Mabini’s relevance to contemporary politics
AS many of us, young and old now realize, we know very little of Apolinario Mabini whose sesquicentennial is being celebrated this year. Two events, Mabining Mandirigma (Gentle Warrior), a musical presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ resident theater group Tanghalang Pilipino which had been showing these past weeks; and a symposium on Mabini at the Club Filipino, are two activities that should help bridge the current gap in awareness. The musical is based on a play written by former CCP Vice President and Artistic Director Nicanor Tiongson, and directed by present CCP Vice President and Artistic Director Chris Millado.
It was only in the 60’s that writers ( Cesar Adib Majul “Apolinario Mabini Revolutionary, 1964; and Leon Ma. Guerrero, who translated into English Mabini’s La Revolucion Filipina, 1969) that we began to learn a little more about a man that Mabining Mandirigma playwright Tiongson describes as the hero par excellence for the Philippines today.
Mabini – educator, lawyer, and statesman served first as a legal and constitutional adviser to the Revolutionary Government and then as the first Prime Minister of the country during the establishment of the First Republic. His True Decalogue and The Constitutional Program of the Philippine Republic, 1898, became instrumental in the drafting of the Malolos Constitution.
Some of his contributions have been summarized in two books, Brains of the Revolution and Sublime Paralytic, but as historian Ambeth Ocampo notes, “they are too reductionist and simplistic and do not do justice to his legacy.”
Guerrero acknowledges Mabini’s history as the one which gave significant shape to the spirit and substance of the revolution. Majul describes Mabini as a freedom fighter who truly believed that once the Filipino was freed from the restrictive atmosphere imposed by alien domination, they would become creative and ultimately contribute significantly to world culture.
This aspiration was captured in Tiongson’s play which centers on the problems encountered in 1898-1899 when, as a leading member of the Aguinaldo government, Mabini faced problems that we face today – “feudal patronage which privileges the underlings who are pawns of those in power, private armies consisting of army soldiers whose loyalty is to the leader not as a commander in chief but as a strongman, the use of violence against officials who are perceived as threats to the ruling power, men in government who will use the legislature to pass laws that will consolidate their class and assure them of easy access to government coffers.”
In the musical produced by CCP’s pool of talent – Joel Balsama, who composed and arranged songs and music, TJ Ramos, sound engineer, Toym Imao, set designer, Denisa Reyes, choreographer, Katsch Catoy, lighting, James Reyes, costume design, and GA Fallarme who provided historical images and projections and a cast led by Liesl Batucan as Mabini and other guest actors together with the TP Actors Company, Chris Millado successfully transformed a play which dealt with several complexities – “political intrigues, subterfuge, questioning of the soul during the short lived Republic into a theatrical experience that could engage with the hyper rhythm of today’s audiences composed mostly of milennials.” The other challenge had to do with casting choice – where a female actor multi-awarded actress, Liesl Batucan, convincingly portrayed the role of Mabini.
Must be gratifying for the show producers that last Saturday night’s event and past shows had drawn a large audience, mostly the young.
I had a brief exchange with Education Secretary Armin Luistro who hopes that the musical would have an impact on our young voters this coming election.
This is also what the Mabini symposium at Club Filipino hopes to accomplish. As Nick Lizaso who is organizing the event said, it is intended to raise awareness about Mabini’s qualities as a leader. It comes in the light of the knowledge that many of today’s generation are not familiar with Apolinario Mabini. In fact, National Artist F. Sionil Jose who will be a panelist in the event once noted: “The Spaniards underestimated Mabini primarily because he was a cripple. Had they known of his intellectual perspicacity, they would have killed him earlier. The Americans did not. They were aware of his superior intelligence, his tenacity when he faced them in negotiations for autonomy and ceasefire. The other panelist, Dr. Joem Antonio, is an award-winning playwright whose recent play on Mabini won first prize in the drama category of the 2015 Palanca Awards. The public is invited. However, organizers will welcome a small contribution of P300 per person to help cover some of the organizational costs.