Reminiscences

SOME people find it odd that I find Internet auctions more engaging than porn sites. Maybe it's age or the way I was trained in childhood. But the wide range of Filipiniana on sale each day gets me excited. Of course, a lot of it is kitsch -- coins, stamps, postcards, Barbie dolls, even those famous Baguio City curios -- the "man-in-the-barrel" and the Igorot maiden whose wooden legs are used as a nut cracker (pun unintended here). I have even seen "the shy plant" a.k.a. "makahiya" [bashful mimosa] described like an exotic orchid. Makahiya was part of my childhood and I recall kicking whole patches of these and watched them close. Those clumps of makahiya are worth dollars.

Finding the needle in the proverbial haystack is the reward for hours of scanning the auctions. At one instance, the shorts Muhammad Ali used during the "Thrilla in Manila" were put on the block as well as the posters to the Beatles concert in Manila. Thrice I have seen books autographed by Ferdinand Marcos. I wouldn't buy "Today's Revolution: Democracy" for the text, but for Ferdinand Marcos' autograph on the flyleaf. The copies on sale were inscribed to obscure people, which explains why the starting bids were so low. These books, once prized possessions, are now literally in the dustbin of history.

As one person's trash is another one's treasure and vice-versa, the secret is getting these people to meet and Internet auctions facilitate this. As a historian, however, I'm more interested in the diaries, correspondence or reminiscences of the people who visited Marcos and received these autographed books. What did they talk about? What were their impressions of Marcos? Heads of state receive many callers daily yet little documentation is left for the historian.

On Oct. 31, 1898, a British army officer, G. J. Younghusband, traveled to Malolos and waited in the receiving room for close to five hours just to meet Aguinaldo. His meeting is one of the highlights of the book, "The Philippines and Round About" [1899]. He described Aguinaldo's office, sleeping bodyguard and other callers. In time, he was:

"Conducted into Aguinaldo's private study, where we found him seated at a large desk covered with papers and books. The great man rose and advanced a few steps to meet us, and in a quiet and dignified manner said he was glad to make the acquaintance of an English officer. Aguinaldo is a young man of only twenty-nine years of age, stands about five feet, four inches in height, is slightly built, and was dressed in a coat and trousers of drab tussore silk. He is a pure Philippine native, though showing a slight trace of Chinese origin, of dark complexion and much pock-marked. His face is square and determined, the lower lip protruding markedly.

"On the whole a man of pleasant demeanour, even-tempered and with strong characteristics. Slow of speech, and perhaps also of thought, his past career has hallmarked him as a man of prompt decision and prompter action. Many people, and amongst others Admiral Dewey, were much puzzled to find so quiet and apparently unintelligent and listless a young man the acknowledged and undisputed head of so great a movement. Many thought that he was a mere puppet in the hands of stronger men, others that he was a safe weak man bolstered up by strong conflicting powers on all sides, much in the way that Switzerland as a nation is bolstered up in Europe by strong powers on all sides. But a remarkably prompt action served to show that Aguinaldo was no puppet, but sailed decisively on his own bottom. A short time ago it appears that another of the insurgent leaders began to secure a following which bade fair to shake the supremacy of Aguinaldo. The President stayed to take no half measures, attempted no parleying; he grasped the nettle firmly, and ordering his reputed rival out into the courtyard, had him shot on the spot." [Is this a reference to Bonifacio or Luna or someone else?]

"In the course of conversation the subject of an American Protectorate came up. Now up to this date both Aguinaldo and the men of influence around him had openly declared that it was their wish to start their new life under the protection of a recognized power, and preferably under that of the American nation. But on this day, Aguinaldo most emphatically declared that he and his followers had fought for complete independence, and that they would shed the last drop of their blood in securing it. These were practically his very words, and forsaking his quiet demeanour, he went so far as to thump the desk with his fist for emphasis. This was a most weighty utterance, and if seriously meant was tantamount to a declaration of war against America should the result of the Peace Conference include a provision that the Philippine Islands were to be handed over to that Power." [We were handed over to the US, thus leading to the outbreak of the Filipino-American War in 1898.]

As Aguinaldo showed him a captured Spanish battle standard as well as the flag of the first republic, Younghusband noted Aguinaldo's son wearing a military uniform playing about in the office. He also remarked that members of the cabinet were very young, in his estimate not more than 25 years old. The last detail is most amusing, Aguinaldo's high collar was not buttoned securely on his coat and thus kept going up and down. On this note the interview ends.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu