you're not dealing with history but with what is called in logic the fallacy of the possible proof.

I should think it's plain that to assert is not  to prove.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ----------------------------------------------------------------

As we have always asserted, Jesus had nothing to do with the writing of the New Testament and yet Christians and non-Christians had attributed to him what was written in there. Jesus and Datu Kalantiao were not known to be writers but they have brilliant minds that held the "laws" in their brains for the later generations to write about.

What could have Matthew, Mark, John and Luke could have written if Jesus was a deaf-mute or if had had been a scribe? Fray Fabon could have written about Nora Aunor instead?

This idea of using reason and logic in the absence of proof to prove history is the most stupid and unreasonable fallacy of all!

The Spaniards came to the Philippines on the sailboat of ignorance and that was the greatest legacy they left with us. We were actually discovered because of the search for a way to kill a Pope and/or search for a cure for Papal Hemorrhoids. And there is no logic on this either.

Jamie Baby(INM:OklahomaCityUSA)

------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi! Vic:  

I respect your opinion and thanks for the reminder on historical technicalities. 

History is for the victors... To blindly believe history... gently pushed to us by foreign conquerors,  to me is objectionable.

When the "conquistadores"  trampled our sacred shores,  most of our ancestors in the "Islas" co-opted and cowered in fear.

My maternal great grandmother, Sinforosa Flores-Paguntalan's elders from Miagao-Igbaras-Ogtong (Oton: which then included Antique) were actively involved in the 1586 "Igbaong Revolt" and the 1663 "Tapar Revolt".

On November 21, 1849, when native names did not favor the ignorant ears and indolent tongues of the Spanish invaders, Governor-General Narciso Claveria's  Executive Edict forced our ancestors to change their names.

Mostly did,  but my forebears fought and many died to preserve theirs. - -Up to this day the "Paguntalan" still exist.


In short, I would still prefer to believe history handed down from generation to generation rather than from any Tom, Dick and Harry.
                                                                                                                                           Matinahuron...dinggol.                                                                                                                                  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Dinggol,

salamat, ti ari na gid ko ya.

Nindot ning ginsiling mo: "In short, I would still prefer to believe history handed down from generation to generation rather than from any Tom, Dick and Harry."
Mopati gid ko nimo nga:

1. "History"is handed down from generation to generation. On-going "history" is handed down from communities or families from one generation to the next.
2. Families or communities of Tom, Dick and Harry hand down their victor's version of history.  On the other hand, the likes of 'Paguntalan' hand down their
own version of history to their offsprings' generation and the next.
3. There are different interpretations of 'history'. Which 'history' do you prefer to believe? Which interpretations? Which re-interpretations?
4. The point is: 'history' as an interpretation depends on the interpreters. It depends on the parents, their offsprings and the next generation of families, how they understand and judge the experience being passed on from parents and ancestors. It depends on  the 'integrity' or truthfulness of the interpreters. It
depends on the authenticity of the interpreters(ancestors and offsprings, the historians), that is, depending on their level of attentiveness to experience and research, level of understanding of what actually happened,  use of reason for right judgment, and level of responsibility and success on passing it on to the next generation.
And would it be received successfully,rightly and intelligently by the next generations, givent the records and stories?
5. Nevertheless, what is being interpreted are the facts or evidence of 'history' (or lack of it. ). Thus,  'history' as what actually happened is the answer of questions, such as what actually happened in such a place in such a time in such persons or community?  True 'historians go beyond interpretations to get the right judgment of what actually happened with the use of reason and rationality. Previous interpretations are continuously disproven or  reinterpreted in the light of new understanding given the discovery of the new data or evidence, until they get the right judgment on what actually happened, on the first place, in that place, in that moment of history.

6. Generally speaking, We, who should be(supposedly) attentive, intelligent, rational and responsible human beings do experience, understand, know and responsibly live in this constantly changing and historical world!

7. Lived history is ongoing. It has moments in the past and continuing moments of today in the lives of communities.  Communites have common meanings and understandings of truths to be passed on  for the following generations or communities who would successfully(or unsuccessfully) receive and pass them on.  If one generation today die without passing them on, if the records and evidence are destoryed and lost, buried in time and oblivion, then their story or 'history  is cut off, the previous chapters are lost, and the values and meanings that have to be passed on are not received by the next generation of 'witnesses' and interpreters and carriers of history. The lived story or  history can't go on, can't move forward.

8. Like the story of Jesus too. If he had no disciples nor followers, then no one would have heared him, understood him, believed in his truth, and wrote or passed on his 'good news' . Thanks to the witnessing of the communities that continually pass on the story of Jesus through the retelling of his story in words and action, and specially in lived witness. Yet, even Jesus said 'blessed are those who believe even though they have not seen him'. Those who came to believe but have not seen him came to believe in the truth of Jesus through the living witness of his followers, disciples and believers through out history.

9. They came to believe in the light of faith. They came to believe through their own experience, understanding, judgment of the veracity of Jesus' story. They have been experiencing and living in faith and knowledge of his undying love and care for them concretized in the faithful witnessing communities and individual Christians. If there were no living witnesses nor scriptures nor traditions of Christian communities from the early history of early Christianity, the martyrs and church fathers, the mytics and monks, the religous and the laity through medieval times up to modern times, who believed Jesus' story, then it would would have been lost or ended in oblivion long time ago.

10. But the story does end or it could end if only one generation refuses to receive and pass it on, or preserve its records and traditions to be given and reinterpreted for the next generations.

11. Same story for the Ilonggo Nation Movement. It has a story, moments in the past and still on-going now in the reinterpreting and knowing of what actually happened. But it could end soon, if this generation fails to pass on or retell or reinterpret the story. It fails if one generation fails to faithfully live out the values and meanings  that have been received from parents and communities.

12. In hope, may the young generation and the next  understand and own the story, their history, their cultural values and received traditions.  Hopefully, it will be received through the language or symbols or perspectives appropriate for Toto and Inday, easy to be deeply understood by the 'pakaisa' ug 'pakaduha', to be true  to the Ilonggo people, true to their own perspective as a nation. You just wonder what people's vision, world view, meaning, joy, texture, sensitivities and sentiments and jokes and all the rest are gone or off, when the nation's language is diminished or gone extinct. Or not spoken anymore.

Ti, sayang gid. Namit tani ang tono kag pamatyag.

"kon di ka mapati sa akon ginasiling, ti, ikaw ang 'magsiling' ako ang mapati",

:) Akoy

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================================== 

From: Nathanael John Gerochi Duenas (INM: SanFranciscoCA-USA) 
To the Moderator:

Thank you for the invitation. Allow me to suggest some features that will benefit the website and other members:


Please find the map of the extent of the Visayan federation and the  Ilonggo nation and how it evolve before the coming of the Conquestadores.

The Phot Gallery will add color to our knowing each other.

Nat Duenas

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From: jamiebestuche (INM: OklahomaCity-USA)

It is rather speculative as it is without basis of history if we mean of "history" is that which had been written for us by our tutas of our colonial masters but here are the "facts:"

1) there are three tribes that can be "huramanetados," but are also known for being "poets" and "romantics:" the Ilonggos, the Tausogs and the Batanguenos. These three came from the same roots in North Borneo. Intermarriages between the three had always been a perfect match: "andres de saya" husband and a "warmonger wife."

2) after aguinaldo's forces started to crumple down with a series of surrenders to the US Asiatic forces, Gen. Miguel Malvar sparked a series of declarations of pocket Republics with their "independence"

3) Jose Rizal was not really a pacifist as he was pictured to be but we must remember that he was born in Calamba, Laguna, just a few kilometers from Sto. Tomas, Batangas, where Gen. Malvar declared his Philippine republic.

4) Jose Rizal was exiled in Dapitan in Zamboanga and had written to ferdinand Blumentritt about colonizing North Borneo.

5) Locate the coordinates of the following locations: a) Calamba, LAGUNA, B) Kota Kinabalu in North Borneo and c) Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte.

Connect a line between these three coordinates and you will have an upright triangle which defines the hegemony of the Confederation of Madjaas.

6) Research on the number of provinces that declared a republic within the area of influence of the triangle after Gen. Malvar and you will now have the Confederacy of Madjaas (these are the areas where the three tribes in no. 1 above thrive.).

7) within the the expanded triangle of Santo Tomas is a body of water within which may be found the future source of "energy" identified as "deuterium."

8) There existed a group in Rizal's time in Heidelberg, Germany called the Asiatic Brotherhood, a fraternal organization of scientists, men of letters and alchemists. In short, freemasons, the arch enemy of the Roman Catholic church.

9) At the Koenigsthul Mountain in Heidelberg(refer to Rizal's poem "Flowers of Heidelberg") is now located the center for scientific studies that could spell out the future of the world, the Max Planck Institut die Astronomie, that would identify the main source of the world's deuterium deposit within the area of the triangle.

10)This is the Federal Republic of Madjaas?

Just asking because my Dad is writing a book about this as "fiction." Coincidentally, my father is Ilonggo, my mother is Batanguenya with a greatgrandfather who was a Tausog, the only three tribes in the Philippines which sold kumot, mosquitero and the 29, the original OFWs. Di ba, mga Titos and Titas?

Jamie Baby Estuche

----------------------------------------------------

 Nathanael John Duenas <natduenas@yahoo.com> wrote:

This is a wonderful story and could be believable depending on what future archeological finds by our scientists may indicate.

I am looking forward to having a copy of your fathers book and other contributions in literature, culture, architecture, linguistics and any acheological finds within this Nation of the Madjaas.... Nat 

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Dear Nat and my fellow Ilonggos,

We are no longer dependent on what "future archeological finds by our scientists may indicate." Deuterium as an energy source had been identified as early as the 1930s, although, I would venture to speculate that energy sources had already been studied by some European scientists even before "black gold" (fossil oil) and the car "engine" was discovered and invented in America at the turn of the 21st century. It had also been identified as a contributory energy that triggered the Big Bang.

Heavy water research was subject of espionage and the Norwegian project of Nazi Germany was practically disabled by the Allied Forces in WW2 which shifted the tides of war in favor of the US and her allies after the Bikini Atoll tests for the A-Bomb and H-Bomb were announced and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were nuked out of the map in August 6, 1945.

The H-Bomb is a good example of nuclear fission to produce energy using heavy water which is the "ordinary" name of Deuterium. Look into the following websites to learn more of Deuterium or Heavy Water:

1) http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7315;
2) http://www.livescience.com/environment/top10_power_21stcentury.html.
3) http://www.wikipedia.org. (look into items - deuterium, heavy water and heavy water reactor.

Since you are suggesting to include maps and photographs here, please have a map of the Philippines published as attachment to your postings in this yahoogroup after connecting the lines of the coordinates Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, Kota Kinabalu, North Borneo and Calamba, Laguna and you will see that the center of the triangle is purely water or the Visayan Sea which connect to the Mindanao Deep. Deuterium is basically inhabiting the "ocean deep" where they could be harvested to be converted into isotopes to trigger nuclear fusion in an energy reactor as in the matter and anti-matter fusion. The seas within the Triangle and the Mindanao Deep south of the base of the triangle had already been identified by geologists, scientists and quantum science researchers as deuterium-rich regions. This information had been kept from the public but congressional investigations had been made during the Marcos Martial law regime which had been kept from the public.

This explains also the various claims of several country-states as Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, China and the Philippines of an atoll called the Freedomland discovered by Tomas Coloma for the Philippines popularly known as the Sprattley Island group which is rich in fossil oil deposit. Such claims all hid the fact about deuterium - the 21st century energy commodity which can power cars in the near future.

While my father's book is "fiction" the items below from 1 to 9 are all with historical basis if we look seriously into history books other than Gregorio Zaide.

This brings us to the ultimate "fiction" which most of the lapdogs of our Colonial Masters were ranting about: "Confederation of Madjaas." This "fiction" must be relegated to "myth" in order to dissociate the Ilonggo Nation which was Rizal's "Lost Eden" from laying claim to the expanded Triangle of Santo Tomas and reviving the hegemony of the confederacy that united the tribes of the Batanguenyos, the Tausogs and the Ilonggos which is also the rationale behind the allegation of various sectors (mostly foreigners) that the Code of Kalantiao is a fake and attributing the translation work of Fray Fabon as a mongrel work. The Chronology posted in this website could be alluded to. Look into other provinces and historical timeframes and see how many island provinces in the triangle declared "independence" almost at the same time  as Gen. Miguel Malvar. Did Gen. Martin Delgado do the same as Gen. araneta did in Negros Island? Are we supported by historical facts? How about Masbate? Romblon? Palawan and Mindoro? Weren't they part of the original Region IV that comprised the Western Visayas Region until Imelda Marcos rearranged them to be included in the Southern Tagalog Region to enlarge her domain? In the absence of modern marine transportation, isn't thePalawan Island a natural bridge of migration from North Borneo to Batangas using a windpowered sailboat?

Why was the same "myth" of the heroine Teresa Magbanua as a self-declared Henerala? Why was she not recognized as a legitimate revolutionary?

If we look, again, into history of laws and statutes, a similar code could be found at the same time frame in Great Britain in the laws of the Witans which is not at all earth-shaking because the same laws were considered "myths" by the clerics of the Church as a counter-reformation tactical ploy to cover up for the real myth which was the historians' reason for discovering the Philippines for the King of Spain and the Spanish Papal  Mafia.

The Ilonggo Nation Movement must challenge the Catholic Church in the Philippines to hold on to the historical fact that they "Christianized" the archipelago and let the Church accept such in a black-and-white declaration. The Church will not do that for by accepting the church's role, she will be liable to answer litigations when the Ilonggo Nation (which includes the Tausogs and the Batanguenyos) lays claim to its ancestral land and domain in the near future.

Jamimah Yazmine B. Estuche

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A Stable National Security                                                                                                                                                                By: NatDuenas (INM: SanFran.Ca-USA)

A community base intelligence assets consisting of the local officials, tanods, and citizen militia is vital for accurate pinpointing of insurgents or trouble makers, foreign invaders or infiltrators.
 
A new Baranggay mind-set will play a significant role with leadership from local businesses and livelihood centers will reduce military and law enforcement expenditure and use the capital instead for weapon and tactical modernization.
 
This will establish a solid front or 'Frente Amplio' of the New Katipunan of a citizenry that kas patriotic fervor for the good of their own community as collectively a strronger national resolve.
 
Nation building has to start from the local government level and the Baranggay autonomy. Regional autonomy leadership will provide a broader concern that will establish economic viability as a self-sustaining state with collective assistance from a federated union of states and a respinsive and effective military force.
 
Arming our citizenry becomes a deterent from inside trouble makers and external interventions of enemies of the regional states. Bangsa Moro, the 'Ilonggo Nation', the Visayan Federation, the Ilocano nation, the Batangas 'Stornghold', the Bicolano Alliances, the Republic of Samar, etc. shall perform based on their regional resources
and confident of a federated union assistance from national government and the military.
 
The Heirarchy of Cintrol and Management is compartmentalized for relvance and effectivity. The citizenry shall have a direct hand in the welfare of their community and the legislations of laws they have to abide with. The same heirarchy of the rule of the law shall apply at various level of governance and closely monitored by the citizens for accountability and transparency.
 
The OF/OFWs can then focus on specific 'hometowns' where they are assured of community cooperation and safeguard of their investments.
 
This structural reform of localized autonomy and arming our citizens is the only reliable approach to safeguard our democracy as a people and as a nation of brotherhood.
 
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MORE ON THE  "CULTURAL DIVIDE"

From: JedPensar (INM: ButuanCity-PH) 

 Regarding the Kalantiao code. According to Rolly Espina, a SOLFED NGO Board member and also a member of the Negros Occidental Historical Society, the original documents that gave rise to this hoax was forged by Marco, a conman from one of the southern towns of  Negros Occidental (Pontevedra I think, but I can't recall anymore).

  Negros Occidental Historical Society has access to practically all documents or written literature concerning the history of Negros. They pretty much know what is genuine or what is fake.

  The Kalantiao Code is a hoax, a forgery, a fake.

  End of story? No..

  In my organizational work for SOLFED, exhorting people to love their traditional culture, I often meet Western Visayans who cite the Kalantiao code whenever they get into a patriotic state of mind.

  I do not oppose them when they do this, and for good reason. To do so in an abrupt manner would make me lose my audience and dampen their patriotism. This does not benefit anyone.

  The situation is akin to a folk medicine that some faker long ago recommended as curing say migraine headache. Over the years, this 'medicine' (say some juice extracted from some plant leaves) has passed into folklore as a 'cure' for migraine. Let us say that in truth, it is utterly ineffective, but also utterly harmless. Normally I would not actively oppose the people who use this fake 'medicine'. It could actually have a beneficial placebo effect. However, as a doctor neither would I recommend it, or even mention it, much less use it for my patients.

  Now what benefit would the Western Visayans, professing patriotism for their Region and citing the Kalantiao Code as an example of their glorious history, get if in the heat of their profession I would suddenly proclaim: "You are just being fooled by a conman who forged the Code"? I simply lose potential recruits into our cause, and probably gain their everlasting enmity as well. Perhaps later, at the appropriate time, the hoax could be explained to them. Meanwhile, the placebo effect that this hoax inuces could be used to gain recruits for our cause, which would eventually benefit these Western Visayans anyway.

  Instead of these harmless and possibly even beneficial hoaxes with their positive placebo effect (from the point of view of a Western Visayan), there are other very harmful hoaxes that we should train our guns on. For example, the hoax that Tagalog is the 'National Language' of the Philippines and therefore to be Filipino, one has to know Tagalog. We all know there is not even a single law or order that Tagalog is the 'National Language' of the Philippines. Now I would oppose this hoax openly, vehemently, on principle, because it causes great harm to the non-Tagalog peoples of the Philippines. Other harmful hoaxes can be thought off. ...Jed

-------------------------------------------------------
From: BenjieEstuche (INM: OklahomaCity-USA)

Mga kasimanwa,


Ari na naman kita. Ari naman kita sa pagpadayon sa paglipong sang aton adugay na nga lipong nga panghunahuna.

Sa kamatuoran nga may pulong pa kita nga ginagamit nga aton pa mabanabana kon nagasandig sa kamatuoran nagapakita lamang sang isa ka pagpangabuhi kag pangginawi nga nagtuhaw sang panahon nga waay pa
mag-abot sa aton kadutaan ang mga Katsila.

May mga kata-uhan na bala sa aton mga kaduta-an bag-o mag-abot si Magellan? Kon may ara sin-o ang nagapanag-iya? Kon may tag-iya sin-o ang nagamando sa ila kon may nagamando guid man? Mga apa bala ini sila nga hindi makahibalo maghambal? Kon apa paano sila mahimo nga maghilisugot sa mga butang nga nagamando sang ila pangginawi?

Tungod nga hindi naton madab-ot kutkot ang ugat sang aton nga ginhalinan mapati na guid lang kita sa katarantaduhan kag kabuangan nga guinhimo sa aton sang mga banyaga nga nagliso kag nagtuhil sang tadlong
nga lakat sang aton utok.

Ngaa nga magsagad pa taton ka pabugal sang aton nga pulong kinaray-a kag hiligaynon kay nahibalu-an man naton nga naglitik man lang kita sa buho kag waay naton mahibalu-an kon sa diin kita maghalin?
Katarantaduhan!

Makasiligni kag nagapatindog kang aton mga balahibo sa pag-angkon sang aton nga waay naton makilala sang tadlong kag matarong tungod sa mga ugat naton nagalatay ang dugo sang aton natauhan nga tatay nga frayle
kag alferes nga hindi man naton gani ma-ako kag hindi man gani mag-ako sang ila nga pagkatatay. Nagapakita lamang nga tanantanan kita amo guid man sa mabati-an naton nga pamuyayaw sang aton mga nagligad nga amo nga naglugos sang aton mga iloy sa diin tanantanan kita natauo nga "ihos de bastardo" kag ang makapatulo pa guid sang aton laway sa kaakig nga sa pihak sang ila paglugos sa aton mga iloy ginpatiman-an pa sang sugilanon nga kita mga "ihos de puta" tungod kay natauo kita nga bunga sang ila nga panglugos!

You cannot pretend to save a language or dialect that had already died the day you refused to accept your ancestral roots. The purpose of ethnic cleansing which is a method used by Colonial Powers is to uproot a people from their ancestral sources so that total enslavement is achieved. Anything Spain had touched and anywhere Spain had been became a laboratory for how to kill a culture, a people and a nation.

Ang pobre nga Incas kag Mayas Kag Aztecs nga nagakinatsila waay na gani makahibalo kon ano na ang natabo sa ila nga mga kalololohan nga nagpasad sang mga pyramids kag templos. Kag kompleto recados na ang ila
mga kabataan sa pagpamuyayaw subong sa "ihos de cabrons." Ano ang kinatuhay naton sa ila?

Karon, ano ang nadiskubre ni Magellan kon waay guid man gali ang aton mga kalolohan nagkabuhi sa sini nga kalibutan kay hindi sila makahibalo maghambal, magsulat kag magpalakat sang ila adlaw-adlaw nga pangginawi?
Kay waay sang sinulat nga nagamando sang ila pangginawi?

Katulad sang pag-ulipon sang mga frayle sa aton mga malapit lang nga kalolohan nagpadayon kita nga nagpa-ulipon sa mga panghunahuna nga hindi na aton kundi iya sang banyaga agod nga mabug-os naton ang
pag-utod sang aton higot sa pusod nga naga-angot dapat sa aton mga iloy hindi sa ikog sang mga pari kag prayle.

Ang Balaan nga Kasulatan nagapatima-an nga ang tanantanan nga yara dira nga nabalhag, iya nga pulong ni Hesus pero nahibalu-an naton nga hindi si Hesus ang nagsulat sini. Ti, ngaa patihon naton ang Balaan nga
Kasulatan kay si Hesus iya ang akon ginapatihan kag nahibalu-an ko nga hindi siya sina ang nagsulat? Mahimo seguro gani nga kon buhi lang si Hesus subong kag pamangkuton naton kon ano ining mga sinulat sang mga
Herodes nga ini basi maghambal pa siya nga "ambot ah, waay takon kamaan karan! Abi, ipamangkot sa tatay mo nga pari." Amo man ina ang Mando kag Sugo ni Kalantiaw kay ang tinutuyo sang mga kapari-an sang una amo nga maglimbong sa aton panghunahuna kag magsabwag sang binutig para matago ang kamatuoran nga sila ang aton tatay nga nagbunyag sa aton nga Kristiyano sa tuo nga kamot apang ang wala nagaku-ot sa hindi dapat kulo-oton.

Ti, kundi nawad-an tana ti kadutaan ang akon mga kalolohan kay, ti, nabunyagan ron taton nga Filpino kag Kristiyano. Ano pagpanawag mo sini kon hindi "systematic land-grabbing" in the name of God?

Ano nga sahi sang Diyos ini nga magtugot nga kawaton ang duta sang akon amay kag maglugos sang akon Iloy?
OK, if we follow the line of your argument, we allowed ourselves to be robbed and raped of our lands. That is our lot. What business do we have, then, to claim for something like language (Kinaray-a and hiligaynon) and culture (Barter of Panay) and laws (Code of Kalantiao) which are no longer ours? Unless, we trace back the umbilical line that connect us to our mother's and know that our real father is Datu Puti and Kalantiao and Sumakwel and Dumongsol and Paiburong and whatever that sonofabitch's name was.

We have no business to be here, otherwise, everything else is hypocrisy.
BENJIE
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Dugang nga tubong parte sa Historical Society,

Tungod kay naghambal si Rolly Espina nga ginapara-phrase mo, Toto Jed, nag-conclude ka na nga ang Code of Kalantiao peke? Ang NO Historical Society basi nagakinahanglan guid man sang neurosurgeon. Sorry, pero, just because ang credentials ni Rolly tungod nga nanay 'ya Lopez-Jaena hindi na kunsayuron nga ang iya tugdaanon mangin isa ka kamatuoran tungod kay ang isa 'ya ka parte nagahilay kay Lapulapu dapat nga balasulon pa gani naton ini. Kay kon ginduropan ni Lapulapu panigbas ang mga ulo sang mga lininti-an nga mga Katsila pagdungka nila sa Mactan, daad waay ron sanda magbalik pa sa aton kadutaan, hindi bala Agurang Gimo?

Nakaseguro tamon ni Agurang Gimo kang amon nga kalolohan kay man rugto sa Duenas duro tana to nga Katsila anda nga pinamugutan ka ulo kag ang akon kamal-aman atong mga naga-umbilay kang ginunting nga nagasangyad sa lupa sa ginatawag nga "Igbaong rebellion." Igbarasnon tamon nga puro kag ang mga kalolahan namon nagaturog nga may hulid nga talibong agud nga hindi malugos kang mga prayle kag pare kag soldado kang alperes.

Ang mga ilustrados kang primer distrito kang Iloilo amo ang matuodtuod nga "Enlightened Elite" kay waay sanda mang-agaw ka lupa kang amon kalolohan kundi ginbuligan pa nanda kang tipid kag panguma.

Ngaa man nga mayad tana si Sir Rading Norada magdayaw kang Hara? Kay man gintudlo-an kang anang Nanay kag Tatay nga gintudloaan kang anang Lolo kag Lola nga mahimo nga kabarangayan nanday Datu Puti kay man ang Miag-ao marapit lang sa Suba kang Siruwagan sa San Joaquin. Amo man ran ang mga Passinhon, Dingli-anon, Pototanon kag Duenasanon nga gintudlo-an kang mga Kamal-aman nanda nga hindi magpatonto sa mga
prayle kag guardia civil.Sa latonlaton kang pulong, nakalambot pa kanaton ang mga pulong nga diya nga dapat lang nga taw-an naton kang kadungganan kay man rugya taton naghalin.

Hindi naton maku-on nga tungod kay nagpasaka si diputado kang panugdaan nga gina -ako nga lenguahe national ang aton pulong matumba ron taton ka baka kag mag-lab-ok ka balading kang tuba sa kasadya. Rugyan kanaton ang pag padayon kang kabuhi kang aton pulong. Katulad man nga rugyan man kanaton ang paglaum kag paghigugma nga gintudlo ni Hesukristo. Hindi mo mabuol sa bunyagbunyag nga ginhimo kang mga prayle nga katsila kay maskin pa waay sanda maka-abot sa aton kadutaan, rugyan ron kanaton ang panginawi nga Diyosnon.

Sa liwan ang hambal ni Rizal, "ang tauo nga hindi kamaan magbalikid sa anang ginhalinan, hindi makaabot sa anang padulongan." ... BENJIE                                                                                                                                                        ------------------------------------------------------ 

For the sake of Filipinization, the language bullies are not only after our mother tongue but our existing myths & legends. They after the Ten Datus, Code of Kalantiao, Princess Urduja and recently they are questioning if Ibalong is indeed a fake.

They successfully demolished the historicity of Urduja, supposedly the mythical warrior-princess of Pangasinan. But then they can't wean all Pangasinenses for even in poetry Urduja will exist.

If the 'Code of Kalantiao' promotes Ilonggo patriotism, then why commit it into oblivion?

Sonny Villafania

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From: NatDuenas (INM: SnFranciscoCA-USA) 

Sa madugay nga tinuon nga ginpa ngodngod kita nga nagsugod lang ang aton pagkatawo sa pamuno sang mga Katsila, Waay kita nakapamangkot insa nga nadura and tanan nga kasulatan bag-o nag abot ang mga 'cabron' kay mga punyeteros.

Gin guba ang ang tanan nga mga butang nga indi nabaton sang 'simbahan' kag ginpahog pa kita nga sa impeyerno maagto ang aton mga kalag.

Natudluan kita nga magluhod kag mag krus kag magtuo kita sa Hesus Kristus kay daw mga sapat nga waay sing ginatuuhan.

Gin dura ang tanan kag ginpalipatan ang aton nga mga ngaran and mga paningawi, mga ambahanon, kag tanan nga matawag nga oagtaha sa mga mananakop kag makawat sang bukawan sang aton banwa.

Sa tulad nga oang gobyerno ay dara pa ang mga malain nga mga batasan - batasan nga gin pirit nga ipasunod para madura ang aton pagkatawo nga mga nasakupan.

Ang aton mga inggod banwa nga waay nasakupan sang , nagasugid sang mga nagkatabo sa aton mga kabanwahan kag sin-o kita nga mga tawo. Sa mga kasulatan sang Tsina naga-ako nga naga kagto sanda sa aton kag naga pangumpra sang aton mga baligya sa madugay nga 600 nga tinuig ang nagligad. ... Nat

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The Ilonggo Nation has lost much territory and languages to Tagalog Nationalism 

From: Jed Pensar (INM: ButuanCityPh):

It is good that there are so many Ilonggo organizations being built.

It is bad that these have not recognized the primary threat to Ilonggo Nationhood. 

To be brutally frank, the main threat is Tagalog Nationalism. This is the idea being propagated by Tagalog Nationalists (or Tagalistas in brief), of a Philippine Nationhood based on one language (Tagalog). Unity in Uniformity- the bane of the Ilonggo Nation.

We should advocate Unity in Diversity. Multiple Official Languages models ( as in Switzerland, India, Vietnam, etc.). Federalism, the devolvement of the Unitarian Manila-based central state's powers to our Region.

Since the imposition of Tagalog Nationalism in World War 2 by the war time Japanese colonizers and their collaborators, we Ilonggos have lost the most of all Filipino ethnic groups.

1. Palawan, whose main language used to be Cuyo, a Western Visayan language practically mutually intelligible with Kinaray-a, has been placed under Southern Tagalog and Tagalized. Palawan has been historically (during the Spanish period), geographically (it's directly west of Panay), and culturally (it's indigenous peoples are mostly Western Visayans speaking Western Visayan languages) been part of Western Visayas. Now it's in Southern Tagalog. Wheras before, a person speaking Western Visayan languages would be more or less understood in Palawan, now such Ilonggo persons would be discriminated against by the new 'Tagalogs' of Palawan.

2. The same fate has befallen Romblon. All its 5 indigenous languages are in immediate threat of extinction by Tagalization. These include Unhan (very much related to Kinaray-a) and Romblomanon (very much related to Hiligaynon), and the unique language Asi, which forms it's own branch of the Visayan languages. Wheras before, Romblon used to be part of Western Visayas, Tagalista politicians have manipulated events such that Romblon is now also under Southern Tagalog.

3. Boracay, the showcase island of Aklan, has now also been Tagalized.

Ironically, these areas have historically never been part of the Tagalog speaking regions. Their native peoples have never been Tagalogs, but have always been, during recorded times, been Western Visayans.

In the present situation wherein the central government based in Tagalog Manila has officialized only Tagalog (Honey coated as 'Filipino') among all the Philippine languages, it gains a parent NOTHING to teach her child a non-Tagalog language. The child would just face a lifetime of being a second class citizen in the Philippines. So why would a Palawan or Romblon native bother to teach her child the traditional Visayan languages of these areas when the only language the child needs to grow up in the Philippines is Tagalog? (This is even mandatory because any child in the Philippines' educational system is required to learn Tagalog in the 'Filipino' subjects.)

Who is to blame?

You only have to look in the mirror. Everyone of us Ilonggos is to blame, for keeping our silence in spite of clear signs that our Ilonggo nation is dying.

I suggest by using Ilonggo words in this forum. For example, instead of 

"Mabuhay ang Bagong Katipunan" use instead

MABUHI ANG BAG-ONG KATILINGBAN!

I have already said this and I will say it again. I have been shocked to find out that in this forum, there have been more postings in Tagalog than in Western Visayan languages. (Happily, I have noticed an increase in postings in Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a recently.)
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From: JamimahEstuche (INM: OklahomaCity-USA)

Nagatinagalog guid and duha ka dalaga nga delegados sa isa ka pagtilipon sang mga estudiante sa kolehiyo - ang isa halin sa Iloilo kag ang isa halin sa Cotabato.Si Willy nga nakapanilag sang ila nga sugilanon kag nadiparahan nga nagaragumo ang ila nga "baket?" dayon man ya tubong kag maghambal, "Tagalig kayo nang Tagalig diyan mamaya magkaramaal tinyo."

Ang lenguahe mahimo lang nga magpadayon sa iya kabuhi sa padayon man nga pag-usar. Ang hinablos ko nga si Bebot nga nagapuyo sa Los Angeles halin pa kang 1971, hindi kamaan maghambal ka Tinagalog, makaintiendi, pero nagaragumo man ang anang Kinaray-a nga may American accent. Kay man natauo sa San Jose, Antique, nag-umpisa eskuwela sa Hijas de Jesus kag nagtapos sang iya Fine Arts sa Philadelphia.

We still send e-mails in Ilonggish and we talk in Kinaray-a.

My point is that language could be corrupted by time and its pureness diluted by the coloquial usage, especially, when one leaves his territorial confines where his native language proliferates. Pero mahimo man guihapon kita nga magsulat o magtawag sa telepono didto sa aton guinhalinan kag magsugilanon sa Ilonggo o Kinaraya-a sa aton mga kaabyanan kag kaparintihan.

We cannot blame the slow death of our dialects or languages with outher languages or dialects. We still own our moth and our minds which we use to facilitate communication. If we do not use it, then, we failed ourselves. If we go out of our way to speak the other dialects at the expense of ours, it is our fault. And we need not blame others.

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From: RaymondADeza (INM:AlimodianIloilo-PH)

Agree gid ko kanimo.

Mayad man nga ga-pangita kita opotunidad sa iba nga lugar pay daad indi ta mahuya mag-hambal kag mag-practice kang hambal ta. Ang mga kasimanwa ko (http://alimodian.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-878) worldwide may website nga ginagamit namun para maman-an gakatabo sa banwa, paano kami makabulig sa banwa, kag mag-kirilalahay. Sa Blog namun raku gid ga karay-ah.

Kang nag saka ako sa Mount Apo. Na sugata ko man mga taga - Alamada, Cotabato. Puro sanda Ilongo; may ga karay-a pa. Mayad daad kun ma-imbitar ta mga Ilongo sa iba nga robinsya nga mag-entra kanatun para:

1) Magbalik ang bond nanda sa Iloilo,

2) Mabulong Hidlaw nanda, kag

3) Ma-practice nanda Hiliganon/Karay-a nanda.

kamusta lang dya sa tanan, ah...-Mond

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From: PerryDiaz (INM: SacramentoCa.USA)

Know History, Know Self; No History, No Self

Our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, once said, "Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makarating sa paroroonan." In English: "A person who does not look back to where he came from would not be able reach his destination." I used to ask, "Why so?" Yes, what has the past have to do with our future or the future have to do with our past? Someone told me the other day, "Let's forget our past and just move on." Okay, let's move on. but where?

This reminds me of what Fr. John N. Schumacher, S.J., said of Rizal in his book, "The Making of a Nation." He said, "It was Rizal's consciousness of the need to know his people's past that made him interrupt his work on 'El Filiburisterismo,' which was to point toward a solution to the country's problems exposed in the 'Noli Me Tangere.'
Before planning for the future, as he insisted in the prologue to his edition of Antonio de Morga's 'Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,' one must unveil that history which had been hidden from the eyes of Filipinos by neglect or distortion. Having acquired an understanding of their past, Filipinos, Rizal hoped, would be able to 'judge the
present' so that all together might 'dedicate (themselves) to studying the future." Fr. Schumacher said further, "the knowledge of their past nurtured a consciousness of being a people with a common origin and a common experience constituting the national identity around which the future nation could arise."

Today, the premise of "people with a common origin and a common experience" is being challenged with arguments that Filipinos are different people from different "nations" -- a complete reversal of Rizal's fundamental belief that Filipinos are "one people, one nation."


And what is this new mentality that is going around? First, it claims that the Philippines is a "fabricated state" consisting of different indigenous people from different "nations" colonized by the Spaniards, followed by the Americans, and now governed by the "ruling elite" of "Imperial Manila." Secondly, it demands that the "captive" indigenous people be freed, and that the "fabricated state" be dismantled and arbitrarily partitioned into five successor countries.

In my opinion, this is a classic case that would support Rizal's assertion that we need to understand our history so we can deal with the present and chart our future. The proponents of "partition," driven by anomalous presumptions of our history, have completely missed the two key factors in building the Filipino nation -- common origin and common experience. By discarding our commonalties, our history is distorted; thus, corrupting our psyche into believing that Filipinos are different people, hopelessly miserable in a perpetual state of disunity.

One of the misconceptions about our "differences" is that we speak different languages. But does that make us different people? The partitionists would argue that since we speak different languages, we are different people. But can someone really tell the difference between a Tagalog and a Visayan by just looking at them?

The other day, I saw this on Pinoy website: "Know history, know self. No history, no self." At the bottom of the web page, it says: "You need to look to the past to know your future, because history repeats itself." Perhaps, Filipinos -- particularly our national leaders -- need to look back and truly understand our history, not to blame our
colonizers but to cleanse our minds of the pervasive "colonial mentality" that continues to enslave us. viciously.

This "colonial mentality" continues to breed corruption, a way of life since the colonial era. It is as rampant today as it was then. And if we do not do anything about it, it would remain with us for a long time to come. I hear people say, "We're hopeless. Our country is beyond salvation." But why can't we do something about it?

Let's look back at our history. Corruption thrived during the colonial times because everybody condoned it and nobody got punished for corrupt practices. That was then. Today, corruption thrives because everybody condones it and nobody gets punished for corrupt practices. Déjà vu! Then. and now. And I venture to say that our future would remain as corrupt as it was yesterday and today. unless something is to be done about it.

With the forthcoming Charter change, Filipinos have a grand -- and rare -- opportunity to untie the "Gordian Knot" that has held us in perpetual bondage. We need the cunning mind of Alexander the Great, who, with one bold stroke of his sword, untied the "Gordian Knot." One would probably lament, "But we do not have a Filipino who thinks like Alexander the Great?" Well, all I can say to people who think like that is: they're afflicted with a disease called "colonialitis mentalititis." And our country abounds with them.

We need to rid ourselves of that inferiority complex that relegates us to a society of mendicants. We need to bring out the heroes in ourselves. We need to free ourselves from that web of corruption that has ensnared us into virtual slavery. In 330 B.C., Aristotle said that's there were "freemen and slaves." Perhaps that may still true
today. The only difference would be that today's slaves are "slaves by choice."

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Feedback:
Philip Khalid (BacolodCity-PH):

I believe that Perry Diaz espouses a nationalist view, the classic view of "isang bansa, isang diwa." I respect his view on that though I beg to differ. I am a federalist, though at times to stress the point i talk of partition. But partition will be impractical. My concept of our nation is to divide the country into three states: luzon, visayas, and mindanao. These 3 states will be self-governing.
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What Perry fails to mention is that most of the federalist/partitionists are motivated by economic issues rather than language issues. Though, with some like yours trully, it is side-by-side. The contention is this: why should each province remit to Manila 70-80% of their income and wait for the National Government to release their Internal Revenue Allotment. This is just making money go around unnecessarily. Why can't the province merely remit 30% of their income and keep the 70%?
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Perry keeps quoting Rizal principle of  "one people, one nation". Well, what's wrong with different people, one nation? That is Rizal's opinion, just because he is Rizal, doesn't mean that he has all the answers? Besides, the context during Rizal's time was different. The formation of the "Filipino" was just beginning. Filipinos at that time were Spanish mestizos born in the Philippines. Native Islanders were "indios." Later, Rizal et al, bestowed the term Filipino to themselves. Fine, no problem there. The problem comes after Rizal, when the emergence of Tagalistas and their witting or unwitting form of cultural domination. It was wrong to speak another Philippine language in the classroom (1960-90s). Fortunately, there are people here in the Philippines, organizations like Solfed and Dila (to mention just a few), who are making us aware of a Tagalog Dominant Culture to the detriment of the other Regional cultures.
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Also, I would suggest to Perry to read up more on philosophy of history. He uses the term "anamolous presumptions of our history." Such terms make it appear that he and Rizal are the sole authorities in the interpretation of the "correct" Philippine history. Perry should realize partitionists and federalists have "another" interpretation of history. Rizal, therefore, has a perception of philippine history that i might not share. But that doesn't make my Phlippine analysis wrong, just because i disagreed with Rizal. Rizal and Perry have their interpretation, Federalists and Partitionists have theirs.
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Also Mike Luz, formerly usec of deped, will not agree with Perry, because Mike Luz, claimed we do not share the same history. It is coming out only now that, not all the provinces who fought against Spain, were aligned with Aguinaldo. There is even now an interpretation that the Katipuneros were only interested in a Tagalog Republic. Araneta, lacson, et al, here in Negros Island, did not necessarily communicate and align themselves with Aguinaldo when they (araneta and lacson) took over the Spanish garrison here in Bacolod.
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Back to HOME PAGE:
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A review made by a certain Mr. Jonathan Best of the latest work of one of the greatest Filipino writers of our time, Mr. Alfredo Roces, "Adios Patria Adorada: The Filipino as Ilustrado, the Ilustrado as Filipino."... and INM'S REACTION BY: BENJIE F.E.ESTUCHE:

 THE ENLIGHTENED ELITE  
 (BY: JONATHAN BEST)  
 
 (Source; NEWSBREAK, JUNE 5, 2006, page 32)  
 
Still hard at work in his 70s and drawing on a lifetime of research and critical analysis of Philippine history and the arts, historian Alfredo Roces now enjoys the freedom of not having to worry so much about currently fashionable theories. Roces was recognized as an  outstanding young man of the Philippines with a TOYM award in 1961 and  
fulfilled his youthful promise with outstanding work as a painter, a  popular newspaper columnist for the Manila Times, and a writer of  books on outstanding Filipino artists. In 1975, he was editor of the  encyclopedic 10-volume "Filipino Heritage" series published in Sydney,  Australia, where Roces has lived the last 30 years. In 2005 he  
launched an exceptionally beautiful monograph on the artist Anita Magsaysay Ho.  
 
His latest work "Adios, Patria Adorada: The Filipino as Ilustrado, the  Ilustrado as Filipino" is a straightforward history of the formation  of Filipino national identity, from the mid-19th to the first years of  the 20th century. As the Philippines opened up to international  commerce, a new prosperous class of Philippine-born Spanish criollos  
and a native mestizo elite came into being, a complex mix of Spanish,  Chinese, and indigenous indios. This ilustrado class was typified by  such men as Dr. Jose Rizal, the painter Juan Luna, Graciano Lopez  Jaena, Pedro Paterno, Marcelo del Pilar and the group of the  Propaganda Movement that settled in Spain in the 1880'S and '90'S. The  Cavite Mutiny of 1872 and subsequent arbitrary garroting of Father,  Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora radicalized this generation. The continuing  depredations of the arch-conservative Catholic Friars and the  
ineffectual colonial bureaucrat s eventually drove this new class of  idealistic and patriotic young men to the revolutionary barricades.  They eventually gave up their identification with Spain and sought a  new identity as "Filipinos."

Roces makes the somewhat unfashionable point that despite the romantic  notions of leftist historians of a generation ago such as Agoncillo  and Constantino, it was the ilustrados' elite education, money,  mobility and unbridled love of "Las Filipinas, patria adorada" that  was the driving force behind the formation of a modern Filipino  identity, and the demand for independence and revolution in the late  1890s.  
 
Whether it was Rizal and Del Pilar fighting over who would pay for the  champagne or Juan Luna at the Café Ingles in Madrid in 1883, or  Aguinaldo's famous inaugural banquet complete with silk top hats and a  French menu in 1899, these leaders were not struggling workers and  peasants.  
 
The ranks of the revolutionary movement swelled as members of the  indigenous principalia were recruited and working-class leaders like  Andres Bonifacio joined in, but it was the ilustrados who spearheaded  events as early as the 1870s. Roces adds more fuel to the controversy  by suggesting it was even the pre-Spanish traditions of kinship  politics endemic to the indigenous principalia where "personality and  personal prestige mattered far more than principles and issues" that  made a unified national stuggle for identity and liberation so  difficult. Rizal dreamed of a pre-colonial Lost Eden, which clearly  never existed.The real Eden was his patriotic dream of a united and  egalitarian nation.

After documenting the rise of the ilustrados and their failed fight  for equality and political representation in Spain, Roces turns to the  struggle at home. The rise of the katipunan, the outbreak of f ighting,  and the tragic execution of Dr. Jose Rizal ended all hopes of  reconciliation with Spain. Roces describes how, sadly for Philippine  
history, Andres Bonifacio and his brothers were no match for  Aguinaldo's Caviteño kinship and crony politics in 1897. This same  parochial divisiveness proved fatal in the struggle against the  American invaders two years later as Aguinaldo's own Secretary of  Defense, Antonio Luna, was murdered by fellow Filipinos as well. As  the American troops continued to arrive and lucrative opportunities  were offered to the remaining ilustrados, many followed their class  instincts and accepted the promise of a progressive American  administration. Most of the true idealists such as Rizal, Lopez Jaena  and Del Pilar were dead or in exile by then.

Roces tells the story of the ilustrados with the flowing pen and good  eye for cultural detail. Unlike so many history books this one is a  good read and in fact hard to put down once you start. Roces is  especially revealing in his candid analysis of racism which was an  intrinsic part of colonial domination. In the past, mainstream Filipino  
historians seem to have avoided this painful but highly relevant  issue, which continues to haunt Filipino society.

Alfredo Roces takes the liberty of ending his good work with a bit of  encouragement for present-day Filipinos, possibly with an eye on the  denizens of elite civil society. He writes: "Isn't it time we examine  this Filipino identity that the Ilustrados invented, and accept it as  a phenomenon over which we have been given the power to shape and  develop? The 'Perdido Eden' of their dreams has long been amidst us to  reclaim."  
 
It's laudable that De La Salle University chose to publish this  excellent book by a prominent historian, but why did they print only  500 copies? Are there re ally so few readers of history left in this  nation of 83 million souls?  
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(A Reaction to the above Article):
 
THE ENLIGHTENED ELITE
By Benjie F.E. Estuche (INM: OklahomaCity-USA)
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Is there such an oxymoron as an “Enlightened Elite?”
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The fact that it is “elite” makes the “enlightenment” suspect. To be enlightened presupposes the fact that one is filled with light. But one must also ask where could be the source of that light.
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To illustrate, we have the natural light coming from the sun which is creative light in its early rising. This same natural light begins to be destructive in its intensity at noontime when the sun reaches its zenith. And, at sundown, the same natural light that was destructive at noontime, losing its intensity and destructive character, does not revert back to its creative nature of the early rising; it dies with night to start a new creative-destructive-dying cycle the next day, if clouds will allow it.
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Now, let us use a mirror and reflect that same light, anytime of the day, and beam its reflected light into a patch of dry grass; this will set the patch of grass on fire – source of another form of light which, if not contained, could start a conflagration that will burn down a lot of grass acreage.
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So, where do we place the “Filipino Ilustrado” whether of Rizal’s time or our present days? The Filipino as Ilustrado and the Ilustrado as Filipino? And why should Alfredo Roces title his latest work “Adios Patria Adorada, the Filipino as Ilustrado, the Ilustrado as Filipino?” 
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Of course, the Filipino is the creation of the Ilustrados of Rizal’s time and the Ilustrados of Rizal’s time, if we must be serious in making a dichotomy of their minds, were no different from the present Ruling Elite that controls the country and runs it “like hell” to quote one great Ilustrado and mestizo himself, Manuel Luis Quezon.
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The Ilustrado, if we go into etymology, is the “lettered” one, the educated. With the kind of education that the friars had offered the “Filipinos” at the time of Rizal, why should Roces writes: "Isn't it time we examine  this Filipino identity that the Ilustrados invented, and accept it as a phenomenon over which we have been given the power to shape and develop? The 'Perdido Eden' of their dreams has long been amidst us to reclaim."
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Alfredo Roces is into soul-searching. In the fastness of the Australian outback, he had found his soul and he became a stranger to himself like all Filipinos who sought to seek their souls had also experienced and he concludes that we must go and “reclaim” the “Perdido Eden” of our dreams. As Rizal did as an expatriate and as some of us, expatriates, had experienced too. 
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Roces tells the story of the ilustrados with the flowing pen and good eye for cultural detail. Unlike so many history books this one is a good read and in fact hard to put down once you start. Roces is especially revealing in his candid analysis of racism which was an intrinsic part of colonial domination. In the past, mainstream Filipino historians seem to have avoided this painful but highly relevant issue, which continues to haunt Filipino society.
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Of course, Mr. Jonathan Best is right in his observation of the noli-me-tangere attitude of “mainstream Filipino historians,” who come from the Ilustrado class themselves and whose main concern was to cover-up for the misdeeds of our former colonialists, but he contradicts himself from his previous observation.
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Roces makes the somewhat unfashionable point that despite the romantic notions of leftist historians of a generation ago such as Agoncillo and Constantino, it was the ilustrados' elite education, money, mobility and unbridled love of "Las Filipinas, patria adorada" that was the driving force behind the formation of a modern Filipino identity, and the demand for independence and revolution in the late 1890s. (Underscoring mine)
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We have not read Roces’ latest work yet but if what he writes is true, then, he could also be having the same “romantic notions” as Agoncillo and Constantino whose readings of Philippine history sparked the 2nd Propaganda Movement to destroy the mistaken identity of the Filipino as illustrated to us by the “ilustrados’ elite education” through the books of Zaide, Palma, Osias et al, “mainstream historians” who were merely spin-writers for the colonialists. The ilustrado who writes about his cultural past without going back to the “myth” of the 10 Datus from Borneo is only serving his colonial masters. To write about it and dismiss it as “myth” is a form of ethnic cleansing which does not show any kind of enlightenment which separates the “romantics” from the “realists”; it smacks of the counter-reformation tactics employed by the Jesuits of Ignatius Loyola to cover up for the bungling implementors of the Inquisition headed by Domingo de Guzman by whose name the Dominican Order was also organized. Both played a dominant role in the making up of the history of the Ilustrados in the Philippines.
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The purpose of colonialism is to dominate and subjugate a people and its culture and supplant it with the one the colonialist peddles. The most effective means was through mass killings done by ethnic cleansing as the Roman Catholic Church did with the Cathars of southwestern France by order of Pope Innocent III. Conquest and occupation carry with it the right to own territory as the Spanish colonialist did with the “Eden Lost” of Jose Rizal. Where morality dictates that such method had been found to be obnoxious and anti-Christian a new way was devised by means of mass baptism in the name of God to cover up for the true purpose of expansion of imperial domain in the name of God (again) and the King which, in the case of the Philippine archipelago, brought her the name Filipinas (for King Felipe) and her people, Filipinos, baptized as Christians – nay, Roman Catholics – in the name of God (again), thus, introducing Juan de la Cruz to the way to heaven while depriving him of his land and robbing him of his soul. The Filipinos became squatters in their own land. No problem, Mr. Jonathan Best, in so long as the pagans were taught the way to heaven and the importance of mustard seeds.
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Mr. Best by his interpretation of the Roces work insinuates that the wranglings of expatriates in Europe over such menial matters as who takes the tabs on champagne and silk hats worn by Aguinaldo prove that the leaders of Philippine Revolution did not come from “workers and peasants.” Of course, they were not, Mr. Best, because the plebeians of the revolutions had already been assassinated, as the Bonifacio brothers were, and the Ilustrados, exemplified by Aguinaldo, had taken over the leadership of the Katipunan (KKK) which was founded and organized in Tondo, a district in Manila, where no ilustrado resides, then and now. For your information, Mr. Best, that is where Smokey Mountain is located, where you could see young children scavenging for food and subsistence when Cory Aquino took over from Marcos in 1986. If the Philippine Revolution was not co-opted by the Ilustrados, Tondo could have been where Malacanang would have been built instead of the slaughterhouse and tenements that the father of the present President had provided.
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This portion of Philippine history was, again, re-enacted in EDSA-I People Power Revolution of 1986, when the Ruling Elite usurped the real people’s war of liberation waged in the streets and the foothills of mountain ranges.
Andres Bonifacio was not recruited into the Katipunan, Mr. Best; he, in fact recruited Jose Rizal to lead the revolution against Spain which Rizal rejected, precisely, because of his dream of resurrecting the Perdido Eden of the pre-colonial period that never existed. It did exist, Mr. Best, as the Cathars in southern France did exist. But thanks to the Spanish Papal Mafia, King Meruvich and Datu Puti became extinct. As the Merovingian Kings and the Cathars claim direct lineage to Jesus and Mary Magdalene they had to be eliminated by those who laid apostolic claim to the Kingdom of God, so must the direct descendants of Datu Puti and Datu Kalantiao be dissociated from their cultural roots to bring into perfection the complete extinction of the seed of the Filipino nation.
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In the Philippines, one cannot proceed to the study of Law without, first, getting a semester of the study of the Code of Kalantiao integrated with the basics of Political Science. It became a big deal to Western historians that this set of laws was “authored” by a Spanish Friar in Negros Occidental who took the pains of writing what was already there and being implemented and practiced by the early inhabitants of the region which the colonialists wanted to supplant with their own. If Mr. Best does not know it yet, the history of the people of Western Visayas where Datu Puti and the other baranggays lived in the past, were not written for Westerners, but still being sang in mnemonic chants in Antique by the very same people who lived and chartered their own history, culture and destiny. This, the Spanish authorities and the friars had not denied us; but the ilustrados had denied to have existed because the creoles’ history started only when their ancestors set foot on the Perdido Eden of Jose Rizal which they raped to their hearts contents. That made them Filipinos and Christian of the Spanish mold. With the encomienda system employed in the archipelago, that made its people landless too.
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Jesus did not write the New Testament but all those words written in there were attributed to him. Can we say the same thing with the Code of Kalantiao, Mr. Best? Is this not enough material evidence to the myth of Rizal’s Perdido Eden?
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Because our ancestors did not have a written history, it does not follow that we do not have a history. And it does not follow that our history starts only when it was written for us. The writers of history do not make that history; they were merely tasked to do the writing. They need not interpret that same history in their confusion over their need to write anything.
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If Philippine history starts on March 1521, then, it is the history of the Filipino Ilustrados. And there is nothing in there that would make us as a people be proud of. If it includes and accepts the unwritten history of a people with their own set of laws, definitive culture, heritage and tradition, then we may call these people and nation by a different name making us proud of their glorious past. And that is what Alfredo Roces may have meant by reclaiming Rizal’s Lost Eden.
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Perdido. A Spanish word that does not only mean lost but lost by destruction.
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What did we lose by destruction? By being mestisos, we lost our identity and dignity as a people and as a nation. By being Catholic and Christian we lost our soul and our lands and became squatters in our own country. From Dagohoy to the present NPAs, wars of liberation were waged to reclaim what we lost by destruction. And always, there is the Ilustrado, the Enlightened Elite to counter such revolutionary claim.
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Our Ilustrado history will tell us that after Emilio Aguinaldo had usurped the leadership of the Katipunan from Bonifacio and the Americans entered the fray through Admiral Thomas Dewey who chased the Spanish Armada from Havana to Manila with his Asiatic (this is a new historical invention) Fleet, Aguinaldo made friends with the Americans hoping to inveigle arms and ammunitions to finally defeat the Spaniards only to find out that he had a new, bigger and more powerful enemy.
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To add insult to injury under the terms and conditions of the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines was ceded by Spain to the United States for the sum of $20-million in one of the most despicable real estate heist in modern history. Spain had raped the country continuously for more than 300 years and she was paid $20-million enjoying the crime as gratuity for making the people of the archipelago landless and squatters in their own land! And the Ilustrados were merely bystanders at the Bagumbayan Field when Spain surrendered to the Americans; they could have, at least, been given a finder’s fee for abetting the crime. Never mind, you, enlightened illustrados, will be in government and bureaucracy soon enough after we teach you about democracy and capitalism, the Gringos promised the ilustrado, a promise the Gringos kept after 50 years. And the ilustrados ran the country like hell, true enough to what President Quezon said.
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After almost 500 years after Lapulapu killed Magellan and we became Christians by mass baptism, we are still in hell and searching for the way to heaven with the invisible mustard seed we carry on our hands. And the Ilustrados are there ensconced in the corridors of power. So, what does the Ilustrados need to reclaim? Surely, it is not Rizal’s Lost Eden, for the Ilustrados had been running Eden like hell for the past 60 decades.
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So, we ask the same question again: Is there such an oxymoron as an “Enlightened Elite?”
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The fact that it is “elite” makes the “enlightenment” suspect. To be enlightened presupposes the fact that one is filled with light. But one must also ask where could be the source of that light.
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To illustrate, we have the natural light coming from the sun which is creative light in its early rising. This same natural light begins to be destructive in its intensity at noontime when the sun reaches its zenith. And, at sundown, the same natural light that was destructive at noontime, losing its intensity and destructive character, does not revert back to its creative nature of the early rising; it dies with night to start a new creative-destructive-dying cycle the next day, if clouds will allow it.
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Now, let us use a mirror and reflect that same light, anytime of the day, and beam its reflected light into a patch of dry grass; this will set the patch of grass on fire – source of another form of light which, if not contained, could start a conflagration that will burn down a lot of grass acreage.
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Mr. Alfredo Roces is the mirror; Mr. Jonathan Best could be the cloud.
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Meanwhile, the Ilustrado can stand and wait like he did in Bagumbayan Field until the conflagration burns itself out. He does not need books like Mr. Alfredo Roces wrote because he could not read between the lines. He sells books but not those of the kind that Roces writes. He is already enlightened and an oxymoron sitting in his ivory tower reading the inanities his ilks write and like Nero, playing the fiddle, while Rome burns.
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And that is where the enlightenment comes from. The Enlightened Elite! An oxymoron.
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