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The Raid on Los Baños: Do or Die

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photo from Santo Tomas Internment Camp    Los Baños, a city in Laguna, known for research, academics, and nature, has a notable history that wasn't kenned by any. That history was embedded in the known university of many, namely University of the Philippines-Los Baños. The campus radiates welcoming and peaceful aura in contrast to the atmosphere throughout WW2. Back in the days, University of the Philippines-Los Baños houses a prison camp, containing 2,000 western civilians. Who would have thought that a space enjoyed by many has a story masked on it? On December 1, 1941, the Japanese troops started to launch an attack on the major American bases in the Pacific. It was disastrous for the Americans; hence, 80,000 soldiers withdrew to Bataan and the fortress of Corregidor from Manila. In April 1942, the allied soldiers were forced to surrender after their supplies decline and then herded them for the Bataan Death March, only to die due to inhumane treatments. The remaining ...
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Filipinwho?

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photo from: amazon.com “ The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too. We all tried to lie out of that but life won’t let us.”   — Eugene O’Neill     Are you a Filipino? How do you say so? We would question ourselves if we are indeed a Filipino. What makes a person a Filipino? Does it have any qualifications to be called one?  Like us, our ancestors also questioned themselves of what they are. This identity crisis was prevalent by the time they were colonized. We don't have any sense of character as we don't recognize ourselves. Every cultural trait we have was questioned if it's indeed a Filipino trait. There's a movie that utilized our continuous asking of ourselves. In 'Ganito kami noon, Paano kayo ngayon' film directed by Eddie Romero, starring the prominent actors of today, exhibited different answers of the characters on what is a Filipino. The movie was set up before the American Colonization. It greatly tackled about a weighty issue o...
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The 'Tejeros Convention' of the Past and the Present

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The Tejeros Assembly of 1897 from traveltothephilippines.com    What is behind the nationhood in the Philippines? The start of a  government in the country which gives out a relatable issue until now? In the past, Katipunan is an organization that has its structure and officers. Two associations of the Katipunan were seemingly indifferent towards each other. They honor two different supremos in Cavite, namely Andres Bonifacio and Baldomero Aguinaldo; however, Emilio Aguinaldo, being the leader, is more known to the public. Only after three months of the Imus assembly, Bonifacio presided on assessing the government structure of the Katipunan to achieve its goals, which weren't sufficed on the previous assemblage. There's no accomplished resolution in an attempt to identify what the government would be. On March 22, 1897, a convention was held in Tejeros to settle the dispute between two factions, and decide on what type of government should be installed. These t...
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The Moro Raids: Fight for Independence

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Photo from: gmanetwork.com      Are we all familiar with the natives in the southern part of the Philippines? The lumads in Mindanao that had been living on the islands even before the colonization of the Spaniards? The Moros were bounded by religion, which is Sunni Islam. It is their Islamic faith that makes them distinct among the majority of the Filipinos. As a Filipino, are we aware of the continuing dispute in Mindanao? The situations where the other parts in Mindanao wanted to be autonomous from the Philippines? The Moro people don't want to live in a system that doesn't support their culture and faiths. They were ardent on keeping their culture and beliefs by persisting on their grounds. The Moro people struggle for their sovereignty long before the Marcos administration and have refrained from being under national control.       After Christianizing the other natives and colonizing other parts of the Philippines, the Spanish in...
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The Linkage of Spain and Philippines

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The Philippines was under the Spanish regime for 333 years, so there's no doubt that the Filipino populace would embrace Spanish ways of living. For years, our character, customs, traditions, and beliefs as a pre-colonial Filipino were slowly changed and become somewhat attached to Spain's culture, which also links people to the past to know what was the life before. What can you notice in your surname, isn't there an evident mark of Spain? The remains of Spain's influence have become embedded in the Filipino culture. The Filipinos are already accustomed to their adopted culture that it can't be changed anymore. However, it doesn't mean that the Filipinos do fully embraced Spain's culture, they just balance the new and the old; in a way that they are using Spain's culture to bring up Indigenous practices. Also, the presence of Spain is still evident when you see through the name of our country- the Philippines, which came from the "Las Islas Filipi...
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