THE TRIAL THAT SHOOK THE NATION

the Trial of

PEDRO CALOSA

Shock waves from the episode rumbled across Luzon for several months. Before they subsided, customary urban attitudes toward agrarian unrest had received a series of unsettling jolts. The incarcerated peasants proved more articulate than any of their predecessors. Many of them, moreover, were relatively well educated. The combination brought village grievances to the fore in a dramatic fashion. Manila's newspapers, for example, quoted Cesario Abe' extensively. He insisted the uprising had been staged " to secure a redistribution of wealth in order to help poor people free themselves from oppression." Other dissidents spoke out against ecclesiastical persecution, saying they desired "the Independent Church to be the supreme religion in the Islands." Another group held they had acted for patriotic reasons and "wanted only the Filipino flag to fly over goevernment buildings." All of them, furthermore repudiated "Colorum" labels. The enunciation of compelling material, spiritual and national goals, linked to the rejection of supernaturalism, reached sympathetic ears in Manila. Almost overnight, influential defenders rallied to the prisoners.

THE TRIAL COMMENCES

The mass trial--which began one month after the uprising--took place in a glare of publicity. Opposition politicians, led by Alejo Mabanag, Democrata candidate for the Senate, directed the defense. Calosa and Abe received additional assistance from prominent lawyers in Lingayen. The proceedings consequently, consumed two and a half months. Mabanag established his argument early: appealing to the social consciences of his countrymen, he read rebel confessions into the record. One of the raiders, Benito Allas, declared,"Many of us, including myself, were formerly owners of big pieces of land in Tayug and Sta. maria. We have been driven from our lands which our fathers and grandfathers cleared [or] have occupied since time immemorial. Because of this grievance we have long planned. . . to drive away the hacenderos and get our lands back."

Throughout February, march and April, defense attorneys whittled down prosecution charges. They did not dispute the fact that a secret society had come into being. Nor did they deny that the organization had planned and executed an attack on Tayug. They contended, nevertheless, that their clients had been driven by lofty desires tocorrect accumulated evils. The real culprits were "caciquism," colonialism and Catholicism. Behind the rebellion, they insisted, lurked a series of chronic irritants which produced only persecuted tenants, anxious nationalists and frustrated Aglipayans. The insurrection, Mabanag and his men concluded, would never have occured in a just society.

THE VERDICT

An equally determined persecutor was unmoved. Pointing doggedly to the grisly results of peasant reform impulses, he demanded the maximum penalties due murderers and seditionists. The trial ended on April 20, 1931, with partial victory for both sides. No one received the death sentence. All of the women were released on grounds of insufficient evidence. The judge found most of the men guilty, but assigned them to only five years in prison. Ex-convicts Pedro Calosa and Cesario Abe emerged as the scapegoats. Both men were ordered to Bilibid prison for forty years. The Pangasinan Court of First Instance also required the convicted parties to pay 1,000 pesos in damages to heirs of each of their Constabulary victims.

It soon became apparent that Tayug's rebels ahd been heard. High-echelon responses to Mabanag's indictment of the system, however left much to be desired. Newspapermen quoted Governor General Dwight F. davis concerning conditions in Pangasinan. David admitted that there were many areas in the Philippines where tenants had just grievances but said he did not believe Tayug is one of them. Secretary of the Interior Honorio Ventura fell back on more conventional interpretations. "The colorums," he declared, "had no definite purpose in what they did. The spirit behind the movement was a hash of religion, politics, fanaticism and a bit of everything else that can serve to inflame them." Ventura ended his statement with a harsh note: "If the government could afford it there would be no problem. It is just a matter of adding 10,000 men to the Constabulary and distributing the force in all municipalities."

His opinion did not go unchallenged. Tomas Confessor-who had ably assisted leonard Wood toward peaceful revolution of the Entrecherado affair-disputedVentura's reasoning. As the outspoken new Director of Commerce and Industry, he traced Tayug to "caciquism" Confessor, moreover, wentfurther and ascribed the growth of aggresively religious sects throughout the Philippines to economic inequities. Most "colorums" he added, "are in reality nothing but discontented tenants who have been mercilessly exploited and who seek revenge through acts of violence."

ECHOES OF THE TRIAL

Influential American residents echoed Confessor's theme.Speaking for the American Chamber of Commerce in the Islands, Walter Robb criticized the Constabulary for it's trigger-happy performance."Of what to do there may have been doubt," he grumbled, but never a doubt of willingness to do it." Tayug's troopers received similar castigations from A.V.H. Hartendorp, the editor of Philippine Magazine. Men in khaki and red, he suggested "instead of striding along with guns in their shoulders, might well get a little closer to the people." Hartendorp also warned his readers that a dangerous cleavage was developing between two classes: "Our legislators should think more about the common people--at other times than just before elections. We should be on our guard in this country against the governemnt becoming an ilustrado governemnt out of touch with the people and unsymphatetic to their needs, leaving them ready to turn to men of the type of Pedro Calosa for leadership." The most startling statement however came from the editorial of the Philippines Free Press. After years of crusading against fanaticism, the weekly proclaimed a new gospel:

Let's get over the ridiculous idea that every manifestation of unrest rises from colorum activities...No nation can be founded on a downtrodden peasantry which is constantly in debt to landowners. Any attempt to blame religious fanaticism for the effort of an oppressed peasantry to achieve some measure of economic independence is ridiclous and dangerous-ridiculous because it sows the seed for more widespread manifestation of that discontent.

It is about time that some facts are looked in the face and that the laissez-faire theory of doing nothing be thrown out of our governement.

The facts, unfortunately, were not faced. Three peasant rebellions and one abortive conspiracy in seven years wrought no change in Philippine life. Some editors and a handful of politicians called forreforms. Their appeals went unheeded. Social distance between elitists and the villagers, consequently continued to grow. Few insular Americans or Filipino administrators comprehended the significance of the gap. It had existed too long--become so much of thedaily routine thatits potential was no longer discernible.

Americans-fresh from the depression threatened United States-grasped the situation immediately. Social tensions in the Philippines struck them with an initial impact comparable to Manila's heat. Above all, Tayug brought the message to malacaniang Palace. Calosa's uprising was not dismissed as an isolated or unimportant event: Surigao in 1924, Nueva Ecija in 1925, Negros and Panay in 1927, Pangasinan in 1931; however viewed, the sequence foreshadowed trouble. A new Governor-General, John C. Early, expressed private concern and began confidential inquiries into the state of provincial affairs. At his behest, peasant leaders visited the Palace. Most of them spoke frankly.

General Teodoro Sandiko, a fiery old Katipunero, held nothing back. "The Americans," he said," have too much respect for property and property rights. Let the United States get out, and the oppressed will soon right things with the bolo."---#

****************

The Hacenderos lost some clout in today's Philippines, but  their place was taken over by the moneyed class. In today's globalization, it is so easy to form a consortium that could create jobs in our country. But on the other hand without Labour Unions, many Filipinos remain peons abused in their own country.

Many computer and electronic related companies were established by foreigners. These took the place of the Americans whom Manuel L. Quezon  did not want to rule the country like heaven, but he prefered Filipinos to run it like you-know-what..

The Japanese were driven out by the Americans in 1945. But now they are back in the Philippines, in Hawaii and even in the United States. They melted their weapons and bombs into other things ( computer chips, among other stuff ) and they were able to "conquer" economically, more lands than they can imagine. China, once a sleeping Dragon, is now fully awake, yawning and stretching and figuring what piece of the pie can she take a bite of . Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. These Asian  countries seem to know how to cashin their chips and get their share of the global money.

How about Juan dela Cruz? I wonder when will his ship arrive..---#

ed.