|
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES
Office of the Governor
Panay
February 20, 1943
MY DEAR DOCTOR:
I am happy to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of January 14th, last, signed at the same time by
former General Quimbo, Senator Veloso and Capt. Tando. I regret very
much that your letter reached me more than a month after it had been
written despite the fact that the party to whom it was handed was just
living across the river from my place on the other side of the hill. Had
I received it earlier, I would have been only too glad to meet my good
friends -- Quimbo, Veloso, and Tando. I would have had no objection to
the pleasure of the acquaintance of Colonel Furukawa. He came on a
mission of peace, and I would have taken advantage of his presence to
present to him my views on the subject. I regret much, therefore, not to
have met him. Nevertheless, I hope that he and his companions had good
time while they were in our province. I wonder how successful they had
been with their mission.
I feel flattered, indeed, by your
statement that should I return to the city I would bring relief, peace
and tranquility to our people in Panay. In this regard, I wish to state
with all frankness that peace and tranquility in our country, especially
in Panay, do not, in the slightest degree, depend upon me nor upon the
Filipino people, for as long as America and Japan and their respective
Allies are at war with one another, peace and tranquility will never be
obtained in our country nor in Panay. This is a total war in which the
issues between the warring parties are less concerned with the
territorial questions but more with forms of government, ways of life,
and those that affect even the very thoughts, feeling, and sentiments of
every man. In other words, the questions at stake with respect to the
Philippines is not whether Japan or the United States should possess it;
but more fundamentally it is: what system of government should stand
here and what ways of life, systems of social organizations and code of
morals should govern our existence. As long, therefore, as America and
Japan remain at war, these fundamental questions will remain unsettled.
Consequently, peace and tranquility will not reign in Panay, much less
in the whole Philippines.
Despite this fact, however, there is a
means to bring about peace even under the present circumstances if Japan
is really sincere in her desire to see peace and tranquility here. To
this effect, she should declare the Philippines free and independent
proclaiming at the same our neutrality. To further demonstrate of
purpose to this end, she should evacuate all her forces, military
establishments and other governmental organizations from the islands
with the guarantee that she would not land forces therein nor within her
territorial waters. I am sure that should Japan declare this proposition
and formally present the same to the United States, the latter would be
compelled to accept it. Her sense of honor would give her no other
alternative but to back up Japan in this regard. You must be already
aware that the Allies of America have signed a treaty with China lifting
their extra-territorial rights whereby their citizens within Chinese
jurisdiction upon committing any offenses or crime will have to be tried
before Chinese courts under Chinese laws. Assuming that this proposition
is acceptable to both Japan and America, we would then be free to
establish and maintain our own system of government. We would be free to
follow such ways of life as we may deem convenient to us. In other
words, we would enjoy real and true independence in the exercise of
governmental powers and not one like that of Nanking under Wang Ching
Wei. Please present this to your friend Colonel Furukawa with the
request that he submit this to superior authorities of the Imperial
Government of Japan for consideration to put to a test the sincerity of
Japan's desire to give us independence.
I have carefully read and studied the
three conditions for accomplishments for at least a century. I entirely
disagree with Mr. Vargas when he states that the Japanese independence
proposition is definite and clear while that of America is ambiguous. On
the contrary, it is that of the Japanese which is nebulous, vague and
indefinite. The terms and conditions in this regard are phrased in such
manner that only puppets could understand them clearly, people who have
no freedom to use their will and other mental faculties.
The burden of your so called message to me
consists of the entreaty that further bloodshed and destruction of
property in Panay should stop and that our people be saved from further
sufferings and miseries resulting from warfare and hostilities now going
on between Japan and ourselves. The responsibility, however, of
accomplishing this end does not rest upon us but entirely upon your
friends who have sworn allegiance to Japan, for it was Japan that
protected and created these conditions. Japan is the sole author of this
holocaust in the Far East.
I agree with you when you say that our
people are "experiencing unspeakable hardships and sufferings" because
of these hostilities, but you should realize that our people are bearing
these burdens cheerfully because they know that they are doing it for a
good and noble cause. They know why we are resisting Japan. They are
aware that Japan is trying to force us to accept her system of
government and ways of life which are unacceptable to us to say the
least. You may not agree with me but the truth is that the present war
is a blessing in disguise to our people and that the burdens it imposes,
and the hardships it has brought upon us are a test to our character to
determine the sincerity of our convictions and the integrity of our
souls. In other words, this was placed to us in the crucible to assay
the metal in our being. For as a people, we have been living during the
last forty years under a regime of justice and liberty regulated only by
universally accepted principles of constitutional governments. We have
come to enjoy personal privileges and civil liberties without much
struggle, without undergoing any pain to attain them. They were
practically a gift from a generous and magnanimous people - the people
of the United States of America. Now, that Japan is attempting to
destroy these liberties, should we not exert any effort to defend them?
Should we not be willing to suffer for their defense? If our people are
undergoing hardship now, and are doing it gladly, it is because we are
willing to pay the price for these constitutional liberties and
privileges. You can not become wealthy by honest means without sweating
heavily. You very well know that the principles of democracy and
democratic institutions were brought to life through bloodshed and fire.
If we sincerely believe in these principles and institutions, as we who
are resisting Japan do, we should contribute to the utmost of our
capacity to the cost of its maintenance to save them from destruction
and annihilation, and such contribution should be in terms of painful
sacrifices, the same currency that other peoples paid for those
principles.
You were a member of the Constitutional
Convention that adopted the Constitution of the Philippines
Commonwealth. You did not only subscribe to it but you also became a
Filipino citizen by virtue thereof. Now that the hour of test has come,
how dare you advice the people, as you do now, to forsake that sacred
document and accept anything for peace and tranquility which at all
events will be only temporary? Should I hearken to you, I would be
conspiring with you and the Japanese military authorities to destroy the
Constitution, that you and I signed with all solemnity, and everything
for which that Constitution stands. Do you realize therefore, that what
you are doing now is a repudiation of your Filipino citizenship and all
the sacred privileges attendant thereto, things which I am sure you hold
dear and precious?
This is not enough. I firmly believe that
it is not wise and statesmanlike for our leaders, in this their darkest
hour, to teach our people to avoid suffering and hardship at the
sacrifice of fundamental principles of government and democratic way of
life. On the contrary, it is their burden duty and responsibility to
inspire our people to willingly undergo any kind of difficulties and
sacrifices for the sake of noble principles that they nourish deep in
their hearts. Instead of depressing their patriotic order, the people
should be inspired to be brave and courageous under all kinds of
hardship and difficulties in defense of what they consider righteous and
just. We shall never win nor deserve the esteem and respect of other
nations if we lack principles, and if we do, we do not possess the
courage and valor to defend these principles at any cost. Undoubtedly,
if you and your fellow puppets are today receiving a certain degree of
consideration for the Japanese Army, such consideration may be
attributed exclusively to the heroism of our soldiers in Bataan and the
demonstration of the readiness and willingness of our people to suffer,
especially of the common man, not the rich, the learned, and ambitious
and politicians and office seekers who are hungry for power and
influence, nor to your personal qualities of wealth. You, puppets, love
ease and comfort so much as to compel you to barter the liberties of our
people for anything. You underrate the nobility and grandeur of the
character and soul of the Filipinos by such action. Such sentiment is
terribly ignominious. You are besmirching to the maximum degree by it
the character of our people.
America is at war with Japan not because
she wants to keep the Philippines but to uphold and maintain the
principles of democracy therein. In the speeches of Japanese military
authorities, especially that of General Homma, formerly
Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines,
they condemned democracy and the principles of liberty under such system
of government. It is, therefore, evidently fallacious and insincere on
your part to state that your are not pro-Japanese when your are exerting
all efforts to bring about the surrender of the people in Panay. You
declared that you are neither a pro-Japanese nor a pro-American but a
pro-Filipino. What do you mean by being a pro-Filipino? What national
objectives have you in mind when you express the thought that you are
pro-Filipino and not pro-Japanese nor pro-American? What ideals do you
propose to realize as pro-Filipino? If you have any objectives and
ideals at all, do you believe in realizing them more effectively under a
totalitarian and absolute system of government than under a democracy?
Please make concrete specifications of your being pro-Japanese or
pro-American. In other words, on what concrete grounds does your
pro-Filipino rest?
You were decidedly wrong when you told me
that there is no ignominy in surrender. That may be true in the case of
soldiers who were corralled by the enemy consisting of superior force
with no way of escape whatsoever. For when they gave themselves up, they
did not repudiate any principle of good government and the philosophy of
life which inspired them to fight heroically and valiantly -- to use
your own words. Should I surrender, however, and with me the people, by
your invitation and assurance of guarantee to my life, my family and
those who follow me, I would be surrendering something more precious
than life itself; the principles of democracy and justice and the honor
and dignity of our people.
I noted that you emphasized in your letter
only peace and the tranquility of our people. I do not know whether by
omission or intentionally, you failed to refer in any way to the honor
and dignity of our race. You seem to have forgotten these noble
sentiments already, despite the fact that Japan has hardly been a year
in our country. It appears clearly evident, therefore, that there is a
great difference between the manner you and me are trying to lead our
people during these trying days. You and your fellow puppets are trying
to give them peace and tranquility by destroying their honor and
dignity, without suffering or, if there is any, the least possible. On
the other hand, we endeavor to inspire them to face difficulties and
undergo any sacrifice to uphold the government thereby holding up high
and immaculate their honor and dignity at the same time. In other words,
you are trying to drive our people to peace and tranquility on the road
of IGNOMINY, to borrow your own language. Peace and tranquility are easy
to achieve if you choose the easy way but, in that case, however, you
would be living beneath the dignity of human being. You would be
reducing our people as a result thereof to the status of a dumb animal
like the good carabao which lives in peace and tranquility because it is
properly fed by its owner. Is that the peace and tranquility you are
talking about -- that of a carabao? Would this not be clearly
ignominious?
You also brought up the point that the
Japanese are generous because they freed the Filipino soldiers whom they
captured. In this connection, let me ask you this question: Is it not a
fact that the former USAFFE men are now working as PCs under the
Japanese Army and are compelled to fight and kill their own people who
are still resisting by means of inadequate arms and by moral and
spiritual resistance? Do you believe it dignified of Juan Quimpo who
formerly wore on his shoulder the star of the Philippine Army presenting
thereby the valor and courage of our people and the integrity of our
system of government, to preach now the acceptance of the totalitarian
and autocratic form of government? Do you believe that by so doing he
dignifies and honors our people?
It pains me to read your letter saying
that you and I one time nursed devotedly identical convictions on
democracy and liberty, but that you have to revise your own for the sake
of "peace and tranquility." How can you honestly and truthfully say that
you may enjoy peace and tranquility when you are unfaithful to your own
convictions? Do you mean to tell me that you revised your convictions
because you believed that they were not righteous or because you
considered your personal conveniences over and above that of the
Filipino people? You may have read, I am sure, the story of Lincoln who
held firmly to the conviction secession of the Southern States from the
Union was WRONG. Consequently, when he became President and the
Southern States seceded, he did not hesitate to use force to compel them
to remain in the Union. The immediate result was civil war that involve
the country into the throes of a terrible armed conflict that, according
to the reliable historians, produced proportionately more loss of lives,
hardships and miseries than the first World War. The sufferings of the
people of the South were terrible, but the Union was saved and America
has become thereby one of the strongest and respected nations on the
surface of the earth. If Lincoln had revised his convictions and
sacrificed them for the sake of peace and tranquility as you did, a
fatal catastrophe would have befallen the people of America. With this
lesson of history clearly before us, I prefer to follow Lincoln's
example than yours and your fellow puppets. In other worlds, I sternly
refuse to revise my own convictions for the sake of temporary and false
promises of peace and tranquility.
I wish to thank you for reminding me what
General Bell wrote to Mabini that "only the possibility of success is
the sole justification of war and as soon as that possibility
disappears, civilization demands that for the sake of humanity the
vanquished should submit to the victor." In calling my attention to the
above content of the letter of General Bell, you make the affirmation
thereby that there is no "possibility of success" on the part of America
and the Allies to defeat Japan and colleagues. Here again you are
evidently wrong. You people who have surrendered to the Japanese do not
know of any news that you are ignorant of what is going on. For your
information and guidance, let me tell you that Japan is digging her
grave deeper and deeper everyday in New Guinea. In China and in Burma
she is on the run and is losing extensive territories which she formerly
conquered. In Europe, Germany is in flight pursued by the Russians. In
Africa, Tripoli and Tunisia have fallen into the hands of the Allies.
Everyday the cities of Italy are being bombed and smashed to pieces. The
Italians will soon demand separate peace. By June, next, the Philippines
will be redeemed from Japan, definitely. What are you going to do next,
revise your convictions again? Thank you, once more, for reminding me
of the words of Genera Bell to Mabini. They serve to fortify my
convictions more that ever, for the possibility of success of America
and the Allies over the Axis is as clear as the day.
I hope I have made myself clear enough to
make you understand my position. I will not surrender as long as I stand
on my feet. The people may suffer now and may suffer more during the
nest six months. To use the words of St. Paul, the Apostle:
The suffering of the present are not
worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in
us.
In the language of a wise and devout
priest, "When the hour of deliverance has come, we shall count as
nothing the anxiety and sorrows through which we have passed." According
to the same religious writer, "sufferings afford opportunity for the
practice of many virtues -- virtues which develop greatness and nobility
of soul." He further declares that "the grandest music of the human
heart breaks forth in the day of trial; the sweetest songs are sung in
sorrows; the best things in character are developed in time of
affliction."
Finally, he writes "Suffering develops
manliness and tries earnestness of purpose." This in the crying need of
the hours -- MANLINESS!
With my kindest regards and my hope that
God will bless and guide you, I remain.
Sincerely yours,
TOMAS CONFESOR
Governor
|
