Scribd
Upload
929 views2 pages

5 What Filipinos Should Know - Andres Bonifacio

1) Before the Spanish arrived, the Philippines was governed by Filipinos and prospered through trade with neighbors like Japan. Filipinos had their own writing system and were well-educated. 2) When the Spanish came claiming peace, local leaders were deceived by promises of guidance and prosperity. A "Pact of Blood" was made between a Spanish representative and a Filipino king to cement their alliance. 3) For over 300 years since, Filipinos have sacrificed wealth, blood, and lives to defend the Spanish, even fighting other Filipinos, but received only treachery in return. The Spanish have undermined Filipino customs and beliefs.

Uploaded by

Dwight Alipio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
929 views2 pages

5 What Filipinos Should Know - Andres Bonifacio

1) Before the Spanish arrived, the Philippines was governed by Filipinos and prospered through trade with neighbors like Japan. Filipinos had their own writing system and were well-educated. 2) When the Spanish came claiming peace, local leaders were deceived by promises of guidance and prosperity. A "Pact of Blood" was made between a Spanish representative and a Filipino king to cement their alliance. 3) For over 300 years since, Filipinos have sacrificed wealth, blood, and lives to defend the Spanish, even fighting other Filipinos, but received only treachery in return. The Spanish have undermined Filipino customs and beliefs.

Uploaded by

Dwight Alipio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

What Filipinos should know

By Andres Bonifacio

(An article written by Andres Bonifacio titled "Ang dapat mabatid ng mga Tagalog",
translated from Tagalog by Epifanio delos Santos. This was published in the first and only
circulated issue of the Kalayaan in March 1896.)

Of old, previous to the arrival of the Spaniards, these Islands were governed by our own
compatriots who were then living in the greatest abundance and prosperity. They maintained
good relations with their neighbors, especially with the Japanese, and traded with them in
commodities of all sorts. The result was that wealth and good customs were a common
patrimony; young and old, the women included, knew how to read and write, using their own
alphabet.

But the Spaniards came, with the pretense of peace. The persons then governing us, flattered by
their honeyed tempting words, allowed themselves to be deceived by their offers to guide us on
the paths of wisdom and increased prosperity. They were, however, obliged to comply with the
ritualistic custom of the islanders, to give binding force to their compacts by means of an oath
of peace, which consisted in taking a small quantity of blood from the veins of the contracting
parties and then drinking the blood so mixed, as evidence that they were to be absolutely true
and loyal to their allies. This was called the Pact of Blood (which was concluded) between King
Sicatuna and the representative of the King of Spain, Legazpi.

Since then, for over three hundred years, we have been supplying (the wants) of the race of
Legaspi with largesse and have enriched them with abundance, despite the hunger and privations
that we ourselves have suffered. We have wasted our wealth and blood and even given our lives
in their defense; we have even fought our compatriots who would not willingly submit to their
yoke; we have combated the Chinese and the Dutch who attempted to wrest these Islands from
them.

Now, after all this, what comfort or liberal concession have they bestowed upon us in exchange
for all our sacrifices? How have they kept the contract, the cause, precisely, of our sacrifices?
Our munificence they have rewarded with treachery, and far from guiding us on the path of
knowledge, they have blinded us and contaminated us with their infamous procedure. They have
endeavored to make us abandon our own good customs; they have initiated us in a false belief
and have dragged the honor of the people into the mire. And if we dare beg for a scrap of love,
they give us banishment instead and tear us away from our beloved children, our wives, and our
old parents. Every sigh that we utter they brand as a sin and immediately punish it with
implacable ferocity.

Now nothing is to be seen of popular tranquility; now our peace is constantly being disturbed by
incessant rumors of complaints and prayers, of the wailing and grief of orphans, widows, and
parents of countrymen of ours whom the dominator has wronged; of the tears of mothers whose
sons have been put to death; of the wail of tender children whom cruelty has made orphans, and
each tear is like a drop of molten lead that lacerates our suffering wounded heart; now they
tighten more and more the links of the chain of vassalage that dishonors every man of integrity.
What, then, must we do? The sun of reason that shines in the East clearly shows unto our eyes
which, alas! have been blind so long, the way we must follow; by its light we can see the death-
dealing claws in the outstretched hands of the malevolent. Reason tells us that we cannot expect
anything but suffering upon suffering, treachery upon treachery, contempt upon contempt, and
tyranny upon tyranny. Reason tells us that we must not waste our time waiting in vain for
promises of a felicity that will never come, that will never materialize. Reason tells us that we
must rely upon ourselves alone and never entrust our right to life to anybody. Reason teaches us
to be united in sentiment, thought, and purpose, so that we may acquire the strength necessary
to crush the evil that is afflicting our people.

It is time that the light of truth should shine; time that we should show determination, honor,
shame, and mutual cooperation. The time is come now to diffuse the gospel that shall tear the
tough web obscuring our intellect, and that the islanders should see whence come their
misfortunes. Now it will be made evident that every step we are taking is on unstable ground, on
the brink of a horrible abyss of death, dug by our wily enemy. Therefore, oh my compatriots! let
us scatter the mist that befogs our intellect and let us consecrate all our force to the good cause,
with unshakable and absolute faith in its success, in the ultimate prosperity, so anxiously desired
by us, of the land of our birth.

You might also like