The Philippines has had a long history of suffering from colonial rule under the

Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese. In this long history of suffering, Filipinos
had continuously fought for freedom and liberation. It was a long time before the
Philippines had settled on its democracy and was able to properly establish its own form
of government free from sovereign interference. The Filipinos are products of multiple
races, most specifically Malays, Indonesians, and Chinese. With the first aboriginals of
the Philippines being named as “Aetas” or “Negritoes”. They were believed to have
come to the Philippines on foot via land bridges about to 25,000 to 30,000 years ago.

The Philippines is composed of various islands, making it an archipelago. The

Philippines’ location made it susceptible to progressive revolutions that were happening
in other Southeast Asian countries, yet it was also the country that was directly facing
US imperialism, which at the time was what everyone considered as the enemy.

With its wealth in natural resources, the Philippines could have survived
independently and sustained the population, had they been able to exhaust and use
these resources to their advantage. However, at the time the reading material was
written, the US Imperialist system had control of the Philippines and were the ones who
were making use of the natural resources.

The Philippines has been divided into three major sections in accordance to the
geography of the islands – Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Currently, these three
islands have developed their own individual languages, dialects, and culture that
although may have been derived from each other, are recognized independently as
their own. Due to this, there are more than 100 language and dialects that are spoken
by the Filipinos, varying on where they came from.

The Philippines had developed their own version of a governmental system

before the coming of the Spanish to colonize the country. It was somewhat a slavery-
feudal type of social system wherein there were three classifications: maharlikas,
timawas and the two types of slaves: aliping sagigilid, and aliping namamahay.

The maharlikas did not have a necessity to work in the field, and instead took
control of their own private land, while the timawas are comparable to our middle class
today who would have their own share of their crops, but not as much as the maharlikas
had. Lastly, there were the slaves. The aliping namamahay, who had their own space to
live in and the aliping sagigilid, who lived in the same house of their master. Both having
the same purpose of serving their master. The social status was acquired via
inheritance, and other factors such as debts, and crimes committed.

The social system back then was very similar to what we have now wherein
leaders would rule their barangays. However, during that time period, barangays could
take over one another, or work hand-in-hand. They maintained control of their own
barangays via use of arms. This was done long before the Spanish colonial rule came
into place, hence, the colonial mindset and regime was already in place.

When the Spanish came to colonize the country, the Philippines suffered a
period of abuse as their freedom was limited. The Spanish took control of the social
system structure in which the Filipinos had established and used this as their own. They
took advantage of the natural resources, then started urbanizing the country by creating
private buildings, private houses, churches, and other private territories that were to be
used by the Spanish during their colonial rule.

The Spanish then proceeded to use the Philippines as the base for trading for
goods coming in from various nations, especially that of China. Eventually, this was not
enough, and the economy declined, resulting in the exporting of products such as
sugar, tobacco, and the like. This provided a lot of profit gain for the Spanish.

There were then government officials that were put into place, such as the
gobernadorcillo and the cabezas de barangay were assigned whose main duties were
to collect fees from the locals. These officials continued to encourage the oppression of
the poor as they wanted to keep their own position and maintain good graces with the
Spanish colonial rulers.

However, there were also many locals who resisted the rule of the Spanish and
kept up in their belief of liberation from the Spanish. For long, the Spanish had the
Filipinos fight against each other as they had the Filipinos become their soldiers every
time a revolt occurred. However, it was 1896 when the Philippine revolt truly occurred.
Several personalities were detained, executed, and tortured when there were rumors
coming out that they were planning to overthrow the Spanish rulers. This led to the
formation of the Katipunans who became more agitated and decided that peaceful and
passive actions were no longer enough. It was time for a bloody revolution.

After successfully overthrowing the Spanish rule with what was the supposed
“help” of the US troops, the Philippines was successfully declared a republic, yet was
still under the US Imperialist system. Complete democracy and freedom at this point
was still not attained. The US still ruled the Filipinos, and there was still a fight that had
to be done.

The US troops started an attack on the Filipinos which began the Philippine-
American War. This war, however, was won by the US by miles, and almost 200,000
Filipinos died in contrast to the 4,000 of the US. They continued their rule and became
more and more ruthless to the Filipinos. They tortured, hurt, and killed various Filipinos
under their rule.

When the Filipinos, however, started to penetrate the US government, the

Filipinos became closer and closer to what was democracy, or so they thought. The
people who were meant to lead the Philippines became puppets of the US imperialist
system, hence slowing down any achievement of democracy.

It is clear that even after the leaving the Philippines, the US imperialist system
continued to loom over the heads of the Filipinos – that there was never a democracy
that was attained, and that we are still puppets in their play. The Filipinos felt freedom,
but it was still being controlled by those of greater power.

Today, we continue to live out what is our supposed freedom, yet it does not feel
like it, all. We may have our own governing bodies, and our human rights, and laws, but
it feels like this democracy is still under the control of those in power. Our society which
is still modelled after that of Western countries, disguised as “globalization” and even
our language, culture, and currency, which is greatly influenced by the Spanish colonial
rule are reminders that our freedom is not the freedom we wish for.
 It is hard to determine whether we will truly be able to separate ourselves from
the foreign chains that have been cuffed to us. It is hard to determine whether the
leaders we have in place are service the Filipino citizens, and not foreign entities who
wish to take the Philippines again. The Filipinos who have long fought for democracy
are now prisoners of other Filipinos, as well.

Democracy, which we have long fought for, is still not fully achieved. We may
have to go a longer way to be able to be truly free of this foreign control. As Filipinos, it
is our duty to protect our country and fellow people, so that we may never be ruled over,
as we used to be.

After reading about the history of the Philippines and the corresponding regimes
and colonization, I have gained the knowledge of the Puppet Government, which is also
known as the Second Philippine Republic. It was the government that was established
by the Japanese imperialists during the Japanese occupation. There were a total of six
eras of puppet regimes that occurred in our country.

In the present time, the Philippines grew and was able to establish their own
individuality as a country that is finally free of colonizers. For many years, the Filipinos
have lived under the wrath of the other nations and their greed for territory which has
put us into decades, even centuries, of sufferings. And for me, though these countries
have contributed and influenced the culture we continue to practice until today, both the
positive and negative impacts of their colonization cannot be disregarded.

In the first part of the readings given, it was discussed there that the Filipinos,
before the several occupations that happened, have already instituted their own social
system which according to what I’ve read, was more of a feudal structure and is
incorporated with something like a caste system where there were certain tribes like the
Aetas who were considered to be in the lowest part of their social organization. One of
the most known system was where the social classes were classified into: (1) the ruling
class – families who managed over private-owned lands; (2) maharlikas who also
owned lands like the ruling class but just enough to be used for income; the (3)
timawas, those who shared crops with other nobilities; and the (4) slaves which had two
distinct kinds, the aliping namamahay and aliping sagigilid. There were also other social
organizations that were discussed like the barangays and Islam sultanates. This
information has enlightened me into realizing that even before the Spanish occupation,
Filipinos had the concept of governance and that there was already some sort of
territorial disputes between them.

Due to lack of unity between leaders among the different social classes brought
upon by the diverse culture of the Filipinos wherein every tribe had their own tradition
and way of governance, the Spaniards have easily infiltrated our lands and were able to
develop and flourish the Philippine islands with their own method of governance. In the
long run of the Spanish regime, numerous mistreatments were experienced by the
Filipinos. And in the Philippine-American War where the U.S. imperialists put on a show
of a mock battle between themselves and the Spaniards which made the Filipino troops
deceived into thinking that they and the U.S. troops were allies, was the starting point of
the abhorrence of the Filipinos towards the U.S. because of their deprivation of the
supposed victory from being free from the Spanish colonization. Also, it showed the
certainty that the Philippines was again and remained as a colonized country. The
Filipinos’ hope for independence was again at stake.

It has been said that the U.S. was drawn to the Philippines because it was their
source of raw materials for their surplus products. They used our country as their vessel
to expand their market and for their goal which is to convert the Pacific Ocean into an
American lake, as said in the given readings. They have formed a puppet-like social
structure wherein they acquired the class that was closely associated with the Spanish
colonizers and put them on the top of their created community. They also changed the
educational system in the Philippines which is, then again, their tactic, to discreetly
suppress the Filipino people and try to change their political perspectives in favor of the
American government.

Upon reading and pondering about the passages on the U.S. imperialism, I
suppose that, though the methods used by the Americans to conquer our lands were
cunning, we cannot deny the fact that [somehow] they were able to improve the
transportation and communications system in the Philippines which also gave way for
the strengthening of the country’s economic, political, cultural and military control, which
I’ve realized that these “improvements” in our country will always be a two-way road.
What I mean by this is that they try to make “good changes” in the organization of the
society but at the same time, constrain us of our liberty which we had yet to achieve.
For example, as said in the readings, “...the aggressors never hesitated to employ force
to suppress any attempt to express the national-democratic aspirations of the people.”
Which, in my understanding, is an act of coercion by the U.S. imperialists to make sure
that they will stay in power and that the Filipinos should be unable to start a revolution in
order to overthrow the American imperialist government.

It is known to all that the Japanese occupation was one of the most painful parts of
the Philippine history. All the imperialist leaders and nations were once allies, until the
crisis on capitalism had risen which resulted in one of the biggest tragedies that
happened to the entire world – World War II. The Japanese then suddenly attacked the
U.S. military that were based in the Philippines. Because the Philippines was under the
puppet commonwealth government scheme of the U.S, they took orders from them not
knowing that the U.S. had cunningly planned everything out which lead Japan into
occupying a lot of countries in Asia.

As I have said in my introduction, there were six eras of the puppet regime. As the
people of the Philippines suffered and endured exploitations in the reign of the
Japanese, they have started to revolt against the Japanese fascists. In that time, there
was an organization that represented the Filipinos’ cry of revolution which was called
the Communist party. Under them, was a group of revolutionists named Hukbalahap,
who oversaw taking down the U.S. imperialists. However, after their enemies had gone
to plead for democratic peace and the Hukbalahap had abided by it, there were traitors
within the party that had then declared a false independence from the U.S. for them to
be able to grasp high positions in the community.

Aside from the given readings, I have also read other articles about the puppet
regime and I was surprised to learn new information about it. As a child, I have always
instilled in my mind that the concept of puppet government was basically being a puppet
of the colonialists. Little did I know, it was more of wanting to claim more power and
position (in my understanding) in the government, thinking that after being a dummy for
the imperialists, there would come a time that they would be able to rule and run the
government in the palm of their hands.

The first puppet regime after the puppet commonwealth government was the
Roxas puppet regime. It was said that the Lavacs and Tarucs were accountable for the
false information that was spread to the people. This happened through the pacification
campaign of the government which led to this regime inhibiting a lot of the civilians and
was responsible for the massacres. After the death of Roxas, his vice president, Quirino
continued and owned a whole new regime. And from what I understood and
remembered, until his regime ended, he remained a puppet of the U.S. imperialists.

Magsaysay’s regime, on the other hand, came and destroyed the Party and the
people’s army. He also signed an agreement which allows the U.S. to continue its
colonial reign in our country and let the hard work of every Filipino in that time, go into
the imperialists’ hands. Garcia then became the president of the next puppet
government after Magsaysay was deceased. And because he was literally part of the
exploiting classes, he never thought of breaking out of the colonial pattern brought by
the U.S. and Japanese imperialists that continued to coerce the Filipino in that time. He
even came up with a “Filipino First” scheme to cover up for blindly following the U.S.
imperialists which meant that the Filipino businessmen can only transact with and only
to Americans.

Moving on with the Macapagal puppet regime, I believe I have learned about how
this regime had taken advantage of the rising economic crisis brought by the U.S.
imperialists in order to make the people suffer because of overpricing and low wage and
to welcome American investments that were only made to benefit that nation.

Last puppet regime was Marcos’s regime, which I think is still particularly relevant
to discuss in the present time. This was the regime in which several citizens became
victims of the extreme violence from the government. This is where Filipino people were
deprived of their own rights and was under coercion and oppression for many years
after the colonization of the big countries.
 The puppet regimes were the epitome of vehemence and greed for power, I
believe. I would not ever think I would survive years of oppression and violence that
would have a great impact on who I will be in the future. Contemplating and reflecting
on this topic has honed me into becoming aware of the dark past of our history and how
our country evolved from having a very unique and distinct way of leadership and
governance into experiencing decades of nastiness and insatiability of what we call
leaders. Leaders that were supposed to support and empower their own nations instead
of betraying and bringing them down.