Based on what we have been receiving, students of Philippine Studies have found our section on “salawikain” and other Philippine history related articles including the writings of the Philippines national hero, Dr Jose Rizal, very useful.

Judging from their feedback and comments, we are not surprised that a number of our readers and followers are young students. Here is a sample of a comment:

Yetz…. says: “..tHaNx Sa iNyong Nyc PrOvErbs..meRon na Akong aSSynMnT….hehe,,,:-)…..”

We have also serious commenting like this on the article: The Rizal Cult: On How Filipinos Created Their National Hero

Pepe Alas says:

It is true that Filipinos already “venerated” Rizal even before Taft’s declaration. However, the declaration of the Central Filipino Committee in Hong Kong hailing Rizal as the greatest patriot of the Filipino people wasn’t made known throughout the whole archipelago. Theirs was purely a Tagalog revolution (as evidenced by the first eight provinces which rebelled against Spain). The whole country didn’t approve of their rebellion. Thus when they declared Rizal as the greatest hero of the country, the rest of the Filipinos weren’t even aware of it. But the American Occupation did all possible dissemination of its declaration of Rizal as the national hero.

Rocky Sarmiento says:

Why the Spanish Government called the Philippine revolution a “Tagalog War” was understandable. One, the seat of the Spanish Government in the Philippines was located in a Tagalog-speaking region. Two, perhaps they did not realize that the revolution was already widespread. Three, even if they realized the magnitude of the “rebellion”, still it was politically expedient for the Spanish Government to call it as a “Tagalog War” in order to give the impression that the revolution was only a mutiny and a revolt and did not involve other parts of the country.

More than 100 years later and after all the history lessons taught to us, to still claim that the Philippine revolution is a “Tagalog revolution” is an insult to the intelligence and to the patriotism of the non-Tagalogs and to those in other parts of the Philippines who took part in the revolution. The first eight provinces were not all Tagalog-based. Have a look at this list: Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac. And then, you can also ask: Didn’t the Ilocos region participate in the revolution?

More of these at Philippine Studies