“The Duterte-Cayetano foreign policy is inconsistent with the closing lines of our national anthem,” wrote Hermenegildo C. Cruz, the Philippine ambassador to the United Nations in 1984-1986, in his Inquirer commentary of Aug. 15. The closing lines as every Filipino knows are “Aming ligaya na pag may mang-aapi ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.”
Ambassador Cruz’s commentary was his reaction to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano’s statement that “South China Sea claimants will suffer if they are harsh on China.”Mr. Cruz said Cayetano’s statement is the equivalent of a person who, after being beaten and robbed by a bully, tells everyone that they should be nice to the bully. A victim who makes such an assertion will be labelled a coward. China has done the harshest act that could be committed by one nation on another by appropriating territory that belongs to us.
On Saturday, Aug. 19, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio urged President Duterte and Secretary Cayetano to vigorously protest the presence of Chinese ships guarding Sandy Cay, a sandbar near Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea. He said that Sandy Cay “is a Philippine land territory that is being seized (to put it mildly), or being invaded (to put it frankly), by China.”
Well, it is not the first time in our history that national leaders have shown an inclination to appease a foreign power rather than find inspiration in the lyrics of our national anthem. President Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Cayetano have counterparts in an earlier part of our history, around the time of the birth of our nation. They were Pedro A. Paterno and Cayetano Arellano.
Paterno was elected President of the Malolos Congress in 1898.He served as prime minister of the First Philippine Republic in the middle of 1899, and served as head of the country’s assembly and the Cabinet. After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1898, ending the war between Spain and the United States, the Philippines was ceded to the United States.Paterno campaigned for the incorporation of the Philippines into the United States.
Arellano was the minister of Foreign Affairs in President Emilio Aguinaldo’s government. After the Philippines was ceded to the United States, he together with Paterno and other prominent personalities testified before the Schurman Commission, a body formed by then US President William McKinley to study the situation in the newly acquired colony, that the Philippines was not yet ready for self-rule. They then established the Federal Party to “promote the annexation of the Philippines as a state.”
The original lyrics of our national anthem adopted in 1899 were in Spanish, the language of Philippine officialdom then. The last lines were “Es una gloria para tus hijos, cuando de ofenden, por ti morir.” Paterno and Arellano must have sung those lines many times but they preferred to be subjects of a foreign power, rather than die a glorious death resisting American dominion, like Apolinario Mabini and Gregorio del Pilar did.
But we need not go back to the time of the birth of our nation, only to the generation before the current one, the generation of the parents of Messrs. Duterte and Cayetano when a hostile nation invaded our country. Jose P. Laurel was among the Commonwealth officials who cooperated with the Japanese invaders. In 1943, under the dictates of the Japanese Imperial army, the National Assembly elected Laurel President Claro M. Recto joined Laurel’s Cabinet as minister of Foreign Affairs.
In contrast, Jose Abad Santos, designated acting President by President Manuel L. Quezon before he went into exile, refused to cooperate with the Japanese occupation government. He and his son were arrested by the Japanese in 1942. When he rejected the offer of clemency and a position in government, he was condemned to be executed. On the day of his execution, he consoled his weeping son, “Don’t cry, Pepito. It is a rare opportunity to die for one’s country. Not everybody has that chance.” He was true to the closing lines of the national anthem, which that generation sang in English: “But it is glory ever when thou art wronged for us thy sons to suffer and die.”
Memorials are erected in honor of Presidents Paterno and Laurel and Foreign Affairs Ministers Arellano and Recto, streets and schools are named after them. They are among the Filipinos to be remembered on Monday. So it would not be far-fetched to expect future generations to include President Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Cayetano among those to be honored on National Heroes Day even if they chose to go against the exhortation of our national anthem.
After all, the law that put into practice the celebration of National Heroes Day does not name a single hero. This lack of specifics gives rise to a practice of honoring personalities who were prominent in the national discourse on the governance of the country, regardless of whether they sacrificed their life in defense of the Motherland or spent much of their public life advocating collaboration with a hostile nation or even annexation by it.
Yesterday was a national public holiday, in observance of the anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino and in celebration of the supreme sacrifice he made for the freedom-loving Filipinos. Ironically, the man generally believed to have been responsible for the dastardly deed, Ferdinand Marcos, was recently buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
The coming Ramon Magsaysay Award on Aug. 31 brings to mind another irony. The Award was named after President Ramon Magsaysay, who was born on Aug. 31, 1907, “to perpetuate his example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.”When he ran for president in 1953, his campaign jingle went thus: “Our democracy will die kung wala si Magsaysay.” That was because the incumbent president then and running for reelection was Elpidio Quirino.
Quirino was voted president in 1949 in what is considered the dirtiest and bloodiest elections in Philippine political annals as the birds, bees, monkeys, and even the dead “cast” their votes. As president, he brought the Philippine economy to the brink of collapse. He gave rise to political lords like Rafael Lacson in Negros Occidental, Jose Lingad in Pampanga, and Dominador Camerino in Cavite. He was the first president to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and to order the arrest of political enemies like Lorenzo Tañada, Recto, Laurel, and Arsenio Lacson. He so outraged the Filipino people that in the election of 1953, 70% of the voters chose to boot him out of office and elect Magsaysay president., the latter gaining the sobriquet “Savior of Philippine democracy.”
But a province, town, district, streets, and schools are named after Quirino. The grandstand where presidents are inaugurated is named Quirino Grandstand because it was he who had it built. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, government-owned and sequestered TV stations referred to him, ad nauseam, as “that great Filipino president.”
Speaking of places named after heroes, yet another irony comes to mind. Fort Bonifacio, command center of the Philippine Army, a branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, is named after the founder of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, also known as the Father of the Philippine Revolution. But Camp Aguinaldo, the general headquarters of the Armed Forces, is named after Emilio Aguinaldo, who had Bonifacio executed. No military base is named after General Antonio Luna, who was also killed by men of Aguinaldo, not even the base of the Philippine Military Academy, when it was he who established the precursor of that academy, and was the only general of the Philippine Revolution who had formal military training.
Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a member of Manindigan! a civil society group that helped topple the Marcos Dictatorship.
oplagman@yahoo.com
