The Philippine culture has a great flair for being known for political dynasties. One question that we can have on this  is what are the factors that caused this thing to happen? Why are many Filipinos opting for rather a familiar person and not looking for another one or for a change? Culture alone and history won’t completely answer these questions but we do have a culture that promotes political dynasties to run. The history of the Filipino people would to show us that

Lapu-lapu, the vanguard of Mactan, changed the history of the world by standing against a better equipped and superior enemy.

since the discovery of the Spaniards of communities in the Visayas such as Cebu, and even that of other islands like Masao, Butuan and Leyte and subsequently in Manila, they found a community that is closely knit and living together with one elder or ruler.

One thing that can be gained from this is that the Filipino culture before the Spaniards came is not a completely warring culture, but rather composed of greatly fragmented island communities with their own kings and rulers of their own. The fact that these people have been living for a long time in the different islands but were not able to see and trade and meet each other or unify each other is a prima facie evidence of a greatly fragmented society even then.

Keeping us blind

History tells us that the Spaniards were able to keep us easily divided by taking accessory slaves and soldiers from one part of the country to stop a rebellion in another part e.g. if a rebellion occurs in Zamboanga, they took soldiers and conscripts from Pampanga to fight another Filipino community. During those days, national consciousness was still evolving, and most of the rebellions against the Spanish authorities were mostly separate incidences or a seemingly isolated cases. There was no waging of war from Luzon to Mindanao or a large scale conflict but rather pockets of resistance occurs in some regions such as the Cordillera region or those in  Zamboanga region. The Spanish authorities seem to be happy to keep one side of information hidden in the eyes of conscripts they are using and they indeed kept on putting small fires from one part to the other. This would however change with the arrival of the printing press and the opening of the Suez Canal.

Power of information

The arrival of technology such as the printing press and mass media and a greater opening during the 1800s for most of the rich Filipinos have greatly opened their eyes of the European culture and the freedom that these nations enjoy. Since the Philippines was then considered a colony and not a province, most of the rich Filipinos like Rizal and  the propagandists such as Graciano Lopez-Jaena, Marcelo H. Del Pilar and others lobbied against the abuses of Spanish authorities in the Philippines particularly the friars.

They wanted to make the Philippines as a Spanish province rather than a colony so that the yoke that the people were heavily oppressed with will be lightened and they would be more opened to the flow of information from Europe. These Filipino think tanks understood the principle that given a wide proclamation of truth in all parts of the Philippines, this will in the end generate or fire up a national conciousness among them so that they will yearn for freedom as one. They understood that unless all of them will fight together as one man agains the abuses of the Spanish authorities, they will not get the justice they were seeking for. They knew that unity is the ingredient of success of any revolutionary endeavors. It is the passion of the leaders which burns to even among the lowest peasants that can cause them all to act as one. Without this unity, resistance will be premature.

When their main goal seems to be unachievable given the progress of the impending Spanish civil war, it was only at this time that they changed their tactics. Contrary to most historians who want to see the Illustrados as self-preserving in the case of these young revolutionaries, they in fact served their main purpose, to awaken the national consciousness of most Filipinos. This was the main call of these young illustrados, that is to awaken, generate or impart a national consciousness of nationhood to all Filipinos. Without this, all efforts will be premature.

Think about it this way. For a seed to become a big tree, it must whither to the ground and die, then it will be watered and sprout. These selfless breed of young leaders who displayed maturity beyond their years, impacted the world with their courage and nationalism. Without them, it would have been a different nation that we have. Their main legacy was not to enforce arms to all the Filipinos, but to awaken a genuine yearning in the very hearts of the very peasants in all the provinces. They knew that to gain freedom, one has to inform the people about it, another has burn that information and another have to mobilize using that information.

Jose Rizal

Rizal was mainly used to impart the vision of nationhood among the Filipinos, but it was the team of the propagandists who propagated and cultured that vision or “incubated” the dream. Bonifacio  mobilized the masses seeing that it is time to do it. Partly inspired by both the French Revolution that overthrew the aristocratic rule in France, and the American Revolution that overthrew the British yoke; these Filipino leaders were all young and just working on the

The national hero and pride of the Philippines, exponent of Philippine freedom and democracy

pattern that they have seen beyond the islands by reading books. Particularly, Bonifacio, was not even 35 years old but his experiences as a family breadwinner, his resourcefulness and sensing the time for the nation to be released, called on for a more radical way. Jose Rizal was on the other hand was a calculating man and not predisposed to using violence in any way he can to achieve independence.

This was an enigma to many freedom fighters who want to pattern everything they see as achievable by the force of arms. But if we see the personality of Rizal in his characters such as in Simon in El Filibusterismo, we find that Rizal killed him not just for the purpose of literary prose but this shows the inner conflict in the heart of Rizal of solving the question of whether Independence should be achieved by peaceful means or by other methods. In the end, Rizal favored the use of a peaceful method of bringing revolution in the society through enlightening the masses of truth that liberates them from the Spanish abuses. He saw that the main problem is not only the abuse of the Spaniards of their authority in the Philippines but also that Filipinos were abused because they were ignorant and gullible of the Spaniards. He saw that without true education, we will remain gullible, naive and pawns before colonial masters.

This could be the main reason why Rizal in his Noli me Tangere gave the riches to Basilio when her mother, Sisa, already dead, and Elias suddenly appeared wounded and dying told the boy to dig the gold found where he was lying and use it for his education. This last chapter of Noli gives us a glimpse of the hidden heart of Rizal concerning the solution for Independence or true freedom. Contrary to many views, Rizal was indeed more akin to a pacifist than to a fighter of uprising. In my opinion, he could have thought that the only way to banish evil in the society is not another force of violence but by steeling the mind with truth that frees from the lies of the devil.

Nevertheless we can see that his heart was clear from this time on so that he made the sequel, El FIlibusterismo based from the conclusions of Noli, killing the Simon in the end. If we take Rizal this way and see that all heroes have their own independent minds, views and visions, the main reason he may not have joined the revolution even if he inspired it, is because he was a man of peace. He was influenced by his own readings and views of the reformation that changed the face of Europe and which he relished so much having lived for more time in Germany than any other parts of Europe.

He did not join the revolution and neither was he for it nor against it. I think that, had he joined the Filipino uprising, he could have given a greater resolve in the fight making him even shine as a greater light in the midst of the darkness that bound our country in those times. His fame and authority as a doctor and writer could have greatly unified the struggle of the Filipinos. Nevertheless, the revolution came and there was no stopping it until finally, the 1898 culmination. Every time freedom is not given when peaceful means were already used, violence ensues because you cannot forever oppress your fellow human beings as even demonstrated in the Bible for the freedom of the Hebrew slaves from the Egyptian taskmasters.

American period

From this point in time, when peace came around after the American negotiations and the surrender of the short lived Philippine Republic, Filipino political leadership emerged. The years preceding that can be thought of as a period of heroes and martyrs for freedom. While the period after the revolution when we became a colony of the United States can be said to be a period of impartation of protestant principles of democratic governance. During this time, we copied many habits of Americans from eating chocolates to drinking coke to speaking the English language in both the schools and the government. It was also during this period that many protestant missionaries were allowed to evangelize the Philippines. During the Spanish times, only Catholics were allowed to come in and preach; there was no genuine openness to the gospel which bears Protestantism.

Pres. Quezon, the father of the National Language left a more solid nation with his enduring legacy.

The Spanish authorities understood that if they were to teach the Filipinos the whole truth, even to allow Protestantism to come to our shores, that would be their end. They wittingly kept that Filipinos in the dark for more than 3 centuries which is why Rizal could not imagine more evil and more insane an act compared to the freedom and light of intellectual reasoning and truth propagated in Europe. The period of entry of American goods and services and intellectual change in the Philippines saw the period of emergence of the Philippine economy in Asia.

In fact, the Philippines saw the light more than any country in Asia during this time because it was open to trades, industry and services. When World War 2 devastated our country, the periods from Osmena to Macapagal can be considered as the period of restoration. The period after that can be considered the resurgence of darkness in our country when truth was blasphemed, life was cheapened and oppression took over its reins in the country again because of a cruel task master. When light is snuffed out, great darkness prevails in the land. When we isolate ourselves, we will not see great progress, Cuba, Myanmar as well as our conditions in the late 1960s until 1986 demonstrates to us the fooly of isolation, suppression and death.

When life is cheapened, there will be no incentive for the people to do business or even to buy and sell. Fear takes over and you cannot do anything except to be paralyzed. It was this suppression and oppression that the resurgence of another kind of revolution came.