Origins In February 1930, an American teacher working in the Philippines, Mabel Brummitt, made racist insults toward several high school students, referring to them as "a bunch of sweet potato eaters" and "monkeys". In retaliation to the teacher's racist comments, the students staged high-profile walkout protests. Benigno Ramos found that he was sympathetic to the students' cause, so he decided to participate in the protests. Ramos was an eloquent high-level government employee, and his vocal dissent was at odds with the beliefs of future Filipino president Manuel Quezon. Quezon was a senator at the time, and also served as Ramos' employer and mentor. He insisted that Ramos resign from his government positions upon hearing about his participation in the protest, and on June 18, Ramos acquiesced. Angered by the government's response to the protest, Ramos decided to establish a newspaper that would serve as a pulpit to air his criticisms of the current Filipino regime. Using personal funds as well as donations from friends and admirers, the first issue of his fortnightly newspaper,
Sakdal, was published on June 28, 1930. The distribution of this first issue signaled the formal beginning of the Sakdalista movement.
1931–1932 The paper consisted of defenses of weak, impoverished, and exploited citizens in the Philippines. Any critic of the current regime was able to contribute editorials to the paper, and circulation grew to 18,494 subscribers by the end of 1931. The paper depended upon government-sanctioned mailing privileges, and so thus the writers were sometimes forced to avoid sensitive topics at certain tense moments at the risk of having their voices silenced completely. In addition to regularly printing criticism of officials, Sakdalistas collected donations for exiled sympathizers, boycotted foreign goods, and gave speeches at the request of various organizations in locations ranging from
Pampanga to
Zambales to
Marinduque. In 1932, the organization raised enough funds through donations in order to buy their own printing press, which streamlined the publication process. Near the end of the year, Sakdal subscribers raised several thousand pesos to send Benigno Ramos on a diplomatic trip to the United States in order to protest the
Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act in front of Congress. Ramos would bring copies of
Sakdal with him to disperse along the way in order to rally foreign sympathizers to his cause.
Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act The
Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act originated with rural American farmer
political action committees. The American PACs believed that Filipino imports posed great dangers to their economic welfare during the
Great Depression. The law would subject Filipinos to official American tariffs and commence a ten-year transition towards independence. The Sakdalistas believed that ten years was an excessively long waiting period, and thus vehemently disapproved of the bill. The Filipino
Nacionalista Party was in favor of the act, which was eventually approved by the
United States Congress in early 1933 after a veto from President
Herbert Hoover was overturned.
1933 Ramos left for the United States on April 10, and
Sakdal editor Celerino Tiongco became the acting manager of the newspaper in his absence. Ramos toured through
California,
Utah, and
Denver over several months, finally arriving in
Washington D.C. in July. To the Sakdalistas' dismay, Ramos was unable to stop the passage of the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act because of his leisurely pace through the west. He had arrived to the capital too late to act. Ramos' ineffective tour caused a great sense of frustration within the Sakdalista party. The management concluded that their standard methods of political demonstration and critical press were not going to be effective in advancing towards independence. Furthermore, the incumbent legislators in the Philippines were certainly not going to change their minds on the subject. Considering the fact that the country's general election was set to occur the next year, they decided that the only way forward was to form their own political party and gain official seats in congress. Thus, the official Sakdalista political party was formed in mid-October, 1933.
1934 Chapters of the movement were established all across the Philippines in preparation for the
June Senate and
House elections. The Sakdalistas made a credible showing, winning all three seats that they ran for in the
House of Representatives. A Sakdalista became governor of the
Marinduque province. Additionally, "[i]n
Laguna, Bulacan,
Rizal, and
Cavite, the party's candidates for municipal offices made remarkable showings and won more than a score of important posts." These numerous victories were certainly not strong enough to truly challenge the Nacionalista's support of the
Tydings–McDuffie Act (a successor to the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act), but they were enough to move the Sakdalista movement into the limelight and illustrate the extent of rural discontent in the Philippines. The Nacionalista party quickly realized the true power of the Sakdalista movement. They immediately resolved petty intra-party differences in order to close ranks and politically exclude the Sakdalistas. To counter this political obstacle, Ramos traveled to
Japan in November in an attempt to gain foreign support after his failed tour through the United States.
Tydings–McDuffie Act This act, enacted March 24, 1934, was the direct successor of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act from the year before. It, like the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act, also promised independence after 10 years, to which Ramos responded "[h]ow many 'Ten Years' does the U.S. Government need to kill our independence, and… confiscate all the lands of the Filipinos?" (Sturtevant Book, 231). The act was one of the central motivating factors behind the continued frustrations of the Sakdalista party, and it inspired Ramos to embrace the idea of more drastic methods of protestation.
1935 The Sakdalistas in power promised their constituents that the Philippines would have complete and absolute independence by December 31, 1935, if they had their way in congress. Aside from continuing the usual inflammatory diatribe, Ramos laid out seven new objectives: • Investigation of religious lands • Formation of a 500,000-man
Philippine Army • Teaching of native
languages in the public schools • Retention of lawyers to defend poor clients • Reduction of official salaries • Pay increases for teachers, policemen, and laborers. • Adoption of
voting machines to prevent election frauds With the party officially recognized in Congress, the Sakdalistas were more hopeful than ever. However, the newfound hope was quickly extinguished by the political exclusion perpetrated by the Nacionalista party. Thus, the Sakdalistas instituted a drastic shift in strategy.
May 2 Uprising killed in the May 2 Uprising. The Sakdalista party had grown quickly over a short period of time, and by early April, their activities in the provinces surrounding Manila were causing concern in government circles. The Filipino government, anticipating escalating acts of public unrest, stifled the Sakdal newspaper by revoking its mailing rights and by ordering that public meetings could only be held with government-sponsored permits. These measures proved unsuccessful, however, because Ramos had succeeded in printing and smuggling thousands of copies of a Japanese-sponsored pamphlet entitled "Free Filipinos" while on his tour of Japan. The pamphlet offered the illusion of popular Japanese support for the Sakdal cause. The alleged Japanese approval combined with the numerous frustrations of the Sakdalistas, and a popular uprising was planned. Late on May 1, 1935, Sakdalista activists spread the word that the endeavor to achieve independence would begin within twenty-four hours. Hesitant party members were told that, in the event of retaliatory American military action, Japan would intervene with support on the side of the Sakdalistas. Additionally, many were told that the constables had become sympathetic to the Sakdalista cause, and would assist in the uprising by throwing down their weapons. During the evening of May 2, it is estimated that as many as 68,000 Sakdalistas convened at prearranged locations in order to march on several municipalities. They expected the constables to throw down their weapons as allies, but were instead greeted with intentional rifle fire.
The Washington Post reported that there had been 69 deaths by noon on May 3, with the total death count at about 100. More than 1,000 protesters had been arrested. The rebellion had been immediately crushed, and the organizers of the protest went into hiding. The scale of the demonstration was impressive, but not nearly large nor effective enough to force an immediate change in government in a US territory of 12 million people. == Aftermath and legacy of the movement ==