|
Philippines Resistance Movements
The tradition of rural revolt, often with messianic
overtones, continued under United States rule. Colorum
sects, derived from the old Cofradía de San José, had spread
throughout the Christian regions of the archipelago and by the
early 1920s competed with the Roman Catholic establishment and
the missionaries of Gregorio Aglipay's Independent Philippine
Church (Iglesia Filipina Independiente). A colorum-led
revolt broke out in northeastern Mindanao early in 1924, sparked
by a sect leader's predictions of an imminent judgment day. In
1925 Florencio Entrencherado, a shopkeeper on the island of
Panay, proclaimed himself Florencio I, Emperor of the
Philippines, somewhat paradoxically running for the office of
provincial governor of Iloilo that same year on a platform of tax
reduction, measures against Chinese and Japanese merchants, and
immediate independence. Although he lost the election, the
campaign made him a prominent figure in the western Visayan
Islands and won him the sympathies of the poor living in the
sugar provinces of Panay and Negros. Claiming semidivine
attributes (that he could control the elements and that his
charisma had been granted him by the Holy Spirit and the spirits
of Father Burgos and Rizal), Florencio had a following of some
10,000 peasants on Negros and Panay by late 1926. In May 1927,
his supporters, heeding his call that "the hour will come when
the poor will be ordered to kill all the rich," launched an
abortive insurrection.
Tensions were highest in Central Luzon, where tenancy was
most widespread and population pressures were the greatest. The
1931 Tayug insurrection north of Manila was connected with a
colorum sect and had religious overtones, but traditionally messianic movements gradually gave way to secular, and at
times revolutionary, ones. One of the first of these movements
was the Association of the Worthy Kabola (Kapisanan Makabola
Makasinag), a secret society that by 1925 had some 12,000
followers, largely in Nueva Ecija Province. Its leader, Pedro
Kabola, called for liberation of the Philippines and promised the
aid of the Japanese. The Tangulang (Kapatiran Tangulang Malayang
Mamamayang--Association for an Offensive for Our Future Freedom)
movement founded in 1931 was both urban and rural based and had
as many as 40,000 followers.
The most important movement, however, was that of the
Sakdalistas. Founded in 1933 by Benigno Ramos, a former
Nacionalista Party member and associate of Quezon who broke with
him over the issue of collaboration, the Sakdal Party
(sakdal means to accuse) ran candidates in the 1934
election on a platform of complete independence by the end of
1935, redistribution of land, and an end to caciquism. Sakdalistas were elected to a number of seats in the legislature and
to provincial posts, and by early 1935 the party may have had as
many as 200,000 members. Because of poor harvests and
frustrations with the government's lack of response to peasant
demands, Sakdalistas took up arms and seized government buildings
in a number of locations on May 2-3, 1935. The insurrection,
suppressed by the Philippine Constabulary, resulted in
approximately 100 dead and Benigno Ramos fled into exile to
Japan.
Through the 1930s, tenant movements in Central Luzon became
more active, articulate, and better organized. In 1938 the
Socialist Party joined in a united front with the Communist Party
of the Philippines (Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas--PKP), which
was prominent in supporting the demands of tenants for better
contracts and working conditions. As the depression wore on and
prices for cash crops collapsed, tenant strikes and violent
confrontations with landlords, their overseers, and the
Philippine Constabulary escalated.
In response to deteriorating conditions, commonwealth
president Quezon launched the "Social Justice" program, which
included regulation of rents but achieved only meager results.
There were insufficient funds to carry out the program, and
implementation was sabotaged on the local level by landlords and
municipal officials. In 1939 and 1940, thousands of cultivators
were evicted by landlords because they insisted on enforcement of
the 1933 Rice Share Tenancy Act, which guaranteed larger shares
for tenants.
Data as of June 1991
|
