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member, Human Development and Harmony Cluster, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
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1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism 2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine 3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission 5. Civics and Democratic Governance 6. Culture as Community Creativity 7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education 8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony 9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice 10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development 11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations 12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology 13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships 14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace 15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart' . |
1896 Phil. Revolution: Women By Ed Aurelio Reyes Lead Founder and National Spokesman, Kamalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History; and co-chair, Kaisari Movement for Gender Harmony UNDERSTANDING the “Feminine Principle,” and according it due respect, brings one beyond asserting in Philippine history that women fought or even led military battles in the 1896 Revolution and were not limited to sewing flags or dancing to distract the enemy. Some women historians have rightly pointed out that it is not such a very big feat and honor for women to “descend” to the plane of physical combat to join the men where the latter, on the average, are the more obviously capable. Rather, their awareness rises to the plane of asserting that the Katipunan was primarily a unifying force (having spent four years organizing and galvanizing — in the painstaking process of pagtitipon — the diverse communities in most of the provinces) and only secondarily a fighting force (fighting only for two years to defeat Spanish rule). They have noted that the Katipunan emphasized kalooban instead of military uniforms and insignias, sacrificed life and limb for Inang Bayan, instead of the Europe’s masculine “Patria” or Fatherland, and upon achieving unity for struggle in August 1896, birthed a new nation into existence.
Yes, that Revolution was much more significantly a birthing than a fighting. Centennial commemorations focusing on battles have been missing the whole point! When Kamalaysayan undertook to spread the 14 lessons of the Kartilya ng Katipunan in a gathering ("Pagtitipon") process to unite our people with the Spirit of the Katipunan, we immediately saw problem areas in the texts of two of the lessons. Lesson No. 10 starts off with what looks like an assertion of men's dominance over their respective wives and children, while Lesson No. 11 includes what hits the eye as a concession to supposed weaknesses of the womenfolk. There were other problems, as well, like the use of the word "kabuhayan" to mean Life, while that same word now refers more to livelihood. The original texts in Tagalog of the tenth and eleventh lessons run this way: "Sa daang matinik ng kabuhayan, lalaki ang patnugot ng asawa't mga anak. Kung ang umaakay ay tumutungo sa sama, ang pagtutunguhan ng inaakay a y kasamaan din.(In the thorny path of life, the man leads the way and his wife and children follow. If the leader goes the way of perdition, so do the followers. (The first part is an observation of the relationship of husband and wife during the time of the Katipunan; for the present, the equivalent is to say that the parents lead the way and the children follow, then proceed to the main point about responsible leadership.) ) "Ang babae ay huwag mong tingnang isang bagay na libangan lamang kundi katuwang at karamay sa mga kahirapan nitong kabuhayan. Gamitin mo nang buong pagpipitagan ang kanyang kahinaan at alalahanin ang inang nagsilang at nag-iwi sa iyong kasanggulan." (Never regard a woman as an object for you to trifle with; rather you should consider her as a partner and helpmate. Give proper considerations to a woman's (physical) frailty and never forget that your own mother, who brought you forth and nurtured you from infancy, is herself such a person. ) A closer look at the tenth lesson reveals that the beginning sentence seeks to proceed from the social realities of the period as premise, that men and women were far from equal during the time of the Katipunan, and then delivers what is obviously the main point about responsibility of leadership. If the point that the men lead were the main point, a prescription, we would not have been able to do anything about it, and we would have propagated the Kartilya as a document which is "good despite some serious flaws." But, in our honest view, the parenthetical note we have added to point ten, that which explains the premise angle and suggests a substitution, is a valid version that keeps fidelity to the essential point of the lesson. The parenthetical explanation, which substitutes parents for men, goes this way: "(Ang simula nito ay obserbasyon sa ugnayan ng babae at lalaki sa panahon ng Katipunan. Para sa kasalukuyan, iminumungkahing ipalit ang sumusunod: Sa daang matinik ng buhay, ang mga magulang ang patnugot ng mag-anak. Kung umaakay ay tungo sa sama, ang patutunguhan ng inaakay ay kasamaan din.)" (The first part is an observation of the relationship of husband and wife during the time of the Katipunan; for the present, the equivalent is to say that the parents lead the way and the children follow, then proceed to the main point about responsible leadership.) For point 11, we see the obvious intention of the Katipunan leaders in coming out with an unequivocal policy for gender partnership which implies equality. For this reason, we dared put in parenthetical qualifiers: "Ang babae ay huwag mong tingnang isang bagay na libangan lamang kundi katuwang at karamay (ng lalaki) sa mga kahirapan nitong buhay. Gamitin mo nang buong pagpipitagan ang kanyang (pisikal na) kahinaan at alalahanin ang inang nagsilang at nag-iwi sa iyong kasanggulan." Basically, the interpretation we have inserted qualifies the relative weakness of the women as one of physique. Although we recognize that this is not simplistically true, especially because women are known to have a higher threshold of pain and endurance, the women are generally weaker physically compared to the men. Before we put the qualifiers in, we interviewed women in the police, women soldiers (WACs) and women athletes, and they all, at least personally, attested to its validity. There is also unease with the word "Gamitin" in the second sentence, but we interpreted this to be in the same manner as the original use of the word "kabuhayan" to mean Life itself. Our level of confidence in the validity of the annotated Kartilya texts we have been propagating is as high as that on our decision to use "buhay" instead of thew original "kabuhayan" to mean Life. Still, upholding the principles of faithful representation of historical materials as part of responsible scholarship, these gender-sensitive efforts at adjustment are clearly acknowledged in our one-paragraph introduction which also cites the provenance of these historical texts. We are glad that the womenfolk are apparently satisfied with these efforts. Instead of allowing the "textual defects" to distract them from the integral essence of the Kartilya , they see the profound philosophy of the Katipunan shining through all the 14 lessons, a philosophy that is basically spiritual, holistic, community-centered, egalitarian, and eco-feminist. Many women who have become familiar with the Kartilya and have even adopted it as a profound and practical guide to their own personal lives, appreciate not only the two lessons, much less only the eleventh lesson. But on the basis of these they proudly gush, "I never thought the Katipunan of a full century ago was already for gender equality and women's liberation!" The previous impression was that feminist concerns were imported from European developments of only a few decades ago. The women's appreciation of the Kartilya flows through all the points which they find very enlightening in how they are to play their roles as parents, spouses, daughters, sisters, friends, or team players. Emilio Jacinto's Kartilya has had that same even positive effect on most Filipinos who have learned of the Kartilya and have made the solemn pledge to live under the brightness of its light. |
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