IN DEPTH: The Revolution Revisited After the parades, a flood of books

COMPARED to the centennial celebration of June 12, 1998,

yesterday's commemoration of the 101st anniversary of the

declaration of Philippine independence was very simple. June

12, 1999 made many Filipinos realize that the 1998 centennial

celebration is finally over. While the focus was centered on the

events in Kawit, Cavite, in 1898 a number of celebrations were

held to remind Filipinos of the centennial of the Malolos

Republic in January 1999 and also the centennial of the outbreak

of the Filipino-American War on Feb. 4, 1999.

The lasting outcome of the Philippine centennial was renewed

(or re-discovered) pride in the race and an appreciation for the

modern Filipinos' place in history. Now that the flags, parades,

fireworks, and programs have faded into memory one is still

reminded of the centennial by the numerous books on

Philippine history that saw print around 1998.

The centennial celebrations created a readership for Philippine

history that was once confined to textbooks and classrooms. To

celebrate the centennial the University of the Philippines Press

made good on its promise to produce 100 Filipiniana titles. Most

of the titles in the series were from the UP Creative Writing

Center. This is surprising as one would presume that works on

Philippine history would dominate the centennial series.

Four out-of-print classics on the Philippine Revolution were

given a new lease on life: Teodoro A. Agoncillo's Revolt of the

Masses: The story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (first

published 1956) covered the first phase of the Revolution

1896-1897. This was followed by Malolos: Crisis of the Republic

(1960) that covered the second phase of the revolution

1898-1901. Going a step further than Agoncillo's narrative was

Cesar Majul's The Political and Constitutional Ideas of the

Philippine Revolution (1957) that identified and analyzed the

ideas that shaped the revolution. His later book, Mabini and the

Philippine Revolution, (1960) was a study of the revolution

through the eyes of Mabini who helped shape history.

There are two ways of viewing reprints. One is to acknowledge

these books as ''classics.'' The other is they are an admission

that no other major work on the revolution has been produced

in the past three decades that would supplement or even

surpass these ''classic'' works by Agoncillo and Majul. Why do

important works like Milagros C. Guerrero's Luzon at War:

Contradictions in Philippine History remain as unpublished

dissertation?

Other reprinted classics were John Schumacher's The

Propaganda Movement 1880-1895 (Revised 1997) and

Revolutionary Clergy: The Filipino Clergy and the Nationalist

Movement, 1850-1903 (Third printing 1998). The Trial of Rizal:

W.E. Retana's Transcription of the Official Spanish Documents

edited, translated, and annotated by Horacio de la Costa, SJ

(reprinted 1998). The National Historical Institute reprinted

much of Rizal's writings and other publications of the 1960's and

1970's like the Memoirs of Artemio Ricarte and Epifanio de Los

Santos The Revolutionists being biographical essays on

Aguinaldo, Bonifacio and Jacinto. Rizal's Noli me Tangere and

El Filibusterismo are available in the English translations of

Leon Ma. Guerrero or the superior Soledad Lacson-Locsin

editions. In Pilipino the latest translation is that by Virgilio

Almario.

Centennial fever also encouraged the publication of first-hand

accounts of the revolution: Father Jose Burgos: A Documentary

History, by John N Schumacher, SJ (Ateneo 1999), Manuel

Sityar Rebolusyong Pilipino translated from the original Spanish

by Trinidad O. Regala (Sentro ng Wikang Pilipino 1998) The

Katipunan and the Revolution translated from the original

Tagalog by Paula Carolina Malay (third printing 1998) Ilang

talata tungkol sa Paghihimagsik revolucion nang 1896-97 sinulat

ni Carlos Ronquillo edited and with notes by Isagani Medina

(UP Press 1996) which at 824 pages is so thick it can be used as

a door stopper. The National Historical Institute has reprinted

an English translation of Apolinario Mabini's La Revolucion

Filipina that is so damaging to Aguinaldo. Fortunately,

Aguinaldo's Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan has been reprinted to

give his version of history.

If historians could not come up with major works they at least

reworked lectures and academic papers into essays that give

new insights into the revolution. Most awaited was the

compilation of Reynaldo Ileto's papers Filipinos and their

Revolution: Event. Discourse, and Historiography (Ateneo

1998). Essays by John Schumacher were compiled intoThe

Making of a Nation: Essays on Ninetenth Century Nationalism

(John Schumacher, SJ (Ateneo, second printing 1996). Not to be

outdone the rival De La Salle University published the

compilation of its most prolific historian Luis Camara Dery, The

Army of the First Philippine Republic and Other historical

essays (DLSU Press 1995). Conference papers like those on

Rizal and the Asian Renaissance edited by M Rajeretnmam was

published by the Institut Jaian Dasay in Kuala Lumpur in 1996.

While there has been a lot of books on history published in

recent years one cannot say we have had enough. There are

many ways of looking at the past and one positive and enduring

outcome of the centennial was the emphasis on local history. In

the past history was centered on the events in and around

Manila. Heroes are limited to national heroes like Rizal,

Bonifacio, and Aguinaldo. Now we have history from outside

the capital. The Kris in Philippine History: A Study of the

Impact of Moro Anti-colonial resistance, 1571-1896, by Luis

Camara Dery (1997), deals with Mindanao. Resil Mojares', The

War against the Americans: Resistance and Collaboration in

Cebu 1899-1906 (Ateneo Press 1999), is on Cebu. While not

really on the revolution Filomeno Aguilar Clash of Spirits: The

History of Power and Sugar Planter Hegemony on a Visayan

island (Ateneo 1998) sets the stage for a reinterpretation of the

Philippine Revolution in Negros. Even first-hand accounts of

the revolution from outside Luzon are being prepared for

publication like The Revolution of 1896-98 translated from the

original Cebuano by Fe Susan Go (forthcoming 1999 Ateneo).