On J. Gatbonton’s factions and nationbuilding article

[“In the beginning was Faction: Nation-building still is a work in progress” by Juan T. Gatbonton, Jan 18, 2014 Manila Times] True. Our country’s situation of factional rivalry of datus in preHispanic times has not changed. A suggestion in Ambeth Ocampo’s column in the Inquirer yesterday could be a practical starting point in changing our intellectual, academic, political and economic decision-makers’ way of looking at our situation. His column was about the much reviled American Governor General Leonard Wood.

It turns out that President Manuel Quezon (who preferred a Philippines like hell run by Filipinos than a Philippines like heaven run by Americans) was leading our country to today’s perpetual control by his fellow datus when he tirelessly attacked Wood. Wood was instituting US-style/Western-style rules and governance. But Quezon et al were for immediate independence before elite control and factionalism could disappear and true democracy could develop here.