Macario Sakay: Traitor or a Patriot?
INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECIAL
I wont be writing in Tagalog because I want to deliver a message in a language that most will understand. When I asked a 15 year old high school student if he knows who Macario Sakay is, he laughed and probably thought i was joking or something.
L to R: seated, Julian Montalan, Francisco Carreon, Macario Sakay, Leon Villafuerte; standing, Benito Natividad, Lucio de Vega. The Generals.
General Macario Leon Sakay was one the greatest patriots the Philippines has ever had and yet he was branded as a traitor in his own land and was even considered a wild bandit. How can this happen? Simple and straight. We are ones who were responsible. We believed in the Americans while abandoning our own countrymen. They did not even recognize our OWN independence until later. (The Philippine Independence day was originally June 12 but the Americans and the Spanish did not recognize this and they assigned July 4 as the date of our independence and was only changed back to June 12 66 years later.)
Sakay and most of his men had long hair, this hair style was not usual during their era. The Americans saw this as an opportunity so they exploited it in their quest to portray Sakay and his men as wild bandits preying on the simple folk of the countryside. Even today, many in the Tagalog area (most of whom have never heard of Macario Sakay) refer to a man with long hair as "someone who looks like Sakay." This is, perhaps, a testimony to the effectiveness of the American propaganda campaign.
I know one man who was considered a traitor in the past, then later a patriot. He even became a president. His name is Thomas Jefferson. The author of their Declaration of Independence. Basically both men were the same, but their audiences was different. During the American Revolution the Americans supported their fellowmen against the English. We chose to abandon Sakay and his men. We could have had a greater country now and a proud one if we choose to fight back as free men. No one is born to be a slave, I actually thought that Filipinos back then was having fun being occupied and only few have the courage to deliver their voices. We owe it to guys like Macario Sakay. The heart breaking past revealed that a plot to kill him was actually successful because of a Filipino. The same with Andres Bonifacio, The father of the Katipunan who was betrayed by half of his army and was subject to a firing squad by the same men who he believed fought for him. The fact that the bravest men in our history was betrayed is just plain sad.
TAGALOG REPUBLIC'S FLAG
They formed a republic (The Tagalog Republic) and we ignored it. We wish to become free yet up until now we are trapped by our colonial mentality. We choose to laugh when a pinoy speaks his foreign tongue while we admire people who speaks straight english. I encourage everyone to please support our own country and let us have our identity. Let not the sacrifice of our heroes be in vain. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.
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