FILIPINO NATIONALIST: THE PRIME MOVERS OF PHILIPPINE NATIONALISM

FILIPINO NATIONALIST: THE PRIME MOVERS OF PHILIPPINE NATIONALISM

Compiled By: 

CHRISTIAN JAY S. LAYA

10. JOSE BURGOS

   Burgos' nationalist views, codified in editorial essays, championing political and ecclesiastic reforms in favor of empowering more native clergymen, made him a target of opposition to civil authorities.

   In 1864, an anonymous pamphlet was published in Manila, criticizing the prejudice in the Church, and providing rebuttals against several canards against the native clergy. Although the document was unsigned, historians believe the author to be Burgos, based on its style and content. Burgos also penned several signed articles later in his life, in response to a series of anonymous written attacks on the Filipino clergy. Though Burgos offered few new ideas, his name caught the attention of Spanish authorities, who would report that the native clergy was becoming separatist.

  In 1869, Felipe Buencamino, a young student and an acquaintance of Burgos, was charged with spreading nationalist propaganda in the form of leaflets scattered throughout his school's campus, demanding academic freedom. This accusation was given credence by a protest he staged several months prior, against being required to speak Latin in the classroom. Consequently, Buencamino and some of his associates were sent to jail. With the aid of Burgos, Buencamino was freed four months later, only to be told that having missed school for four months, he would have to find a tutor who would help him make up for the classes he missed. Buencamino chose Burgos.

   By this time, Burgos had established a reputation as a defender of the native clergy. His debates over the rights of native priests had extended to include questions of race and nationalism. This reputation would eventually cause him to be implicated in a mutiny in Cavite.

9. JOSE RIZAL

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, widely known as José Rizal ; (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), was a Filipino nationalistand polymath during the tail end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.

He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine Revolution, inspired in part by his writings, broke out. Though he was not actively involved in its planning or conduct, he ultimately approved of its goals which eventually led to Philippine independence.

He is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines and has been recommended to be so honored by an officially empaneled National Heroes Committee. However, no law, executive order or proclamation has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as a national hero. He was the author of the novels Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo, and a number of poems and essays.

8. MARCELO H. DEL PILAR

Marcelo H. del Pilar (born Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán; August 30, 1850 – July 4, 1896), better known by his pen name Plaridel, was a Filipino writer, lawyer, journalist, and freemason. Del Pilar, along with José Rizal and Graciano López Jaena, became known as the leaders of the Reform Movement in Spain.

Del Pilar was born and brought up in Bulakan, Bulacan. At an early age, he became a critic of the monastic rule in the country (the Spanish friars). He was suspended at the University of Santo Tomas and jailed in 1869 after he and the parish priest quarrelled over exorbitant baptismal fees. In the 1880s, he expanded his anti-friar movement from Malolos to Manila. He went to Spain in 1888 after an order of banishment was issued against him. Twelve months after his arrival in Barcelona, he succeeded López Jaena as editor of the La Solidaridad (Solidarity). Publication of the newspaper stopped in 1895 due to lack of funds. Losing hope in reforms, he planned to lead a revolution against Spain. He was on his way home in 1896 when he contracted tuberculosis in Barcelona. He later died in a public hospital and was buried in a pauper's grave.

On November 30, 1997, the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee, created through Executive Order No. 5 by former President Fidel Ramos, recommended del Pilar along with the eight Filipino historical figures to be National Heroes.^[6] The recommendations were submitted to Department of Education Secretary Ricardo T. Gloria on November 22, 1995. No action has been taken for these recommended historical figures. In 2009, this issue was revisited in one of the proceedings of the 14th Congress.

7. GRACIANO LOPEZ JAENA

Graciano López Jaena (December 18, 1856 – January 20, 1896) was a Filipino journalist, orator, revolutionary, and national hero who is well known for his newspaper, La Solidaridad.

Philippine historians regard López Jaena, along with Marcelo H. del Pilar and José Rizal, as the triumvirate of Filipino propagandists. Of these three ilustrados, López Jaena was the first to arrive in Spain and may have begun the Propaganda Movement which advocated the reform of the then-Spanish colony of the Philippines and which eventually led to the armed Philippine Revolution that begun in Manila in 1896. The Propaganda Movement was a key step towards a Philippine national identity.

6. ANDRES BONIFACIO

Andrés Bonifacio was a Filipino revolutionary leader and the president of the Tagalog Republic. He is often called "The Father of the Philippine Revolution". He was one of the founders and later Supremo (Supreme Leader) of the Kataas-taasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or more commonly known as "Katipunan", a movement which sought the independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine Revolution. He is considered a de facto national hero of the Philippines.

5. EMILIO JACINTO

Emilio Jacinto y Dizon (December 15, 1875 – April 16, 1899) was a Filipino General during the Philippine Revolution. He was one of the highest-ranking officer in the Philippine Revolution and was one of the highest-ranking officers of the revolutionary society Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, or simply and more popularly called Katipunan, being a member of its Supreme Council. He was elected Secretary of State for the Haring Bayang Katagalugan, a revolutionary government established during the outbreak of hostilities. He is popularly known in Philippine history textbooks as the Brains of the Katipunan while some contend he should be rightfully recognized as the "Brains of the Revolution" (a title given to Apolinario Mabini). Jacinto was present in the so-called Cry of Pugad Lawin (or Cry of Balintawak) with Andrés Bonifacio, the Supreme President of the Katipunan, and others of its members which signaled the start of the Revolution against the Spanish colonial government in the islands.

4. APOLINARIO MABINI

Apolinario Mabini y Maranan (July 23, 1864 - May 13, 1903) was a Filipino revolutionary leader, educator, lawyer, and statesman who served first as a legal and constitutional adviser to the Revolutionary Government, and then as the first Prime Minister of the Philippines upon the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. He is regarded as the "utak ng rebolusyon" or "brain of the reveloution"

Two of his works, El Verdadero Decalogo (The True Decalogue, June 24, 1898), and Programa Constitucional dela Republica Filipina (The Constitutional Program of the Philippine Republic, 1898) became instrumental in the drafting of what would eventually be known as the Malolos Constitution.

Mabini performed all his revolutionary and governmental activities despite having lost the use of both his legs to Polio shortly before the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

Mabini's role in Philippine history saw him confronting first Spanish Colonial Rule in the opening days of the Philippine Revolution, and then American colonial rule in the days of the Philippine–American War. The latter saw Mabini captured and exiled to Guam by American colonial authorities, allowed to return only two months before his eventual death in May, 1903.

3. CLARO M. RECTO

Claro Mayo Recto Jr. (born Claro Recto y Mayo; February 8, 1890 – October 2, 1960) was a Filipino statesman, jurist, poet and one of the foremost statesmen of his generation. He is remembered for his nationalism, for "the impact of his patriotic convictions on modern political thought".

2. LORENZO TAÑADA

Tañada is described to be a “person who metamorphosed from a graftbuster to a nationalist and... a crusader of various causes.” Apart from being characterized as an esteemed nationalist, Tañada was also regarded as the leader of the “parliament of the streets”. He had an infallible stance against graft and corruption, inequality, and tyranny. He was also the chief prosecutor against Japanese collaborators. Because of his political reputation, Tañada became a Filipino praised by all sectors of Philippine society, a person honored by both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, and a man who was acknowledged as a man of principles even by Benigno Aquino, Sr., who Tañada himself once charged as a “collaborator”. He was one of the petitioners in the landmark Supreme Court case Tañada vs. Tuvera, which declared that unpublished laws (a characteristic of the Presidential Decrees of Marcos) are without effect.

Tañada was also a longtime opponent of the U.S. role in the Philippines. He was the organizer of the Anti-Bases Coalition and other groups that rallied public opposition to the presence of American troops in Philippines. Lorenzo Tañada is often called the “grand old man of Philippine politics”, due to his reputation as one of the Philippine’s foremost nationalists. He was a familiar fixture during the Martial law era of Ferdinand Marcos, leading rallies and demonstrations being the founding chairperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan. During Corazon Aquino’s presidency, he was a staunch anti-U.S. Bases activist and an anti-nuclear power plant advocate.

On September 16, 1991, Tañada received a standing ovation from the Philippine Senate after its rejection of a new lease for the Subic Bay naval base, which was the last American military installation in the Philippines.

1. JOSE W. DIOKNO

Jose "Pepe" Wright Diokno (February 26, 1922 – February 27, 1987) was a Filipinonationalist. He served as Senator of the Philippines, Secretary of Justice, founding chair of the Commission on Human Rights, and founder of the Free Legal Assistance Group.

Diokno is the only person to top both the Philippine Bar Examination and the board exam for Certified Public Accountants (CPA). His career was dedicated to the promotion of human rights, the defense of Philippine sovereignty, and the enactment pro-Filipino economic legislation.

In 2004, Diokno was posthumously conferred the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Supremo—the Philippines' highest honor. February 27 is celebrated in the country as Jose W. Diokno Day