Note 102. The advanced political ideas held and propagated by the separatists were not bad in themselves; no particular objection can be raised against them as political ideas. But when we consider by whom and for whom these “reforms” were asked, we begin to appreciate the necessity to which the indian was put of endeavoring to attain them by armed struggle. Taking away the revolutionary basis upon which the plans of the Liga were raised, nothing remains but the empty walls of a roofless building. These walls or ideas are contained in the plans of reforms drawn up by almost every jackanapes in the Liga who could write down his thoughts with any amount of clearness. These plans agreed upon certain points, chiefly representation in the Spanish parliament and the expulsion of the Religious Orders. These two points appear to have been the essence of the direct aims of the separatists (see p. 69).
Others called for the Spanish constitution with its consequences: the liberty of the press and the liberty of associations. Liberty of the press was ever an unknown quantity in the Philippines. The idea of the liberty of the press is very beautiful when its liberties are not abused; it was the abuse of what little liberty the press enjoyed, in the latter days of Spanish rule, that induced the authorities to impose such a close censure upon it as they did. Whatever may be said in its favor, press censorship and such sedition laws as we enjoy to-day in this nondescript piece of the world’s surface, are more proper of absolute monarchies than of territory of the U. S. of America, although in our particular case we might as well be under the despotic, ever deteriorating rule of Aguinaldo, as that of a body of men whose intentions however good and sincere they may be, fall short, when put into practice, of the proverbial ingenuity in governing, of the famous Sancho Panza in his island of Barataria. Freedom of the press is at times a blessing, and at others a curse. From 1888 to 1896 it would have been more of the latter than of the former; for giving such a liberty to the separatists who asked it, would be arming the enemy with the best arms.
As to liberty of associations. People in the Temperance world often ask themselves, does prohibition prohibit? Some make themselves believe that it does; but practice has shown what common sense tells each and every one of us, that it does not; for if a man (and I do not wish to be so ungallant as to exclude the ladies) cannot get what he wants legally, he as a rule sees that he gets it somehow. And so with the Filipinos who, denied the liberty of association, defied the authorities and held their gatherings in secret and secluded places.
All these various political ideas were decidedly advanced in as much as they had relation to a people in no way prepared to receive them. No father would put a loaded revolver or an open razor into the hands of his child; but those were the very things the separatists were howling for.
[1] Previous to 1896 Aguinaldo was an almost unknown indio. He was at that time about 23 or 24 years of age, and like the far greater majority of the indios of the archipelago had forgotten what little he had learned at school. He was a lavandero[2] for the Arsenal at Cavite, and possessed little command over the Spanish language, speaking it after the Cavite style, de cocina as the Spaniards say. He was the son of Carlos Aguinaldo who had several times held office under the Spanish Government, and who was at heart a bitter anti-Spaniard. Like the remainder of his fellow Tagalogs, Aguinaldo demonstrates a different character in connection with each event which takes place in his life. As capitan municipal in 1896 he was very Spanish in dealing with the authorities, but in dealing with his own people quite the reverse. Like the Taveras, the Legardas and the Buencaminos etc., he was an adept at political lightning changes. Buencamino in one of his absurd articles to the Filipino press (La Independencia, Sept. 6th 1896) speaking of him says: “... all the Filipinos unconditionally obey the president Aguinaldo seeing in him the messenger of God sent to redeem the Filipino people from all foreign domination, and because they see in the said chief the great virtues of fortitude, honor and magnanimity which ought to adorn all saviors of their country.”
The belief among some Filipinos that Aguinaldo was a semi-God was not uncommon at one time, and many hold to it even in these days. A certain Bray (apparently related very closely to the bray of an ass) went a step further in an article to the French Revue de Revues and compared Aguinaldo to Christ, to Alexander the Great, to Mahomet, to Caesar, to Napoleon and others!
Aguinaldo certainly demonstrated fortitude, and did not sell his sword to those he considered his enemies. His misfortune was that he fell into the hands of such advisers as Buencamino and others, who, after working up his stupid pride, deserted him in his hour of need. Aguinaldo showed fortitude and was never a traitor to what he considered the honor of his country. Honor to Aguinaldo in this respect.
[2] Washerman.
[3] As to the goodness of customs read the testimony of the most reliable chroniclers and historians of the earliest days of Spanish history.