Independence

Independence

A hundred eight years ago, Filipino revolutionaries finally rose up against Spain and won for the country its much long-awaited independence. But that independence was short-lived. The Americans came and after a mock Spanish-American War in Manila Bay, Spain sold the Philippines to the Americans for US$20 million dollars under a treaty negotiated in Paris.

Had the Americans not took over this archipelago, the Philippines could have been the first colonized country in Asia to become an independent republic in 1898. After almost 400 years under the Spanish friars and colonial officials, Filipinos could have begun reclaiming their identity and building an independent nation at the turn of the century. But that was not to be.

The Americans came at a time when Filipinos were still smarting from the hang-over of more than three centuries of Spanish subjugation. Under the Spaniards, we were treated as Indios or even heathens whom the colonizers had to “Christianize” and “civilize.”

But in the guise of Christianizing and civilizing us, the Spaniards actually were after three g’s that abounded in our lands – gold, ginger and garlic.

Rizal and others debunked the Spanish colonizers’ propaganda that we didn’t have a civilization. They asserted that even before the Spaniards came, we already had a civilization of our own and that our ancestors were already trading with our Asian neighbors.

But more than 300 years of Spanish subjugation was enough to condition in a negative way our psyche as a people, thus -- as a spiritual teacher pointed when she talked recently about the pains of colonization -- adversely affecting our ability to operate with self-respect.

Already battered by more than three centuries of Spanish colonization, the Filipino people were too vulnerable to withstand American colonization after that Manila Bay mock battle. As expected, some Filipinos resisted and defied America. But American colonial soldiers made the communities of those who resisted a howling wilderness, killing and maiming those who didn’t bow to Uncle Sam. And those whom America won over were molded into becoming little brown Americans through education.

The Americans brought an educational system that was supposed to train Filipinos to be able to govern themselves under an American-patterned democracy. Such educational system had also colonized our consciousness so much so that we became addicted to anything “Stateside” or American – from Levi’s to Hollywood movies and hamburgers. Such colonial mentality still runs deep and may take many lifetimes to reverse this.

For a brief period in World War II, Japan also occupied our archipelago, which it sought to annex as part of what it called “Asia’s Co-prosperity Sphere.”

After World War II, the Philippines practically was still part of America’s colony through various military bases, some of which became America’s launching pad and refueling stations during its war on Vietnam.

We, as a people, regained our national pride as Filipinos when the Philippine Senate in 1991 finally abrogated the RP-US military bases treaty. Mount Pinatubo in 1991 also erupted and the Americans had rushed to dismantle their bases and leave home.

A few years later, however, the Americans had a way of reclaiming the military bases through what was called the Visiting Forces Agreement, which, critics say, virtually made the whole country a military base. Under the agreement, American military vessels can dock in any sea port in the country. Also from time to time, American soldiers conduct their war games here and some soldiers would go astray to abuse our women.

A century and eight years after 12 June 1898, we still have a long way to go to be really independent and be totally free. But we are optimistic that someday, as the song goes, we shall overcome.