Pasyon Term Paper

Macario Sakay and the Struggle for Kalayaan

Continuity in the Katipunan guerilla movement, 1892-1907

On February 4, 1899, Private Philip Grayson fired a shot across San Juan Bridge, beginning the struggle between US and Philippine forces for control of the Philippine Islands. The Philippine army, still prepared for battle in the aftermath of the revolution against the Spanish occupation, fought with tenacity. The United States military pursued a policy of all-out war against the Philippine resistance and of preferential treatment for those among the native elite who collaborated with the occupying US forces. According to officially sanctioned history books, those that even deem worthy of mention this "unfortunate unpleasantness" between the United States and Philippines at the turn of the 20th century[1], the pacification, as it was phrased, of the Philippine Islands ended with the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo on March 23, 1901.[2], [3]

In truth the American War as waged by the ilustrados[4], the educated landed elite, had already ended. Aguinaldo merely joined the ranks of the collaborators, those who recognized that their interests, property and otherwise, would best be served by American rule. Conflict, however, still raged across the country. The American War, it will be proven, was for the common person, or tao, members of the peasantry and the incipient urban working class, only an extension of the continuing fight for kalayaan, freedom, that had begun with the Katipunan under Andres Bonifacio against the Spanish in 1892.[5] The Republika ng Katagalugan under Macario Sakay exemplified this continuing struggle and its significance to the masses. There was an unbroken continuity in both ideology and in the class makeup of the Katipunan under Bonifacio (1892-1897) and later under Sakay (1901-1906).

Macario Leon Sakay [second from right, seated, in photo] was born in 1870 in a house on Tabora Street in Tondo, Manila.[6] Information regarding Sakay's upbringing is scarce to non-existent. He was born of a poor family and, it is presumed, out of wedlock; Sakay was his mother's family name.[7] He worked as an apprentice in a kalesa (a horse drawn carriage and the principal means of urban transportation) manufacturing shop and as a tailor.[8] Sakay could read and write Tagalog, and spoke some Spanish, "but not enough to carry on a sustained conversation."[9] He also acted in komedyas and moro-moros, which were stage plays named for their depiction of Christian/Muslim conflict. During this time, it can be safely assumed that he met Bonifacio who was also from Tondo and acted in moro-moros as well.

In 1894, Sakay joined the Katipunan, the movement established by Bonifacio to resist the Spanish occupation of the Philippines.[10] The Katipunan's religious and mystical overtones and its call for kalayaan, a freedom that entailed redistribution of wealth and a fellowship of equals as well as liberty from foreign domination,[11] deeply affected Sakay's future political commitment. There is evidence of this revolutionary concept in the account by Isabelo de los Reyes in John Taylor's compilation of documents, Philippine Insurrection against the United States: "I have said, and I will repeat a thousand times, that the Katipunan was a plebian society; that is certain - the limit of the aspirations of the Katipunan was a communistic republic."[12]

Sakay, "due to his good record," was appointed president of the Dapitan section of the Katipunan, thereby working directly under Bonifacio.[13] He served prior to this as an adjutant to Emilio Jacinto, intellectual leader of the Katipunan.[14] He was also responsible for the distribution of the Katipunan newspaper.[15] With the execution of Bonifacio in 1897 and the downfall of the Magdiwang wing to Aguinaldo,[16] Sakay assumed a less political role and began to recruit members for Katipunan districts.[17] This reaction to the ascension of Aguinaldo to power is widespread among the leaders of Bonifacio's Katipunan and appears to have been a response not only of resentment at Aguinaldo's perceived usurpation of authority, but one of necessity: most of Bonifacio's followers were demoted and deliberately ignored by the new ilustrado leadership.

In 1901, with the apparent goal of accomplishing Katipunan aims via legal means, Sakay founded and was secretary of the short-lived Nacionalista Party, which strove for immediate independence. Under the dual presidency of Pascual Poblete and Santiago Alvarez, the Nacionalista Party represented, as Orlino Ochosa astutely observed, "a Magdiwang-Katagalugan plot - in the midst of the republican [i.e. Aguinaldo's movement] struggle."[18] Poblete approached William H. Taft, head of the Philippine commission, seeking legal status. [19] Entirely unwilling to consider any form of Philippine independence, Taft passed the Sedition Law, which effectively banned the party. Sakay and the Katagalugan members abandoned the legal quest for independence and actively fought against the Americans in Morong province, later Rizal, until he was captured in June 1902[20] under the Sedition Law and imprisoned. Under the amnesty of July 1902, he was released and resumed activities.[21]

In May 1902 with Francisco Carreon acting as Vice President and secretary, Sakay issued a declaration that defined the republic that he presided over. It was a direct criticism of the self-interested practices of the ilustrado leaders in the past.

Sa paghihimagsik na guinawa dito sa Pilipinas ay na pagmalas sa lahat ng Kababayan na ang di pagcakaisang loob, gaua ng paglingap sa pilak, sa yaman at karunungan, ay huala ang pagtatanggol sa kalahatan, at itinangi ang sariling katauan. Sa ngayon ay minarapat nitong K. Pangasiwaan itong Kautusan sa kapanahunan ng pakikidigma. [22]

During the war that was fought here in Pilipinas, it became apparent to all our compatriots that unity of loob was absent, because all people cared for were silver, wealth, and education; thus, there was no willingness to defend the whole as concern for one's own body was paramount. Presently, the Highest Council deems it necessary to proclaim this order for the duration of the war.[23]

Important in Sakay's declaration is the mention of loob. Loob is the inner being, or the inside of a person. It was a defining concept in many Katipunan documents. In contrast to the ilustrado quest for "silver, wealth and education", the tao was commended to seek unity of loob and defend the whole. This unity is evidenced in a revolutionary statement in the constitution of the Republika ng Katagalugan:

Sino mang tagalog