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The author PROFESSOR Emeritus Raul Rafael Ingles
marks his 80th birthday in June with the release of a UP centennial
book 1908: The Way It Really Was published by the University of the
Philippines Press.
Born in 1929, the year of the
Great Depression, Ingles belongs to the dwindling group called
Ravens formed by young writers of the 50s—whose literary mentors
were the Veronicans of the 30s. His works include short fiction,
poetry, and essays which all deserve to be anthologized. His CD of
delightful love poems came out a few years ago.
In the 50s, while working in
President Magsaysay’s office, he found time to finish a master’s
degree in public administration in UP Manila. In the library he came
across a lode of historical material—microfilms of The Manila
Times founded in 1898—which he used for a column “Fifty Years
Ago” which Manila Times editor Jose Bautista published from 1956
to 1972 when the paper was closed by martial law.
I would see Raul in the library
reading the microfilms and taking down notes. Eventually he bought
his own portable microfilm reader, which he lugged in his trips
abroad so as not to interrupt his column.
The book including Ingles’
columns about 1908 is a fitting gift to his Alma Mater on its
centenary. It is a handsome, well-designed volume almost the size of
a coffee table book. UP President Emerlinda R. Roman writes that
“one can only rejoice that someone with the discerning mind,
historical sense, and literary flair of Professor Ingles had the
imagination and the diligence” for undertaking the task of writing
“this extremely interesting book.”
Historian Ambeth Ocampo says that
in the book “the past becomes relevant to our times because
history as he presents it sounds strangely, and, sometimes
painfully, familiar.” Literary critic Bienvenido Lumbera notes
that the work “causes us to ponder the early years of the American
Occupation . . . and to look beyond 1908 to UP’s emergence as an
intellectual center of social relevance.”
Ingles dedicates 1908: The Way It
Was to his mother, Dorotea Villabona Yngles, (1858-1947) “original
poet of Mauban, who also compiled data on the history of this
coastal town of the Sierra Madre from the year 1677.”
The work
The book is for everyone who has
more than antiquarian interest in quaint details about life at the
time, and wants to know more about the history of a people under
colonial rule.
By 1908, with the
Philippine-American War still on despite Aguinaldo’s surrender,
the instruments of “pacification” have been
installed—including a public school system with English as medium
of instruction; the Flag Law prohibiting the display of the Filipino
flag and the singing of the Filipino national anthem; the Brigand
Act; the Philippine Assembly with delegates elected by propertied
voters (the underclass and women had no suffrage rights then); the
pensionado program; and the carnivals with beauty queens (Miss Pura
Villanueva reigning, later to be Mrs. Teodoro Kalaw) and stateside
entertainment. The UP under American presidents was to be the
colony’s educational centerpiece.
The Manila Times then
owned/edited by Americans supported “benevolent assimilation”
and the notion that Filipinos were not ready for independence. But
as a newspaper, it could not ignore the reality of resistance to
colonial rule like the continued rebellion, capture by betrayal, and
execution of Katipunan Gen. Macario Sakay and other rebels (called
bandits)—noted in Ingles’ column in 1957. I remember Raul
telling me that Sakay shouted before he was hanged: “We are not
bandits but members of the revolutionary force. Long live the
Philippines! Adios, Filipinas!” On June 22, 1908, a “KKK
circular” calling Americans “shameless, dishonest set of drunken
thieves” was reported and described by The Manila Times as
“drivel.”
Other reported forms of
resistance include students in the US espousing independence,
displaying the Katipunan flag in Wisconsin, and singing the national
anthem; the Progresistas protesting the firing by the Governor
General of the Filipino assistant director of the civil service; a
former pensionado Jorge Bocobo (Indiana U graduate) defending the
flag-waving students in the US (Bocobo became UP president in 1934);
the Assemblea Filipinas standing for immediate independence on
Rizal’s birthday June 19; nationalist writers Faustino Aguilar and
Lope K. Santos defending Col. Simeon Villa (chief aide of Aguinaldo
and father of poet Jose Garcia Villa) running against an American
candidate in Ermita for Manila councilor; the showing of
“seditious” zarzuelas of Aurelio Tolentino and Martin Reyes and
their subsequent arrests.
This was the context in 1908 when
the Philippine Assembly passed on May 25 the law creating the
University of the Philippines, now the premier and national
university of the country. It has nurtured intellectuals,
scientists, artists and professionals who have contributed much to
national development. It has produced leaders who are a credit to
the country, with many who are not. The UP has also turned out
patriots seeking to bring about genuine social change.
This book manifests the
author’s gift of selecting what would be historically/culturally
significant, written in a very engaging style. And as Lumbera says,
the book “allows every alumnus and friend of the UP to read into
it what he treasures most” about the university and the people
then and now.
eaordonez2000@yahoo.com
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