To be like Bonifacio means to continue the Resistance

 To be like Bonifacio means to continue the Resistance

Kat Ulrike

To begin, this note extends greetings to the Filipino people on the occasion of Andres Bonifacio's 160th birth anniversary, whose valor and love for the people has inspired generations against local tyranny and foreign colonial persecution. 

After centuries of local despotism and foreign semicolonial domination in the Philippines, the Filipino people are still inspired by the teachings of Filipino patriots like Bonifacio, from whom comes renewed resistance to colonial oppression. 

True, that current President Marcos Jr. has urged Filipinos to emulate Bonifacio's bravery. In fact, it is now more important than ever to draw strength and lessons from patriots such as Bonifacio, Rizal, and others whose patriotism has fanned the flames of resistance against injustice, emphasizing the importance and urgency of fighting for national and social liberation at a time when local tryants oppressed the folk with unjust laws and actions, and foreign overlords such as the United States and China have meddled domestic affairs and stunted national development.  

Looking back at history

Inspired by the works of Jose Rizal and the French Revolution, Bonifacio admired the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity, which translated into the local perspective and motivated the toiling masses to rally behind the banner of national liberation under the Katipunan. The void left by the Insulares like Andres Novales and "El Conde Filipino" Varela was eventually filled by Mestizos and Indios who eventually joined under one banner and one resistance as Filipinos. And through covert means of organization, the Katipunan led a force of several tens of thousands of people that swept from Manila (including Rizal), to Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Bulacan, Tayabas, Nueva Ecija, the provinces of Pangasinan and Ilocos, the Bicol region of Luzon, the provinces of Aklan and Cebu in the Visayas, and the provinces of Bukidnon and Misamis in Mindanao. People, primarily from the working masses, joined the cause, particularly after the Cry of Pugad Lawin and Rizal's execution in Bagumbayan, which made it clear that an armed revolution was required to end the Spanish colonial power in the Philippines.

However, despite successes, this was not enough to fend off the shortcomings, as well as maneuvers and political attacks of those who ought to take away the leadership of the Philippine revolution in the Tejeros Convention, murder Bonifacio in Mt. Buntis, and the surrender at Biak-na-Bato regardless of opposition by members of the Katipunan like Malvar and Paciano Rizal,  believing it was a ruse of the Spaniards to get rid of the Revolution easily. 

Those who stood by Bonifacio after his death either lay low and returning to their homes, or continued fighting despite refusing to join the forces of General Emilio Aguinaldo. Katipuneros Emilio Jacinto died fighting against Spainiards despite having Malaria in Laguna, while Macario Sakay was being branded as a "bandit" and executed by the Americans for being true to his nationalist cause. 

The flames kept burning

On the other hand, this note one would understand the otherwise inexplicable mistakes and shortcomings of men like Duterte, Marcos jr. and others whose clamour for "unity" and "change" is but meaningless terms meant to snare hopeless folks. 

For contrary to their statements, their actions speak much of continuity that rather benefited the status quo, that development that's being bragged has benefited the "haves" and not the "have nots" regardless of the latter's efforts. 

True that Marcos wanted the people to emulate Bonifacio and his nationalism the way his predecessor Duterte calls on the public to get involved in community and national issues that affect everyone's lives; yet to see a country remain an appendage of both American and Chinese overlords, of having unequal agreements and unjust policies that benefited local tyrants, this continuity of injustice and disenfranchisement has turned the message into an empty rhetoric if not mocking the folk as it engages in a resistance in various forms. 

Why the protest marches? Why the stirring speeches against the rotten social order? Why taking up arms in various forms? Why the need for sacrifice? For sure people would say that Bonifacio's message and that of other patriots is relegated to history and therefore must "move on" from it in favour of a neoliberal setting that is today with its illusion of progress and development, but again, the existing poverty, injustice, oppression under the current social order has turned those who are truly concerned into what they perceive as subversive as they express their national and social aspiration. The struggle for independence doesn't stop with the abrogation of the unequal agreements, executing tyrants, or by seeing the flag flying alone, but also to having a land to till, a living wage and a right to livelihood, food, education and health, a decent life as what Bonifacio and the Katipunan envisioned.