Don Sergio Osmeña's call for independence
CEBU, Philippines - Call this a continuum of my tribute to Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. that we wrote in yesterday’s column. When he was Speaker of the Assembly, Don Sergio Osmeña declared Philippine Independence before the Philippine Assembly on June 19, 1908 which, as history taught us truly led to the July 4 Independence of the Philippines.
When Dagohoy dared to fight the Spaniards in Bohol, it was a declaration of Independence, as he didn’t want to be under Spanish rule. When Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo raised the Philippine Flag in his home in Kawit, Cavite, it did not result in the Philippines getting any independence. But when Don Sergio made his declaration of Independence, this resulted in our having been granted Independence by the Americans, except for that minor hitch called World War II. So let me reprint the very words of Don Sergio Osmeña when he made this historic declaration.
“Gentlemen of the Assembly, with your consent, upon my conscience, as an Assemblyman and as a representative of the country, and on my responsibility as Speaker of this House, I declare solemnly before God and before the world that they consider themselves capable of conducting an ordered life, efficacious for themselves and for others in the concert of free and civilized nations; and that we believe that if at this instant the people of the United States should decide the case of the Filipinos in favor of their liberty, they would, upon assuming all the consequent responsibilities, be able to comply with their duties to themselves and to others, without detriment to liberty, justice and right.” You can very well say that our independence should be on June 19.
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Just open your tv to CNN or BBC and you will see all sorts of evil things happening around the globe -500 women mass raped in the Congo, volcanoes erupting in Indonesia, earthquakes striking Christchurch, New Zealand, floods in Pakistan, and the never-ending war on terror that brought wars to Iraq and Afghanistan 9 years after the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York which is commemorating its 9th year tomorrow. It just makes you think whether we are now at the end of times.
If you read the Bible in Revelations chapter 6:1-8, there you will read about the seven seals and the first four seals are known as the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. Jesus broke open the first of the seven seals and the four living creatures cried out and came forth a rider on a white horse. He had a bow and was given a crown where he rode victorious.
Breaking the second seal, another creature came out on a red horse that was given the power to take away peace from the earth so that the people would slaughter one another. He carried a big sword. When the third seal was broken, a black horse appeared with a creature holding a scale in his hand and declared, “A ration of wheat costs a day’s pay, and three rations of barley costs a day’s pay. But do not damage the olive oil or the wine.”
When Jesus broke the fourth seal, a pale green horse came forth and its rider was named Death and Hades accompanied him. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and plague, and by means of the beasts of the earth.
Jesus broke open the fifth seal and St. John who wrote Revelations said, “I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the Word of God. They cried out in a loud voice, ‘How long will it be, holy and true master, before you sit in judgment and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’” They were all given a white robe and told to be patient a little while longer until the number was filled of their fellow servants and brothers who were going to be killed.
Then St. John saw Jesus break the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake; the sun turned as black as dark sackcloth and the whole moon became like blood. The stars in the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs shaken loose from the tree in a strong wind. Then on verse 16 St. John wrote, “They cried out in the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?”
Depending on which side of Christianity you belong, there have been so many interpretations of this Bible passage, but the most common is that the four horsemen of the apocalypse represents Pestilence, War, Famine and Death. Back in 1962, there was a movie entitled “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” starring Glenn Ford and Yvette Mimieux, which was about the Second World War. With the Philippines having no peace because of the insurgency, poverty and widespread Dengue fever, which is really pestilence, then the end times just might be around the corner.
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