Reposted from the Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:02:00 05/15/2009
There are two death anniversaries falling this week that often go unnoticed. May 10 marks the death, in 1897, of Andres Bonifacio, and May 13 marks the death, in 1903, of Apolinario Mabini.
The Supremo of the Katipunan was executed somewhere in the Maragondon range, and his remains have never been found. Bones were exhumed there in 1918, but I believe those were fake.
The brains of the Revolution died of cholera in his brother´s home in Nagtahan which was recently relocated, we hope for the last time, to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Mabini campus in Manila by the banks of the Pasig River.
Our textbooks are understandably vague regarding the death of Bonifacio because it is very difficult to explain politics and power struggle to children who then grow up thinking Emilio Aguinaldo had Bonifacio killed.
In a nutshell, a revolutionary government was born from the Katipunan in what is known as the Tejeros Convention. Bonifacio did not agree, and so we had two governments. He was captured, tried for treason, found guilty and sentenced to death. Aguinaldo hesitated and considered commuting the sentence, but was convinced by one of Bonifacio´s men, Artemio Ricarte, to proceed with the execution. This is one of the problem areas of textbook history.
Unlike Rizal who was technically killed by "the enemy," Bonifacio was killed by fellow Filipinos. Like many in the French Revolution he read about, Bonifacio was a victim of the very revolution he started.
Discussion on this is endless, and it will fill many more May 10 columns in the future. Today I reproduce Lazaro Makapagal´s eyewitness account of the execution of the Bonifacio brothers published in the Dec. 1, 1928 issue of the Philippines Free Press. This is supposed to be an English translation of a Tagalog document then preserved in the archives of the Veteranos de la Revolucion.
"I received orders from General Mariano Noriel to take over Andres Bonifacio and Procopio Bonifacio, from the place where they were detained, and to conduct them to the hill of Tala in Maragondong, Cavite. General Noriel handed to me at the same time a sealed package with orders that it be not opened until we reached the place I mentioned. I was charged to follow to the letter, the instructions contained within the package.
"In compliance with these orders, I took with me the two brothers to the place mentioned, together with four soldiers under my command. On the road we conversed like friends. But I already had a presentiment of the order contained within the parcel.
"On reaching Tala hill in Maragondong, I opened the order, read it, and then let the brothers read it. It was an order for the execution of the brothers. The two brothers were terror stricken; Andres told me in Tagalog, `Patawarin ninyo ako, kapatid.´ (Brother, forgive me.) I answered that I was very sorry, but by military discipline I had to carry out the unhappy task.
"I conducted Procopio, who was stronger, to a wooded place, and on reaching the top of the hill, I ordered one of the soldiers to shoot him in the back. This done, I and the soldiers, using bayonets and bolos, dug a pit where we buried Procopio.
"When I approached the place where Andres was, he said, `Patay na kapatid ko.´ (My brother is dead.) And he added, `Patawarin ninyo ako, kapatid.´ I replied that I was sorry, but it was my military duty to follow the order.
"Andres Bonifacio tried to escape, but he could not go far because of the thick shrubbery around. One of the soldiers reached him, firing at him from behind and shooting him in the back. After digging one more grave with our bayonets and bolos, we buried Andres in it.
"Procopio and Andres were not taken to Tala hill bound but free. Andres had only one wound, in one of his arms. From the hill where Procopio was buried to the grave of Andres, on a hill slope facing a rivulet, there were only twenty-five steps, while from Andres´ grave to the brook the distance was about five brazas.
"The brothers were buried in the morning. This was before the fighting with the Spaniards took place, when they captured Maragondong.
"Andres wore a white camisa de chino on the day of his execution. The gun used was a Remington. The four soldiers who accompanied us were natives of Kawit, and they are all dead. I am the only survivor of the occurrence."
A year later, Makapagal gave a more detailed account of the execution in a letter to Jose P. Santos. This version states that Bonifacio begged for his life on his knees (which many people do not wish to accept then as now).
Ricarte, in his memoirs, made a mistake in giving the names of the executioners. He went on to suggest that Aguinaldo had the Bonifacio brothers executed because they were his rivals, conveniently leaving out the detail that it was he who had argued for their execution when Aguinaldo considered exile.
Most of the time history is difficult because of the lack of sources, but a greater challenge faces those who have to sift through and validate more than one, sometimes conflicting, sources. There is a landscaped shrine in the Maragondon execution site today, but until we have located Bonifacio´s remains and laid them to rest, we may never resolve the issue of his death.
---------------------
Related posts:
What did Bonifacio look like? Question stalls statue By Marlon Ramos
Inquirer First Posted 01:45:00 12/02/2007
Looking Back: Searching for Andres Bonifacio By Ambeth Ocampo
Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 02:48:00 11/28/2008
Wish you were here: Monday, August 21, 2006
BONIFACIO AND THE CRY OF BALINTAWAK by Senor Enrique
Autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus Translated and Annotated by Leandro H. Fernandez
See Gregoria's account of the events prior to Andres Bonifacio's execution, appendix 6.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Unoccupied Colony by Ben Kritz
Filipinos are very proud of their labor overseas. And in one small respect they should be, because they are good at it. They are a clever and hardworking people, and adapt easily to different cultures. But on the other hand, they are entirely missing the concept of how much harm they are doing themselves and their country by exporting their best and most abundant natural resource at bargain prices.
The people who fiercely champion the OFW invariably point out the well-known successes, the few who do make a mark in other parts of the world. Filipinos, they say, are respected for their talents in the medical field, they are world-class entertainers, and in recent years, no discussion of the subject can truly be complete without mention of what good boxers and pool players they are. But for every Filipino medical school graduate who becomes a respected doctor in another country, then are a thousand more who settle for being nurses or lab technicians. For every Lea Salonga, there are ten thousand wannabes who titillate horny middle-aged businessmen in bars from Tokyo to Toronto.
Filipinos are a race of servants, as even I can attest from my own former career in the automotive industry. In a dealership I worked in, the West Coast flagship for a major European manufacturer in the heart of downtown San Francisco, the longest-serving and most fiercely loyal employees were the Filipinos, including one man in my own department. He was a college graduate, as were most of his countrymen in that place. They were well-liked, they were appreciated, but not one of them was in charge of anything. Those positions were the exclusive province of us natives.
The Filipinos were like beloved dogs; cared for and treated as members of the family, but not entrusted with anything more important than fetching the paper or keeping the squirrels out of the yard, no matter what their education or experience might have entitled them to. The few Filipinos who do excel in professional pursuits overseas and attain positions of influence and importance are applauded and respected, even by their host countries. To their compatriots back home, they are applauded and respected because they are Filipino. But to the rest of the world, they are applauded and respected because they achieved something in spite of it.
Still, most Filipinos believe the potential indignities of being an OFW are more than worth it, if it means a better life for their families back home. So what happens to their hard-earned dollars or euros or pounds that they send back to their families? Here is an example:
A family that lives across the street from me consists of middle-aged mom, two sons in their 20's, a similarly-aged female cousin from the province who serves as a maid, an elementary-aged boy belonging to one of the sons, and an infant boy belonging to the other. Both young men have wives who are working as "domestic helpers" (the currently-acceptable PC euphemism for "servants") in Hong Kong, and whose incomes support the household. While their wives earn the keep for the entire family, the men leave child-rearing and domestic chores to mom and the maid, and spend their time and their spouses' money on customized scooters, the latest Filipinegro wardrobe must-haves, nightly gin sessions, and a string of girlfriends each. This goes on for about three weeks of each month, when the money runs out and life takes a decidedly spartan turn for a few days, until the next remittance arrives.
Ask them what they do for work, and the brothers, without a hint of shame, will explain that their wives work overseas. For all the patriarchal machismo of the culture they are a part of, there is no concept of responsibility. And the marketability of OFW's eliminates any incentive -- or short-term necessity -- for them to do anything other than what they are doing. Ask them what they will do when their wives come home, and they just shrug. After thinking about it for a while, one brother offers that he will probably buy a tricycle. How's that for hitching one's wagon to a star? More like hitching it to a mole.
Besides the disastrous effect the OFW phenomenon has on families, it has another even more calamitous economic impact that so far nobody here seems to grasp. The more foreign currency OFW's send to the Philippines, the more the value of the peso becomes inflated. In other words, the number of pesos exchanged for a dollar or a yen or a euro becomes less as the supply of foreign currency increases. Consumer prices change very little, if at all, to reflect the currency revaluation. A liter of milk that cost PhP 50 three years ago still costs PhP 50, but the peso in that time has gone from 56 to the dollar to 45, so in essence the price of the milk purchased with OFW remittances has gone up by about 22%. Even if the OFW, in the U.S. for example, receives an annual cost-of-living increase in his wages of 2 or 3%, which is a relatively common pattern, the Filipino families back home are still taking a double-digit pay cut. So it becomes harder to make ends meet from month-to-month, let alone save up for that entrepreneurial dream of a corner store or one's own jeepney.
The OFW phenomenon is already a social and economic disaster for the Philippines. How long it will take for it to be irreparably catastrophic will be determined by the will of the government to concentrate on initiatives and structures that use all this human raw material in a productive way at its source, rather than selling it overseas; and it will be determined by the people being made to understand that the easy way out of their economic misery is actually the easy way into an even deeper abyss. Filipinos, so proud of having thrown off the yoke of colonialism, have only succeeded in reinventing it, with that famous "Filipino ingenuity" they have -- now the colonists don't have to actually show up to pillage the country's resources, they can do it by mail order.
Reposted from Get Real Philippines, 23 Oct 2007
The people who fiercely champion the OFW invariably point out the well-known successes, the few who do make a mark in other parts of the world. Filipinos, they say, are respected for their talents in the medical field, they are world-class entertainers, and in recent years, no discussion of the subject can truly be complete without mention of what good boxers and pool players they are. But for every Filipino medical school graduate who becomes a respected doctor in another country, then are a thousand more who settle for being nurses or lab technicians. For every Lea Salonga, there are ten thousand wannabes who titillate horny middle-aged businessmen in bars from Tokyo to Toronto.
Filipinos are a race of servants, as even I can attest from my own former career in the automotive industry. In a dealership I worked in, the West Coast flagship for a major European manufacturer in the heart of downtown San Francisco, the longest-serving and most fiercely loyal employees were the Filipinos, including one man in my own department. He was a college graduate, as were most of his countrymen in that place. They were well-liked, they were appreciated, but not one of them was in charge of anything. Those positions were the exclusive province of us natives.
The Filipinos were like beloved dogs; cared for and treated as members of the family, but not entrusted with anything more important than fetching the paper or keeping the squirrels out of the yard, no matter what their education or experience might have entitled them to. The few Filipinos who do excel in professional pursuits overseas and attain positions of influence and importance are applauded and respected, even by their host countries. To their compatriots back home, they are applauded and respected because they are Filipino. But to the rest of the world, they are applauded and respected because they achieved something in spite of it.
Still, most Filipinos believe the potential indignities of being an OFW are more than worth it, if it means a better life for their families back home. So what happens to their hard-earned dollars or euros or pounds that they send back to their families? Here is an example:
A family that lives across the street from me consists of middle-aged mom, two sons in their 20's, a similarly-aged female cousin from the province who serves as a maid, an elementary-aged boy belonging to one of the sons, and an infant boy belonging to the other. Both young men have wives who are working as "domestic helpers" (the currently-acceptable PC euphemism for "servants") in Hong Kong, and whose incomes support the household. While their wives earn the keep for the entire family, the men leave child-rearing and domestic chores to mom and the maid, and spend their time and their spouses' money on customized scooters, the latest Filipinegro wardrobe must-haves, nightly gin sessions, and a string of girlfriends each. This goes on for about three weeks of each month, when the money runs out and life takes a decidedly spartan turn for a few days, until the next remittance arrives.
Ask them what they do for work, and the brothers, without a hint of shame, will explain that their wives work overseas. For all the patriarchal machismo of the culture they are a part of, there is no concept of responsibility. And the marketability of OFW's eliminates any incentive -- or short-term necessity -- for them to do anything other than what they are doing. Ask them what they will do when their wives come home, and they just shrug. After thinking about it for a while, one brother offers that he will probably buy a tricycle. How's that for hitching one's wagon to a star? More like hitching it to a mole.
Besides the disastrous effect the OFW phenomenon has on families, it has another even more calamitous economic impact that so far nobody here seems to grasp. The more foreign currency OFW's send to the Philippines, the more the value of the peso becomes inflated. In other words, the number of pesos exchanged for a dollar or a yen or a euro becomes less as the supply of foreign currency increases. Consumer prices change very little, if at all, to reflect the currency revaluation. A liter of milk that cost PhP 50 three years ago still costs PhP 50, but the peso in that time has gone from 56 to the dollar to 45, so in essence the price of the milk purchased with OFW remittances has gone up by about 22%. Even if the OFW, in the U.S. for example, receives an annual cost-of-living increase in his wages of 2 or 3%, which is a relatively common pattern, the Filipino families back home are still taking a double-digit pay cut. So it becomes harder to make ends meet from month-to-month, let alone save up for that entrepreneurial dream of a corner store or one's own jeepney.
The OFW phenomenon is already a social and economic disaster for the Philippines. How long it will take for it to be irreparably catastrophic will be determined by the will of the government to concentrate on initiatives and structures that use all this human raw material in a productive way at its source, rather than selling it overseas; and it will be determined by the people being made to understand that the easy way out of their economic misery is actually the easy way into an even deeper abyss. Filipinos, so proud of having thrown off the yoke of colonialism, have only succeeded in reinventing it, with that famous "Filipino ingenuity" they have -- now the colonists don't have to actually show up to pillage the country's resources, they can do it by mail order.
Reposted from Get Real Philippines, 23 Oct 2007
Friday, May 8, 2009
Alleged DepEd noodle scam stirs House to action
Friday, May 01, 2009
By Jomar Canlas, Reporter [Source: Manila Times on the net]
THE House Committee on Good Government was urged to investigate the alleged overpricing and anomalous purchase of instant noodles that the Department of Education distributed for its feeding program in schools.
Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño authored House Resolution 1126, which directs the House body to probe the alleged irregularities in the procurement of instant noodles in line with DepEd’s feeding program.
Casiño said the DepEd recently awarded to Jeverps Manufacturing Corp. the contract for 19,418,880 packs of instant noodles costing P22.00 per pack as part of its “Malusog na Simula, Yaman ng Bansa” feeding program.
“It is ironic and deplorable that such a project intended to augment our public school children’s nutritional requirements is apparently feeding the greed of DepEd officials and their favored suppliers,” he said.
In 2008, the DepEd reportedly procured from Jeverps 15 million packs of instant noodles costing P284 million, where each pack of instant noodles was already allegedly overpriced at P18.00.
The party-list lawmaker said the apparent overpricing and the alleged non-conformity of Jeverps’ products to the package description specified by the DepEd casts serious doubt on its procurement procedures.
“The noodles scam shows tell-tale signs of graft and corruption and plunder implicating administration officials,” Casiño said.
Laboratory tests allegedly made by experts from Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea showed that the noodles had neither egg nor malunggay contents—contrary to Jeverps’ claim that the products contained both ingredients.
For its part, the DepEd on Thursday said that it is willing to review the controversial multi-million-peso purchase of “fortified noodles” for the school feeding program if there is such a need.
“We have nothing to hide,” said Education Secretary Jesli Lapus in Filipino.
Lapus stood his ground over the legality of the purchase, insisting that the project was above-board and had gone through the process required by the Government Procurement Act.
Lapus aired the statement a day after DepEd officials led by Undersecretary Teodosio Sangil Jr., and Assistant Secretary for Special projects, Thelma Santos, appeared before the Senate committees that are conducting an investigation on the issue.
Sangil was the chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) that initiated the bidding won in February by Jeverps.
The DepEd officials stood by the department earlier position that their was no irregularity in the P427-million project despite the fact that Jeverps has won the contract in the last five years netting for the company some P750 million.
They also said that even if Jeverps was the lone bidder for the project, there was no irregularity when the BAC awarded the contract.
--With James Konstantin Galvez
------------------------
DepEd officials said they have nothing to hide and so should the House investigate any unaccounted wealth DepEd officials might have. If the House wanted to investigate and prosecute, it is easy enought to see the money trail, if any; and prosecute to the full extent of the law those government and private officials with a hand in this deplorable scam.
By Jomar Canlas, Reporter [Source: Manila Times on the net]
THE House Committee on Good Government was urged to investigate the alleged overpricing and anomalous purchase of instant noodles that the Department of Education distributed for its feeding program in schools.
Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño authored House Resolution 1126, which directs the House body to probe the alleged irregularities in the procurement of instant noodles in line with DepEd’s feeding program.
Casiño said the DepEd recently awarded to Jeverps Manufacturing Corp. the contract for 19,418,880 packs of instant noodles costing P22.00 per pack as part of its “Malusog na Simula, Yaman ng Bansa” feeding program.
“It is ironic and deplorable that such a project intended to augment our public school children’s nutritional requirements is apparently feeding the greed of DepEd officials and their favored suppliers,” he said.
In 2008, the DepEd reportedly procured from Jeverps 15 million packs of instant noodles costing P284 million, where each pack of instant noodles was already allegedly overpriced at P18.00.
The party-list lawmaker said the apparent overpricing and the alleged non-conformity of Jeverps’ products to the package description specified by the DepEd casts serious doubt on its procurement procedures.
“The noodles scam shows tell-tale signs of graft and corruption and plunder implicating administration officials,” Casiño said.
Laboratory tests allegedly made by experts from Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea showed that the noodles had neither egg nor malunggay contents—contrary to Jeverps’ claim that the products contained both ingredients.
For its part, the DepEd on Thursday said that it is willing to review the controversial multi-million-peso purchase of “fortified noodles” for the school feeding program if there is such a need.
“We have nothing to hide,” said Education Secretary Jesli Lapus in Filipino.
Lapus stood his ground over the legality of the purchase, insisting that the project was above-board and had gone through the process required by the Government Procurement Act.
Lapus aired the statement a day after DepEd officials led by Undersecretary Teodosio Sangil Jr., and Assistant Secretary for Special projects, Thelma Santos, appeared before the Senate committees that are conducting an investigation on the issue.
Sangil was the chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) that initiated the bidding won in February by Jeverps.
The DepEd officials stood by the department earlier position that their was no irregularity in the P427-million project despite the fact that Jeverps has won the contract in the last five years netting for the company some P750 million.
They also said that even if Jeverps was the lone bidder for the project, there was no irregularity when the BAC awarded the contract.
--With James Konstantin Galvez
------------------------
DepEd officials said they have nothing to hide and so should the House investigate any unaccounted wealth DepEd officials might have. If the House wanted to investigate and prosecute, it is easy enought to see the money trail, if any; and prosecute to the full extent of the law those government and private officials with a hand in this deplorable scam.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
I have no doubt... by Ariel O Querubin
Col Ariel O Querubin, on right with Mr Gustav Joseph O. Bocek [green shirt] on a recent visit to Col Querubin at his detention at Camp Aguinaldo.I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord has all the while been preparing me for public service .
I was left for dead in 1989, and He allowed me to spring back to life.
I have been imprisoned as a soldier, but I fully regained the honor and right to wear a soldier´s uniform after having been awarded the Medal of Valor in 2001.
As my military career was very much back on track, I was again challenged to choose between right and wrong, between honor and injustice, between good and evil. Even as we all work for a vibrant and prosperous Philippines, my dream is for every Filipino to enjoy the essence of freedom from poverty, fear, and injustice; to feel the tangible benefits of good governance, and to live comfortably in a society that fosters the unity of the family, respects human rights, and upholds the dignity of all.
I have not had an easy life.
My life story has been replete with vivid encounters and painful experiences that have shaped this dream. I am fully aware that some people would insist that men in uniform should stay away from politics; that we would serve best our nation if we were fighting wars in Mindanao; that we have no business in meddling with the affairs of the state as we have been formed and trained in the rudiments of war, and not in the civil service, much less in politics.
I agree - but that assumes that the people who have been entrusted with the public trust have been sincere, honest, and have been true to their pledges. As a young soldier, armed with idealism and the fire of youth, I have offered my life to defend this country from ALL its enemies.
I have suffered long and hard for the principles that I hold dearly. Many of my loved ones have suffered with me - maybe not physically, but certainly have shared in the misery and hardships that I have endured. The fire of idealism still burns in me, but I have been wiser not to engage fire with fire.
I am running for the senate in 2010. I have no political pedigree. I have no political machinery. I have no financial resources. But I do have honor. I do have principles. I do have courage. I believe I am ready to take on this new role, with your support this dream is not too farfetched.
It takes the collective effort of every member of this society to make things improve for a country in disarray... a country that has been plundered... a country whose hope is running dry... All I can do, on my end, is to make the best effort possible to make society better, stand by my principles, and fight for what is right.
There is hope for this country and our people, all we have to do is believe. This I will do, if not for myself and our generation, then at least for my young children and their children.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
ARIEL O QUERUBIN
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