1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:08,559 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,880 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: show that shines a light on the ups and downs 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:20,959 Speaker 1: of everyday history. I'm Gabe Lusier, and in this episode, 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:24,360 Speaker 1: we're looking at a pivotal chapter in the philippines long 6 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: struggle for land reform and an end to American occupation. 7 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: The day was May two, nineteen thirty five. Thousands of 8 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: Filipino peasants staged a rebellion in the agricultural region of 9 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:53,200 Speaker 1: central Luzon. Most of the rebels were poor tenant farmers 10 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: who had struggled for decades under a government that catered 11 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: only to land owning elites. The growing political ten between 12 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,479 Speaker 1: the classes finally boiled over on the evening of May second, 13 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: when a few thousand members of the sack Doll Independence 14 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: movement decided to mount an uprising. Just after sunset, the 15 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: partially armed peasants gathered in the countryside surrounding Manila. They 16 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: promptly split off into groups and began seizing municipal buildings 17 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:25,680 Speaker 1: in fourteen nearby towns. The rebels took control of at 18 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: least three communities before government troops arrived at sunrise. To 19 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: snuff out the revolt. When the smoke cleared on the 20 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: morning of May third, nearly one hundred revolutionaries lay dead 21 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 1: and half as many others were wounded. Their brief rebellion, 22 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: later known as the Sak Doll Uprising, was suppressed just 23 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: as quickly as it had started, but it wasn't forgotten. 24 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: Frustrated peasants would remember it for generations to come, even 25 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: as they attempted uprisings of their own. By the time 26 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: of the Sak Doll Uprising, the Philippines was no stranger 27 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:07,600 Speaker 1: to agrarian unrest nor to revolution. In June of eighteen 28 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: ninety eight, the country had declared its hard fought independence 29 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: from Spain, putting an end to three hundred and thirty 30 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:19,919 Speaker 1: three years of outside rule. Unfortunately, the newly formed Philippine 31 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: Republic didn't last long. Later that same year, the Spanish 32 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:27,920 Speaker 1: American War ended with a U S victory, and part 33 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: of Spain's terms of surrender was to turn over control 34 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: of its colonized territories, including the Philippines. The fact that 35 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: the Philippines had already established itself as a free republic 36 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:43,400 Speaker 1: was summarily ignored by both parties and the people of 37 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: that nation found themselves shunted from one colonial master to another. 38 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: American occupation proved far less hostile than Spanish rule, but still, 39 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:57,960 Speaker 1: the Filipino people hadn't fought a revolution for a more 40 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: temperate form of colonialism. They continued to express their desire 41 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: for independence, and as a result, the US promised to 42 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 1: step aside once the country was on its feet again. However, 43 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: more than thirty years later, the transfer of sovereignty still 44 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,079 Speaker 1: hadn't happened, and in the meantime, a corrupt interim government 45 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: had taken shape in America's shadow. The same nationalist movement 46 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: that had waged armed rebellion against the Spanish became eager 47 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: collaborators with the American occupiers. That's because the movement was 48 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: led by the Philippines elite, a group of wealthy landowners 49 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:37,840 Speaker 1: who happily accepted positions in the new bureaucracy and then 50 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: promptly set to work building a system that benefited them 51 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: first and foremost. As you might imagine, that arrangement didn't 52 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: sit well with the agrarian peasants who constituted the majority 53 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: of the population. Many of them worked as tenant farmers 54 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: and bristled at the injustice of having their country's new 55 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: laws dictated by their landlords. They worried that by the 56 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: time the Philippines was finally granted its independence, the political 57 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: and economic odds would be completely stacked against them. Benino 58 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: Ramos was particularly troubled by that imbalance of power and 59 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: by the Philippine senates of parent acceptance of prolonged US rule. 60 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: He wasn't a tenant farmer, though. Instead he was a 61 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 1: former clerk of the Philippine Senate, one who had fallen 62 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: out with the body's president, Nationalist leader Manuel K. San. 63 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:34,160 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty, Ramos started a grassroots movement called Sakdal, 64 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:39,039 Speaker 1: a Tagalog word meaning to accuse or to strike. He 65 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:43,039 Speaker 1: founded an organization and a newspaper bearing that name, and 66 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:46,799 Speaker 1: the purpose of both was to publicly accuse government officials 67 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: of working against the best interests of the country and 68 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: the common people. Because of that betrayal, Ramos urged his 69 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 1: followers not to participate in the corrupt government in any way, 70 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: neither by holding office, nor by voting, or by paying taxes. 71 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: His rhetoric was so compelling that Filipinos from all walks 72 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: of life joined the movement and By nineteen thirty three, 73 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: the sak Doll organization had enough members to constitute a 74 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: political party and perhaps affect real change. Candidates of the 75 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:23,159 Speaker 1: so called Sakdalista Party ran on a platform that prioritized 76 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,880 Speaker 1: the welfare of the working class. They pledged to distribute 77 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: land to landless peasants and to crack down on political 78 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:35,040 Speaker 1: corruption and favoritism. The party also directly opposed the policy 79 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: of the Nationalists in power. The then current government was 80 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,279 Speaker 1: content to accept a gradual independence over the course of 81 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:46,240 Speaker 1: another decade, whereas the sak Dalista Party called for an 82 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:51,720 Speaker 1: immediate end to US imperialism. Despite that rather ambitious platform, 83 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: or maybe because of it, the sak Doal movement did 84 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:58,360 Speaker 1: quite well in the Philippine election of nineteen thirty four, 85 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:02,119 Speaker 1: securing a number of seats across the country. It wasn't 86 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,159 Speaker 1: enough to wrestle power from the Nationalista Party, but support 87 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: for the movement was strong enough to inspire confidence in 88 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:12,840 Speaker 1: a more drastic form of action the following year. The 89 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: timing of the sakdal uprising was carefully chosen. It occurred 90 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 1: just two weeks before a new constitution was set to 91 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: be ratified, one that would provide for a transition government 92 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: to last for a further decade. Ramos explained the sak 93 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 1: doll's rejection of that plan, writing quote by saying that 94 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,320 Speaker 1: they will recognize independence in ten years. The Americans are 95 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 1: doing nothing more than suppressing independence agitation. For ten years. 96 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 1: They have over and over promised to recognize our independence 97 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: and have always broken their promise, So why should they 98 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: be believed this time? We have affirmed that, at whatever cost, 99 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 1: we must secure independence by our own strength. Ramos selected 100 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: May second as the day to demonstrate that strength because 101 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 1: he knew the attention of the powers that be would 102 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: be focused elsewhere. Senate President Manuel K. Shan was off 103 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:12,880 Speaker 1: hobnobbing in Manhattan, Acting Governor General Joseph Hayden was far 104 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: north on an inspection tour, and Major General Frank Parker 105 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:20,600 Speaker 1: was on vacation in China. It was the perfect time 106 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 1: to strike, and Ramos refused to waste it. That evening, 107 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: bands of sak dolls, many of whom were armed, stormed 108 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: the towns of central Luzan. They took control of numerous 109 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: government buildings, cut communication lines, lowered the American flags, and 110 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: asserted immediate Philippine independence. Some light gunfire was exchanged between 111 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: the insurgents and military police detachments and several locations, but 112 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,120 Speaker 1: the bulk of the fighting took place at kabu Yao, 113 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: on the south road between Manila and some US owned 114 00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: sugar plantations. The several hundred Sack Dolls stationed there fought 115 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: under the command of a woman named Salud Algebra. Together, 116 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: they had taken over her hometown, seized the weapons of 117 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: six US sailors, and fought off the local police force. However, 118 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 1: once the military police arrived, the sak Dolls quickly lost 119 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: their advantage and dozens were killed in a one sided firefight. 120 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 1: Salud Algebra managed to survive, but was quickly arrested. She 121 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,960 Speaker 1: was later tried, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in prison, 122 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,120 Speaker 1: though she wound up only serving two years before being 123 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:37,239 Speaker 1: pardoned by her enemy, President ka san As. For Benino Ramos, 124 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: he evaded capture and went into exile in Japan. Meanwhile, 125 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: back in his home country, the movement he had started 126 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: was declared illegal and disbanded. About a hundred lives had 127 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: been lost in the ill fated uprising, and no lasting 128 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: change had been achieved. Still, there are many who'd argue 129 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 1: that the campaign wasn't a failure. Future peasant rebellions would 130 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: carry on the fight against oppressive landholders both before and 131 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: after Philippine sovereignty was restored in nineteen forty six. The 132 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:14,839 Speaker 1: Sock Doll Uprising succeeded not because of what it accomplished, 133 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,960 Speaker 1: but because of what it started. Because, as Salute Algebra 134 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: once said, no uprising ever fails. Each one is a 135 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 1: step in the right direction. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully 136 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:33,280 Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than 137 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you want to keep up with 138 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and 139 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any 140 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, you can always send them my way 141 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:51,199 Speaker 1: by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks 142 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,000 Speaker 1: to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett for producing the show, 143 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:56,680 Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back 144 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,160 Speaker 1: here again tomorrow for another Day in History play at 145 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:05,120 Speaker 1: the Intertan Interputure