RAIN OF FIRE

Who discovered the Philippines?
CESAR G. BONILLA

LAOAG CITY -- The cradle of civilization has its own splendid value. The coming of Ferdinand Magellan to our shores on March 16, 1521 was considered an adventure in the discovery of the Occidental people, but to the Filipinos, it was a rediscovery that the Philippines had already been discovered by our forefathers long before the Spaniards discovered it. The ten Malayan Datus led by Datu Puti discovered the Philippines in 1250. The West only came to know us through Magellan’s voyage.

No wonder Occidental writers acclaimed him as the “discoverer of the Philippines.” This outstanding feat by Magellan described by world historians as “the greatest single human achievement on the sea,” is significant to us well as to Europeans. It showed beyond doubt that the world is round. Many so-called learned men had believed the earth was flat, but Magellan proved that it was spherical when his flagship Trinidad, under the command of Sebastian del Cano, completed the first circumnavigation of the earth.
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It started the flowering and development of Filipino nationalism when Rajah Lapu-lapu of Mactan, for the first time, defied Castilian despotism and foreign arrogance. It signaled the rise of hundreds of Filipino heroes and martyrs, leaders and patriots like Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio, the del Pilars, and the Luna brothers who resisted and even died to defy foreign oppression. Magellan’s “discovery” of the Philippines is of major importance to us Filipinos in particular. Spanish taught the Filipinos the teachings of Christ. Spain was able to do one thing in the archipelago that no other European nation had done in Asia.

Spanish priests were able to convert almost the entire Filipino population to Christianity. Spanish priests improved sanitation methods and founded schools for the young and hospitals for the sick. The Spaniards brought to the Philippines the printing press and may other improvements of a more advanced way of life. Well-educated Spaniards set examples for cultured living and polished manners. The music of Europe was brought to the archipelago by the Spaniards. Spain gained for us a vast and potential market for exports to foreign lands. It also enhanced commerce in the Pacific that lies between the Americas and Asia. We began to learn new ideas concerning freedom of speech, liberty, and democracy during the last century of Spanish rule. The colonization process spawned patriotism among Filipinos fighting for their freedom.
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The greatest hero of the Malayan race, Dr. Jose P. Rizal is always an example whom we should have before us and whose teachings we should practice if we want to be useful to our country. The characteristics of Rizal were his honesty, ingenuity, will-power, constancy and above all, his patriotic spirits that transcends mortal superiority. He was the personification of a people committed to recognize heroism and martyrdom of this noble Filipino intellectual whose courage to tell the truth about the impertinence and abuses of the colonizers caused the downfall of a mighty empire.

In Dapitan, Rizal worked, studied, wrote and got married. The Jesuit priest, Father Obach, and the commandant of the district, Captain Ricardo Cranicero, were among the Spaniards to whom he had to report once a day. He was the son of a farmer and Dr. Rizal found land everywhere. At first he had only a small piece of land, but in time he enlarged his domain by judicious purchase. He bought more land and when he won a Spanish lottery until his holding encompassed more than 70 hectares. He made a great map of Mindanao in front of the Church, using stone, earth and grass in the project.

Dr. Rizal also organized La Liga Filipina. The league would be composed of all Filipinos living in the islands. There would be local units; over these units, the Provincial Council and above all, the Supreme Council which aimed at the union of the islands into one active body for mutual protection against tyranny and oppression, instruction of the people in agriculture and industry, and putting into effect reforms. No mention was made of independence, none of revolution.
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The league was an expression of pious wishes. The mock trial of Rizal and his execution at Bagumbayan field presaged the foundation of an independent nation. Rizal faced his enemies with courage and though Spanish bullets riddled his body and destroyed his brain, the libertarian ideas he espoused for the liberation of his country destroyed despotic Spanish rule. He proved to the world that the pen is mightier than the sword.. To the bigoted Spaniards in Spain and in the Philippines, Rizal was the most intelligent, courageous, and most dangerous.