ANG PULAHAN

Hi everyone

Here's the story that we will discuss on Friday, Sept. 26. Prepare for a pre-rest.

Hannah

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ANG PULAHAN

Vicente Sotto

I.

¹    The sun was up. Iyo Diyakoy and his two sons, Garitoy and Isyong, who have been clearing and weeding their land since dawn, were returning to their hut to have breakfast.

²    From afar, they could see five Constables leaving their hut, carrying rifles and laughing their hearts out while walking.

³    —Tay, —Garitoy who was ahead, said –Are the Constables looking for us?

⁴    —Why? What have we done?

⁵    —Tay, —Isyong butted in –let's hide in the cogon first. Those Constables may be looking for people to carry their bundles.

⁶    —That's right, let's crouch here. Let's wait till they disappear. The three squeezed themselves among the thick cogon weeds.

⁷    And the Constables walked farther and farther and farther away until mountains covered them from view.

II.

⁸    What a terrifying sight!

⁹    Iya Santa, the wife of Iyo Diyakoy, was tied to a post. Atang, the wife of Garitoy, was without her saya. She lay motionless on the bed, with her feet and hands tied. Basil, the wife of Isyong, also lay still on the floor. She, too, had been stripped of her saya and both her feet and hands were tied. Andat, the daughter of Iyo Diyakoy, was found in another room, flat on the floor with her arms and legs spread out. She was naked,  covered with blood, and hogtied. The babies of both Atang and Basil were found wailing inside a basket. The mouths of the women were gagged.

¹⁰ That was what Iyo Diyakoy, Garitoy and Isyong saw when they entered their hut...

¹¹ —Bathala! What happened to you?

¹² —Oh heavens!

¹³ —My LORD!

¹⁴ They asked questions all at the same time while they freed the women.

¹⁵ The ones who were found lying down were not able to talk but were sobbing.

¹⁶ Iya Santa who was crying loudly and could hardly talk, was the first to speak:

¹⁷ —Ay, Pasilan! Five Constables broke into our house. They tied me to a post, they covered the children with a basket, they raped Atang, Bail, and Andat. They were all over Andat... They gagged us.[1]

¹⁸ —Scoundrels! –screamed  Iyo Diyakoy.

¹⁹ Both shaking with rage and without saying anything, Garitoy and Isyong took their linantip,[2] and rushed out to chase the Constables.

²⁰ Later, loud cracking sounds of guns could be heard; Garitoy and Isyong lay flat on the ground bathed in their own blood.

III.

²¹ It was late afternoon.

²² The yard of Iyo Diyakoy was filled with people. His relative and neighbors flocked to his place.

²³ The corpses of Garitoy and Isyong were laid out. In a voice full of grief, Iyo Diyakoy spoke: Relatives and friends! What are we waiting for? If we complain to the Mayor, he won't listen to us because we are but poor farmers. Then the Constables will take revenge on us, just like what happened to the others. What are we waiting for?

²⁴ Do you want the evil deed this morning to be done to your wives and children too?

²⁵ Everyone answered:

²⁶ —We will fight! We prefer to die!

²⁷ Right then and there, after the two were buried, the Pulahan[3] organization was established.

IV.

²⁸ The town's peace was disturbed.

²⁹ Constables and Police scoured the mountains in search of Pulahanes.

³⁰ The innocent, the scared, the ones who remained in their huts and did not join Iyo Diyakoy were the ones arrested. the jails were filled with the poor whose only crime was the poverty that forced them to live in the mountains.[4]

³¹ Many girls who lived in the farms and mountains were raped, regardless of age or condition.[5]

³² But the Pulahanes grew even stronger. Many men who wanted to escape the atrocities of the Constabulary joined Iyo Diyakoy.

³³ To avoid further suffering, the Provincial Governor ordered the town mayor of T.....to meet with Iyo Diyakoy, and to advise him to make a petition for pardon.

³⁴ The Head of the Pulahanes responded:

³⁵ —Mr. Mayor, tell the Provincial Governor that we are innocent, and we don't need to make a petition. We are fighting the Government; we are fighting the Government; we are fighting those who abused us. We are not revolutionaries, nor are we bandits. We are not revolutionaries, nor are we bandits. We are not revolutionaries, nor are we bandits. We are not revolutionaries for we have no flag of our own; we recognize and respect the American Flag.[6] Neither are we bandits, for though we come down to the towns to forcibly secure rice and money, this we are forced to do because of hunger. But the day the law can no longer be bent or stretched and justice is for everyone, then will we be able to return to our huts and go back to work in our farms. That is all we ask for. Justice! But when our relatives are raped; our chickens, pigs, corn, and hemp stolen; the husbands who defend their wives' honor gunned down...we would rather die in the forest with our eyes looking up to God...

V.

³⁶ Betrayed by a Constable who had joined the Pulahanes, Iyo Diyakoy was arrested.

³⁷ He was tried for the crime of bandolerismo (banditry) and the Fiscal asked that the penalty of death be given.

³⁸ After the Judge had passed the terrible sentence, Iyo Diyakoy stood up and with a calm face spoke:

³⁹ —That's good, Honorable Judge. I agree to be hanged. But permit me to ask you one question: why do you not punish those who raped my daughter, for this was the reason I became a Pulahan? Is this what you call Justice?

⁴⁰ —Silence! –the judge shouted harshly.

⁴¹ Fast as a tiger, Iyo Diyakoy leaped over to the seat of the Judge: he grabbed the large bottle of ink and smashed this on the forehead of the one who had sentenced him to death.

⁴² The police helped one another beat up Iyo Diyakoy vomited blood right on top of the body, of the dying Judge.

⁴³ Two were buried that day: the Judge and the Head of the Pulahanes.

(1908)

Translated by Teresita G. Maceda

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[1] A similar incident happened in Toledo or Asturyas, during the term of the late Provincial Head Climaco:  Three or four women were rapes by Constables in front of their husbands who were tied to a post.  those husbands were the first Pulahan (Reds) in Cebu. (Note from the author.)

[2] Linantip – a kind of bolo.

[3] Pulahan – literally, red.  Refers to the association of peasants who rebelled against the government at the turn of the century.

[4] In Cebu, this also happened; many were released because of Fiscal Osmeña’s petition to set free the innocent.

[5] In Cebu, once again, one of those who lived in the mountains told us that in the barangays where the Constabulary stayed, virgins had become rare. Everyone was stained. (Note from the editors of the Cebuano periodical Ang Suga where this story was first published.)

[6] These words are similar to the declaration of Kintin and Adoy Tabal, heads of the Pulahan in Cebu, in the petition they made to Governor Osmeña.  the excesses of the Constabulary have since been punished by Captain Boren, head of the Constabulary here in Cebu, who has become one of the most admired men. (Note from the Editor of Ang Suga.)

Meet the Writer

Vicente Yap Sotto (1877-1950) was a Filipino politician and former Senator of the Philippines.

Sotto was born in Cebu City on April 18, 1877 to Marcelino Sotto and Pascuala Yap. He finished his secondary education at the University of San Carlos (formerly Colegio de San Carlos), Cebu City. He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws and Judicial Science and passed the bar examinations in 1907. He is the grandfather of former senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, and actor Vic Sotto.

Sotto is regarded as the Father of Cebuano Language and Letters.

Sotto's play "Paghigugma sa Yutang Natawhan" (Love of Native Land), dramatized the Cebuano people's heroic struggle against Spanish feudal rule in the modern realist mode. He also wrote the first published Cebuano short story ("Maming", in the maiden issue of Ang Suga).

He wrote, directed, and produced the first Cebuano play, Elena, a play in three acts. It was first performed at the Teatro Junquera on May 18, 1902. The play established Sotto's reputation as a playwright.

The dedication of the play by the playwright reads, "To My Motherland, that you may have remembrance of the glorious Revolution that redeemed you from enslavement. I dedicate this humble play to you." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Sotto)