Katipunan Disputes: The Tejeros Convention
The Tejeros Convention is one of the most important meetings of the Katipuneros during the Spanish Colonial Period. It explains how the disagreement between the Magdiwang and Magdalo factions became a major conflict in the revolution. It also shows the Katipunan’s government structure and the personality politics within the group which somehow explains the political structure of the Philippines today.
The KKK was divided into two rival factions which had its own leaders and territories; these were the Magdiwang faction led by Andres Bonifacio’s brother-in-law and the Magdalo faction led by Emilio Aguinaldo’s cousin. The Magdalo faction mostly comprised of people from the rich section of society or the ilustrados from Cavite while the Magdiwang faction comprised of people from the poorer section of society or the middle-class, most of which came from Manila. The two factions have always been in dispute despite having one goal. This was supposed to be settled during the Tejeros Convention which happened on March 22, 1897. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss what the revolutionary government would be and to determine the leaders of the said government. The convention mostly comprised of members of the Magdiwang faction but they weren’t necessarily pro-Bonifacio since Bonifacio never really chose sides. The participants voted and Emilio Aguinaldo came out as the president whilst Andres Bonifacio came out as the Director of the Interior. However, Daniel Tirona believed that Bonifacio was too uneducated for the position and suggested that a lawyer should replace him instead. Insulted and frustrated, Bonifacio stated that the process of the election was too disorderly which made the results invalid. In fact, there have been reports of rigged ballots during the event. Also, according to Mariano Alvarez, the voters were already manipulated by the Imus crowd by secretly spreading that they should not be led by men from other towns or pueblos which meant that they should elect Aguinaldo instead of Bonifacio.
Now isn’t this all so familiar? Don’t you see the similarities of these events with the events in the more future years? The conflict between the rich (ilustrados) and the poor, dirty elections, and filthy regionalism have repeatedly showed up in the history of Philippine politics and have had detrimental effects on the country.
Rich vs Poor
This political struggle has been present not only in the Philippines but around the world as well. The way the ilustrados previously viewed the revolution as “an irrational act by the uneducated masses” but joined afterwards to protect their wealth and social status is very familiar in today’s society. The rich people’s hunger for power has and always will be one of the main causes of having a filthy government. They usually use their riches to buy the votes of the people and sometimes even discriminate against their fellow “poor” candidates.
Dirty Elections
Isn’t this a bit too obvious? Sadly, the Philippines has been known for having several corrupt government officials due to the filthy manipulation of voters and ballots. From the rigged ballots in the Tejeros Convention to the (intentional??) malfunctioning of the PCOS machines, we clearly have not learned from our lesson.
Filthy Regionalism
Yet another infamous practice in the Philippines. It has GREATLY affected Philippine politics, both positively and negatively. However, I believe the negative effects outweigh the positive ones.
The results of the most recent presidential elections show how regionalism is a great factor in deciding the winner. It can be seen in the picture that the majority of the people in Davao city voted for President Duterte since that is his place of origin. Let me be clear, however, that regionalism isn’t wrong when people choose to vote for an individual because they actually know that specific individual and they believe that he/she is the best for a position but voting for an individual only because he/she came from the same place as them is a whole different story.
Now, the mistakes of our past may have negatively affected our present but that doesn’t mean it has to affect our future. As Rafiki in Lion King once said,
“ — the past can hurt but the way I see it, we can either run from it or learn from it.”
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