Uncovering Some of the Dark secrets of Philippine History

Hello everyone, Today i am gonna share the article that i wrote for 2 days now. I am writing about my passion which is my field in History and Geography and my focus this time is in the Philippine context

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Believe it or not, millennials nowadays often neglect or disregard the essence of History. Especially on knowing and understanding the beauty from within. Most of us us asked "Why do we need to study and listen to history? When in fact it had already happened in the past? Why can't we just move on?" Yes while it is true that history deals with significant events, prominent people and time in the past but History plays vital role in our society that shape us to where we are today. We maybe living in the present but still the past haunts us today.

History is not Boring; History is Interesting !
A lot of people and students usually complained how boring history is. Most will have the sentiments on how will talking on dead people, remembering events would help us? This is the common misconception among us and for me personally who study this field, I am totally hurt on how people don't really see the real value or essence of studying and remembering the past. History enables us to full understand and grasp on the nature of people and the society that we are living with. Through the major aspect and different perspective , understanding people and the society is quite a big challenge and difficult one.But when we study history, we will have a deeper perspective on things that happened.

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History gives us glimpse on how the society used to be and this changes affects us specifically in this contemporary era that into part of. Remembering the shift and rise of civilization to the fall and struggles of power from the earliest up to the present. My College professor would always emphasizes that the past cause the present and it will always have an implications. Whether tracing to the earliest civilization of the Western Greeks, to the Roman empire, the Mayans and Inca Civilization or up to the different wars like the World wars, Tsino-Japanese war and African slavery, History will always explained the major development and evolution of the world despite of the different elements and the persistent changes.

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Today i am gonna share to all the Steemian some of the "little dark secret or infamous historical events" in the Philippines. The History of our nation is quite intriguing and interesting at the same time.The Philippines, located at Western Pacific Ocean and composed of archipelago island is a country with very colorful yet dark history of the past. From the pre-colonial period to the colonial conquest of the Spaniards that lasted for more than 300 years, a long period of struggles and rise of the nationalistic sentiments. To the brutality and hostile of the Japanese regime and later to the hand of the American authority to which we experienced the traitor officials . Together these events contributes in shaping our history to where we are now. I am gonna write some of the underrated historical events in the Philippines that most people might don't know about.

1.Philippines owns Sabah

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This one is one of the most shocking things i found while i was taking one of my subject about" History of of Filipino Muslim and the Indigenous People of MINSUPALA.". While i don't wanna pass on the veracity of historical evidence on the ownership and sovereignty in our favor, let's dig deep and go deeper on this matter. Sabah now, is a state of Malaysia located somewhere in the most northern part of Borneo islands and with a total area of 73, 904 kilometer squared and with nearly a population of 4 million people as of the present. But not known to many, Sabah was a part of the Philippines before. This was famously known as the "North Borneo dispute" if you have heard of this.

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This was the conflict that happened between the country of Malaysia and the Republic of the Philippines. so we came up with the question: Why does such as two country fighting over a sovereignty of a land? If we trace historical records and based on Historical evidences, Philippines and Sabah used to have the same historical , economic and cultural unit as a country. So when does the Philippines started its claim on Sabah?What are these evidences that would support Philippine 's claim of Sabah?

If we traced History then, the place of Sabah was ruled by sultanate and Sulu was the closest one to it geographically speaking and was also ruled by a Sultan. In 1704, this year marks a historical event for both party. There was a big revolt that took place in the Sabah peninsula. The sultan of Sulu has extended its help to his comrade in Sabah and thus winning in that revolts. As a result, the Sulu sultanate was rewarded by by Sabah sultanate the most northern part as a price or compensation for the help given to them.In addition muslim Filipinos has been living in Sabah for decades. Exchange of contacts between both has been happening since then and was very evident.

1878 Agreement
But this has come to an end due to the 1878 agreement in which there was a confusion between the two version of translation of the agreement from the two sides. Coming from the Sulu sultanate and the British or Anglo people whose specifically made up of Alfred Dent and Baron von Overbeck. In which the agreement resulted to a misunderstanding for the translation over Sabah. as aresult the sabah was either ceded or leased with the British authority with an agreement that the British syndicate in return will have to pay an estimated 5000 Malaysian dollars per year. so if we go deeper specially in this costly mistake. These are the mistakes done;
British version: ''do hereby grant and cede our own free sovereign..."
Sulu version: do hereby lease of our own free will and satisfaction..."

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Another interesting facts on this wasthat the British never really paid such compensation or money as what the agreement has stated. Another thing that was pointed out by my Professor was that during the Madrid protocol it was ruled by ICJ or International Court of Justice for Sulu to relinquished his right and privileged over the territory and possession in favor of Spain. This was a clever move by British and in the following year during the Madrid protocol, It solidifies claim and colonization over Philippines.Thus, leaving the Philippine with no choice but to leave and this gives the British the upper hand and favor.
Another strong argument that we can add to this is that on a strong basis, The British North Borneo company was a private trading institution and thus could not acquire possession on North Borneo.

What are your thoughts on this?
For me Personally, Philippines should have addressed this issue earlier. We all have the historical evidences over the claim to Sabah. Its just that the precautionary actions we made wasn't enough. Although former president Diosdado Macapagal started its official claim in 1962 and was followed by the late Ferdinand Marcos. Fewer action has been than then. By my thought is that Sabah can and will never be bring back to ours, and it will just be a big disappointment if we will push through at this moment.

2. The Jabidah Massacre; The Bloody Massacre that was kept Secretly

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Is this even familiar to you? In Philippine History there were many events and incidents that took place and little we knew about it. Clearly, the Jabidah massacre is one of them. to be specific it has been almost 5 decades since this tragic took place. this event is considered one of the dark secret of the Philippine History. The involved or the victims of this bloody massacre were the Moros or the Muslim people.If we traced statistics, there were a huge number of moros killed under the Marcos regime.This massacre took in the limelight of Marcos as he tried to resort extra efforts and actions on securing the claim over Sabah.
The bloody massacre took place on March 17, 1968 and later became famously known as the " Jabidah Massacre". to be exact with there were 64 Moros trainee who were killed and massacre which had happened on the rocky island on the Corregidor. They were massacred brutally by the Army forces that was said to have trained them for the so called Secret Mission . The 64 were part of the 180 trainees that were mostly moros and going through an extreme warfare and infiltration. So we are all wondering what is this "secret mission" all about?

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The Secret Mission and training was called "Operation Merdeka" and which ad a primary goal of invading the Northern land of Sabah in which Marcos believed that ii was the best way to guarantee our claim over Sabah. By the way the meaning of 'Operation Merdeka' is "Freedom. Later we know that this bloody massacre was never releaesed in public. But how do we find out about this cold-blood incident?

There was one Survivor-Jibin Arola

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Luckily there was one who miraculously survived the Massacre. Jibin Arola who made headlines on his shocking revelations . He emphasizes that they were not treated well by some of the army who recruited them on the special mission. Arola stated that they were not paid and barely given foods. For straight 3 weeks they were brought to the island of Corregidor and trained them.


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But while on the island upon dis-agreeing to do do the special mission. They were shot and executed one by one.
Arola recalled his traumatic experienced. he was the lone man who managed to escaped and run. He swam in the sea and luckily survived and reached the shore of Cavite. He was lucky enough to managed to stay alive on that dreading massacre even with a shot on his left leg.

But why were they Massacred?

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According to Arola, he explained in an interview : HOW COULD WE ATTACK THE MALAYSIAN? WHEN THEY ARE OUR BROTHERS AND WE DON'T HAVE ANY QUARRELS WITH THEM?" For him they were used as a puppet.
Upon hearing this dark secret, our professor would told us that the Jabidah massacre is just one of the many injustices against the Moros in the late Marcos regime. this event is really dark , a story of horrendous nightmare that has followed by many more injustices.

3. The Infamous Traitor, Teodoro Patiño

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Little we know there are some controversial character in Philippine History that were not always put into the Mainstream of the discussion and one of them is Teodoro Patiño. Countless acts of treachery and turncoatism have undoubtedly darkened several chapters of our history that leds for our further dilemma and struggles.
Why was he a traitor?


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The reason why the secret group of KKK or “Katastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan” was founded is because of the Filipino Teodoro Patino revealed on August 19, 1896 when he told his sister Honoria about the existence of the Katipunan. with him telling his sister, His upset sister later revealed it to Orphanage’s Mother Superior, Sor Teresa de Jesus to which later came to Father Mariano Gil-accompanied by several Guardias Civiles that they arrested the hundreds suspected Members of KKK.


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The Katipunan had colorful and great beginnings with the large mass of crowd gather to support and aim for Independence. We may never know if the Revolution what would have turned out in favor of the Filipinos or not.Teodoro Patiño’s betrayal led to the captivity of hundreds of Katipunan members and to a much long suffering.

That is all for today. I hope you enjoy and learn something today. History is interesting right? History is relevant and with studying the past it provides a terrain for moral contemplation, cultural awareness and bringing our identity as a person or a nation.