The eight milestones of our peoples' struggles

The spirit of nationalism that currently pervades all over the country can be traced to our centuries of history as a nation and as a people. The contemporary tremors in the nation's social, economic and political struggles are all symptomatic of what Dr. Jose Rizal called The Social Cancer of the nation, whose history can be divided into eight milestones. Those who ignore the painful lessons of history are doomed to repeat its many anguishes and deep injuries.

The first historical phase spanned from 22,000 BC to 1521 AD. To go back even farther to the past, archaeological evidence showed that homo luzonensis, relics of human remains were discovered to have existed in Luzon as early as 134,000 years ago. The earliest anatomically modern human bones were discovered in the Tabon Caves, Palawan dating 47,000 years ago. That period ended when Ferdinand Magellan "discovered" the Philippines in 1521. When the Spaniards landed in our country, they found that our people had existing government system

The second phase was from 1521 to 1898, a period of 377 years when our people were subjugated, oppressed and exploited by western colonizers who operated under a mindset that the West was superior to the East in terms of wisdom, intelligence, culture and the competence for government and administration of public affairs. This was also the same period that produced most of our heroes, among whom were Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora, Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini, the Luna brothers, Marcelo and Gregorio del Pilar.  and many others like TandangSora

The third phase of our sad historical struggles was from 1898 to 1945, when our islands were sold by Spain to the USA, along with Guam and Puerto Rico, for a measly selling price of twenty million US dollars. This period marked the transition from slavery under Spain to an American occupation and then commonwealth government where rising Philippine leaders. This period saw the rise of Filipino leaders like Manuel Quezon, Sergio Osmena, Manuel Roxas and ElpidioQuirino. The Philippines, although not yet an independent state, was allowed to sign the United Nations charter in 1944. The Philippine Independence was finally granted on July 4, 1946.

Embedded inside the third phase are four years of war from 1941 to 1945, which can be considered the fourth phase. The Empire of Japan, which had an ongoing conflict with the USA and we, being a colony of America at that time, were sacrificed as a collateral damage.Immediately after Japan's treacherous bombing of the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Japanese Imperial Army bombarded the Philippines and unlawfully occupied our land.  More than one million Filipinos were killed, our women were ravished as sex slaves and our economy pulverized by Japan.

The fifth phase was from 1946 to 1972 which saw the rise and fall of presidents like Manuel Roxas who died in office and was replaced by his vice president, ElpidioQuirino. Roxas and Quirino were both Liberal Party leaders. Quirino was defeated by his own Defense secretary turned Nacionalista, Ramon Magsaysay who died in a plane crash. He was replaced by another Nacionalista, the vice president Carlos Garcia. The next president was a Liberal, DiosdadoMacapagal. In 1965, Macapagal was defeated by a former party mate who turned Nacionalista, Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

The sixth phase was from 1966 to 1986 under a dictator who proclaimed Martial Law to perpetuate himself in power. He was ousted by the people in 1986. The seventh phase was from 1986 to the year 2000. when we turn to a new century. The eighth phase which is from 2001 to 2025 is a period where corruption has become a matter of course, starting from the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and interrupted only during the presidency of Benigno S. Aquino III. The rise of Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency will be remembered as a dark period of alleged extra-judicial killings, which is now under investigation by the ICC in The Hague.

Today, the nation is facing a dark cloud of loss of trust and confidence in duly constituted authorities because of massive corruption and abuses in handling government powers and spending. wasting and stealing public funds. The long and painful struggles of the Filipino people are bound to continue unabated, and what Dr. Rizal called Social Cancer is still torturing our people. This agony may continue unabated until something draconian can emerge to save us from total perdition.