Declaration citing Iloilo’s loyalty to Spain decried

LOILO CITY – On the occasion of the country’s 117th Independence Day, which is being celebrated today, militant nationalist elements here are asking the city government to do away with a title bestowed to Iloilo City by the Queen Regent of Spain, Maria Cristina. The title, which describes Iloilo as “La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad de Iloilo” (Most Loyal and Noble City), is engraved in the city’s official seal.

Militants led by Bayan Muna Panay opine that the declaration is a “badge of betrayal against Filipino nationhood” and is “not something to be proud of.”

The militant organization has kicked off a signature campaign and have drawn up a petition on the matter, even as the city and province of Iloilo are hosting President Aquino, diplomats and key government officials for the celebration of Philippine Independence Day today.

Along with members of Iloilo’s academe and religious sector, the militants cite how the Ilonggo elite did not initially support the Filipinos desire for freedom when the Philippine Revolution started in 1896. In fact, they point out that Spanish authorities sent a battalion of Ilonggo volunteers to Cavite to help Spanish soldiers quash Filipino revolutionary, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and his troops.

Because of Spain’s perceived loyalty of Ilonggos to its colonial masters, the Spanish Queen Regent bestowed on Iloilo the royal declaration on March 10, 1898.

It was only later that Ilonggos gave up on their loyalty to Spain and began supporting the local revolutionary movement led by General Martin Delgado.

Iloilo City was the last Spanish capital in the country. It was where Spanish Governor-General Diego De los Ríos surrendered to local revolutionary forces on December 1898. The surrender of de los Ríos was considered to be the official end of over 300 years of Spanish colonial rule over the Philippines.

“It is therefore anachronistic and an unpatriotic interpretation of history from the nationalist standpoint and not from the colonialists’ perspective,” said the militants and their confreres in their petition.

“Instead of propagating fallacies, the government should promote a nationalist interpretation of the past,” urged the petition. Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has shrugged aside such sentiments indicated in the petition and has asked the militants to regard the Royal declaration acknowledging the city’s loyalty to its Spanish rulers then, in a positive aspect.