The things happening recently really transports one to a world of surrealism. I have never imagined that history can be used as a weapon of disinformation to this day. In fact, it is not only disinformation but is used to muddle up any issue. The recent digging up of the Bud Dajo battle is an example of such a case. It was waved and bandied about as a sort of the pot calling the kettle black
I have been a serious student of history but not formally. My main source of history back then was my maternal grandfather. He was born during a time when the Philippines was an American colony, and then part of the Commonwealth, WWII, Independence and contemporary history.
But he is remarkable since he graduated Magna cum Laude at the Philippine Normal College during the commonwealth era and Magna cum Laude at the Union Theological Seminary. I deferred to him most regarding history, both written and unwritten because he also came in contact with those whose stories are not part of formal history books.
It was during grade school that I became aware of the Muslim Question in Mindanao. Not finding it in my grade school elementary history books, I asked him. I knew that the Philippines was an American colony before and I saw the movie posters of Dugo ng Tarikan (starring Vic Vargas) and also Sunugin ang Samar! (starring Ramon Revilla), and I wondered what about Mindanao.
His answer came in the form of a lecture on the Bates Treaty and that it somehow kept the peace after that. He did mention the Bud Dajo battle and that it was the battle that settled American dominance in Mindanao.
Today, Duterte waved it as an example of American terrorism and disrespect for human rights of Filipinos. Again, I went back to my grandfather but he passed away 1987. And again I fall back on what he taught me and did research on the subject. That was why I kept my mouth shut during the time when it was the stuff of headlines.
Here goes.
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| Bud Dajo Mountain |
Bud Dajo
Bud Dajo is located 6 kilometers from Jolo. It is the crater of an extinct volcano with an elevation of 640 meters above sea level. Its crater has a circumference of 1,800 yards and the volcano itself has an 18 kilometer circumference and is steep and thickly forested. It has three major trails going to the summit. In military terms, it is a formidable defensive perimeter and owing to the size of the area, a siege would be very difficult to undertake.
Why Bud Dajo?
A Moro named Pala ran amuck in a village in Borneo, then part of the British colony that was to be now Malaysia. Having become a fugitive, Pala went back to Jolo, then part of the Sulu Sultanate. He was to be arrested by Col. Hugh Scott, district governor of Sulu. The Datu opposed the move to arrest Pala and during the ensuing fight, Pala managed to escape. In time Pala became a Datu and it was several months that another attempt to arrest him was made. Pala then sought refuge in Bud Dajo because of its easily defensible perimeter.
Bud Dajo was not only easily defended but also had a source of water and soon, other Moros joined Pala in the sanctuary of Bud Dajo.
Why?
During that time, “reforms” were being implemented in Mindanao. These reforms were:
1. No more “Cedula”
2. Stopping of the Slave Trade
Even in pre-Hispanic Philippines, slave raiding and slave trading was an industry in Mindanao, with slave raiders ranging as far as Luzon.
Those joining Pala were against the reforms banning slavery and were the remnants of three earlier revolts against the Americans.
Initial attempts at inducing Pala and his group to surrender were futile. These consisted of sending Datus and even the Sultan himself failed to make Pala and his group to surrender.
Having a secure base, Pala and his group raided nearby villages for women and cattle.
This prompted the Americans to neutralize Bud Dajo. 3 combat columns attacked from the three main trails leading to Bud Dajo. Each trail was defended by barricades and fighting was intense and even led to hand-to-hand combat.
Eventually, the crater summit was on the verge of being overrun. A last resort was then made for a surrender, two Datus were sent to negotiate and again failed to obtain a surrender. The final assault began on March 7, 1906 and was made by artillery and machineguns.
Only 6 of the estimated 800 – 1,000 Bud Dajo garrison survived.
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There was no massacre. There was a battle which was a culmination of months of negotiations. The issue was not about religion but about those who wanted slavery to continue as an industry.
Duterte said they were his ancestors. Then so be it. It explains a lot of things about him. Even his use of history is incompetent.
History in the Upside Down
Sources:
1. Arnold, J.R., 2011, The Moro War, New York: Bloomsbury Press, ISBN 9781608190249
2. John J. Pershing (25 June 2013). My Life before the World War, 1860--1917: A Memoir. University Press of Kentucky. p. 386. ISBN 0-8131-4198-2.
3. "The Right Sort of White Men": General Leonard Wood and the U.S. Army in the Southern Philippines, 1898-1906 (Doctoral Dissertations). p. 8. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
4. The statement from Scott comes from: Gedacht, Joshua. "Mohammedan Religion Made It Necessary to Fire:" Massacres on the American Imperial Frontier from South Dakota to the Southern Philippines," in Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State. Edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, pp. 397-409. Information on the use of craters as sites of refuge during Spanish attacks can be found in: Warren, James Francis. The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State, 2nd ed. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007.
5. The Battle of Bud Dajo (archived from the original Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. on 2008-05-09), chapter 19 of Swish of the Kris (archived fromthe original Archived February 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. on 2008-02-02), by Vic Hurley.
