• PSR 31 (1983): 85-92
BETWEEN STRUCTURES AND PEOPLE:
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SOCIOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS
OF ILEro'S PASYONAND REVOLUTION
ANTONIO M. LA Vlt'tA
Ateneo de Manila University
Implicit In Ileto'« Pasyon and Revolution is the use of an ifltetpretattve, specifically
• phenomenologiCIIl, apprOllCh to the undetBtandtng of mclDl reality. The author elaborates Ileto's use
of phenomenological sociology, /Uld mggestB how other sociological perspective couldbe harnessed
to enhance [urthet interpretations of similar events;
If sociology, to paraphrase Peter Berger
(1963), begins with a curiosity and a
passion to understand society, then the
study of history is an integral task for this
enterprise. Indeed, there is an intimate link
between sociology and history: history
offers an immensely rich fund for socio-
logical data; sociology, in turn, provides
frameworks from which to understand and
interpret history. This note is an attempt
to demonstrate the latter point. It aims
• specifically to identify the sociological
theories implicit in Reynaldo C. Ileto's
historical work, Pasyon and Revolution
(1979).
This note is divided into three parts. The
firet gives a summary of Ileto's study. The
second attempts to draw out the sociological
theories implicit in Ileto's work. The third
presents a critique of his choice of theoretical
position - one necessarily limited to a specific
• range of sociological theories. This section also
includes recommendations on alternative
perspectives which could complement Ileto's
framework.
Pasyon and Revolution."
A Summary
Ileto's stated aim is to understand how the
traditional mind, the consciousness of the
supposedly backward masses, operates in
relation to questions of social change.
Specifically, what Ileto wants to achieve is an
understanding of how the masses, in particular
the Tagalog peasants, perceived the events of
1840 to 1910, a period characterized by social
unrest and the rise of popular movements in
Luzon. These movements include the Cofradia
revolt led by Hermano Pule; the Katipunan of
Bonifacio; the 1896 revolution and its
aftermath, Sakay's last stand; and finally, the
Salvador-led uprising in 1910. l1eto hopes that
an understanding of these movements "from
within" would provide us a set of conceptual
tools, a "grammar," that would help explain
religious-political popular movements of the
past and the present (like the Lapiang Malaya
Suicide March of 1967), an explanation that
will be fair to the participants, an explanation
arising from doing a history from below.
l1eto's methodology differs from the
. dominant tradition in historical scholarship,
that of focusing solely on how the illustrado
class perceived the revolution and the colonial
status of the Philippines; this, often, at the
expense of neglecting the meaning of this
situation to the masses who constituted the
revolution's mass base. For Ileto, it is unfair
to assume that the views of the masses were
"formless, inchoate and meaningless" apart
from their illustration in the elite's though,
What Ileto then does is to search for this
meaning. To do this, he uses traditional and
non-traditional sources. His traditional sources
include documents like American and Spanish
documents and previous accounts by other
historians. His non-traditional sources cover
85
86 PHILIPPI~E SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

religious and literary texts - poems, songs, discovers again and again are themes in the
scattered autobiographies, confessions" prayers pasyon which the participants interpreted as
and folk sayings. Note 'that the use of justifications for their actions. These themes
non-traditional sources is integral to writing a and the meanings they communicated to the
history from below. According to Ileto, a peasants were not flxed, but rather depended
language contains within it the history of its on the socio-historical situation. At times,
speakers and expresses a unique way of the pasyon encouraged subservience and
relating to the world. To use only American, resignation. But during periods of social
Spanish or lllustrado sources would inevitably
introduce an elite bias on the interpretation of
events. Thus Ileto's methodology is to let the
ferment, attributed to economic and political
factors, the pasyon themes became a call to
-Iive in the here and now, thus encouraging
•
masses speak with their own words, in a revolution and instilling hope among the'
language which come to us today through the masses.
texts they have left behind.
This revolutionary potential of the pasyon .
Ileto's thesis is that 'we cannot dismiss the . . was possible because of the dominant role it
religious nature of the popular movements- played in the lives of the peasants. According
from the Cofradia to the Sakdal - as to Ileto, the pasyon was not' just sung, heard
aberrations, fanaticisms, nativism and or celebrated by the masses in the 1800's, "it
millenarianism. We cannot reject and disparage was lived, both individually and socially,
the cultural contexts from which these during holy week and oftentimes beyond it
movements arose. In fact, Ileto says that we (p, 28):~ It was an activity the people looked
can understand them only if we study these . forward to, an occasion for self-renewal, for'
cultural contexts. A major cultural coritext, "liberating" oneself and one's community. It
Ileto argues, is noted in the Tagalog's folk was no. surprise, therefore, to find that the
religious traditions and values which, inspite ( masses saw the struggle against Spain in terms
of their seemingly other-worldly nature, of the pasyon. The other-worldly "liberation"
contained latent, possibly revolutionary of the pasyon became a call for a concrete
meanings. What Ileto does is to show how liberation of the people and of Inangbayan.
these traditions, specifically the pasyon,
fundamentally shaped the style of the And the masses fought the Spaniards when
movements and uprisings. He elaborates how the situation called for it. But the rationale
the pasyon. tradition had' provided' a for peasant participation in these events
language for the masses to articulate .their cannot be found in the democratic and
values, ideals, and even hopes of liberation. He republican ideas that the illustrados brought
demonstrates how the themes of a lost back from Europe. It was rooted, rather, in
paradise, suffering, the strenghtening of ioob, the consciousness which the pasyon gave
liwanag, brotherhood, conflict and struggle, them, this. "collective consciousness" that
evil and selfishness, journey, freedom, Christ's made participation in the popular movements
second coming - all drawn from. in the meaningful.
pasyon - contributed to the transformation
of what was previously a tool for pacification The bulk of Ileto's book marshalls case
into a tool for revolution. studies to demonstrate the pasyon thesis.
The first case to be analyzed is the Cofra-
What was it in the pasyon that shaped dia de Juan de Dios, a movement founded
revolutionary consciousness of the masses? and led by Apolinario de la Cruz. Ileto
. Ileto answers this by' going over the texts of. studied the letters, poems and other
the pasyon and those left behind by persons writings of de la Cruz and his followers, the
who participated in the movements. What he prayers and rites of the Cofradia, the centr~
 BETWEEN STRUcrURES AND PEOPLE
role de la Cruz played in the movement, and
the like. What he found in studying these
texts is the dominance of certain pasyon
themes as mentioned earlier. From them, Ileto
makes sense out of this 1841 uprising. He says
that this was not simply a blind reaction to
oppressive forces in colonial society; "it was a
conscious act of realizing certain possibilities
of existence that the members were made
conscious of through reflection upon certain
mysteries and signs (p. 39)." These possibilities
and the very act of reflection upon certain
"signs" and "mysteries" were embedded in their
consciousness through the pasyon.
The rest of the book follows this line of
thinking. After the Cofradia revolt, Ileto
studies the Katipunan (the central role of
Bonifacio, the differing conceptions of the
struggle between the masses and the elites, the
structures and rites of the Katipunan, its
secrecy, the poems of Jacinto, and so on),
the 1896 revolution and its aftermath (the
success of the illustrados in imposing their
• own definition of revolution, Aguinaldo's
central role in this success, the masses'
reaction to this, the Malolos Congress, the
emergence of "anti-revolutionary" movements
among the peasantry as a reaction to what
they perceived to be as the betrayal of the
revolution by the elite, the capitulation by the
latter before the Americans), the New
Katipunan (the continuous resistance of
various peasant movements, the central roles
of Sakay and Rios, the anting-anting, the
• Rizal cult), and fmally the Salvador-led
uprising of 1910 (its continuity with Sakay,
Bonifacio and de la Cruz-inspired movements).
In studying not only the documented data
about these events but also the literary and
religious texts. the practices and rituals, the
subjective world view of the participants
these movements, Ileto identifies a pattern in
all these events: the presence of pasyon
themes, to wit: the central role of Christ-like
figures, the necessity of personal conversion,
the themes of loob, liwanag and lakaran, the
WI
anting-anting, the definition of liberation as
Kalayaan and not Independencia, the resolute
and almost obstinate will to continue the
struggle, the firm hope in the future, and
above all, the. walking towards death without
fear and trembling. No ideology, no political
conviction, neither backwardness r or
frustration, can explain these phenomena. For
Ileto, all these made sense only in the light of
the pasyon.
Ileto's Theoretical Framework
Ileto does not explicitly state his
theoretical framework; the task belongs to us.
Note, however, that this attempt to identify
the sociological underpinnings of Ileto's work
will be limited to a specific range of
contemporary sociological theories. Ileto, we
must also note, uses an interdisciplinary
approach in his study. Other than sociology.
he also makes extensive use of anthropological
theory (e.g, Levi-Strauss' structuralism) and
literary criticism. For this paper, we will limit
ourselves to certain sociological perspectives.
Although Ileto does not give an explicit
position with regard to his sociological
framework, his effort in writing a history from
below and the methodology he appropriates
make it clear that his framework belongs to
the interpretative or humanistic school of
sociology.
What we see in Pasyon and Revolution is
not merely an objective world of social facts
and processes, but of concrete persons caught
up in, and trying to make sense out of, a
turbulent and unstable world. This world is
clearly portrayed not just as an "imposition"
upon mass consciousness but as a reality the
masses interact with, meaningfully respond to,
even change and recreate. The subjective
consciousness of the masses, their attempt to
makelsense out of what was happening around
them, is emphasized in the book. As such, a
concern with the significance of language
pervades entire work. Language is seen as that
on which the constitutiori of this world as
88 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

meaningful to the masses depended upon. . symbolic interactionist's view. He also asks:
Thus, lleto's extensive textual analyses. We what gave the masses this capacity of
also get a sense of social reality as not of pure meaning-giving, of recognizing each other's
order, of society as not static, but of an . gestures and behavior? Ileto answers that it
unfmished social world, of a society was the pasyon: The pasyon made it possible
continually in the process of being for the. masses to acquire a shared subjective
constructed. Finally, to accent lleto's state, a .shared view of the world, a shared
humanistic perspective, we 'see that the masses response to socio-historical events. This
are portrayed as people, not facts; as persons, process was not a' merely individual one, but a
not robots; as free actors in an existirig but social one as well. The pasyon, for those who
dynamic social world interacting, joined the movements, became the
reconstructuring, changing, creatively starting-point, the touchstone of a' common
responding, even defying this world. language, of a paramount reality. The pasyon
consciousness became their stock knowledge;
To further specify these' points, let me cite it gave them what Schutz called "the sense
the important influence of phenomenology in of an absolute reality" that shaped and
lleto's work. Indeed, Ileto's. aim to arrive at a guided all social. events. The pasyon cons-
historical perspective from within makes it ciousness became the frame of reference
inevitable for him to use phenomenology. His which enabled the masses to respond to
method is phenomenological, if by such what was happening in their world.
method we mean an attempt to suspend
preconceived biases and attitudes. His use of
literary, religious and biographical texts, rather An example of how the pasyon gave the
than illustrado writings or foreign documents, masses the capacity to interpret each other's
is an indication' of this phenomenological
methdology. It is also clear that Ileto asks the
behavior
how
were
is lleto's account (pp. 79-80) of
Hermano
perceived
Pule and others -like him
by ordinary peasants:
•
same questions about the masses the way
Alfred Schutz, following M~ Weber, asked of ... But even more than the memory of a
ordinary men: "why and how do actors come specific' man and a specific movement, it
to acquire common subjective states in a was the validity of the pasyon tradition
situation? how do they create a common view that made it possible for ordinary folk to
of the world?" The creation and recognize the appearance of other
maintenance of intersubjectivity is a clear Christ-like figures, each bringing the same
problem in Ileto's attempt to explain popular message of hope that Apolinario
movements. His answer to this sociological brought.
(also philosophical) question .is close to The process by which the pasyon
Schutz's and the' symbolic interactionist's facilitated a common social world for the
answer. masses can be seen also in Ileto's account
(p. 76) of the Cofradia's Aritao commune:
The symbolic interactionist would answer
the above questions by saying that the masses
were able to share a common vision ·and a Returning to the Aritao phenomenon ...
it is logical for the cofrades to have
common response because of their capacity to
perceived their expulsion from the towns as
contruct symbolic environments (Turner 1978). a further 'dying' to a past characterized by
This capacity to interpret, define, map, symbo- hierarchical social patterns and relationships
lize and evaluate each other's gesture and . . . Being a community apart heightened
behavior made it possible for the masses to the bonds of solidarity among the brothers
respond collectively to what was .happening and sisters of the Cofradia, bringing them a
around them. But Ileto goes further than the step closer to the ideal of perfect unity,
• BETWEEN STRUcrURES AND PEOPLE
The book contains many other accounts of
how the pasyon shaped the masses' worldview,
how this helped them recognize each other's
gestures and behavior, and how this aided
them in arriving at a creative and collective
response to the events of their world. I think
that phenomenology and symbolic
interactionism helped Ileto to arrive at this
interpretation. It is important to point out,
though, that Ileto's perspective also differs
significantly that of Herbert Blumer and
Alfred Schutz. For Ileto, the social world was
not an illusion; it was not a world which
existed only because the masses believed and
convinced themselves about its existence. The
social world of the masses, for Ileto, did exist.
It was a world that existed independent of the
masses, a world they shared with the
illustrados and the colonizers. It was an
objective reality, an objective facticity. The
point of the movements was precisely to
respond creatively to this objective world.
Deto stresses this important point, but gives
• more weight to the subjective response of the
masses to this facticity; and in doing so, he
discovered a link between collective
consciousness and the pasyon, which is also
part of the objective reality.
Let me elaborate this interaction between
the objective and subjective worlds by
showing the possible influence of Peter, Berger
and Thomas Luckmann's sociology on Ileto's
work. Berger and Luckmann (1963) suggest
•
that there are three dialectical moments in
the social construction of reality. They see
society, first, as basically a human product,
a result of man's externalization. As then,
by the process of objectivation, this human
product we call society becomes an objec-
tive reality, something "out there," inde-
pendent of the particular subjects within
that reality. This objective would now
begins to influence and shape these
subjects. At the same time, the subjects
respond creatively to this objective reality.
This would be the third dialectical moment,
the internalization of the objective world.
Again, we must stress that this is a dia-
89
lectical process: man makes society; society
is objective, society makes man. One
implication is that there is an objective social
reality (facts and structures) and a subjective
social reality (meaning, response).
Ileto recognizes the presence not only of
both objective and subjective realities, but the
presence of "multiple subjective realities," a
point also noted in Berger and Luckrnann's
sociology. In fact, one of the main insights
Ileto emphasizes is the divergent perspectives
of the elite's and masses' conception of what
the revolution was all about. This meant that
for these two groups, the social situation was
objectively the same: the colonial state of the
country. The difference laid in how this
reality was perceived, explained and given
meaning. For the masses participating in
popular movements, the purpose of the
struggle was to attain Kalayaan, a total kind
of liberation - involving a self-cleansing, the
conversion of the whole community, a
liberation not only from Spanish and
American domination, but from all forms of
injustice, oppression and evil. For the masses,
this would be the time
. . . when society would be turned on its
head, when all men would be brothers,
leaders would be Christ-like, all forms of
oppression would end and property would
be shared; in other words, when their
image of Kalayaan would turn into lived
experience (p. 257).
This vision of liberation contrasts with the
elite's conception as articulated in the Malolos
Republic: the image is not that of Kalayaan
but of Independencia. The purpose of the
struggle was centered on liberation from Spain
and ultimately, the United States. This
divergence of perceptions is explained by the
different meaning-giving apparatus that these
classes had: the elite being influenced by
European ideas of democracy and
republicanism, the masses by the pasyon.
I
Even as Ileto recognizes the existence of an
objective social world, his stress rests on the
 90
subjective aspect of the dialectic. This; I.. will
say. later, is both the strength and the
·weakness of his work. Given his aim and the
methodology he uses, the focus is not
surprising. In the end.. what lleto tells us is
that the masses were able to respond
creatively to the objective social situation, one
characterized by social ferment rooted in
economic and political factors, because of the
consciousness the pasyon was able to give
them. It was this consciousness that served as
the legitimating device for their participation
in popular movements. Using Berger's words,
it was the pasyon that made possible a
common symbolic universe for the peasant,
within which he could locate himself, within
which his biography became intimately linked
up with the biographies of other individuals,
·peasants and illustrados alike; This, in turn,
made it possible for him to see himself as
linked to history.
It was this pasyon consciousness, awakened . framework. And finally, we pointed out
'by the objective social reality, that ordered his. .Berger's influence on lleto, noting" that
roles, his priorities, his life. It was the pasyon 'although Ileto recognizes the objective reality
that legitimated his act of defiance against his
society, against the "routine'" of his everyday
life. It was the pasyon consciousness that
helped him construct and reconstruct his
world, ordered his experience, and shielded
him from the terror of anomie ., a real danger
in that period of unrest. It was the pasyon, Ileto's framework is necessarily incomplete'
·.belonging to the human enterprise we ca:ll
Religion, that made his response to his world
·creative, legitimate, and meaningful.
Let me cite two quotations, one each from
. Berger and Ileto, to underline how the ideas
of Berger may have influenced lleto. Ileto,.
describing how Felipe Salvador faced death, .
writes (p. 311):
Faced with the certainty of death,
Salvador and countless other patriots
before him could live out their fmal
moments in joyful expectation because
they have been cultura:lly prepared for it.
They could be completely serene in loob
while around them reigned the anguish and
emotional outpourings of those who failed at a history from below, is possible only with,
PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
•
to see beyond the loss of a human life.
Berger (1967:52), writing about religion, pro-
poses that:
Every human society. in' the last resort,
are banded together in the face of death.
The power of religion depends, in the last
resort, upon the credibility of the banners
it puts in the hands of men as they. stand
before death, or more accurately, as they
walk, inevitably towards it.'
In summary, we have said that Ileto's aim
makes it inevitable for him to fa:ll back on
humanistic or .interpretative sociology. We
have shown this by noting that his
methodology is phenomenological, one which
acquires a perspective from within, rather than
imposes categories from the outside. We have
.also shown how the symbolic interactionist's
emphasis on the process of symbol-giving and
symbol-interpreting surfaces in Ileto's
of the social situation,' his emphasis lies in the
subjective reality of the masses' consciousness
and their response to this objective world.
This is my intelligent guess, given Ileto's text
and my limited knowledge of sociological
theories. As I said earlier, this explicitation of
because of his . interdisciplinary;approach.
A Critique
There is no doubt that Ileto's work is a
significant step towards a better understanding
•
both of Philippine history 'and society. It
infuses a new perspective into a study of the
Philippine revolution. It' answers to a need to
acquire a post-nationalist perspective in .
understanding our country's past and present.
It also illustrates what a history from below
looks like.
His sociological perspective, at least as I see
it, suits his research objective. To understand
the popular movements from within, to arrive
. I .
• BETWEEN STRUcrURES AND PEOPLE
the use of phenomenology, symbolic
interactionism, and Berger's synthesis of
structuralism and social psychology. Another
aspect of Ileto's approach is his
interdisciplinary framework. Indeed, lleto's
work is a genuine contribution not only to
historical scholarship, but also to sociology
and political science. His work points out to
us the exciting possibilities of interpretative
sociology, and to the impossibility of arriving
at a history from below from a strictly
naturalistic, specifically functionalist,
perspective.
At the same time, and this we turn to now,
lleto's work also points out the weakness and
the inadequacies of interpretative sociology. In
particular, it shows a shortcoming implicit in
the interpretative framework. Although Ileto
recognizes the existence of an objective social
reality, his interpretation is still heavily
weighted on the subjective view of that
reality. Although this is an important
contribution, we must grant that this
perspective remains a partial one. In the end, I
think , Ileto limits himself to an understanding
of only an aspect of a complex
reality. Given his aim, this is inevitabl~.
Nevertheless, I believe that more emphasis
should be given to the objective reality -
especially the importance of economic,
political and structural factors in precipita-
ting the uprisings.
I grant to the dramaturgists, symbolic
interactionists and ethnomethodologists that a
great part of what we, call "reality" rests, on
people's perception of a particular situation.
This, in turn, is one inadequacy of naturalistic
sociological theories. At the same time, I am
.convinced that objective reality carries
importance and needs to be equally stressed.
One application of Berger's theory, as
discussed in The Sacred Canopy for example,
also provides the same overemphasis and
I reading Berger and Ileto makes me wonder
whether a full synthesis between naturalistic
and interpretative sociologies is at all possible.
This statement, however, does not at all
91
negate Ileto's contributions. It only serves to
point out the need to complement his wosk
with other, less interpretative, less
phenomenological perspectives.
It is obvious to me that lleto's work must
be complemented with alternative
perspectives, if a dynamic, more
comprehensive history on the popular
movements and on the Philippines is to be
written. The functionalist paradigm, the
conflict view and even the evaluative position,
despite their shortcomings, are examples of
complementing standpoints.
The functionalist paradigm, for instance,
can help us understand the objective social
situation which did exist, and to which the
masses were inserted in and responded to. In
lleto's work, we see that those who joined the
movements did so because of a perception
that a break occured in their normal and
routine lives. This break awakened the pasyon
con sciousne ss' la ten t revolu tionary
possibilities. This break occurred because of
socioeconomic and political developments in
the objective social reality. The functionalist
paradigm is necessary to explain what held
together this normal and routine life, this
equilibrium, the life before the break, before
the occurrence what Berger calls the
"alternation" of these peasants.
The functionalist paradigm is, of course,
inadequate in dealing with the break itself, the
dynamics of the alternation or conversion. To
label this as a "dysfunction" would be to
ignore the presence of real conflict in the
peasant's social world. Here, the use of
conflict theories would provide us a better
tool of understanding why the break occurred .
To be fair, Ileto recognizes the above
points. What he is saying is that these
perspectives have been overemphasized in past
research. But this does not justify an equal
overemphasis on the subjective reality at the
expense of the objective reality.
Finally, evaluative sociology mayalso offer
92
another complimentary perspective to Ileto's
framework, I find the e.valuative position
necessary because of the times and 'context we
are in, and because of the state of historical
and sociological scholarship in the Philippines.
Many of our history books, for example, still
glosses over our colonial past, a past often
viewed from a eurocentnc point of view. The
other extreme, of course, is the use of
nationalism and class analysis to· explain
everything that has happened (and .is
happening) ·in our society. And .even though
the evaluative sociology has its limitations, I
believe that there is a need to take this
perspective. Like Renato Constantino, I am
convinced that there must be a
mass-nationalist and class-critical perspective in
doing historical and sociological work in the
Philippines today. I am conscious of the.
danger of this position, but "studies based on
the evaluative perspective are necessary to
combat the falsification of Philippine history
and culture that has resulted from colonial .
and neo-colonial domination. Thus beyond the
routine of genuine scientific enterprise is also
an invitation to do what some might call
"propaganda." After all, we are not just
sociologists nor historians, we are. also
Filipinos.
Conclusion
Reading the works of Ileto and
interpretative sociologists, trying to reflect on
Philippine history and society, comparing the
different sociological theories brings to mind
PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
•
several thoughts about. the understanding of
social life, A salient one is that beyond social
. structures are people groping for a creative
response to social events. The relations
between structures and people, objective
reality and subjective realities, scientific and
evaluative theories, order and conflict - all
these drive home the realization that the
study of society is a complex matter. The
sociological passion, in the words of Berger, is
more .like a demon that possesses one, that
drives one compellingly, again and again,
despite its share of dangers to questions that
are its own. And so I end this note as I began
it, with the words of Peter Berger. .
References
Berger, Peter
1963 Invitation to Sociology: A Humanist
Perspective, New York: Doubleday.
1967 The Sacred Canopy: Element of a
_ Sociological Theory of Religion. New
York: Doubleday.:
BeIger,Peter and Thomas Luckmann
1967 The Social Construction _of Reality. New
York: Doubleday.
neto, Reynaldo C.
1979 Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Move-
ments in the Philippines, 1840-1910.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Univer-
sity Press, Quezon City.
Turner, Jonathan
1978 The Structure of Sociological Theory.
lllinois: Dorsey Press
"