Si Tandang Sora at ang Manghihimagsik na Pamahalaang Katipunan

 (Updated January 7, 2010)


MELCHORA Aquino. Ang bayaning tinatawag  na "Ina ng Katipunan." Ipinanganak noong 1812 sa ganitong araw, Enero 6, sa barrio Banlat, Caloocan. Ika-200 Taon ng Kapanganakan niya ngayon.

Walungpu at apat (84) na taon na si "Cabezang Melchora" (mas kilala ngayon bilang "Tandang Sora") nang naging buhay na testigo siya sa Sigaw ng Balintawak, sa pagpupunit ng manghihimagsik na Katipunero/a ng mga sedula. Nakasalamuha niya at pinatuloy sina Supremo at iba pang mga Katipunero/a  nang dumating sa Balintawak ang mga manghihimagsik. Ang kanyang kamalig ang naging lugar kung saan binuo ang Panghimagsikang Pamahalaan mula sa tagong samahan ng Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan.

Masasabing ang Katipunan na yugto ng buhay ni Melchora Aquino ay nagsimula noong bandang kalagitnaan ng Agosto 1896 nang pumunta ang mga pinuno ng Katipunan sa Kangkong, Balintawak at pinatawag dito ni Supremo Andres Bonifacio ang mga jefes generales ng Hukbo ng Katipunan, kabilang sina Mariano Llanera, Manuel Tinio, Aurelio Tolentino, Valentin Diaz, at Miguel Malvar.

Ang Balintawak ay hindi nakakapagtakang naging kampo ng mga Katipunero/a dahil hindi ito masyadong malayo sa Tondo at dahil may mga kamag-anak si Supremo Andres Bonifacio sa Caloocan. Maliban pa dito ay tago ang Balintawak noon dahil sa makapal na halamanan o kagubatan. Ang pinakamahalaga, maraming mga Katipunero/a ang nasa bandang hilaga ng Manila malapit dito--Caloocan, Montalban, at San Mateo. Ang unang pansamantalang pinagkutaan nina Bonifacio sa Balintawak (mula looban ng Caloocan) ay ang bahay ng mayaman na si Apolonio Samson sa Kangkong.

Photo Art: JB

Mga Naging Papel ni Tandang Sora sa Katipunan

Ano ang naging papel ni Tandang Sora sa Katipunan? Nakatira malapit sa Pook Kangkong sa Balintawak, partikular sa Pasong Tamo, si Tandang Sora (ayon kay Soledad Borromeo). Nang magpasya si Bonifacio na lisanin ang lugar ni Samson sa Kangkong sa takot na mahuli ng mga Kastila, lumipat sila sa Bahay Toro (Pasong Tamo) sa lugar ni Melchora Aquino.

Naging napakamakabayan at matulungin ni Melchora Aquino kahit na matanda na siya. Marami ang nakakaalam ngayon na nagpakain, nagpatuloy, nagbigay damit, at tumulong manggamot si Tandang Sora sa mga Katipunero/a. Itinago rin niya ang mga Katipunero/a sa mga kaaway na Kastila. Ayon kay Hen. Santiago Alvarez, si Cabesang Melchora ay naging kasing mapagbigay katulad ni Samson. "Like him, she also opened her granary and had plenty of rice pounded and animals slaughtered to feed us, " sinulat ni Alvarez.

Bukod pa sa mga nabanggit, si Tandang Sora ay sumali sa mga pulong ng Katipunan. Nagpupunta siya mismo sa katabing Kangkong para sa mga pulong at upang magbigay na rin ng mga pagkain at ibang pangangailangan ng manghihimagsik. Sa pagbubukas niya ng pinto kina Supremo Bonifacio, sa manghihimagsik na Katipunan, naging makasaysayan din ang kanyang kamalig sa tala ng ating pagkabansa.


Pamahalaang Manghihimagsik

Ayon kay Alvarez at bagong pagsasaliksik nila Milagros Guerrero, sa kamalig ni Cabezang Melchora noong bandang Agosto 24, 1896 naganap ang mahahalagang pasya at pagbabago/ transformation ng Katipunan mula isang tagong samahan na naghahangad na palayain ang bansa mula sa kolonyal na banyagang pamahalaan patungo sa isang panghimagsikang pamahalaan. Kabilang sa mga mahahalagang pangyayari sa lugar ni Melchora Aquino ay ang pagpapasya na umpisahan ang giyera ng kalayaan sa Agosto 29; ang pag-organisa ng panghimagsikang hukbo sa ilalim nila Aguedo del Rosario, Vicente Fernandez, Ramon Bernardo, at Gregorio Coronel; at ang ang pagplaplano ng taktika ng apat na brigadier generals.

May interesante ring kwento ng Katipunero/a na nangyari sa bahay ni Tandang Sora. Ayon kay Aurelio Tolentino, nang natutulog sina Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto at iba pa sa bahay ni Melchora Aquino, may isang Katipunerong nanaginip ng isang mala.Birhen na babae kasama ang isang bata. Ang magandang babae ay nakasuot ng balintawak, isang native na damit at ang supling niya ay nakasaplot na ordinaryo o pangmasa, may hawak na bolo at sumigaw ng "kalayaan". Nilapitan ng Birhen ang taong nananaginip at nagbigay babala sa kung ano. Nagising ito at sinabi ang kanyang napanaginipan at kung kaya pinagpasyahang huwag agad tumuloy sa Manila. Ilang araw pa ay lumabas ang balita na ni.raid ng guardia civil ang imprenta ng Diario de Manila. Kung hindi daw dahil sa napanaginipan (sa bahay ni Tandang Sora), maaring nahuli si Bonifacio at pinatay/execute na ng Kastila, at hindi baka hindi natuloy o naantala ang rebolusyon.

Nang sumiklab na ang Himagsikan at hinahabol na ang mga Katipunero/a, tumulong si Cabezang Melchora sa pagtatago sa kanila. Sa kanyang maliit na tindahan daw tumatakbo ang mga Katipunero/a na kanyang ginagamot at pilit itinatago mula sa kaaway na Kastila.

Agad nahuli at pinahirapan daw si Tandang Sora ng mga Kastila bago pinatapon sa bandang Guam noong taong ding iyon. Pinilit siyang magsalita nguni't hindi niya kailanman pinagkanulo ang Himagsikan, ang Katipunan. Nasa ibang bansa man ang kanyang katawan, ang nasa isip niya ay ang kalayaan at ang mga Katipunero at Katipunerangng lumalaban upang makamit ito. Pinauwi siya ng bagong mananakop, ng imperyalistang Estados Unidos, noong 1903. Matanda at naging mahirap na si Melchora Aquino Binawian ng buhay ang Ina ng Katipunan noong Marso 1919 sa edad na 107.


*Ang Kangkong, Bahay Toro, Pasong Tamo, at Gulod ay pawang mga bahagi ng Balintawak na nasa loob naman ng Caloocan noong panahon ng Kastila

______

Mga Batis:

Alvarez, Santiago V. The katipunan and the revolution:
memoirs of a general : with the original Tagalog text. Ateneo de Manila University Press, December 1992.

Borromeo-Buehler, Soledad & Borromeo, Soledad Masangkay. The cry of Balintawak: a contrived controversy : a textual analysis with appended documents. Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1998

Character Education. Rex Bookstore, Inc.

Donato, Tony. Sino ang Nakakatanda kay Tandang Sora. http://banlawkasaysayan.multiply.com/journal/item/2?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal%2Fitem

Guerrero, Milagros, Emmanuel Encarnacion, & Ramon Villegas. Andres Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution. 2003, June 16. http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?i=5&subcat=13

Duka, E. Struggle for Freedom' 2008 Ed. Rex Bookstore.

Ileto, Reynaldo Clemena. Pasyon and revolution:
popular movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910. Ateneo de Manila University Press, December 1979.

Language Arts for the Filipino Learners: An Intergrated Language and Reading Work-a-Text for Grade Four: Volume One. Rex Bookstore, Inc. 

 Paraiso, Bryan Anthony. Tandang Sora: Profile of A Courageous Mother. http://www.nhi.gov.ph/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=744


Raw Photo Credits:

http://www.bsp.gov.ph/bspnotes/evolution/BSPNotes/EnglishSeries.pdf 

http://philippinestamps.net/RP1969.htm

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/flowingrhythms/IMG_0004-1.jpg

http://homebodyhubby.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/singko-at-diyes-02.jpg?w=470  

http://www.banknoteworld.com/banknotes/philippines/PhilippinesP139-100Pesos-L1949-donatedsb_f.jpg

On the 113th Anniversary of Bonifacio's Tragedy: Rise of the Masses or More of Elite Rule?

ONE hundred thirteen years ago today, a great tragedy befell the Pearl of the Orient Seas. In a mountain of Maragondon, Cavite province, Andres Bonifacio, the founder and Supremo of the Philippine revolutionary movement was executed following a Kangaroo Court military trial by the camp of Emilio Aguinaldo, the man who deposed him by way of an anomalous "national elections." This virtual murder of a man who wielded the revolutionary fire of courage and the great vision of an archipelagic nation free and liberated from the yoke of colonial rule was so tragic it initially "smothered the enthusiasm for the revolutionary cause" of many non-Caviteno revolutionaries such that Aguinaldo's "so-called government had to withdraw to the mountains of Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan."

The Supremo's death represented the tragedy of the Philippine Revolution having been wrestled away from its mass base towards a direction marked by capitulation to foreign rule and dominated by elite interest. Today, May 10, 2010, the country faced an electoral exercise that, from many indicators, pits the masses and the elites. On the occasion of Bonifacio's unjust death, will the presidential race apparently dominated by former President Joseph Estrada and Noynoy Aquino be won by the yellow camp and continue what has been the general tradition of elite rule? Or will the occasion of the Supremo's death finally mark the sweet victory for the Filipino masses when the "Father of the Masses," Joseph Estrada is elected anew nine years after being deposed by a conspiracy of the elite class?


Masses vs. Elites 

The turn of developments in the 2010 presidential campaign have virtually crystallized the race into a strongly class-based fight. Of the top two contenders, Erap Estrada strongly draws from those from the D-E crowd while Noynoy Aquino appeals strongest to the A-B people. Gilbert Teodoro and Manny Villar  are considered to be in the top 4, and shares voting base with Aquino and Estrada, respectively. However, the recent slide of Villar to No. 3 based on mainstream surveys and Teodoro's low and/or erratic standing in pre-electoral survey voting preferences have rendered the presidential derby considerably a two-way fight between Aquino and Estrada.


Aquino Elite's Choice

Aquino is unabashedly the elite's candidate. Anyone who frequents the streets know the yellow display of support in majority of vehicles of the rich--expensive cars and SUVs. No less than 10 brand products support Aquino's candidacy with yellow ribbons stamped on the products or packaging or by selling yellow "commemorative" products--Bench, ODM, Boardwalk, Philip Stein, National Book Store, Mag Net, My Phone, Mongol-Star Paper Corporation, Goldilocks.


More important than these companies are Ayala Corporation, Gateway Mall/Araneta Center ABS-CBN, and Philippine Daily Inquirer which are all-out for the yellow candidate. Most artists of ABS-CBN, and even of GMA-7, also endorse Noynoy. Aside from Kris Aquino's presence, many well-known actors, actresses and singers grace the Liberal Party's sorties and rallies.

That Aquino is the rich Filipino's choice is also seen in his many political advertisements. In fact, there were even reports that the LP standard-bearer exceeded his personal Comelec time in broadcast ads. During the last few days of the campaign, I was witness to how Noynoy's camp peppered the airwaves, with 7 or more LP ads showing in just one commercial break. This went on during a primetime program repeatedly, enough to make me flare up and turn off the television.


Erap's the Poor's Choice

In contrast, very few celebrities endorse Estrada. Comedienne Marissa Sanchez and a less known Inday Garutay are  virtually the only known regular in Estrada's campaign rallies. In the miting de avances of Erap's Partido ng Masang Pilipino, only another comedienne Bayani Agabayani and a few others added to the list. No question about it, Estrada's camp was devoid of superstar endorsement.

In one of the campaign sorties I attended, what I saw with my very own eyes was masa power at work--even in terms of entertainment. While waiting for the senatorial candidates and Estrada and Binay, entertainment came by way of cheap make-do singing, dance, and jokes. It actually struck me as ironic how an actor-politician belittled for his being a "mere actor" has very nil showbiz support.

In the sticker wars, as Noynoy has expensive vehicles, Erap has passenger jeepneys, tricycles, and ‘padyaks’ (pedicabs). The poor character of Estrada's campaign, of course, betrays the lack of support from the business community. Erap was apparently never once reported to have exceeded Comelec air time limits for political ads. Even during the final run to the campaign, his camp still released few political ads.


Conclusion

That Noynoy has abundant political ads, of course, reflects business support for his campaign. If he wins, then that only means that the Filipino people got swayed by the business-backed campaign of the politician who took part and remain proud of his role in the elitist, EDSA II of January 2001.

Since the forces of EDSA II deposed Estrada and even acted to squash what should have the corrective Masa-powered EDSA III of May 2001, then a Noynoy win means that the people have embraced elite rule. On the other hand, an Erap victory clearly shows that the Filipino clearly reject elite rule and assert populist leadership by way of reelecting a man overwhelmingly voted by the masa and deposed (and incarcerated) by an elite conspiracy.

Will the 113th anniversary of the tragic death of Gat Andres Bonifacio reflect the tragedy of the masa decapitation during the Philippine Revolution, or will it spell the rising of the Great Plebeian's mass-based libertarian, nationalist and mass-based aspirations? Will the 15th President be the "Father of the Masses," Joseph Erap Estrada, or the 'hacendero son of the hero Ninoy Aquino and saintly Cory Aquino'? We will soon find out.

Andres Bonifacio's Tagalog Nation & Predictions of Global Warming (Bonifacio Series II)

• Recommended:
  
  

  Gat Andres Bonifacio: The Anti-Colonial National Hero of the Philippines (Bonifacio Series I)
  The Devaluation of a Hero & Promotion of a Counter-Hero: Where's Bonifacio in the 5 Peso Coin (make it P2) [Bonifacio Series III]
  Debunking the Outrageous Glenn May Thesis on Supremo Andres Bonifacio

  Ang Pagdaklot kina Supremo Bonifacio 
  The Tragedy of the Katipunan: The Supremo's Assassination-cum-Execution (Bonifacio Series IV)
  
  

A CENTURY and nearly a score years ago today, a most patriotic and fervent hero of a land to the southeast was executed by his coup plotting secret enemies during the peak of his people's struggle for national independence. The revolutionary leader was Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, murdered May 10, 1897 in a remote mountain in the archipelagic islands the hero called the Haring Bayang Katagalugan (Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan.) The name "Katagalugan," derives from"Tagalog," which is a constriction of the word "taga-ilog" that translates as "(person/people) from the area along the river," or simply, riverine. The hero's treacherous execution marked not only the elite takeover of the revolutionary mass movement he built but, as well, the adoption of a colonial name for his country well past into its independence period until today. Tagalog was junked and the old name given by Spain after its king, Philip II, stuck. Called "Las Islas de Filipinas" by Spain--a name favored even by its other elitist heroes--or "Philippine Islands," by its next colonial master, the United States of America, it is now called the Republic of the Philippines.

 The emerging global cataclysm of global warming, however, may just give the people of Bonifacio's Tagalog islands--the "Filipinos" of today--the unlikely opportunity of reverting to the non-colonial country name that reflects and asserts their precolonial heritage, and nationalist identity and aspirations. The predicted rise of sea levels due to the ongoing climate change may swamp Manila and other low-lying areas, cleansing their nation of the selfish, unpatriotic elites of class and mind in the process. A cleansing that can be likened to the Babylonian and Biblical stories of the Deluge, which would purify the population of its protracted alienation from its Malay roots--to allow the archipelago to assume the more endemic, nationalist name of Tagalog.  


Predictions of Climate Change Devastation

 Global warming is an emerging cataclysm such that even critics of the anthropogenic-climate-change theory concede that its impacts are now upon all the inhabitants of this planet. While scientists are yet uncertain of whether global warming affects El Nino and other climatic variability changes, they are more confident that it is an irreversible phenomenon that would impact regional extremes in temperature, seasonal precipitation, seasonal temperature, global average temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, and tragically, the average level of sea waters. The countries that scientists consider to be most vulnerable are the low-lying areas, particularly archipelagic countries in Asia, such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. According to a scientist from the Australia-based Center for Australian Weather and Climate Research, the most plausible climate change scenario by the end of the century is a total sea-level increase between 1-2 meters.


An Inundated Philippines
The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands and islets shaped like scattered pearls and lying approximately 500 miles off its coast. It has an irregular configuration, the coastline of which extends over 21,500 miles. Its topography and geology depicts a beauteous piece of nature's work--coral, volcanic, principal rock formations, and diverse mountain ranges that mostly run along the direction of the islands themselves and that host some 3,000 endemic and unique species of plants and over 500 of the 700 known species of coral in the world. While its highest peak, Mt. Apo in Mindanao, stands at nearly 9,700 feet, the central plain of Luzon, the biggest island where the capital Manila lies, rises only a mere 100 feet above sea level. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), global warming could submerge areas of Manila and eradicate a number of entire islands of the Philippine archipelago. Based on data gathered for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a rapid increase in sea levels, from between 20-40 centimeters has been observed between the 1960s and the present. This sea-level rise around the Philippine coast is at least partly due to melting glaciers and higher temperatures of ocean waters. Based on a high IPCC-predicted A2 scenario of a 100 cm sea-level rise by 2080, 5,000 hectares of the coastal region of Manila Bay would become regularly inundated. The Sulu Sea and Tubbataha Reef waters are also expected to warm and face rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 2ppmv-4ppmv annually. Greenpeace Southeast Asia warns that a one-meter sea-level increase would affect 64 of the total 81 provinces, covering over 700 of the 1,610 towns. Combining these three scenarios, total inundation within this more conservative one-meter-rise prediction would cover nearly 700 million square meters of Philippine land between 2080 and 2100.
 Predictions of an inundated Philippines are not limited to scientific studies of climate change. This author is reminded of psychic forecasts dating back to the 1970s that predicted Metro Manila will be submerged in the future. At that time, logical attempts to interpret such predictions (of which Filipinos are fond of) centered on the Manila Bay reclamation project implemented by the Ferdinand Marcos administration.



Psychic "Apo," who correctly predicted United States President Barack Obama's 2008 electoral win by a one-third advantage*, sees a similar scenario probably happening for the countries in Southeast Asian. He even goes on to say that Filipinos should perhaps try to emigrate to higher-lying countries that include Israel and those in the West. Backed up by science and sensed by "psychics," the strong likelihood is that the Philippines several decades from now will be radically different. Areas of Manila--the former seat of colonial Spain and colonial America and today's political center and seat of elite power--as well as other parts of Central Luzon could transform into rivers, while low-lying small islands and islets could be swallowed up by the ocean waters. Such a scenario could gravely impact not only the fortunes of the general population but as well, those of the ruling elite. Apart from the initial economic damage from structural and infrastructural destruction and relocation and other costs, political power and organization may be physically and symbolically encumbered, given that the presidential residence, Malacanang, lies within Manila. This could be aggravated by the prospect that the higher-lying Makati City, the country's business center, could be cut off from other areas, to be connected only via river navigation.  


Possible Filipino Elite Response: Emigration

Such a drastic environmental change could just prove too much for an elite class generally used to reigning over the rest of the population and owning much of the islands. With their fortunes amassed through the century or centuries of predatorily staying on top of the socio-economic ladder, they have the resources to save their skins and emigrate out of the Philippines at will. As easily as members of this same class have been historically co-opted by the Western colonialists with whom their ancestors interbred, these largely mestizo elites could, and would, easily and unremorsefully abandon a sinking archipelago.  


Filipino Elite Exodus & the Rebirth of Tagalog Nation

 Drastic and shocking as it may be, any such exodus of Filipino elites may just bring in the unexpected blessing of a nationalist rebirth. Any such global-warming-caused inundation of the Philippines, and the expected emigration of the jetsetting rich class, could serve to purify the archipelago of political and cultural affinities with the two Western countries that conquered its people and pillaged its identity. When the deluge of global warming does drive the easily co-optive elites away from the country they half-heartily love and barely serve, who will be left are the Filipino masses without the resources to take the easy way and flee. This same socio-economic group without the means to emigrate is the Filipino class that has long been deprived of the opportunity to overcome the economic and social inequities and rise above their lowly existence.
 

Without the original patriotism-bereft elite class to exploit them, and imperialist nations to take interest, the future people of an inundated Philippine islands could seize the opportunity to rise from the ravages of flooding to form a new, moral and glorious nation as the Father of the Philippine Revolution, Andres Bonifacio, envisioned in the late 1800s. With only the masses and middle class around, and shielded from Western colonial exploitation by its partly submerged state, the population who will be left to face the geographic challenges of the impact of global warming could take a liberating nationalist course away from their delimiting colonial mentality, best represented by their country's name, the Philippines. Seeing the new rivers created from the old lands, they could be inspired to rechristen their country with the same name that the great but betrayed leader Bonifacio earlier gave, Tagalog.  


"Philippines" vs. "Tagalog"


 It is a deplorable fact that despite the colonial roots of the name Philippines, it has not yet been dropped except briefly during the revolutionary struggle against Spain. From the time of the American Occupation to World War II until today, only one and unsuccessful attempt to have it changed was ever seriously made. During the Martial Law period under Marcos, Senator Eddie Ilarde did propose a name change to Maharlika ("warrior–noble" during the pre-colonial days before the National Assembly,but it was rejected for one reason or another.


Back in the late 19th century, the Reformist heroes Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Graciano Lopez Jaena, who spoke and struggled against colonial injustice suffered by their countrymen but nonetheless still looked up to Spain and aspired for representation in the Spanish legislature, batted for the name "Filipinas." Bonifacio chose a noncolonial name Tagalog, which the other revolutionary leaders clearly acknowledged as representing the whole areas of the archipelago. Presumably, they wished the new and native-derived name to bring out the country's natural features of having numerous river systems and an archipelagic coastline. A few months before Bonifacio was murdered, a Spanish periodical referred to him as the revolutionary head of the country, Titulado ‘Presidente’ de la Republica Tagala.

The name Tagalog today strictly refers to a region in Central Luzon where the Tagalog dialect is spoken. Apparently the term has been localized by elitist historians who wish to belittle Bonifacio's revolutionary heroism. While the term Tagalog was long used, perhaps before his time, it is to the credit of the revolutionary leader that he insisted on a name that gives an endemic meaning devoid of colonial subservience. Perhaps, Bonifacio did not only have the great patriotism and genuine nationalism that allowed him to build the K.K.K., or Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (Highest, Noblest Society of the Children of the Country) revolutionary movement. It could be that the Supremo had the psychic wisdom that the country he dearly loved and fought for would literally be a riverine nation. Without the ravaging elements of attachment to its colonial masters of the past, the "Tagala" people of Andres Bonifacio's archipelago could build a new land founded on the genuine brotherhood and sisterhood of its Malay people. In such a prediction of a ravaged but purified nation, the Tagala people will claim a riverine land cleansed of its woeful colonial past, but grateful of the patriotic struggles and aspirations of its heroes and heroines of the old.

The Decalogo & Rise of the Tagalog Nation Beyond the reversion to the indigenous name of the country, if the risen Tagala people will also be faithful to the principles and aspirations of the Katipunan, they will perhaps resurrect or revisit Andres Bonifacio's Dekalogo (Decalogue). Revealing the depth of the patriotism and political morality of the Supremo, it was written to provide the revolutionaries with a ten-point "duties of the children of the country," as follows:

1. Love God with all your heart. 2. Implant it in your heart that the true love for God equates with true love for one's Land of Birth, which is also love for others. 3. Nurture it in your heart that the true value of honor and comfort is for you to die in defense of Motherland. 4. Your every good aim will meet triumph if you exercise composure, patience, reason and hope in your deeds and acts. 5. Take good care--as you do your honor--the mandates and aspirations of the K.K.K. (Highest, Noblest Society of the Children of the Country). 6. It is the responsibility of all to help anyone in grave danger of reneging on his/her duty, even at the risk of losing one's life and resources. 7. Our strength of will and our discipline in carrying out our duties will serve as examples to others. 8. Share what you can to anyone in need and less fortunate. 9. One's industry in his/her source of livelihood is the genuine source of love, of love of self, of your spouse and children, of your siblings and compatriot. 10. Punish anyone who's evil and traitorous and commend good works. Believe that the teachings of K.K.K. are graces from God; that what the Motherland aspires for, are also the wishes of God. (Translation by the author from the Dekalogo)

In the 1920s, President Manuel L. Quezon, the first Philippine leader under American rule, expressed the belief that "Nothing depicts and portrays the character" of the great anti-colonial national hero more than the Dekalogo (Note: the Dekalogo was replaced by the Kartilya or Primer of the Katipunan, written by Emilio Jacinto, upon Bonifacio's humble deference to his revolutionary compatriot and friend). If the future people of the Southeast riverine land will abide by it, the Dekalogo should be enough to make the new nation indeed the 'most exemplary' in the world. As the renewed people of the Pearl of the Orient Seas shall have turned their backs on a colonial name and identity and the corruption such alienation helped wrought, so then shall proudly stand the virtuous, nationalist Republika ng Tagalog, and the Supremo will look down from the heavens and beam with exalted joy.  



Notes: *Psychic Predictions on Estrada, Arroyo, the US & the World. 19 October 2008. Jesusa Bernardo Newsvine Column. http://jesusabernardo.newsvine.com/_news/2008/10/19/2016629-psychic-predictions-on-estrada-and-arroyo-the-us-obama-the-world Related Andres Bonifacio article by the author: Bernardo, Jesusa. Gat Andres Bonifacio: The Anti-Colonial National Hero of the Philippines (Bonifacio Series I). 30 Nov. 2009. http://forthephilippines.blogspot.com/2008/11/andres-anti-colonial-national-hero-of.html _____________  

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Rodis, Rodel. 'Maharlika’ Reconsidered. 2 September 2008. http://globalnation.inquirer.net/mindfeeds/mindfeeds/view/20080902-158208/Maharlika-Reconsidered  

Sea Level Rising in the Philippines. Updated Mar 16, 2009 http://www.siiaonline.org/?q=programmes/insights/sea-level-rising-philippines

Photo Credits:

Museo Oriental de Valladolid Site

Carbon-Based-ghg.blogspot.com
Global Warming.blogspot.com
National Geographic
Brett Davenport's Travel Blog Destination360 Site
EcoDestination.com
NASA ABC News.net
WorldNews.com
Bayanihan Post.com
The News Today.info
 Bayaning Pinoy Wordpress.com Jibrael Angel Blog @blogspot.com
Environmental Protection of Asia.com Wikipedia

(Updated 18 May 2009) ******************