Can a President change our history?

Today is supposed to be the 67th anniversary of Philippine Independence, however because of the enormous powers of the Office of the President, back in the days of Pres. Diosdado Macapagal, he ordered that henceforth the celebration of Independence Day be moved from July 4 to June 12, the date when then Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo waved the Philippine flag in his residence in Kawit, Cavite. Hence the question, “Can a President change our history?” In my book… he cannot!

Clearly, then Pres. Macapagal wanted to rehabilitate the ailing Gen. Aguinaldo, who was ostracized by the Americans and denied his hero status by Filipino historians due to his political rivalry with the late Ka Andres Bonifacio, whom the former tried in a kangaroo court and summarily executed. Since then, Philippine politics have always been tainted with violence even up to this day.

If you ask me, Gen. Aguinaldo's flag raising act proves that he was a “Johnny-come-lately” in Philippine history. Three months earlier, right here in Cebu City, Mr. Pantaleon “Leon Kilat” Villegas of Bacong, Negros Oriental cloaked with full authority from the Katipunan in Luzon gathered his Cebuano friends on  April 3, 1898 and overpowered the Spanish troops at the crossroads now called Tres de Abril corner V. Rama Ave. They successfully pounced on the Guardia Civil who run towards downtown Colon and into the safety of the walls of Ft. San Pedro where they holed out for four days.

If you ask me, Leon Kilat's victory, even if it was short-lived, was a better act than the flag waving that Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo did in the comfort of his home. Of course, the majority of the Cebuano populace was in total disbelief by the actions of Leon Kilat and his men. They probably thought that 400 years under Spanish rule would not be won by a simple act of defiance by Leon Kilat. However on the 4th day, the Spanish Cruiser Don Juan Austria arrived in Cebu with fresh troops and ran after Leon Kilat and his men who dispersed to the hills and far flung places.

As for Leon Kilat, his own aide-de-camp Apolinario Alcuitas had him drunk on the evening of April 8 and the stone drunk Leon Kilat was carried off to his bed where Alcuitas and his seconds stabbed him to death. They then offered his body to the Guardia Civil in return for clemency. But the Juez de Cochillo showed them no mercy and executed all of them. By month's end, on April 30, Admiral George Dewey's Asiatic Squadron arrived in Manila Bay and the rest is history.

So when Gen. Aguinaldo raised his flag in Kawit, Cavite, the Spaniards were already on the run and as we said, he was a “Johnny-come-lately.” So why was June 12 chosen by then Pres. Macapagal to be our Independence Day and not Tres de Abril? We can only reckon that these people only wanted to promote Tagalog nationalism.

I find it odd that we Filipinos are known for celebrating our famous defeats like the Fall of Corregidor or the Fall of Bataan or the infamous Death March. Yet, we never talk about our victories and two of them happened right here in Cebu - first was our victory against a foreign invader when Chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Armada Capitan Ferdinand Magellan and the other one was when Leon Kilat captured Cebu for four days.

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By the end of the week, the Supreme Court (SC) will finally hear the oral arguments of the controversial Republic Act no. 10354 a.k.a. The Reproductive Health (RH) Law and at this point, the pro-life groups are now preparing a massive prayer campaign, some praying as much as 2,000 rosaries every day in the hope that the Holy Spirit will overshadow our Associate Justices to see the light that their primary duty is to uphold the Constitution and the preservation of the family unit.

But some kind of divine intervention suddenly came from out of nowhere a Muslim group dubbed Parhimpunan Sin Islam led by its President Al Tillah and Joe Kashim, a management and political economist, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to nullify RA 10354 as unlawful under the ARMM Autonomy. This group quoted parts of the Quran in Surat Al-'Isra' 17:31 which states, “And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Indeed their killing is ever a great sin.”

During the height of the debates to pass the RH Bill in Congress, the Muslim people stood silently by and said nothing. But it's not too late for their petition which strengthens our cause before the eyes of the Supreme Court Justices, that our Muslim brethren hold life as sacred, regardless of how many of their wives would bear children. Let's continue praying and plead for the life of the innocents or the unborn.

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Email: vsbobita@gmail.com