Revisioning Our History

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

                        — American Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr.

ON June 12 in Lapu-Lapu  City, while celebrating Philippine Independence Day, a civic group led by a self-proclaimed descendant of the mythical warrior-hero Lapu-Lapu pointed out to senator-elect Robin Padilla that national independence is not yet complete and that the country’s name smacks of colonialism without renaming the entire archipelago from Philippines to Maharlika, which means “noble warrior.”

Coinciding with the 124th commemoration of the Philippine Independence, the Maharlika Solidarity (MASO) expressed hopes that the incoming administration of president-in-waiting Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. would rectify the “historical revisionism of the local elite class that had collaborated with the foreign colonizers.”

“Sad to say our national independence is not yet complete. We all know that our country’s name the Philippines in honor of King Philip II of Spain was only imposed by the Spanish colonizers who oppressed our ancestors and ruled our islands for 330 long years,” MASO convenor Khalid Mundo enthused.

In the blog ‘Celebrating Lapu-Lapu’s Genealogy’, dated April 27, 2013, it was written that: “The Pagobo and Baring families of Mactan and the Mundo clan of Borbon—both in Cebu province—claim that they are modern-day blood relatives of the hero of Mactan.”

But without proof this claim could just be mere hearsay.

Moreover, any call for relinquishing the country’s given name by the Spaniards could be considered a patriotic duty but it doesn’t invigorate our nationalism and love for the Motherland if our history also remains uncorrected.
We wonder why does our history books glorify the more than 300 years of governance of the Spanish that was highlighted by oppression of our ancestors?

There are more subjects in our country’s history that needs to be brought out in the open—perhaps our thriving culture during the hegemony of the Madjapahit and Sri Vijayan empires and even our forgotten patriots who have been overcast by the shadows of more popular heroes like Dr. Jose Rizal, the Katipunan’s Supremo Andres Bonifacio and generals Gregorio Del Pilar and Emilio Aguinaldo.

There are detailed accounts of Spanish affairs during their suppressive rule of the islands they erstwhile called ‘Las Islas Ladrones’, or the Islands of Thieves. And also during America’s occupation of the archipelago after representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for US$20 million.

With this in view, we hope that our good senator-in-waiting, actor-turned-politico Robin Padilla, would up and take the advocacy of setting right our history the way other countries emulate their own country’s culture and heritage.

To analogize the importance of this advocacy, we highlight the fact that not one man can ever say he truly loves a woman when he doesn’t even know important things about her. So at least, Filipinos should learn about the nobility of our race before they can really say they are patriots who are willing to die for their Motherland as our anthem connotes, “. . . ang mamatay ng dahil sa Iyo.”

Finally, we dispute the claims of the Pagobo and Baring families of Mactan and the Mundo clan of Borbon who say they are descendants of Lapu-Lapu. Why only now have they come out in the open when they should have already proudly announced in the four corners of the world that their beloved kin is our country’s first victorious hero!

The challenge has been issued and the gauntlet thrown, and so is the die cast for the future of generations of our countrymen following after us.

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FOR your comments or suggestions, complaints or requests, just send a message through my email filespolice@yahoo.com.ph or text me at cellphone numbers 09054292382 for Globe subscribers and 09391252568 for Smart. Thank you and mabuhay!