Explanation:
FILIPINO GRIEVANCES AGAINST GENERAL WOOD It was by the direction of Jose Abad Santos and Jorge Cleofas Bocobo that the draft of the document of the Filipino Grievances Against General Wood was completed, together with a group of other Filipino politicians. During that time, Santos was the Chief Legal Counsel of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Bocobo was a Professor of Law at the University of Manila, a major supporter of Manuel Quezon, and a member of the several committees sent to the United States to negotiate the granting of the Philippines’ greater autonomy status. When Quezon got the Presidency after the American colonization, both men were appointed into higher positions for their valuable service in the government: Santos becoming the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and Bocobo becoming the Secretary of Public Instruction. After having been liberated from the Spanish colonizers in 1898, it has been the Filipinos’ ambition to be granted full sovereignty. For years, the Filipinos never failed to prove their leadership skills and competence to the American colonizers that they may finally grant their promise of Filipino independence. However, the appointment of Leonard Wood as the Governor General of the Philippines in 1921 resulted to a major turn of events in Philippine politics. Aside from suggesting that Filipinos were corrupt leaders, Wood rejected legislations passed by Filipino politicians and gave executive positions only to the Americans. He further extended his authority and insisted the supremacy of the United States over the country. It was because of Wood’s arbitrary, undemocratic, and oppressive conducts that triggered Filipino politicians to start a campaign against him. There was a mass resignation of Filipino officials as they try to make a statement of their disapproval of Wood’s administration. With the assistance of Jose Abad Santos and Jorge Cleofas Bocobo, they presented a document to the President of the United States informing him of the mass resignation of Filipino officials, expressing the grievances and disgust of the politicians affected by Wood’s reforms and management style, and explaining Wood’s blatant disregard of the rights and privileges granted to the Filipinos. This historical text was written on November 10, 1926 and was approved by the Commission on Independence seven days after. Maximo Kalaw’s “Philippine Government Under the Jones Law” and Gregorio and Sonia Zaide’s “Documentary Sources of the Philippine History” become secondary sources of this writing. Being formal and serious in tone, it is one of the legal documents which directly recorded the occurrences during the rule of General Leonard Wood in the Philippines in addition to the protests and clear intentions of the Filipinos to put an end to his regime. If one is not careful in understanding the text, it may sound politically biased as it discredits the Wood administration given that there are existing documents that details his point of view of the situation. Yet, the Filipinos have suffered enough to prove his usurpations. This provides us with an understanding that Filipinos have always been strong enough to fight for what they believe is right, even to the highest officials of another land, in order to protect the welfare of their countrymen while remaining steadfast and united. Reading the text and understanding its context got me thinking, “Why can’t the leaders of today bear the same courage to protect the welfare and the rights of the Filipino people? When will the Filipinos learn to fight back again? Will they be able to defend their freedom when their fellow Filipinos become the oppressors, too?”
