Content and Context Analysis of Primary Sources

CONTENT ANALYSIS
Content analysis is a tool of qualitative research used to determine the presence and
meaning of concepts, terms, or words in one or more pieces of recorded
communication. This systematic and replicable technique allows for compressing many
words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding in order to
allow researchers to make inferences about the author (individuals, groups,
organizations, or institutions), the audience, and their culture and time. (Stan)
Content analysis is the study of documents and communication artifacts, which might be
texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video. Social scientists use content analysis
to examine patterns in communication in a replicable and systematic manner. Practices
and philosophies of content analysis vary between academic disciplines. They all
involve systematic reading or observation of texts or artifacts which are assigned labels
(sometimes called codes) to indicate the presence of interesting, meaningful pieces of
content.
By systematically labeling the content of a set of texts, researchers can analyze
patterns of content quantitatively using statistical methods, or use qualitative methods to
analyze meanings of content within texts.
Historical researchers, whose subjects and contexts may no longer be directly
accessible for qualitative study, may still simulate such contact through content
analysis, a means of obtaining information by indirect methods. The methodology is
useful in historical studies since it allows the researcher to infer events from texts that
are located in their appropriate historical contexts
When working with content analysis, explicit and implicit content will play a role. Explicit
data is transparent and easy to identify, while implicit data is that which requires some
form of interpretation and is often of a subjective nature.

Types of Content Analysis

Conceptual analysis focuses on the number of times a concept occurs in a set of data
and is generally focused on explicit data.
Relational content analysis has a different focus than conceptual content analysis.
Instead of looking at the numbers, it assesses the relationships between different
concepts, as well as how they are connected, and the context in which they appear.
Use of Content Analysis
Content analysis is typically used in studies where the aim is to better understand
factors such as behaviors, attitudes, values, emotions, and opinions.
Content analysis is possible whenever there is a physical record of communication. This
record of communication can be
(a) created independently of the research process and internally by the individual
or organization under study (as, e.g., newspaper articles, or archived documents
detailing household consumption),
(b) internally generated and externally directed (e.g., the verbatim transcripts
of legislative hearings or committee debates generated by a number of parliaments
around
the world, which may reflect or obscure the political decision-making process), or
(c) produced by the researchers themselves in view of the analysis that needs to
be conducted (as, e.g., videotapes of television news programs or commercials, or
of debates carried out in the legislature and/or town council).

Klaus Krippendorf listed six questions that need to be addressed in every content
analysis.
These questions are:
(1) Which data are analyzed?
(2) How are they defined?
(3) What is the population from which they are drawn?
(4) What is the context relative to which the data are analyzed?
(5) What are the boundaries of the analysis?
(6) What is the target of the inferences?

To allow for replication, data examined through content analysis must be durable in
nature. Several problems can occur when written documents or other types of recorded
communication are assembled for content analysis. When a significant number of
documents from the population are missing or unavailable, the content analysis must be
abandoned. When some documents match the requirements for analysis but they
cannot be coded because they are incomplete or contain ambiguous content, these
documents must be abandoned.
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
A contextual analysis helps us to assess text within the context of its historical and
cultural setting, and its textuality (the qualities that characterize the text as a text.) It
combines features of formal analysis with features of “cultural archaeology, ” ( the
systematic study of social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic
conditions that were in place at the time and place when the text was created.) This
means “situating” the text within the milieu of its times and assessing the roles of author,
readers and “commentators” on the text.
Importance of Context in Analysis and Interpretation
By Grace Fleming, edited by Stacy Jagodowski
January 28, 2018
Historical context is an important part of life and literature, and without it, memories,
stories, and characters have less meaning. Historical context deals with the details that
surround an occurrence. In more technical terms, historical context refers to the social,
religious, economic, and political conditions that existed during a certain time and place.
Basically, it's all the details of the time and place in which a situation occurs, and those
details are what enable us to interpret and analyze works or events of the past, or even
the future, rather than merely judge them by contemporary standards. Put another way,
context is what gives meaning to the details. It's important, however, that you don't
confuse context with cause. “Cause” is the action that creates an outcome; context is
the environment in which that action and outcome occur.
A strong understanding of the historical context behind a work's creation can give us a
better understanding of and appreciation for the narrative. In analyzing historical events,
context can help us understand what motivates people to behave as they did. Put
another way, context is what gives meaning to the details. It's important, however, that
you don't confuse context with cause. Cause is the action that creates an outcome;
context is the environment in which that action and outcome occur. Scholars and
educators rely on historical context to analyze and interpret works of art, literature,
music, dance, and poetry. Architects and builders rely on it when designing new
structures and restoring existing buildings. Judges may use it to interpret the law,
historians to understand the past. Any time critical analysis is required, you may need to
consider historical context as well. Without historical context, we are only seeing a piece
of the scene and not fully understanding the influence of the time and place in which a
situation occurred.
Using Contextual Analysis to evaluate texts
A contextual analysis can proceed along many lines, depending upon how complex one
wishes to make the analysis. But it generally includes several key questions:
1. What does the text reveal about itself as a text?
▪ Describe (or characterize) the language ( the words, or vocabulary) and the rhetoric
(how the words are arranged in order to achieve some purpose). These are the primary
components of style.
2. What does the text tell us about its apparent intended audience(s)?
▪ What sort of reader does the author seem to have envisioned, as demonstrated by the
text’s language and rhetoric?
▪ What sort of qualifications does the text appear to require of its intended reader(s)?
How can we tell?
▪ What sort of readers appear to be excluded from the text’s intended audiences? How
can we tell?
▪ Is there, perhaps, more than one intended audience?

3. What seems to have been the author’s intention? Why did the author write this
text? And why did the author write this text in this particular way, as opposed to other
ways in which the
text might have been written?
▪ Remember that any text is the result of deliberate decisions by the author. The author
has chosen to write (or paint, or whatever) with these particular words and has therefore
chosen not to use other words that she or he might have used. So we need to consider:
- what the author said (the words that have been selected);
- what the author did not say (the words that were not selected); and
- how the author said it (as opposed to other ways it might or could have been said).
4. What is the occasion for this text? That is, is it written in response to:
▪ some particular, specific contemporary incident or event?
▪ some more “general” observation by the author about human affairs and/or
experiences?
▪ some definable set of cultural circumstances?
5. Is the text intended as some sort of call to – or for – action?
▪ If so, by whom? And why?
▪ And also if so, what action(s) does the author want the reader(s) to take?
6. Is the text intended rather as some sort of call to – or for – reflection or
consideration rather than direct action?
▪ If so, what does the author seem to wish the reader to think about and to conclude or
decide?
▪ Why does the author wish the readers to do this? What is to be gained, and by whom?
7. Can we identify any non-textual circumstances that affected the creation and reception
of the text?
▪ Such circumstances include historical or political events, economic factors, cultural
practices, and intellectual or aesthetic issues, as well as the particular circumstances of
the author's own life.
Supplementary Materials: Selected Readings Concerning

the Pre-Spanish Philippines

RECOPILACIÓN DE LEYES DE LOS REINOS DE

LAS INDIAS (translated from Spanish)
The Recopilacion is a compilation of the different laws promulgated by the Queen or the
King of Spain and were legislated to guide the Spaniards in the colonies as to their
behavior towards the natives. The following is an excerpt from the Laws of the Indies
regarding the establishment of reducciones.
Excerpt:
On arriving at the locality where the new settlement is to be founded, the plan of the
place, with its squares, streets and building lots is to be outlined by means of measuring
by cord and ruler, beginning with the main square from which streets are to run to the
gates and principal roads and leaving sufficient open space so that even if the
town grows it can always spread in a symmetrical manner. Having thus laid out the
chosen site the settlement is to be founded the following form. The chosen site shall be
on an elevation; healthful; withmeans of fortification; fertile and with plenty of land
for farming and pasturage; fuel and timber; fresh water, a native population,
commodiousness; resources of convenient access and egress. It shall be open to the
north wind. If on the coast, care is to be taken that the sea does not lie to the south or
west of the harbor. If possible, the port is not to be near lagoons or marshes in
which poisonous animals and corruption of air and water breed. In the case of a sea
coast town, the main plaza is to be the starting point for the building of the town, is to be
situated near the landing place of the port. In inland towns the main plaza should be in
the center of the town and of an oblong shape, its length being equal to at least one and
half times its width, as this proportion is best for festivals in which horses are used and
any other celebrations which have to be held. The size of the plaza shall be in
proportion to the number of residents, heed being given to the fact that towns of Indians,
being new are bound to grow and it is intended that they shall do so. Therefore, the
plaza is to be planned with reference to the possible growth of the town. It shall not be
smaller than two hundred feet wide and three hundred feet long nor larger than
eight hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide. A well proportionated medium size
plaza is not six hundred feet long and four hundred feet wide. From the plaza, the four
principal streets are to diverge, one from the middle of each of its sides and two streets
are to meet at each of its corners. The four corners of the plaza are to face the four
points of the compass, because thus the streets diverging from the plaza will not be
directly exposed to the four principal winds, which could cause much
inconvenience. The whole plaza and the four main streets diverging from it shall have
arcades, for these are a great convenience for those who resort thither for trade. The
eight streets which run into the plaza at its four corners are to dos o freely without being
obstructed by the arcades of the plaza. These arcades are to end at the corners in such
a way that the sidewalks of the streets can evenly join those of the plaza. In cold
climates, the streets shall be wide; in hot climates narrow, however, for purposes of
defense and where horses are kept the streets had better be wide. The other streets
laid out consecutively around the plaza are to be so planned that even if the town
should increase considerably in size it would meet with no obstruction which might
disfigure what had already been built or be a detriment to the defense or convenience of
the town.

At certain distances in the town smaller, well proportion plazas are to be laid out on
which the main church, the parish church or monastery shall be built so that the
teaching of religious doctrine may be evenly distributed. If the town lies on the coast, its
main church shall be so situated that it may be visible from the landing place and so
built that its structure may serve as means of defense for the port itself. After the plaza
and streets have been laid out building lots are to be designated, in the first place, for
the erection of the main church, the parish church or monastery and these are to
occupy respectively and entire block so that no other structure can be built next to them
excepting such as contribute to their commodiousness or beauty. Immediately
afterwards the place and site are to be assigned for the Royal and Town Council House,
the Custom House and Arsenal which is to be close to the church and port so that in
case of necessity one can protect the other. The hospital for the poor and sick of
noncontagious diseases shall be built next to the church forming its cloister.

HISTORIA DE LOS PADRES DOMINICOS EN LAS

ISLAS FILIPINAS Y EN SUS MISIONES DEL
JAPON, CHINA, TUNG-KIN Y FORMOSA (1870-
1972)by Juan Fernando and Joaquin Fonseca,
translated by Jose Rhommel Hernandez

Excerpt:
Not only in Luzon, but also in the Visayas can be found the true oceanic blacks which
form an entirely different race from the rest known in the discovered world. In the
Philippines, they are known by the Spaniards as the “Negritos,” and by the natives, as
Aetas, Itas, Etas, Balugas, etc., according to the provinces in whose surroundings they
live. They are very likely the first inhabitants of the country. In nothing are they similar to
those of the Malay race in the divisions, color, hair, customs and mode living. Even their
dialect is distinct from that which the nations coming from their caste speak. Many of the
like those who go down to the towns speak the idiom of the Indios. Many doubt if they
have a proper idiom. In their dances, however, they sing in an unintelligible manner and
many seem to howl rather than sing. In their hair, not all are equals. Some tribes have it
somewhat straight, but they are generally curly, like those who come from Africa,
although not so dark. The color of the body is so dark, much more than that of the
natives of the Malay race. They have their mouths broader than the ordinary, and more
distant from the nose, which is small and grounded in some. Almost all have side burns
and some have beard. Their clothing is made of a miserable girdle which covers their
shame. The women, when going to the Christian towns cover their breasts with another
piece of cloth made of cotton or valete bark. They are of very limited intelligence,
although in some can be discovered signs indicating more than the regular talent, if they
will be cultivated. Their race can be called as the ultimate of the human species. Their
physique has all the characters of a savage and degraded race. They themselves have
an idea so low of themselves that they say that they are not men nor people, but Aetas.
They live within the forests in the ranges of the west of Manila Bay, from Mariveles until
Pangasinan; in the slopes of one and another side, from that which crosses the island
from the east to west from San Fabian until Valer; to the west of some towns of
Cagayan, and in the other ranges from the Cape of Engaño until Tayabas; in the
mountains of San Mateo and Camachin; in some parts of the provinces of the South; in
a word, they are in almost all the mountains of Luzon, grouped in small tribes with
relations between themselves, particularly the neighbors of a same range. They do not
have any dwelling other than bad huts under the trees and at time some entangled
branches to avoid in some way the effect of bad weather. Most of them sleep where the
night seizes them, and when they are cold, or the humidity is very great, they burn
bonfires and they turn themselves over on hot ashes. They are not dedicated to
agriculture and are maintained from wild roots, leaves of trees and cattles that by
chance opens itself to an arrow shot. They suffer much on rainy days, and days passed
without them taking anything other than herb. For the hunting of the wild boar, or wild
hogs, they have some arrows whose iron points are held with a cane by means of some
strong small cords. The arrows are released to enter into the body of the wild beast,
which afterwards remains in the thickets and the hunter is easily freed from its fangs,
which is known to cause terrible wounds. Their government consists in leaving each
one in a more complete liberty, and in the observance of some practices inherited from
their old one. One of them is the eating in common large cattle gathered by some of
them. There is no sign of religion found among them, as they may not be some
practices indicating their belief in the immortality of the soul. Their matrimonies are
solemnized with some brute feasts that do not merit the hardship of being narrated. The
essential ceremony consists in making an old woman nod at those engaged, saying
sometimes the following expressions: “Produce the man, produce the woman”, very
proper to designate the primary end of the marriage, in which they differ hardly from the
beasts. In some points they themselves go around burning notably, as happens in the
mountains of Bataan, an effect of the miserable life they live. They lack women, since
the Tagalog Indias hire many of them to their service. These women are mixed at times
with the Indios, and the Mestizos who are born from them do not have curly hair. There
is someone saying that their feature is better than that of the Tagalog. Those who live in
the surroundings of the Christian towns are voluntary slaves. For a little rice or other
trifle, they cross from great distance wax, wood, canes and reeds. All have their
patrons, who give them lodging when they go down to the towns. This benefit is not little
favor considering the disgust that is in their uncovered bodies, covered regularly from
the hips and groins. From the conversion of the natives of the islands which the
missionaries began, they also thought of converting the people of this degraded caste.
But nobody until now has been able to boast of have subjected and united a tribe for a
long time to show them the civil and Christian life.

HISTORIA GENERAL DE FILIPINAS:

CONQUISTAS ESPIRITUALES Y TEMPORALES
DE ESTOS ESPAÑOLES DOMINIOS,
ESTABLECIMIENTOS PROGRESOS, Y
DECADENCIAS

The following excerpt narrates a certain Fray Rodrigo’s experience in working with the
Filipinos near Bagumbayan which was then a highly forested area.
Excerpt:
Father Fray Rodrigo was one day passing through a thicket. That thicket was, according
to their customs, one of the reserved ones, and it was considered sacrilegious to cut
anything from it, and that such act would be punished with immediate death. So
infatuated were they with that blindness that no one, even though in great need, dared
to take anything from that place, being restrained by fear. The Father saw a beautiful
tree, which they call pajo, laden with ripe fruit. He ordered his followers to gather some
by climbing the tree. They strenuously resisted, but Father Fray Rodrigo insisted on it.
They declared that they would not do it under any circumstances, and that it meant sure
death if they offended the respect whose fatal sentence comprehended all the trees of
that place. The Father severely chided them for their error, and to show them that it was
so, he determined to gather fruit himself. He began to break branches and to clear the
trunk, in order to facilitate the ascent. The Indians were grieved, and urgently begged
him to desist from that undertaking which they considered as so rash. But the religious,
arming himself with the sign of the cross, and reciting the antiphon, Ecce lignum crucis,
managed to gather some of the ripe fruit, which the tree offered. He ate it in front of
them and liked the fruit very much, for indeed it is savory. They looked as his face
amazed, expecting his instant death. When that did not happen, they recognized their
delusion and detested their cheats. They also ate without experiencing any harm. The
Father charged them to say nothing upon their arrival at the village. He took with him a
goodly quantity of that fruit and divided the great portion of it among the chiefs.
Esteeming the gift, they, in their ignorance, ate it without fear. In a sermon on the
following day, the Father disclosed the secret and checked their vain fears; so that,
undeceived by experience, they followed him with their axes, and in short order felled
that thicket, which was a confused center of perverse iniquities. Thereupon, many of
those infidels submitted to the true knowledge.
 PRÁCTICA DEL MINISTERIO
The following is an excerpt of the Augustinian Tomas Ortiz’s Practica del Ministerio.
Originally published in 1731, this particular excerpt is from the 1893 edition published by
Wenceslao E. Retana in his edition of Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga’s Estadismo de las
Islas Filipinas.
Excerpt:
Inasmuch as many natives, especially those of the provinces distant from Manila are
much inclined to nonos or genii, to idolatries, maganitos, superstitions, enchantments,
charms, and witchcraft, which have as great a diversity as have the witches, and
therefore they call them by different names, according to the various duties which they
attribute to them; it is necessary for the father ministers, not only to preach to them
continually, and to argue against, censure, and decry so pestilent abuses, but they must
also be very skillful, solicitous, and careful in discovering persons infected with that
mortal poison, and to apply to it the necessary remedy. In the confessions, for the same
reason that but seldom will they accuse themselves all possible efforts ought to be
made (without overstepping the boundaries of prudence) in order to see whether
anything may be obtained; and he who has the good fortune to have any witch confess
to him, will bear himself toward her as the authors teach. They ought also to charge the
natives with their obligation to denounce to the ordinary, etc.
There are many abuses (or as they say ugales) which the natives practice against our
holy faith and good customs, among others of which are the following. First, the above-
mentioned idolatry of the nonos. In regard to this it must be noted that the word nono
does not alone signify “grandfather,” but that it also is used as a term of respect to the
old men and genii. The Indians comprise these under the word nono, just as the
Chinese do under the word Espiritus [i. e., “spirits”], and the Romans under the word
“Gods,” which other called Lares, Penates, etc. With the above-mentioned genii or
nonos the Indians perform many acts of idolatry frequently, such as for example, asking
permission, relief, and aid from them, and that they do the people no harm, and that
they do not prove hostile to them, etc. They make such requests on many occasions,
and among others are the following. When they wish to pluck any flower or fruit from the
tree, they ask permission from the nono or genius to pluck it. When they pass certain
fields, rivers, creeks, or streamlets, large trees, sugar-cane plantations and other
places, they ask permission and good passage from the genii or nonos. When they are
obliged to cut any tree, or not to observe the things or ceremonies which they imagine
to be pleasing to the genii or nonos, they ask pardon of them, and excuse themselves to
those beings by saying, among many other things, that the father commanded them to
do it, and that they are not willingly lacking in respect to the genii, or that they do not
willingly oppose their will, etc. When they are taken with the sickness that they call
pamave, which they attribute to the genii or nonos (although they try to conceal this by
saying that the country [has not?] agreed with them) they ask them for health and offer
them food. They do that both on this, and many other occasions, in the fields, sugar
cane plantations, streamlets, at the foot of any large tree, more generally some
calunpan,2 and in various other places. This sort of idolatry is very deeply rooted and of
long standing among the Indians. Consequently, it is very necessary for the father
ministers to be very careful and make great efforts to extirpate it, and not avoid any
labor or work until it is annihilated.
Secondly, the Indians very generally believe that the souls of the dead return to their
houses the third day after their death, in order to visit the people of it, or to be present at
the banquet, and consequently, to be present at the ceremony of the tibao. They
conceal and hide that by saying that they are assembling in the house of the deceased
in order to recite the rosary for him. If they are told to do their praying in the church, they
refuse to comply because that is not what they wish to do. Consequently, the minister
will prevent the gathering at the house of the deceased after the burial, and will not
allow the people to ascend into the house under any considerations, least of all on the
third day. On the fourth day, in consequence of the said ceremony of the tibao, or
because of their evil inclination, they light candles in order to wait for the soul of the
deceased. They spread a mat, on which they scatter ashes, so that the tracks or
footsteps of the soul may be impressed thereon; and by that means they are able to
ascertain whether the soul came or not. They also set a dish of water at the door, so
that when the soul comes it may wash its feet there. It does not appear that it would be
much to say that those matters of the nonos or genii and the deceased were taken by
the Indians from the Sangleys who are reared with various things [of belief]. It needs a
strong remedy nevertheless.
The tigbalāg which some call a ghost and others a goblin, appears to be the genius or
devil, who appears to them in the shape of a black man, or in the shape of an old man
(or as they express it in the shape of a very small old man), or in the shape of a horse,
or of a monster, etc. That being inspires them with so great fear that they come to make
friendship with him, and surrender their rosaries to him, and receive from him
superstitious things, such as hairs, herbs, stones, and other things, in order that they
may obtain marvelous things, and that they may be aided by him in certain of their
affairs.
The patianac whom some also call a goblin (but it is only their invention, dream, or
imagination) must be the genius or devil who generally plays with them as also with
many others, when losing the faith, they espouse his cause, become familiar with him,
or become subject to him. They attribute to this being the ill success of births, and say
that in order to harm them and cause their destruction, he enters or hides in some tree
or in any other place near the house of the woman who is about to give birth, and there
they sing like those who wander about, etc. In order to prevent any harm from the
patianac, the men take their position naked and with their privies exposed to the air; and
arm themselves with shield, catan, lance, and other arms. In this condition they stand
on the ridgepole of the roof, and also under the house, and in all places, they slash and
cut right and left with the catan and make various gestures and set movements for the
same purpose. Others, in order to prevent said harm, generally move the woman who is
about to give birth to another house, for they say that her house contains a patianac.
Among other things they also attribute to the patianac the death of children, as well as
to the usang. They refer to them in the following manner. They assert that the bird
called tictic is the pander of the sorcerer called usang. Flying ahead of that being, the
bird shows it the houses where infants are to be born. That being takes its position on
the roof of the neighboring house and thence extends its tongue in the form of a thread,
which it inserts through the anus of the child and by that means sucks out its entrails
and kills it. Sometimes they say that it appears in the form of a dog, sometimes of a cat,
sometimes of the cockroach which crawls under the mat, and there accomplishes the
abovesaid. In order to avoid that harm, they do certain of the above things. To the
patianac travelers also attribute their straying from or losing their road. In order to keep
the right path, they undress and expose their privies to the air, and by that observance
they say that they make sure of the right road; for then the patianac is afraid of them
and cannot lead them astray.
The bongsol they sometimes assert to be various durojones which are caused by the
sorcerer ganay, and which run all through the body of the bewitched, who generally
remains some moments as if dead or in a faint, and at other times as though mad or
raving from the sight of the ganay who appears to them in various shapes. In order to
cure this sickness or enchantment, they summon another sorcerer, and he after the
incantations or efforts, which will be told later, generally leaves the patient as he was
before. Sometimes they say that that sickness appears to be natural or a stomach ache
caused by the obstructions or durojones which grow in the stomach or in the patient’s
side or by shivers which move from one place to another, and from which the women of
this country generally suffer. But when they are unable to cure the pain with the
promptness that they desire, they generally say, especially the physicians, that the said
sickness is bongsol, that is enchantment, and that it can be cured only by the one who
is of the faculty, that is by one who is a sorcerer. They then bring a sorcerer, who
performs the things that pertain to his faculty, and summons the first sorcerer who they
say caused that sorcery. If the sickness is not lessened, the sorcerer finishes his duty
by saying that the said first witch is very far away, and could not hear him; and
consequently, it has happened that he has not been able to cure the said sickness. In
such wise do they leave the sick person with his pains.
The ceremony or superstition of bilao is ordered for the discovery thereby of any thief. It
is reduced to placing in a bilao, sieve, or screen, some scissors fastened at the point in
the shape of the cross of St. Andrew, and in them they hang their rosary. Then they
repeat the name of each one of those who are present and who are assembled for this.
If, for example, when the name Pedro is mentioned, the bilao shakes, they say that
Pedro is the thief. They also are accustomed to light candles to St. Anthony of Padua
for the purpose of discovering the thief of anything [that is stolen]. For this they kneel
down to pray (and perhaps to utter and perform indecent things) and wait until the flame
leans toward any of those about, for instance, toward Juan, and then they declare that
Juan is the thief. It is very usual for the Indians to carry about them various things in
order that they might obtain marvelous effects: for example, written formulas, prayers,
vitiated or interspersed with words arranged for their evil intent, herbs, roots, bark, hairs,
skin, bones, stones, etc., so that they may not be killed, or apprehended by justice, or to
obtain wealth, women, or other things. They are also very much inclined to believe in
omens and in unlucky days, in regard to which they are wont to keep various books of
manuscripts which must be burned for them. The natives are accustomed to circumcise
the boys; and although they perform the circumcision by slitting the skin of the penis
lengthwise, instead of around, still it appears that that may be accounted for by the fact
that it is inferred that that ceremony was introduced into Philipinas, by the Moros from
Borneo, Mindanao, or Holo, as was also the word biñag, which is used for “baptize,” and
to mean “Christian,” and the word simba, which appears to mean “adoration” among
them. From this use they transfer it to their temples and mosques, and the Tagálogs
took it not to mean “adoration,” but “church,” and afterward used it to mean “mass,”
which it never could mean. Not only do they circumcise the males but also the women,
girls, or dalagas, [an operation] which they call sonad. It is reduced to cutting the organ
or opening it up somewhat. However, some of them, and very reasonably, affirm that
that ceremony in them in itself in both males and females is rather the offspring of lust
than that of Judaism. They are also accustomed to measure or compare the weapons
that they make, for ]example, measuring the catan by spans and praying at the same
time the “Our Father.” If the conclusion of the measuring is reached at the same time or
when they come to the word “forgive us” they say that they cannot be punished, but that
they may kill people, etc. It appears that the custom has been introduced among women
who have recently brought forth of not going to church until the fortieth or sixtieth day as
they say of the purification of their bodies. In that not only do they fail in the precept to
hear mass but they also perform a Mosaic ceremony.
The Indians are generally corrupted by many errors, and it would take a long time to
mention them. Consequently, the ministers will be very careful to uproot them, for
although it does not cause any great harm in some because of their ignorance and lack
of intelligence, in others they do cause great harm; for example, Angel catutubo, which
literally signifies “that my guardian angel was born with me or at the same time as I.” In
order to avoid danger, one should say, Angel taga tanor, and the same thing in other
languages. Finally, so many are the superstitions, omens, and errors, that are found
among the Indians that it would be very difficult or impossible to mention them all. The
above have been mentioned so that the father ministers may examine others by them. It
is to be noted that there are sectarians and preachers of various false sects among the
Indians, especially in the distant provinces, either because they had false sects formerly
and have continued them, or because they took them (and this is more likely) from the
Joloans, Mindanaos, Sangleys, and other heathen nations with whom they are
accustomed to have intercourse. When the moon is eclipsed, the Indians of various
districts generally go out into the street or into the open fields, with bells, panastanes,
etc. They strike them with great force and violence in order that they might thereby
protect the moon which they say is being eaten or swallowed by the dragon, tiger, or
crocodile. And the worst thing is that if they wish to say “the eclipse of the moon” it is
very common in Philipinas to use this locution, saying “the dragon, tiger, or crocodile is
swallowing the moon.” The Tagálogs also make use of it and say, Linamon laho bovan.
It appears that the Indians learned all this from the Sangleys of China, where all the
abovesaid is performed and executed to the letter. It is not right to allow them to retain
these deceits of the Chinese, and not to teach them our customs and truths. All the
above contents of this section is not universal in all parts. Consequently, although all
ministers ought to be careful to ascertain whether they are or are not contained in their
ministries, they ought not to go ahead to censure what they are not sure of, for that very
thing would perhaps teach them what we are endeavoring to extirpate.
 First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522) by
Antonio Pigafetta [Excerpt]
About Antonio Pigafetta
Antonio Pigafetta was a young Venetian, likely in his 20s when he arrived in the
Philippines as part of Magellan’s crew on March 17, 1521.
The geographer and scribe of the group, he recorded not only names of places and the
vocabulary of the natives, but their food, attire, customs, and traditions, too. He
described historical events like the first Easter Day Mass celebrated in the Philippines
and the battle of Mactan, where Magellan was killed by Lapulapu’s men.
Pigafetta’s eyewitness account is the “most detailed and only surviving account” of this
critical event in Philippine history, according to Dr. Rene V. Escalante, Chairman of the
National Historical Commission.
Pigafetta wrote all his observations in a journal, now lost. But based on this original
journal, 4 manuscripts were produced – 3 in French and one in Italian. They were
distributed to European royals interested in financing their own expeditions to the Spice
Islands.
These 4 manuscripts have survived. The originals are in libraries in the United States,
France, and Italy.
Their pages are a treasure trove of knowledge about the Philippines’ mysterious
precolonial past – when chieftains ruled independent fiefdoms, animals and plants were
sacred, and Western civilization was hazier than myth.
*excerpt taken from "Bringing Home Pigafetta's Manuscript" by Pia Ranada, published in Rappler, October 16, 2019.

Introduction:
The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan led the first voyage around the world,
beginning in 1519. Sailing southward along the coast of South America, Magellan
discovered the strait that today bears his name and became the first European to enter
the Pacific Ocean from the east. Magellan died while exploring the Philippines, but his
ships continued west to complete the circumnavigation of the globe. The following
account of the difficult passage through the Strait of Magellan was written by a member
of the crew, Antonio Pigafetta.
Antonio Pigafetta (c. 1491-1531) was the chronicler of the voyage of Ferdinand
Magellan. Pigafetta was born into a noble Italian family in the city of Vicenza. As a
young man he studied cartography, geography and astronomy and served on the ships
of the Knights of Rhodes in the early 16th century. As the chronicler of the Magellan
expedition, Pigafetta recorded information regarding the geography, climate, flora, fauna
and the native inhabitants of the places visited by the expedition. Aside from him the
last pilot of one of Magellan's ship, Francisco Albo kept a formal logbook about the
expedition.

Pigafetta was wounded in the battle of Mactan where Magellan was killed by natives
under Lapu Lapu. He was one of the18 survivors aboard the vessel Victoria which made
it back to Spain in September 1622. - He wrote his account of the voyage in a book
Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (Report on the First Voyage Around the
World) which was published by Giovanni Ramusio in 1550-1559. However the work was
upstaged by the work of Maximilianus Transylvannus who interviewed the survivors of
the Magellan expedition and published his writings in 1522. Nevertheless Pigafetta's
account contained vivid recollections and drawings about the places visited by the
Magellan voyage.
Below is an excerpt of Pigafetta's account as the Magellan expedition
first set foot in the island of Homonhon:

..the right of the abovementioned island, in order to be more secure, and to get water
and have some rest. He had two tents set up on the shore for the sick and had a sow
killed for them. On Monday afternoon, March 18, we saw a boat coming toward us with
nine men in it. Therefore, the captain-general ordered that no one should move or say a
word without his permission. When those men reached the shore, their chief went
immediately to the captain-general, giving signs of joy because of our arrival. Five of the
most ornately-adorned of them remained with us, while the rest went, to get some
others who were fishing, and so they all came. The captain-general seeing that they are
reasonable men, ordered food to be set before them, and gave them red caps, mirrors,
combs, bells, ivory, bocasine, and other things. When they saw the captain's
courtesy, they presented fish, a jar of palm wine, which they call uraca (i.e., arrack), figs
more than one palmo long, (i.e., bananas), and others which were smaller and more
delicate, and two cocoanuts. They had nothing else then, but made us signs with their
hands that they would bring umay or rice, and cocoanuts and many other articles of
food within four days.

Cocoanuts are the fruit of the palm-tree. Just as we have bread, wine, oil, and milk,
so those people get everything from that tree. They get wine by boring into the hole into
the heart of the said palm at the top called palmito (i.e., stalk), from which distils a liquor
which resembles white mist. That liquor is sweet but somewhat tart, and (is gathered) in
canes (of bamboo) as thick as the leg and thicker. They fasten the bamboo to the tree
at evening for the morning, and in the morning for the evening. That palm bears a fruit
namely, the cocoanut, which is as large as the head or thereabouts. Its outside husk is
green and thicker than two fingers. Certain filaments are found in that husk, whence is
made cord for binding together their boats. Under that husk there is a hard shell, much
thicker than the shell of the walnut, which they burn and made into powder that is useful
to them. Under that shell is a white marrowy substance one finger in thickness, which
they eat fresh with meat and fish as we do bread; and it taste like the almond. It
could .be dried and made into bread. There is a clear, sweet water in the middle of that
marrowy substance which is very refreshing. When that water stands for a while after
having been collected, it congeals and becomes like an apple. When the natives wish
to make oil, they take that cocoanut, and allow the marrowy substance and the water to
putrefy. Then they boil it and it becomes oil like butter. When they wish to make vinegar,
they allow only the water to putrefy, and then place it under the sun, and a vinegar
results like (that made from) white wine. Milk can also be made from it for we made
some. We scraped that marrowy substance and then mixed the scrapings with its own
water which we strained using a cloth, and so obtained milk like goat's milk. Those
palms resemble date-palms, but although not smooth they are less knotty than the
latter. - A family of x persons can be supported on two trees, by utilizing them week
about for the wine; for if they did otherwise, the trees would dry up. They last a century.

Those people became very familiar with us. They told us many things, their names and
those of some of the islands that could be seen from that place. Their own island was
called Zuluan and it is not very large. We took great pleasure with them, for they were
very pleasant and conversable. In order to show them greater honor, the captain-
general took them to his ship and showed them all his merchandise cloves, cinnamon,
pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, gold, and all the things in the ship. He had some mortars
fired for them, whereat they exhibited great fear, and tried to jump out of the ship. They
made signs to us that the above said articles grew in that place where we were going.
When they were about to retire they took their leave very gracefully and neatly, saying
that they would return according to their promise. The island where we were is called
Humunu.

KARTILYA NG KATIPUNAN WRITTEN BY Emilio

Jacinto

Apart from Bonifacio another significant revolutionary writer was Emilio

Jacinto. Jacinto is remembered as the Brains of the Katipunan. Born on
December 15, 1875 in Trozo, Tondo, Manila, he lost his father, Mariano
Jacinto, at very young age and he was raised by his mother, Josefa Dizon,
Emilio Jacinto and uncle. He studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where he
obtained the degree of bachiller en artes. Later he enrolled at the University
of Santo Tomas to study law. It was during this time when Jacinto joined
the Katipunan and he was one of the youngest members of the
revolutionary society at the age of 18. In the katipunan, he was known by
his pseudonym Pingkian and he became the editor of the Katipunan
newspaper Kalayaan.
As one of the main leaders of the Katipunan Jacinto authored the Kartilya
or the primer of the Katipunan which was adopted by Bonifacio. Before
Jacinto's work there was already a kartilya written by Bonifacio, but seeing
Jacinto's version was better, Bonifacio set aside his own and used Jacinto's
Kartilya instead. The Kartilya contains a code of conduct for the
Katipuneros and it reveals that aside from seeking political and social
change the Katipunan aims to create a moral change for its members and it
aspires that this Kartilya will instill moral and patriotic values for the
 Filipinos in general.
Writing as Dimas-ilaw, Jacinto wrote a collection of writings entitled
Liwanag at Dilim. His poem A la Patria which was said to be the equivalent
of Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios. In the Katipunan, Jacinto served as its
secretary and fiscal.
He fought in Laguna and Morong and while he was fighting in Laguna he
was wounded and captured by the Spaniards. He was saved from execution
when he passed himself off as a spy working for the Spaniards. Upon his
release Jacinto refused an offer to be the adviser to Aguinaldo because he
believed that Aguinaldo had a hand in the death of his friend, Andres
Bonifacio. Jacinto decided to live the simple life as a meat merchant. In
1899 Jacinto was afflicted with malaria and in his weakened state he was
also afflicted by dysentery which caused his death. He died on April 16,
1899 in Majayjay, Laguna. His remains were later transferred to the Manila
North Cemetery.

Introduction
The Katipunan was for a long time, best remembered by school
children in Gregorio F. Zaide’s history textbook, for the so-called
August 26, 1896 Cry of Balintawak—made momentous and dramatic by
the mass tearing of cedulas personal. Other historians like Teodoro
Agoncillo, later challenged this claim (his version was August 23, 1896
at Pugad Lawin), and soon, as other accounts surfaced, the date and
place of its actual occurrence became a national controversy.
But the Katipunan was not just a cry for freedom. It was a
national aspiration made flesh. It caught the passion of ordinary
people, willing to stake their lives and overcome the dread of reprisals;
believing that worse fate awaited their families if they did not stand up
to face their oppressors. It was a secret society that had a formal
hierarchy composed of a supreme council and local councils, and a
ritual of membership often mistaken for Masonry. Moreover, it had an
ideology embodied in its Ang Kartilya ng Katipunan, authored by
Emilio Jacinto.
It was Andres Bonifacio who first formulated a code of conduct
and to whom the Dekalogo ng Katipunan was attributed. But it was
not published; instead, it was said that upon reading the Kartilya
drafted by Jacinto, Bonifacio decided that it was superior to his
Dekalogo, and adopted it as the official primer of the Katipunan.
Emilio Jacinto, then became the chief theoretician and adviser of
Bonifacio and later earned for him the title Brains of the Katipunan.
Joining the Katipunan in 1894, he was the youngest member and
nicknamed, according to historian Dr Isagani R. Medina (1992),
Emiliong Bata to distinguish him from Emiliong Matanda, or Emilio
Aguinaldo.
The Dekalogo had only ten points and dealt primarily with one’s
duties to God, country, family, neighbor, the Katipunan and himself. It
spoke of honor, charity and self-sacrifice but warned of penalty to the
traitor and disobedient.
The Kartilya was longer, more literary and philosophical. It
presented its concept of virtuous living as lessons for self reflection,
rather than as direct prescriptions. It asserted that it was the
internal, not the external qualifications that make human greatness. In
the third statement, Jacinto defined true piety (kabanalan) as charity,
love for one another, and actions, deeds and speech guided by
judicious reasons (“talagang katuiran”, literally, true reason). Written
more than a hundred years ago at a time when the idea of nationhood
was still a dream, the Kartilya reflected a vision, “bright sun of
freedom in the islands, spreading its light upon brothers and a race
united.”

The Kartilya can be better appreciated in its original Tagalog

form because its essence was expressed using Tagalog syntax. It
should also be appreciated within the context of the social and
political environment of that colonial era, amid local traditions,
spiritual beliefs, family concepts and ethnic diversity.

Katipunan Ideology - Ang Kartilya ng

Katipunan
The Katipunan was founded by Andres Bonifacio and their goal was to
unite and prepare the people for an armed conflict in order to liberate
the country from the tyranny of the Spaniards. The moral & civic
objective of the Katipunan revolved around the teachings of good
manners, hygiene, good morals, self-help and defense of the poor and
oppressed. The Kartilya made by the Katipunan are:
1. Ang kabuhayang hindi ginugugol sa
1. The life that is not consecrated to a lofty and
isang malaki at banal na kadahilanan ay
reasonable purpose is a tree without a shade, if not a
kahoy na walang lilim, kundi damong poisonous weed.
makamandag.

2. Ang gawang magaling na nagbubuhat

sa pagpipita sa sarili, at hindi sa talagang 2. To do good for personal gain and not for its own sake
nasang gumawa ng kagalingan, ay di is not virtue.
kabaitan.

3. Ang tunay na kabanalan ay ang

pagkakawang gawa, ang pagibig sa kapua
at ang isukat ang bawat kilos, gawa’t
pangungusap sa talagang Katuiran.
3. It is rational to be charitable and love one's fellow
creature, and to adjust one's conduct, acts and words to
what is in itself reasonable.

4. Maitim man at maputi ang kulay ng

balat, lahat ng tao’y magkakapantay; 4. Whether our skin be black or white, we are all born
mangyayaring ang isa’y higtan sa dunong, equal: superiority in knowledge, wealth and beauty are
sa yaman, sa ganda…; ngunit di to be understood, but not superiority by nature.
mahihigtan sa pagkatao.

5. Ang may mataas na kalooban inuuna

ang puri sa pagpipita sa sarili; ang may 5. The honorable man prefers honor to personal gain;
hamak na kalooban inuuna ang pagpipita the scoundrel, gain to honor.
sa sarili sa puri.

6. Sa taong may hiya, salita’y panunumpa. 6. To the honorable man, his word is sacred.

7. Huag mong sasayangin ang panahun;

ang yamang nawala’y magyayaring 7. Do not waste thy time: wealth can be recovered but
magbalik; nguni’t panahong nagdaan na’y not time lost.
di na muli pang magdadaan.

8. Ipagtanggol mo ang inaapi, at

8. Defend the oppressed and fight the oppressor before
kabakahin ang umaapi.
the law or in the field.

9. Ang taong matalino’y ang may pagiingat

9. The prudent man is sparing in words and faithful in
sa bawat sasabihin, at matutong ipaglihim
keeping secrets.
ang dapat ipaglihim.
10. Sa daang matinik ng kabuhayan, lalaki
ay siyang patnugot ng asawa’t mga anak;
kung ang umaakay ay tungo sa sama, ang
patutunguhan ng iaakay ay kasamaan
din.
11. Ang babai ay huag mong tignang isang
bagay na libangan lamang, kundi isang
katuang at karamay sa mga kahirapan
nitong kabuhayan; gamitan mo ng buong
pagpipitagan ang kaniyang kahinaan, at
alalahanin ang inang pinagbuhata’t nagiwi
sa iyong kasangulan.
12. Ang di mo ibig na gawin sa asawa mo,
anak at kapatid, ay huag mong gagawin sa
asawa, anak, at kapatid ng iba.
13. Ang kamahalan ng tao’y wala sa
pagkahari, wala sa tangus ng ilong at puti
ng mukha, wala sa pagkaparing kahalili ng
Dios wala sa mataas na kalagayan sa
balat ng lupa; wagas at tunay na mahal na
tao, kahit laking gubat at walang
nababatid kundi ang sariling wika, yaong
may magandang asal, may isang
pangungusap, may dangal at puri; yaong di
napaaapi’t di nakikiapi; yaong marunong
magdamdam at marunong lumingap sa
bayang tinubuan.
10. On the thorny path of life, man is the guide of
woman and the children, and if the guide leads to the
precipice, those whom he guides will also go there.
11. Thou must not look upon woman as a mere
plaything, but as a faithful companion who will share
with thee the penalties of life; her (physical) weakness
will increase thy interest in her and she will remind thee
of the mother who bore thee and reared thee.
12. What thou dost not desire done unto thy wife,
children, brothers and sisters, that do not unto the wife,
children, brothers and sisters of thy neighbor.
13. Man is not worth more because he is a king, because
his nose is aquiline, and his color white, not because he
is a *priest, a servant of God, nor because of the high
prerogative that he enjoys upon earth, but he is worth
most who is a man of proven and real value, who does
good, keeps his words, is worthy and honest; he who
does not oppress nor consent to being oppressed, he who
loves and cherishes his fatherland, though he be born in
the wilderness and know no tongue but his own.
14. Paglaganap ng mga aral na ito at
maningning na sumikat ang araw ng
mahal na Kalayaan dito sa kaabaabang
Sangkalupuan, at sabugan ng matamis
niyang liwanag ang nangagkaisang
magkalahi’t magkakapatid ng ligaya ng
walang katapusan, ang mga ginugol na
buhay, pagud, at mga tiniis na kahirapa’y
labis nang natumbasan. Kung lahat ng
ito’y mataruk na ng nagiibig pumasuk at
inaakala niyang matutupad ang mga
tutungkulin, maitatala ang kaniyang
ninanasa sa kasunod nito.
14. When these rules of conduct shall be known to all,
the longed-for sun of Liberty shall rise brilliant over this
most unhappy portion of the globe and its rays shall
diffuse everlasting joy among the confederated brethren
of the same rays, the lives of those who have gone
before, the fatigues and the well-paid sufferings will
remain. If he who desires to enter (the Katipunan) has
informed himself of all this and believes he will be able
to perform what will be his duties, he may fill out the
application for admission.

HALALAN SA KAPULUNGAN NG
TEJEROS PAGPIPISAN NG SANGGUNIANG
MAGDIWANG AT MAGDALO

Emilio Famy Aguinaldo Sr. was born on March 22, 1869

in Kawit, Cavite. He was the sevent among the eight
children of Carlos Jamir Aguinaldo and Trinidad Famy-
Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo’s family was well off since his
Emilio Aguinaldo
father was the community’s appointed gobernadorcillo
of their pueblo.

Emilio attended high school at the Colegio de San Juan

de Letran but had to stop on his fourth year because of
his father’s death. He then took responsibility of helping
his mother run their farm. In 1895, at the age of 25, he
became Kawit’s first “gobernadorcillo capitan
municipal.” Aguinaldo became a Freemason during this
year, joining Pilar Lodge No. 203, Imus, Cavite with the
codename “Colon.” He also joined the Katipunan and
used the nom de guerre “Magdalo” in honor of Mary
Magdalene.

Aguinaldo would later become the first and youngest

President of the Country by being President of the First
Philippine Republic. His presidency was cut short when
he was captured by the American Soldier in Palanan,
Isabela where he pledged his loyalty to the American
Government thus dissolving the First Republic. He tried
 to rejoin politics by challenging Manuel L. Quezon in the
1935 presidential election but he lost, leading him to
retire from public life. Nevertheless, Aguinaldo
continued to serve the government politically under the
succeeding administrations. President Elpidio Quirino
appointed him as member of the Philippines Council of
State in 1950.

Emilio Aguinaldo died of coronary thrombosis on

February 6, 1964. He was 94 years old. In his lifetime,
he was able to witness the administration of
succeeding presidents of the Philippines until the term
of President Diosdado Macapagal.

HALALAN SA KAPULUNGAN NG TEJEROS PAGPIPISAN NG SANGGUNIANG

MAGDIWANG AT MAGDALO
CASA HACIENDA DE TEJEROS
"Hindi ko pa nasasagot ang kanilang pakay sa akin, agad-agad ay
isinalaysay sa akin ang mga sumusunod na pangyayari sa halalan:
Na pagkatapos mabuksan ang kapulungang pambansa ng
Manghihimagsik na pinangunguluhan ng Haring Bayan, Andres
Bonifacio ay isinunod agad ang paghirang at paghalal ukol sa Kataas-
taasang Puno na mangungulo sa ganitong pag-iisa.
Dalawa lamang kandidato ang napaharap, at ito'y ang Supremo Andres
Bonifacio at si Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo. Pagkatapos ng halalan ay
lumabas noon din at ipinasiya ng Kapulungan sa pamamagitan ng
Supremo Andres Bonifacio, na si Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo, ang siyang
pinagkaisahan at pinagbotohang maging Kataas-taasang Puno o taga-
Pangulo ng Manghihimagsik.
Nagtaka sila diumano kung paano nangyari, na ang Supremo Andres
Bonifacio na siyang nagpahanda ng nasabing pag-iisa at siya pang
pangulo sa nasabing pulong, ay kung bakit ako ang inihalal ng
karamihan laban sa Supremo Andres Bonifacio.
Isinunod ang tungkuling Vice-Presidente. Ang Supremo Andres
Bonifacio, ay muling ikinandidato, subalit tinalo siya ng kanya ring
Ministro de Gracia y Justicia, na si Heneral Mariano Trias, at noon din
ay ginawa ang proklamasyon.
Isinunod ang tungkuling Kapitan Heneral, ay nagtunggali naman ang
dating Kapitan Santiago Alvarez, anak ni Virey Mariano Alvarez, at si
Heneral Artemio Ricarte, isang Ilocano. Bagama't tumutol si Heneral A.
Ricarte sa pagkakahalal sa kanya, dahil diumano sa kawalan niya ng
kaya sa gayong tungkulin, ay iniurong din niya pagkatapos nang hindi
tanggapin ng mesa. Isinunod dito ang proklamasyon sa kanya.
Sa paka-Secretario de Guerra, ang Supremo Andres Bonifacio ay muli
na namang ikinandidato, at ang nakatunggali niya ay si Heneral
Emiliano Riego de Dios, na kanya ring Ministro de Fomento sa
Sangguniang Magdiwang. Natalo na naman ang Supremo, at ito ang
ikatlong pagkagapi niya sa halalan.
Sa pagka-Secretario de Interior, ay muli na namang ipinasok na
kandidato ang Supremo Andres Bonifacio at ang kanyang kalaban ay
ang dalawa niyang Ministro sa Magdiwang na sina Ginoong Severino
de las Alas at Ginoong Diego Mojica. Sa halalang ito'y nagtagumpay
ang Supremo Andres Bonifacio, at kagaya ng kaugalian ay ipinasiya na
siya ang nahalal at dahil dito ay binati sa kanyang tagumpay.
Subali't pagkatapos na pagkatapos na maipasiya ng Asamblea ang
kanyang tagumpay ay biglang tumindig at sumalungat sa pagkahalal
sa kanya si Heneral Daniel Tirona, at sinabing; "Hindi nababagay sa
Supremo Andres Bonifacio, ang tungkuling nasabi, pagka't hindi siya
abogado, at ang bagay rito'y ang Abogado Jose del Rosario, na taga
Tanza."
Dito nagmula ang gulo ng Kapulungan, subalit wala namang sinumang
pumangalawa kay Heneral Tirona, kaya't wala ring kabuluhan ang
nasabing pagtutol. Gayon man, sa sama yata ng loob ng Supremo kay
Heneral Daniel Tirona, ay agad-agad siyang tumindig at sinabi ang
ganito: "Hindi baga bago tayo nagpulong ay pinagkaisahan natin na
sinuman ang lumabas o mahalal sa Kapulungang ito, ay ating susundin
at igagalang ng lahat?"
"Opo" - ang hiyawan ng madla.
"Kung gayon" - patuloy niya, "Bakit nang ako ang napahalal ay may
tumututol?
"Wala pong pumangalawa sa tutol."
At sa di mapigil na sama ng loob ng Supremo, ay agad binunot ang
kanyang rebolber at anyong papuputukan si Heneral Daniel Tirona, sa
gitna ng di magkamayaw na gulong naghari. Salamat na lamang at
napigil ni G. Jacinto Lumbreras at ni Heneral Artemio Ricarte, ang
masamang tangka ng Supremo. Si Heneral Tirona naman ay maliksing
nakapagtago at nagsuut-suot sa kakapalan ng mga Asemblesista kaya
hindi natuloy ang pagtudla sa kanya.
Palibhasa'y hindi yata mapigilan ng Supremo ang sama ng loob, bakit
maikatlo pang natalo sa halalan, bagama't napayapa ang gusot at
tahimik na ang lahat, pagdaka'y tumindig siya at sinabi sa kapulungan
ang ganito:
"Ako sa aking pagka-Pangulo nitong Kapulungang Pambansa ng mga
Manghihimagsik, ay pinawawalan ko ng kabuluhan ang halalang dito'y
naganap." Saka pagdaka'y umalis at nilisan ang kapulungan at umuwi
sa Malabon.
Sa ganyang pangyayari, ay naligalig sandali ang kapulungan, ngunit
biglang tumahimik nang ang delegado ng lalawigang Batangas, na si
Koronel Santiago Rillo, na kumakatawan sa may 2,000
manghihimagsik, ay nagtindig at isinigaw sa Supremo na huwag siyang
umalis, pagka't proklamado na siya sa pagka-Secretario de Interior,
bukod sa ang mungkahi ni Heneral D. Tirona, laban sa kanya ay wala
sa orden, pagka't walang sinumang pumangalawa, at dahil dito'y
walang anumang bisa. Gayon man ay di nangyaring napigilan ang
Supremo at patuloy nang umalis nang walang paalam.
Dahil sa kaguluhang nangyari, at sapagka't hindi napigilan ang
Supremo, sa kaniyang pasiya na lisanin ang kapulungan, si Santiago
Rillo, delegado ng Batangas, ay tumayo at nagtanong sa madla kung
sang-ayon silang ipagpatuloy ang kapulungan, at kung pahihintulutan
nilang siya na ang mangulo. Sa ganitong katanungan ay parang iisang
taong sumagot ang lahat ng "Opo."
Sa ganyang kapasiyahan, ay ipinagpatuloy ang Kapulungan at wala
namang iba pang pinag-usapan maliban sa kilalanin o pagtibayin ang
tanang mga naihalal na saka humirang ng isang "Comission" upang
ipabatid kay Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo, ang pagka-hirang sa kanya ng
Kapulungan ng Manghihimagsik na maging Kataas-taasang Puno ng
Himagsikan, tuloy kaunin siya sa madaling panahon upang
makapanumpa sa tungkuling iniaatang sa kanya ng bayang
nanghihimagsik.
Pagkatapos nito, ay pinigil munang pansamantala ang pulong,
samantalang hinihintay nang buong kasabikan ang pagdating ng
nahalal na puno ng himagsikan, si Heneral Aguinaldo."
__________________
Emilio Aguinaldo,
Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan
Manila: National Centennial Commission, 1964.

Political Caricature of the American Era 1900-

1941 by Alfred W. McCoy and Alfredo R. Roces
(1985)
Introduction
Media fulfills several basic roles in our society. One obvious role is
entertainment. Media can act as a springboard for our imaginations, a
source of fantasy, and an outlet for escapism. In the 19th century,
Victorian readers disillusioned by the grimness of the Industrial
Revolution found themselves drawn into fantastic worlds of fairies and
other fictitious beings. In the first decade of the 21st century,
American television viewers could peek in on a conflicted Texas high
school football team in Friday Night Lights; the violence-plagued drug
trade in Baltimore in The Wire; a 1960s-Manhattan ad agency in Mad
Men; or the last surviving band of humans in a distant, miserable future
in Battlestar Galactica. Through bringing us stories of all kinds, media
has the power to take us away from ourselves.
Media can also provide information and education. Information can
come in many forms, and it may sometimes be difficult to separate
from entertainment. Today, newspapers and news-oriented television
and radio programs make available stories from across the globe,
allowing readers or viewers in London to access voices and videos
from Baghdad, Tokyo, or Buenos Aires. Books and magazines provide a
more in-depth look at a wide range of subjects.
Another useful aspect of media is its ability to act as a public forum for
the discussion of important issues. In newspapers or other periodicals,
letters to the editor allow readers to respond to journalists or to voice
their opinions on the issues of the day. These letters were an
important part of Philippine newspapers even when the nation was an
American colony, and they have served as a means of public discourse
ever since. The Internet is a fundamentally democratic medium that
allows everyone who can get online the ability to express their
opinions through, for example, blogging or podcasting—though
whether anyone will hear is another question.
Political Cartoons and Caricatures
Political cartoons and caricature are a rather recent art form, which
veered away from the classical art by exaggerating human features
and poking fun at its subjects. Such art genre and technique became a
part of the print media as a form of social and political commentary,
which usually targets persons of power and authority. Cartoons
became an effective tool of publicizing opinions through heavy use of
symbolism, which is different from a verbose written editorial and
opinion pieces. The unique way that a caricature represents opinion
and captures the audience’s imagination is a reason enough for
historians to examine these political cartoons. Commentaries in mass
media inevitably shape public opinion and such kind of opinion is
worthy of historical examination.
In the book, Philippine Cartoons: Political Caricature of the American
Era (1900-1941), authored by Alfred McCoy, together with Alfredo
Roces, compiled political cartoons published in newspaper dailies and
periodicals in the aforementioned time period.
A Glance at Selected Philippine Political Caricatures in Alfred McCoy’s
Philippine Cartoons (American Era: 1900-1941)
 Petition Against Governor- General Leonard
Wood by the Philippine Independence Mission
INTRODUCTION:
An arch-enemy of Philippine Independence, Governor- General Leonard
Wood was set on undoing all that his predecessor, Francis Burton
Harrison, had done to give the Filipinos ample powers and
responsibilities in preparation for self-government. Among other
things, he turned his cabinet secretaries into glorified office clerks,
solely responsible to him and under his absolute control, although their
appointments were subject to control and approval of the Philippine
legislature. To advise him in matters that were purely the concern of
the Filipinos, he instead formed what then Editor Carlos P. Romulo
called the “Kitchen Cabinet” or “Cavalry Cabinet” as others dubbed it,
composed of U.S. Army officers including his playboy son, Lt. Osborne
C. Wood.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF LEONARD WOOD (1921-1927)
The choice of Leonard Wood as Governor-General demonstrated that
President Harding accepted the Wood-Forbes Mission's
recommendation as to Philippine policy and that he looked to Wood to
remedy the unfortunate condition pointed out in the Mission's report. It
is indeed unfortunate that Wood became Governor-General so soon
after the completion of his mission, a difficulty which he himself had
foreseen and which situation undoubtedly colored his relations with
the Filipinos politicians whose performance he had just indicted. After
an initial period marked by amicable relations and cooperation the
Administration of Governor Wood was marked by vigorous political
agitation-the most intense in Philippine-American relation since the
end of the Filipino-American War.
THE GOVERNOR'S VETO POWER
The veto power of Governor Wood, in the eyes of the Filipino leaders.
was being excessively exercised, "on the most flimsy motives."
Governor Wood's veto record showed the following: From October 1923
to February 1924, the Sixth Philippine Legislature passed 217 bills not
having been presented until after the adjournment of the Legislature
so that, Wood commented, conference with a view to modification or
correction of errors was possible. Not only did the Governor exercise
liberally his power to veto bills passed by the Legislature , but he even
went to the extent of altering measures already passed by the
legislature, and then affixing his signature after the alteration was
made.
THE BOARD OF CONTROL CONTROVERSY
Wood was convinced that the Board was illegal because the Governor-
General occupied a minority position in it (in violation of the Organic
Act which placed supreme executive control in the hands of the
Governor-General), and so he could never get the consent of the two
Filipino members (the Senate president and the House Speaker) to get
the government of business.
There are two fundamental reasons advanced by Wood for getting the
government out of the business: First, that the Philippines treasury
needed the money invested in the business enterprises to spend it for
the greater benefit of the public; and second, that governments were
not qualified, in any nation of the world to conduct business or engage
in any industries which would compete with private initiative.
LEONARD WOOD: IN RETROSPECT
Leonard Wood's tenure as Governor-General of the Philippines was
marked by deadlock and political strife with the politicos lead by
Quezon openly challenging the authority of the American
representative in Manila. The friction grew out of the governor's
program to restore American supervision and control, particularly with
respect to the functions of the Legislature. But there were some who
though it was greatly exacerbated by the clash between the personal
ambitions of the Filipino political leaders and Wood's desire to
exercise what he saw as "The inherent rights of the Governor-General"
and because the contest was hopelessly enmeshed in the consuming
emotional issue of independence, the political rancor was fanned by
distrust and prejudice.
Any Governor-General who was sent to the Philippines after Harrison
probably would have found the Filipino leaders particularly difficult to
handle, unless he went as far Harrison did in allowing the Filipinos a
generous share in the direction of their affairs. Wood was of a different
mind he was convinced that the Filipinos had taken an enormous
stride backward during the Harrison Administration. He found the
Philippine government bogged down in a major financial crisis and
riddled with inefficiency, graft and nepotism. He, therefore, saw it as
his responsibility to reform the "critical situation" and restore the
country to an efficient and orderly government worthy of American
sponsorship. He probably had the right prescription for the Philippines
honesty in government and a tight administration but his approach
was hardly the most effective one. Contentious and imperial, he
showed little consideration for the sensitive feelings of the Filipinos,
for whom self-esteem, personal honor and that incomprehensible ( to
the Westerner ) worship of "face" were important matters.
COMPLETE TEXT OF "FILIPINO GRIEVANCES AGAINST GOVERNOR
WOOD"
The text that is presented below has been taken from Gregorio F. Zaide and Sonia Zaide’s Documentary Sources of
Philippine History.

The document was originally published as Appendix of Maximo M. Kalaw’s Philippine Government under the Jones
Law.

More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the Philippines came under the
American flag- an emblem of freedom, not of subjugation; a symbol of altruism, not of
selfishness or greed. American sovereignty was implanted in our country with the
avowed purpose of training in us in the art of self-government and granting us
independence. Our good, not her gain was to be America’s aim. Our country was
committed to her in trust to be conserved and developed for the benefit of our people.
Believing in the sincerity of America’s purpose, the Filipinos applied themselves to the
task of meeting the conditions exacted of them, anxiously awaiting the day when
America would honor her promise. The first twenty years of civil government were
marked by mutual understanding and loyal cooperation between American and
Filipinos. At the end of that period, when it seemed that the goal had finally been
reached, after the President of the United States had advised the Congress that the
time had come for America to fulfill her sacred pledge, Major-General Leonard Wood
was sent to the Philippines as Governor-General. Cognizant of the part taken by General
Wood in the liberation of Cuba, the Filipino people expected that under his
administration the spirit of cooperation would be maintained and that the work of
political emancipation would be complete. Contrary, however, to our expectations, his
conduct of government has been characterized by a train of usurpations and arbitrary
acts, resulting in the curtailment of our autonomy, the destruction of our constitutional
system, and the reversal of America’s Philippine policy.
This line of conduct recently culminated in the issuance of Executive Order No. 37, by
which he has attempted to nullify laws creating the Board of Control and assumed
functions of the body. The gravity of this last step is more evident when we recall the
series of usurpations theretofore committed by him.
He has refused to assent to laws which were the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.
He has set at naught both the legal authority and responsibility for the Philippine heads
of departments.
He has substituted his constitutional advisers for a group of military attaches without
legal standing in the government and not responsible for the people.
He has reversed the policy of Filipinizing the service of the government by appointing
Americans even when Filipinos of proven capacity were available.
He has obstructed the carrying out of national economic policies duly adopted by the
Legislature, merely because they are in conflict with his personal views.
He rendered merely perfunctory the power of the Legislature to pass the annual
appropriation law by reviving items in the law of the preceding year, after vetoing the
correspondent items of the current appropriation act, in flagrant violation of the
Organic Law.
He has made appointments to positions and authorized the payment of salaries
therefore after having vetoed the appropriations for such salaries.
He has used certain public funds to grant additional compensation to public officials in
clear violation of the law.
He has arrogated upon himself the right of exercising the powers granted by law to the
Emergency Board after abolishing said board on the ground that its powers involved an
unlawful delegation of legislative authority.
He has unduly interfered in the administration of justice.
He has refused to obtain the advice of the Senate in making appointments where such
advice is required by the Organic Act.
He has refused to submit the Senate appointment for vacancies occurring during the
recess of the Legislature in contravention of the Organic Act.
He has continued in office nominees whose appointments had been rejected by the
Senate.
He has usurped legislative powers by imposing conditions on legislative measure
approved by him.
He has, in the administration of affairs in Mindanao, brought about a condition which
has given rise to discord and dissension between certain groups of Christian and
Mohammedan Filipinos.
He has by his policies strained relations between resident Americans and Filipinos.
He has endeavored, on the pretext of getting the government out of business, to
dispose of all the companies capitalized by the government worth many millions of the
people’s money to powerful American interests.
He has sanctioned the campaign of insidious propaganda in the United States against
the Filipino people and their aspirations.
He has attempted to close the Philippine National Bank so necessary to the economic
development of the country.
He has adopted the practice of intervening in, and controlling directly, to its minute
details, the affairs of the Philippine Government, both insular and local, in violation of
self-government.
He has insistently sought the amendment of our land laws approved by the Congress of
the United States, which amendment would open up the resources of the country to
exploitation by predatory interests.
Not content with these and other arbitrary acts, the Governor-General has recently
promulgated Executive Order No. 37, declaring that the laws creating and defining the
powers of Board of Control which is authorized to vote the stocks owned by the
government in certain private corporations, are absolute nullities. In the same order the
Governor-General also announced his purpose to exercise solely and by himself the
powers and duties developing upon said board. This executive order is purported to be
based upon an opinion rendered by the Judge Advocate General of the United States
Army and the conformatory opinion of the Acting Advocate General on November 7.
Despite this fact, he has found it convenient to withhold the publication of his order
until November 10, a few hours after the Legislation had adjourned, thus depriving the
Legislature of an opportunity to consider the matter.
The laws creating and defining the powers of the Board of Control have been in force
and acted upon by the present Governor-General and other officers of the government
for a number of years, and they have neither been repealed by the Legislature,
annulled by Congress, nor declared unconstitutional by the courts. To hold that the
Governor-General by a mere executive order can set them aside, is to subvert the
whole system of constitutional government and destroy the theory of separation of
powers which the Governor-General has always been so intent in upholding.
In the face of this critical situation, we, the constitutional representatives of the Filipino
people, met to deliberate upon the present difficulties existing in the Government of the
Philippine Islands and to determine how best to preserve the supremacy and majesty of
the laws and to safeguard the rights and liberties of our people, having faith in the
sense of justice of the people of the United States and inspired by her patriotic example
in the early days of her history, do hereby, in our behalf and in the name of the Filipino
people, solemnly and publicly make known our most vigorous protest against the
arbitrary acts and usurpations of the present Governor General of the Philippine Islands,
particularly against Executive Order No. 37.
The consciousness of our sacred and inescapable duty to our country and our sense of
loyalty to the people of the United States constrain us to denounce the foregoing acts
of the present Governor-General as arbitrary, oppressive and undemocratic. We appeal
to the judgment and conscience of the American people in justification of our stand and
for the vindication of our rights.

Corazon Aquino Speech before the US

Congress (September 18, 1986)
Introduction:
When former President Corazon Aquino spoke before a joint session of
the United States Congress in September of 1986, the dust was only
beginning to settle. It was her first visit to America since the dictator
Ferdinand Marcos had been deposed in February of the same year, and
the Philippines was reckoning with everything his administration had
inflicted. That included $26 billion in total foreign debt, and a
communist insurgency that grew, throughout the Marcos era, from 500
armed guerillas to 16,000. We were just at the start of a long road to
recovery.
So Aquino lodged an appeal for help. Addressing the House, she
delivered a historic speech that managed to sway in our favor the vote
for an emergency $200-million aid appropriation. In the moving speech
penned by her speechwriter (and our current ambassador to the United
Nations) Teddy Locsin, Jr., Aquino defended her reconciliatory stand
on the communist insurgency—a sensitive issue in the U.S., given that
this was 1986—and asked for financial aid towards rebuilding the
Philippine economy.
"We fought for honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay," she said,
agreeing to pay the debt that was stolen by Marcos. "And yet, should
we have to wring the payments from the sweat of our men’s faces and
sink all the wealth piled up by the bondsman’s two hundred fifty years
of unrequited toil?"
The speech was impassioned, deeply personal, and effective;
interrupted 11 times by applause and bookended with standing
ovations. House Speaker Tip O'Neill called it the "finest speech I've
ever heard in my 34 years in Congress." Senate Majority Leader Robert
Dole told her, "Cory, you hit a home run." And House Minority Whip
Trent Lott said, "Let's just say the emotion of the moment saved the
day." It would go down in the annals of our history as one of the former
President's finest speeches.
FULL Speech of President Corazon Aquino during the Joint Session of
the U.S. Congress, September 18, 1986
TRANSCRIPT:
Speech
of
Her Excellency Corazon C. Aquino
President of the Philippines
During the Joint Session of the United States Congress
[Delivered at Washington, D.C., on September 18, 1986]
Three years ago, I left America in grief to bury my husband, Ninoy Aquino. I thought I
had left it also to lay to rest his restless dream of Philippine freedom. Today, I have
returned as the president of a free people.
In burying Ninoy, a whole nation honored him. By that brave and selfless act of giving
honor, a nation in shame recovered its own. A country that had lost faith in its future
found it in a faithless and brazen act of murder. So in giving, we receive, in losing we
find, and out of defeat, we snatched our victory.
For the nation, Ninoy became the pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers for
freedom. For myself and our children, Ninoy was a loving husband and father. His loss,
three times in our lives, was always a deep and painful one.
Fourteen years ago this month was the first time we lost him. A president-turned-
dictator, and traitor to his oath, suspended the Constitution and shut down the
Congress that was much like this one before which I am honored to speak. He detained
my husband along with thousands of others – senators, publishers and anyone who had
spoken up for the democracy as its end drew near. But for Ninoy, a long and cruel
ordeal was reserved. The dictator already knew that Ninoy was not a body merely to be
imprisoned but a spirit he must break. For even as the dictatorship demolished one by
one the institutions of democracy – the press, the Congress, the independence of the
judiciary, the protection of the Bill of Rights – Ninoy kept their spirit alive in himself.
The government sought to break him by indignities and terror. They locked him up in a
tiny, nearly airless cell in a military camp in the north. They stripped him naked and
held the threat of sudden midnight execution over his head. Ninoy held up manfully–all
of it. I barely did as well. For 43 days, the authorities would not tell me what had
happened to him. This was the first time my children and I felt we had lost him.
When that didn’t work, they put him on trial for subversion, murder and a host of other
crimes before a military commission. Ninoy challenged its authority and went on a fast.
If he survived it, then, he felt, God intended him for another fate. We had lost him
again. For nothing would hold him back from his determination to see his fast through
to the end. He stopped only when it dawned on him that the government would keep
his body alive after the fast had destroyed his brain. And so, with barely any life in his
body, he called off the fast on the fortieth day. God meant him for other things, he felt.
He did not know that an early death would still be his fate, that only the timing was
wrong.
At any time during his long ordeal, Ninoy could have made a separate peace with the
dictatorship, as so many of his countrymen had done. But the spirit of democracy that
inheres in our race and animates this chamber could not be allowed to die. He held out,
in the loneliness of his cell and the frustration of exile, the democratic alternative to the
insatiable greed and mindless cruelty of the right and the purging holocaust of the left.
And then, we lost him, irrevocably and more painfully than in the past. The news came
to us in Boston. It had to be after the three happiest years of our lives together. But his
death was my country’s resurrection in the courage and faith by which alone they could
be free again. The dictator had called him a nobody. Two million people threw aside
their passivity and escorted him to his grave. And so began the revolution that has
brought me to democracy’s most famous home, the Congress of the United States.
The task had fallen on my shoulders to continue offering the democratic alternative to
our people.
Archibald Macleish had said that democracy must be defended by arms when it is
attacked by arms and by truth when it is attacked by lies. He failed to say how it shall
be won.
I held fast to Ninoy’s conviction that it must be by the ways of democracy. I held out
for participation in the 1984 election the dictatorship called, even if I knew it would be
rigged. I was warned by the lawyers of the opposition that I ran the grave risk of
legitimizing the foregone results of elections that were clearly going to be fraudulent.
But I was not fighting for lawyers but for the people in whose intelligence I had implicit
faith. By the exercise of democracy, even in a dictatorship, they would be prepared for
democracy when it came. And then, also, it was the only way I knew by which we could
measure our power even in the terms dictated by the dictatorship.
The people vindicated me in an election shamefully marked by government thuggery
and fraud. The opposition swept the elections, garnering a clear majority of the votes,
even if they ended up, thanks to a corrupt Commission on Elections, with barely a third
of the seats in parliament. Now, I knew our power.
Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called for its doom in a snap
election. The people obliged. With over a million signatures, they drafted me to
challenge the dictatorship. And I obliged them. The rest is the history that dramatically
unfolded on your television screen and across the front pages of your newspapers.
You saw a nation, armed with courage and integrity, stand fast by democracy against
threats and corruption. You saw women poll watchers break out in tears as armed
goons crashed the polling places to steal the ballots but, just the same, they tied
themselves to the ballot boxes. You saw a people so committed to the ways of
democracy that they were prepared to give their lives for its pale imitation. At the end
of the day, before another wave of fraud could distort the results, I announced the
people’s victory.
The distinguished co-chairman of the United States observer team in his report to your
President described that victory:
“I was witness to an extraordinary manifestation of democracy on the part of the
Filipino people. The ultimate result was the election of Mrs. Corazon C. Aquino as
President and Mr. Salvador Laurel as Vice-President of the Philippines.”
Many of you here today played a part in changing the policy of your country towards
us. We, Filipinos, thank each of you for what you did: for, balancing America’s strategic
interest against human concerns, illuminates the American vision of the world.
When a subservient parliament announced my opponent’s victory, the people turned
out in the streets and proclaimed me President. And true to their word, when a handful
of military leaders declared themselves against the dictatorship, the people rallied to
their protection. Surely, the people take care of their own. It is on that faith and the
obligation it entails, that I assumed the presidency.
As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. That is my contract with my people
and my commitment to God. He had willed that the blood drawn with the lash shall not,
in my country, be paid by blood drawn by the sword but by the tearful joy of
reconciliation.
We have swept away absolute power by a limited revolution that respected the life and
freedom of every Filipino. Now, we are restoring full constitutional government. Again,
as we restored democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the
constitutional structures of our new democracy under a constitution that already gives
full respect to the Bill of Rights. A jealously independent Constitutional Commission is
completing its draft which will be submitted later this year to a popular referendum.
When it is approved, there will be congressional elections. So within about a year from
a peaceful but national upheaval that overturned a dictatorship, we shall have returned
to full constitutional government. Given the polarization and breakdown we inherited,
this is no small achievement.
My predecessor set aside democracy to save it from a communist insurgency that
numbered less than 500. Unhampered by respect for human rights, he went at it
hammer and tongs. By the time he fled, that insurgency had grown to more than
16,000. I think there is a lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a thing with
the means by which it grows.
I don’t think anybody, in or outside our country, concerned for a democratic and open
Philippines, doubts what must be done. Through political initiatives and local
reintegration programs, we must seek to bring the insurgents down from the hills and,
by economic progress and justice, show them that for which the best intentioned
among them fight.
As President, I will not betray the cause of peace by which I came to power. Yet
equally, and again no friend of Filipino democracy will challenge this, I will not stand by
and allow an insurgent leadership to spurn our offer of peace and kill our young
soldiers, and threaten our new freedom.
Yet, I must explore the path of peace to the utmost for at its end, whatever
disappointment I meet there, is the moral basis for laying down the olive branch of
peace and taking up the sword of war. Still, should it come to that, I will not waver
from the course laid down by your great liberator: “With malice towards none, with
charity for all, with firmness in the rights as God gives us to see the rights, let us finish
the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphans, to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Like Lincoln, I understand that force may be necessary before mercy. Like Lincoln, I
don’t relish it. Yet, I will do whatever it takes to defend the integrity and freedom of my
country.
Finally, may I turn to that other slavery: our $26 billion foreign debt. I have said that
we shall honor it. Yet must the means by which we shall be able to do so be kept from
us? Many conditions imposed on the previous government that stole this debt continue
to be imposed on us who never benefited from it. And no assistance or liberality
commensurate with the calamity that was visited on us has been extended. Yet ours
must have been the cheapest revolution ever. With little help from others, we Filipinos
fulfilled the first and most difficult conditions of the debt negotiation the full restoration
of democracy and responsible government. Elsewhere, and in other times of more
stringent world economic conditions, Marshall plans and their like were felt to be
necessary companions of returning democracy.
When I met with President Reagan yesterday, we began an important dialogue about
cooperation and the strengthening of the friendship between our two countries. That
meeting was both a confirmation and a new beginning and should lead to positive
results in all areas of common concern.
Today, we face the aspirations of a people who had known so much poverty and
massive unemployment for the past 14 years and yet offered their lives for the
abstraction of democracy. Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area or impoverished
village, they came to me with one cry: democracy! Not food, although they clearly
needed it, but democracy. Not work, although they surely wanted it, but democracy.
Not money, for they gave what little they had to my campaign. They didn’t expect me
to work a miracle that would instantly put food into their mouths, clothes on their back,
education in their children, and work that will put dignity in their lives. But I feel the
pressing obligation to respond quickly as the leader of a people so deserving of all these
things.
We face a communist insurgency that feeds on economic deterioration, even as we
carry a great share of the free world defenses in the Pacific. These are only two of the
many burdens my people carry even as they try to build a worthy and enduring house
for their new democracy, that may serve as well as a redoubt for freedom in Asia. Yet,
no sooner is one stone laid than two are taken away. Half our export earnings, $2
billion out of $4 billion, which was all we could earn in the restrictive markets of the
world, went to pay just the interest on a debt whose benefit the Filipino people never
received.
Still, we fought for honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay. And yet, should we have
to wring the payments from the sweat of our men’s faces and sink all the wealth piled
up by the bondsman’s two hundred fifty years of unrequited toil?
Yet to all Americans, as the leader of a proud and free people, I address this question:
has there been a greater test of national commitment to the ideals you hold dear than
that my people have gone through? You have spent many lives and much treasure to
bring freedom to many lands that were reluctant to receive it. And here you have a
people who won it by themselves and need only the help to preserve it.
Three years ago, I said thank you, America, for the haven from oppression, and the
home you gave Ninoy, myself and our children, and for the three happiest years of our
lives together. Today, I say, join us, America, as we build a new home for democracy,
another haven for the oppressed, so it may stand as a shining testament of our two
nation’s commitment to freedom.