UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
This may seem to come across as johnny-come-lately, as a lot has been said and written about the award-winning film GomBurZa. Well, I saw this movie on the second-to-the last-day of the Metro Manila film Festival, mainly because we were busy with get-togethers during the holidays, and we wanted to make sure our son got to see the movie for historical perspective.
I have to agree that it is a well-made and historically accurate film with great acting, directing and production design, not to mention the superb cinematography, done by none other than Carlo Canlas Mendoza, son of our medical school classmate Jimmy Mendoza. This is his fifth Best Cinematogaphy award. Cheers, Carlo and proud father Jimmy!
It is heartening to note that GomBurZa the film is also a blockbuster, with theaters showing the film doubling in number after the awards were announced, and justly so. Hopefully, the younger generations, who don’t seem to show much interest in Philippine history, get to imbibe the patriotic sentiments so beautifully expressed in it.
The general sentiment is that the execution of the three secular priests marked the beginning of the sense of nationhood among Filipinos across the archipelago, who were used to distinguishing themselves first as Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Bicolanos, Ilonggos, Warays, Cebuanos, and many other linguistic and regional variants, rather than primarily as Filipinos. It definitely ignited the sparks of revolution, through its influence on Jose Rizal and other nationalists of the time.
But have we really progressed as a nation since then? Let’s examine some aspects of the movie that I find disturbing. All throughout, there were very few characters who were purely Spanish-born, so-called “peninsulares,” who were being served hand-and-foot by lowly Indios. Half-breeds, called “insulares,” were likewise excluded from positions of influence and power, even if they were highly educated and talented. Thus, these half-breeds were only allowed to be secular priests, while the peninsulares belonged to the Dominican, Augustinian or Jesuit religious orders which had tremendous power and influence, claiming the richer parishes and bishoprics to the exclusion of the secular mestizos. Thus started the friction that eventually led to the demonization (in present parlance, “red-tagging”) of secular priests who were perceived to be agitating for change, and whose perceived leaders were blamed by the friars as having fomented the failed Cavite mutiny.
What started as religious intramurals between the secular priests and religious friars evolved into aspirations of equality by the former. Having failed to achieve that, the seculars then turned to distinguishing themselves as Filipinos by identifying with the Indios, rather than with Spain. And so, the Filipino “nation” was born.
But that may be a rather simplistic way of looking at it. Despite the 1898 revolution against Spain and the failed independence campaign against the Americans, we seem to stumble from rising as one to internecine warfare, as seen in the factionalism of the revolutionaries that led to the execution of Andres Bonifacio, the founder of the Katipunan.
In some instances, some would rather cooperate with the foreign intruders rather than unite with fellow Filipinos. This is emphatically stressed in the movie when the Archbishop of Manila told Governor-General Izquierdo that if the Indios wanted to rebel, it would have been done early on, since there were only 300 Spanish soldiers, compared to 8,000 plus Indios. Instead, they elected to be subservient to their foreign masters as servants, foot soldiers and forced laborers.
Cooperation with the ruling clique seems to be the order of the day as long as it serves their self-interests. It is seen today with some elected officials switching to the current president’s political party, abandoning erstwhile leaders and allies as easily as changing their clothes.
With the current tensions in the West Philippine Sea, nationalistic sentiments are once again being fanned, and the GomBurZa movie is very timely in that it serves as a rallying call for us to unite on a common issue.
We’re seeing our political leaders now going with prevailing national sentiment to protect what is rightfully ours, with budgets realigned to improvement of national security and the Coast Guard. But sadly, there is no sense of indignation that had fueled past rallies and demonstrations to show our support for a more emphatic response to the creeping
aggression we are witnessing in our waters. We seem to be content in expressing our views online in social media, which however, doesn’t seem to make an impact politically.
There is a need for more historical films like GomBurZa, Heneral Luna, Jose Rizal, Goyo ang Batang Heneral, Supremo and others to keep the fires of nationalism alive in the Philippines. Surely, our filmmakers have plenty of material to draw upon, considering our rich but checkered history.