Uncovering the Forbidden Truth

Review of The Forbidden Book by Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel, and Helen Toribio (T’boli Publishing and Distributor, U.S.)172 pages
Philippine selling price: P1,400.00

The relevance of The Forbidden Book lies not only in the wealth of historical information and insights that it provides. It comes at a time when the U.S. is engaged in another imperialist war, this time in Iraq. Leafing through the book, one finds himself or herself confronted by similarities between the Philippine-American War and the Iraq War.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. V, No. 3, February 20-26, 2005

In his famous article, “The Miseducation of the Filipino,” the late historian and social critic Renato Constantino wrote about the Philippine-American War of 1899-1914 being hidden from the textbooks that we in the Philippines are made to read in school.

The American forces sent to the Philippines in the late 19th century were here to liberate the country from the Spanish colonizers, these books say, and the Filipinos are depicted as having willingly accepted American rule which had the purpose of teaching Filipinos the art of self-government. Buried in the official histories is the fact that the U.S. waged a 15-year war against Filipino freedom fighters who had just won their freedom from Spain with negligible “help” from American troops – as confirmed by British lawyer Richard Brinsley Sheridan who was working in the Philippines when the war broke out.

Recent papers show that nearly 1.5 million Filipinos died in the war against U.S. colonial occupation.
The miseducation about the Philippine-American War, however, started much earlier in the United States. This miseducation of the American people about the Philippine-American War is the subject of The Forbidden Book by Filipino-American scholars Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel, and the late Helen Toribio – launched in the Philippines at the Popular Bookstore Feb. 5, a day after the war’s 106th anniversary.
The book takes its title from a 1900 cartoon showing then U.S. President William McKinley preventing Uncle Sam from reading “The Forbidden Book” on “the true history of the war in the Philippines.”

On Feb. 4, 1899, the U.S. engaged the Philippines in a war on the pretext that Filipino soldiers had fired at American troops at the San Juan Bridge. It was actually the other way around: an American soldier named Willie Grayson had fired shots at four Filipinos crossing the bridge.

“Halto!”

The late historian Teodoro Agoncillo, in his classic History of the Filipino People, recounted the incident, quoting Grayson himself thus: “I yelled ‘Halt!’...the man moved. I challenged with another ‘Halt!’ Then he immediately shouted ‘Halto!’ to me. Well I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him.”

The Forbidden Book collects political cartoons in the period of the Philippine-American War which appeared in various American newspapers and magazines. Of these there are 88 colored cartoons and 133 black-and-white cartoons.

In their selection of the cartoons, the authors present both sides of the Philippine-American War: the “pros” and the “antis.” It is clear from the way they explain the book, however, where they stand on the issue.

The authors speak of an “economic transformation” in the U.S. characterizing the period between the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865 and the beginning of the Philippine-American War in 1899.

“One important consequence of the economic transformation was the need for overseas markets to sell American manufactured goods,” the authors write. “Concerned that the domestic market area was not enough to absorb the products of industry and agriculture, powerful interests lobbied to keep overseas markets open to U.S. business.”

They didn’t make that up. They merely explain the words uttered in 1897 by leading capitalist expansion advocate Sen. Albert Beveridge: “American factories are making more than the American people can use; American soil is producing more than they can consume. Fate has written our policy for us; the trade of the world must and shall be ours.”

By highlighting that point, the authors set the tone for the reading of the book, thereby giving the reader pointers on how to make sense of those cartoons that justify the occupation of the Philippines based on McKinley’s “Manifest Destiny” slogan, based on the claim of “(Taking) up the White Man’s burden--/...(Among) new-caught, sullen peoples,/Half-devil and half-child,” to paraphrase British pro-imperialist poet Rudyard Kipling.

Negroes as savages

The cartoons were illustrated at a time when the Negroes were looked upon by the white Americans as savages, if not beasts, and there are many cartoons included in the book which depict the Filipinos as African tribal babies. One of the cartoons even compares the killing of Filipinos to “killing niggers.”
However, there are cartoons which unveil the lies behind the “Manifest Destiny” slogan, portraying the war as one that is in the interest of the U.S. capitalist establishment but not of the American people and certainly not of the Filipino people.

The relevance of The Forbidden Book lies not only in the wealth of historical information and insights that it provides.

It comes at a time when the U.S. is engaged in another imperialist war, this time in Iraq, which is being justified along the same messianic claims – a war supposedly intending to dismantle tyranny in Iraq, only to replace Saddam Hussein’s tyranny with the tyranny of a clique of leaders ready to accommodate U.S. economic interests in Iraq’s rich resources. Leafing through the book, one finds himself or herself confronted by similarities between the Philippine-American War and the Iraq War.

It is very good that being based in the U.S. did not take the Filipino out of the book’s authors. In coming out with this book, the authors secure for themselves a place in history with other Filipino expatriate intellectuals who continued or have continued to be Filipino – and fight for the Filipino – even “in the belly of the beast,” like Carlos Bulosan and Dr. E. San Juan, Jr.

Author De la Cruz, a former University of the Philippines professor, is now with the California State University’s Asian American Studies. A former professor himself, Emmanuel is with Asia for Asian Studies in California while Toribio taught at San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies. The book is available in the Philippines at Popular Bookstore along Tomas Morato Street (near the corner of Timog Avenue), Quezon City; or contact Ms. Joy Soriano at (63-2)4557738. Bulatlat

© 2004 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications

P8,000 Daily for a PMA Cadet; a Paltry P43 for the State Scholar

Unlike all other state universities and colleges (SCUs), the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) remains the learning institution most favored by government. While the budget of the SCUs has been slashed anew several-fold this year, that of the PMA has been increased.

By Ronalyn Olea
Bulatlat
Vol. V, No. 3, February 20-26, 2005

Compared to all other state universities and colleges (SCUs), the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) remains the learning institution most favored by government. Along with the Department of Education (DepEd), the SCUs have their new budgets slashed several-fold.

The PMA, as expected, has no budget cut; its allocation has in fact been increased – from P557.92 million last year to P568.17 million this year.

In the proposed budget, the PMA cadet is subsidized with P12 million for a four-year course or roughly P8,219 a day; his counterpart at the state Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) has a measly P43 a day or only 0.52 percent of the PMA cadet’s daily subsidy.

The PMA produces the country’s military elite but its professional hierarchy in the armed forces has been wracked by graft scandals, mutinous tendencies and human rights violations. This has not deterred the current presidency – and its predecessors – from showering both the military and national police with fat salary increases and other high budget allocations, however.

Speaking at a rally of about 1,000 students in Mendiola, Manila on Feb. 14, Rizza Ramirez, national president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), asked: “Is this government more interested in producing corrupt military officials than professionals and teachers much needed by the country? While this government spends huge amounts of money in launching its war in Mindanao, the Filipino students suffer from dilapidated facilities, tuition and miscellaneous fee hikes and low quality of education.”

The Valentine’s Day rally, joined by students from SCUs and public high schools, called President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a “heartless mother.” The state scholars and other rallyers lambasted the Macapagal-Arroyo government for cutting education expenditures mercilessly in favor of debt servicing and military expenditures.

In the proposed national budget for this year, 33.6 percent goes to interest payments amounting to P301.69 billion, Ramirez said. The combined allocation for debt servicing, including the payment for the principal debt, accounts for more than 70 percent of the national budget. The country has now incurred a $60 billion foreign debt.

Moreover, P1.2 billion will be allotted for intelligence funds this year. The Office of the President will get P650 million. The intelligence fund earmarked for the Philippine National Police (PNP) is P270 million; Department of National Defense (DND), P111.5 million; and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), P31.24 million.

The budget of the DND this year amounts to P43.6 billion. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will get P46.04 billion.

Anti-VAT, too

Ramirez, a college senior from the University of the Philippines (UP), also opposed the imposition of a hike on the Value-Added Tax (VAT) saying taxes do not translate to social services such as education, health and housing.

“Isn’t it appalling for Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo to tax anew the poor majority so as not to default on debt payments? The Filipino youth and the people in general do not get their fair share in the nation’s wealth. The national budget for this year reveals so much about her real priorities,” the NUSP president said.

Overall, education spending remains a pittance compared to debt servicing and military expenditures. For the first time, the Department of Education (DepEd) will suffer a budget slash of P4.6 billion from last year’s allocation. The reduction is expected to even aggravate the public education crisis in terms of shortages in classrooms, desks, textbooks and teachers.

SCUs will have to do with P950 million less than the previous allocation. The UP budget will bear the biggest slash amounting to P355.64 million. Because of the reduced subsidies, SCUs are even more compelled to increase tuition and other fees.

In UP, tuition increases have been imposed even under the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP). While in 1989, tuition was pegged at P17 per unit today it stands at P300 per unit. In 2001, tuition in the UP graduate school increased from P300 per unit to P500-P700 per unit. In the state university’s five units, laboratory fees have also been jacked up. From the previous P0.00 to P50, these fees were increased to P500 to P600.

Processing fees

Meanwhile, in PUP processing fees were hiked by 67 to 100 percent. The PUP administration also plans to increase tuition from P12 per unit to P88 per unit. The Philippine Normal University (PNU) also increased its tuition by 400 percent in 2003.

Regional state universities also suffer tuition and other fee increases. In Central Luzon State University (CLSU), for example, tuition and miscellaneous fees were hiked by 298 percent. At the Aklan Polytechnic Institute, tuition will increase by 400 percent in the next four years. The Ramon Magsaysay Technological University (RMTU) in Zambales raised its tuition from P80 to P150 per unit last year. A P200 development fee is also collected from the students.

The Mindanao State University in General Santos City will raise its tuition from P50 to P150 per unit. The University of Eastern Philippines (UEP) in Samar will also implement a tuition hike, from P40 per unit to P150 per unit.

The budgets cuts have reportedly driven thousands of state scholars from registering at the SCUs anymore because of higher tuition. They either join the increasing army of college dropouts or, particularly those whose families can afford it, enroll for two-year technical or vocational courses in quest of a job abroad.

Meanwhile, about 10,000 students from the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) in Manila walked out of their classes on Feb. 14. Wearing black, the students opposed the proposal to change the name of the university to Malayan Institute. MIT, a top engineering school, is owned by the Yuchengco Group of Companies. The Yuchengcos own the Malayan Insurance and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, among others. The school is listed among the top 1,000 corporations in 2003 with P28.7-million profit. Bulatlat

© 2004 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications