The Macabebes at Clark Cemetery

I WAS at the Clark cemetery last All Saints Day to pray at the grave of a friend's relative.  After the prayers, while my friend chatted with acquaintances, I checked out the names on the gravestones, one by one, row by row. 

As expected, they were arranged chronologically, according to date of death and the war they died in.  I began with those who had died in the Vietnam War; every now and then I'd come across a civilian's name who did not die in the war, or a wife's name, or an infant's (as indicated), probably family members of soldiers who had accompanied them in tours of duty.

Then there were those who had died in the Korean War; quite a number of the gravestones had the words "Korea and Vietnam" carved under the soldiers' names, which means they had fought in both wars.  As I moved farther away I found those who had died in the Second World War, and then the dates went even earlier--1930s, 1920s, until I made my discovery: Filipino names, many of them clearly Kapampangan, occupied the gravestones located at the farthest end of the Clark cemetery.  There were rows and rows of them, soldiers who had died in 1904, 1905, 1906, 1909.  Under each name, the words "Philippine Scouts" were inscribed.

I could not believe my eyes.  Only days before, the Center for Kapampangan Studies had published the fourth issue of its quarterly magazine, Singsing, which ran the story of the Macabebe Scouts as its main feature (and cover).  I wrote a few articles myself, and in the course of my research on the Macabebes I became fascinated with them.  If we Kapampangans are branded today as dugong aso, it's mainly because of what the Macabebes did in the distant past.   When I was a college student in Baguio I could never understand why my Ilocano and Tagalog classmates distrusted me and my fellow Kapampangans, until I heard the story of the Macabebes.  These days, other Filipinos praise us Kapampangans for our pulchritude and culinary skills but you can be sure that under their breath they whisper about our untrustworthiness.   Recently, when we began the weekly lectures at the Center, the question our young audiences ask most often is, why are Kapampangans branded as dugong aso?  That's when I concluded that the term will stick and that we should do something about it.  Hence, the Singsing story on the Macabebes.

The Macabebes are truly an enigmatic tribe.  When they first appeared in written history, they were fierce freedom fighters who fought off the Spanish invaders in 1571.  Ironically, it was the Tagalogs (under Lakandula of Tondo and Rajah Soliman of Manila) who eventually welcomed the Spaniards while the Kapampangans (under Tarik Soliman of Macabebe) had to die fighting in the Battle of Bangkusay.  Years later, Macabebes helped the Spaniards drive away the Chinese pirate Limahong, and that was the start of a friendship that would endure to the very last day of the Spanish Period.  The Macabebes helped the Spaniards colonize the rest of the archipelago and invade countries like Vietnam, China, Thailand and the Malaya Peninsula.  Without the Macabebes, the Philippines would have been colonized by the Dutch and later by the British, two Protestant nations.  This is the reason the feast of the La Naval is celebrated only in two places, Manila and Pampanga. 

When the Revolution broke out, the Macabebes sided with the Spaniards even while the rest of Pampanga threw its support for the quest for independence.  Macabebes protected the retreating Spaniards, rescuing friars and the families of the Spanish Army.  In retaliation, Antonio Luna's troops burned the town of Macabebe and massacred its residents.  When the Americans bought and colonized the Philippines, Macabebes enlisted in the US Army by the hundreds.  These events fueled the enmity between Kapampangans and Tagalogs, climaxing in the sensational capture of the Tagalog general, Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Republic of the Philippines.   The entrapment was carried out by American officials disguised as prisoners of Macabebes disguised as Tagalog revolutionaries. 

Many Filipinos would not forgive the Macabebes (and by extension, all Kapampangans) for selling out the nation to the Americans, but as some historians point out, the Macabebes were mere foot soldiers who only obeyed orders from their officers.  Since they were never in Aguinaldo's Army, they could not be accused of treachery.  The real traitors were the non-Kapampangan Tal Placido, Segismundo and Segovia, ranking officers of Aguinaldo who had defected to the Americans and who helped hatch the plan.

At any rate, the US President and US Congress, jubilant over Aguinaldo's capture, authorized the inclusion of the Macabebes into the US Army; they were called the Philippine Scouts.  They were some kind of a celebrity in the US military; American officers considered it a prestige to be assigned to supervise the Scouts.  In 1908, the US Congress allowed the Scouts to attend the US Military Academy at West Point.  Throughout the 1920s and 1930s they were considered by the US Inspector General as the most efficient unit in the US Army.  When World War II broke out, all Filipinos joined the Philippine Scouts in supporting the Americans' war against Japan.  All talk of connivance with the Americans vanished in the face of a common enemy.  After the war nothing more was heard from the Macabebes.  All that remains is the tag dugong aso, which originally meant blind loyalty, then morphed into treacherousness--quite wrong since dogs, of all animals, will never betray their master.

The National Historical Institute should put a marker at the section of the Clark cemetery where the Philippine Scouts are buried.  If you don't want to acknowledge them as heroes, at least acknowledge the role they played in history.  For better or for worse, these unheralded  foot soldiers, who are mere faces in sepia-colored group pictures but whose names we now know through these discovered gravestones--they were in all the major events of Philippine history, staying obscure but often deciding the outcome.   Right now their gravestones are gathering cracks and weeds; next year I know I will be back to lay flowers and candles.
 
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We would like to request those who will be using the information above, especially for publication, to properly cite the author and the Kapampangan Homepage.  The above column was published in The Voice.