Andres Bonifacio's Tagalog Nation & Predictions

of Global Warming (Bonifacio Series II)

by Jesusa Bernardo

First published May 10, 2009 GMT+8, at Sobriety for the Philippines

(Check out: Gat Andres Bonifacio: The Anti-Colonial National Hero of the Philippines
(Bonifacio Series I)

A century and nearly a score years ago today, a

most patriotic and fervent hero of a land to the
southeast was executed by his coup plotting
secret enemies during the peak of his people's
struggle for national independence. The
revolutionary leader was Andres Bonifacio y de
Castro, murdered May 10, 1897 in a remote
mountain in the archipelagic islands the hero
called the Haring Bayang Katagalugan
(Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan). The name
"Katagalugan," derives from "Tagalog," which
is a constriction of the word "taga-ilog" that
translates as "(person/people) from the area
along the river" or, simply, riverine. The hero's
treacherous execution marked not only the elite
takeover of the revolutionary mass movement
he built but, as well, the adoption of a colonial
name for his country well past into its
independence period until today. Tagalog was
junked and the old name given by Spain after
its king, Philip II, stuck. Called "Las Islas de
Filipinas" by Spain--a name favored even by its
other elitist heroes--or "Philippine Islands," by
its next colonial master, the United States of
America, it is now called the Republic of the
Philippines.
The emerging global cataclysm of global warming, however, may just give the people of
Bonifacio's Tagalog islands--the "Filipinos" of today--the unlikely opportunity of reverting to the
non-colonial country name that reflects and asserts their pre-colonial heritage, and nationalist
identity and aspirations. The
predicted rise of sea levels due
to the ongoing climate change
may swamp Manila and other
low-lying areas, cleansing their
nation of the selfish, unpatriotic
elites of class and mind in the
process. A cleansing that can be
likened to the Babylonian and
Biblical stories of the Deluge,
which would purify the
population of its protracted
alienation from its Malay
roots--to allow the archipelago
to assume the more endemic,
nationalist name of Tagalog.

Predictions of Climate Change Devastation

Global warming is an emerging cataclysm such that even critics of the anthropogenic-climate-
change theory concede that its impacts are now upon all the inhabitants of this planet. While
scientists are yet uncertain of whether global warming affects El Nino and other climatic
variability changes, they are more confident that it is an irreversible phenomenon that would
impact regional extremes in temperature, seasonal
precipitation, seasonal temperature, global average
temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentration, and tragically, the average level of
sea waters.

The countries that scientists consider to be most

vulnerable are the low-lying areas, particularly
archipelagic countries in Asia, such as Bangladesh,
Cambodia, India, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and
the Philippines. According to a scientist from the
Australia-based Center for Australian Weather and
Climate Research, the most plausible climate
change scenario by the end of the century is a total
sea-level increase between 1-2 meters.
An Inundated Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000

islands and islets shaped like scattered pearls
and lying approximately 500 miles off its coast.
It has an irregular configuration, the coastline of
which extends over 21,500 miles. Its
topography and geology depicts a beauteous
piece of nature's work--coral, volcanic, principal
rock formations, and diverse mountain ranges
that mostly run along the direction of the islands
themselves and that hosts some 3,000 endemic
and unique species of plants and over 500 of the
700 known species of coral in the world. While its highest peak, Mt. Apo in Mindanao, stands at
nearly 9,700 feet, the central plain of the biggest island, Luzon, where the capital Manila lies,
rises only a mere 100 feet above sea level.

According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), global warming could submerge areas
of Manila and eradicate a number of entire islands of the Philippine archipelago. Based on data
gathered for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a rapid increase in sea
levels, from between 20-40 centimeters has been observed between the 1960s and the present.
This sea-level rise around the Philippine coast is at least partly due to melting glaciers and higher
temperatures of ocean waters.

Based on a high IPCC-predicted A2

scenario of a 100 cm sea-level rise
by 2080, 5,000 hectares of the
coastal region of Manila Bay would
become regularly inundated. The
Sulu Sea and Tubbataha Reef
waters are also expected to warm
and face rising atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels from 2ppmv-4ppmv
annually. Greenpeace Southeast
Asia warns that a one-meter sea-
level increase would affect 64 of the total 81 provinces, covering over 700 of the 1,610 towns.
Combining these three scenarios, total inundation within this more conservative one-meter-rise
prediction would cover nearly 700 million square meters of Philippine land between 2080 and
2100.

Predictions of an inundated Philippines are not limited to scientific studies of climate change.
This author is reminded of psychic forecasts dating back to the 1970s that predicted Metro
Manila will be submerged in the future. At that time, logical attempts to interpret such
predictions (of which Filipinos are fond of) centered on the Manila Bay reclamation project
implemented by the Ferdinand Marcos administration. Psychic "Apo," who correctly predicted
United States President Barack Obama's 2008 electoral win by a one-third advantage*, sees a
similar scenario probably happening for the countries in Southeast Asian. He even goes on to say
that Filipinos should perhaps try to emigrate to higher-lying countries that include Israel and
those in the West.

Backed up by science and sensed

by "psychics," the strong likelihood
is that the Philippines several
decades from now will be radically
different. Areas of Manila--the
former seat of colonial Spain and
colonial America and today's
political center and seat of elite
power--as well as other parts of
Central Luzon could transform into
rivers, while low-lying small
islands and islets could be
swallowed up by the ocean waters.
Such a scenario could gravely
impact not only the fortunes of the
general population but as well, those of the ruling elite. Apart from the initial economic damage
from structural and infrastructural destruction and relocation and other costs, political power and
organization may be physically and symbolically encumbered, given that the presidential
residence, Malacanang, lies within Manila. This could be aggravated by the prospect that the
higher-lying Makati City, the country's business center, could be cut off from other areas, to be
connected only via river navigation.

Possible Filipino Elite Response: Emigration

Such a drastic environmental

change could just prove too much
for an elite class generally used to
reigning over the rest of the
population and owning much of the
islands. With their fortunes amassed
through the century or centuries of
predatorily staying on top of the
socio-economic ladder, they have
the resources to save their skins and
emigrate out of the Philippines at
will. As easily as members of this
same class have been historically
co-opted by the Western
colonialists with whom their ancestors interbred, these largely mestizo elites could, and would,
easily and unremorsefully abandon a sinking archipelago.
Filipino Elite Exodus & the Rebirth of Tagalog Nation

Drastic and shocking as it may be, any such exodus of Filipino

elites may just bring in the unexpected blessing of a nationalist
rebirth. Any such global-warming-caused inundation of the
Philippines, and the expected emigration of the jet-setting rich
class, could serve to purify the archipelago of political and
cultural affinities with the two Western countries that
conquered its people and pillaged its identity. When the deluge
of global warming does drive the easily co-optive elites away
from the country they half-heartily love and barely serve, who
will be left are the Filipino masses without the resources to
take the easy way and flee. This same socio-economic group
without the means to emigrate is the Filipino class that has
long been deprived of the opportunity to overcome the
economic and social inequities and rise above their lowly
existence.

Without the original patriotism-bereft elite class to exploit

them, and imperialist nations to take interest, the future
people of an inundated Philippine islands could seize the
opportunity to rise from the ravages of flooding to form a
new, moral and glorious nation as the "Father of the
Philippine Revolution," Andres Bonifacio, envisioned in the
late 1800s. With only the masses and middle class around,
and shielded from Western colonial exploitation by its partly
submerged state, the population who will be left to face the
geographic challenges of the impact of global warming
could take a liberating nationalist course away from their
delimiting colonial mentality, best represented by their
country's name, the Philippines. Seeing the new rivers
created from the old lands, they could be inspired to
rechristen their country with the same name that the great
but betrayed leader "Supremo" Bonifacio earlier opted for,
Tagalog.

"Philippines" vs. "Tagalog"

It is a deplorable fact that despite the colonial roots of the name Philippines, it has not yet been
dropped except briefly during the revolutionary struggle against Spain. From the time of the
American Occupation to World War II until today, only one and unsuccessful attempt to have it
changed was ever seriously made. During the Martial Law period under Marcos, Senator Eddie
Ilarde did propose a name change to Maharlika ("warrior-noble" during the pre-colonial days)
before the National Assembly, but it was rejected for one reason or another.
Back in the late 19th century, the Reformist heroes Jose
Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Graciano Lopez Jaena, who
spoke and struggled against colonial injustice against their
countrymen but nonetheless still looked up to Spain and
aspired for representation in the Spanish legislature, batted
for the name "Filipinas." Bonifacio chose the pre-colonial
name Tagalog, which the other revolutionary leaders clearly
acknowledged as representing the whole areas of the archipelago. Presumably, they wished the
new and native-derived name to bring out the country's natural features of having numerous river
systems and an archipelagic coastline. A few months before Bonifacio was murdered, a Spanish
periodical referred to him as the revolutionary head of the country, Titulado 'Presidente' de la
Republica Tagala (title of President of the Tagalog Republic). The name Tagalog today strictly
refers to a region in Central Luzon where the Tagalog dialect is spoken. Apparently the term has
been localized by elitist historians who wish to belittle Bonifacio's revolutionary heroism.

While the term Tagalog was long used, perhaps before his time, it is to the credit of the
revolutionary leader that he insisted on a name that gives an endemic meaning devoid of colonial
subservience. Perhaps, Bonifacio did not only
have the great patriotism and genuine
nationalism that allowed him to build the
K.K.K. or Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na
Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan
(Highest, Noblest Society of the Children of the
Country) revolutionary movement. It could be
that the Supremo had the psychic wisdom that
the country he dearly loved and fought for
would literally be a riverine nation.

Without the ravaging elements of attachment to its colonial masters of the past, the "Tagala"
people of Andres Bonifacio's archipelago could build a new founded on the genuine brotherhood
and sisterhood of its Malay people. In such a prediction of a ravaged but purified nation, the
Tagala people will claim a riverine land cleansed of its woeful colonial past, but grateful of the
patriotic struggles and aspirations of its heroes and heroines of the old.

The Decalogue & Rise of the Tagalog Nation

Beyond the reversion to the indigenous name of the

country, if the risen Tagala people will be faithful to the
principles and aspirations of the Katipunan, they will
perhaps resurrect or revisit Andres Bonifacio's Dekalogo
(Decalogue). Revealing the depth of the patriotism and
political morality of the Supremo, the Dekalogo was
written to provide the revolutionaries with a ten-point
"duties of the children of the country," as follows:
 (Katipunan Decalogue by Andres Bonifacio)

1. Love God with all your heart.

2. Implant it in your heart that the true love for God equates with true love for
one's Land of Birth, which is also love for others.
3. Nurture it in your heart that the true value of honor and comfort is for you to
die in defense of Motherland.
4. Your every good aim will meet triumph if you exercise composure, patience,
reason and hope in your deeds and acts.
5. Take good care--as you do your honor--the mandates and aspirations of the
K.K.K. (Highest, Noblest Society of the Children of the Land).
6. It is the responsibility of all to help anyone in grave danger of reneging on
his/her duty even at the risk of losing one's life and resources.
7. Our strength of will and our discipline in carrying out our duties will serve as
examples to others.
8. Share what you can to anyone in need and less fortunate.
9. One's industry in his/her source of livelihood is the genuine source of love, of
love of self, of your spouse and children, of your siblings and compatriot.
10. Punish anyone who's evil and traitorous and commend good works. Believe
that the teachings of K.K.K. are graces from God; that what the Motherland
aspires, are also the wishes of God.

(Translation by the author from Dekalogo)

In the 1920s, President Manuel L. Quezon, the first

Philippine leader under American rule, expressed the belief
that "Nothing depicts and portrays the character" of the
great anti-colonial national hero more than the Dekalogo
(Note: the Dekalogo was replaced by the Kartilya or Primer
of the Katipunan, written by Emilio Jacinto, upon
Bonifacio's humble deference to his revolutionary
compatriot and friend).

If the future people of the Southeast riverine land will abide

by it, the Dekalogo should be enough to make the new
nation indeed the most exemplary in the world. As the
renewed people of the Pearl of the Orient Seas shall have
turned their backs on a colonial name and identity and the
corruption such alienation helped wrought, so then shall
proudly stand the virtuous Republika ng Tagalog, and the
Supremo will look down from the heavens and beam with
exalted joy.
Notes:

* BERNARDO, JESUSA. PSYCHIC PREDICTIONS ON ESTRADA, ARROYO, THE US & THE WORLD. 19
OCTOBER 2008. NEWSVINE COLUMN. HTTP://JESUSABERNARDO.NEWSVINE.COM/_NEWS/2008/10/19/2016629-
PSYCHIC-PREDICTIONS-ON-ESTRADA-AND-ARROYO-THE-US-OBAMA-THE-WORLD

_____________

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Photo Credits:

Museo Oriental de Valladolid Site

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