Emilio Jacinto (attrib.

)
“Sa mga kababayan”

Source: “Sa mga kababayan”, incomplete manuscript copy in Archivo General

Militar de Madrid, Caja 5395, le.4.25; Spanish translation from Kalayaan by Juan
Caro y Mora published under the title “Á los compatriotas” in Wenceslao E. Retana
(comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol.III (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de M.
Minuesa de los Rios, 1897), 134–8.

“Sa mga kababayan” was the lead editorial in the sole issue of
Kalayaan. Pio Valenzuela, in whose house the paper was produced, recalls in
his “Memoirs” that “I wrote the first editorial and handed it to Emilio Jacinto
for publication in the first issue” [but when] he “showed me the proof of the
first page [I saw to my surprise] that the printed editorial was not the one I
had given him but another by Marcelo H. del Pilar in La Solidaridad,” the
organ of the propaganda movement in Spain that had ceased publication in
1895. This editorial, Valenzuela continues, “was translated into Tagalog by
Jacinto, and was much better than the one I had prepared. I told Jacinto that
I almost believed that the real editor of [Kalayaan] was Del Pilar himself.
There were various Bulaqueños who knew the Tagalog of Del Pilar, and they
declared the language used by Jacinto in his translation resembled Del Pilar’s
perfectly.”1 In his conversations many years later with Agoncillo, Valenzuela
varied this account slightly, recollecting that Jacinto based “Sa mga
kababayan” on a number of editorials by Del Pilar rather than just one. 2

In the piece, Del Pilar as channelled by Jacinto sends his salutations

from “the other side of the wide ocean,” laments that Spain had scorned La
Solidaridad’s patient supplications, and urges his compatriots now to support
the cause of Kalayaan and take charge of their own destiny.

The manuscript copy of “Sa mga kababayan” that survives in Madrid,

which is transcribed below, is in Bonifacio’s handwriting, not Jacinto’s, but
this does not necessarily mean that Bonifacio was actually the author. It is
entirely plausible that Bonifacio copied out the text whilst Kalayaan was
being prepared for publication, perhaps for editing purposes and perhaps to
make it more legible for the printers.

There is no way of knowing for certain whether the Madrid manuscript

was the final draft prior to the editorial being set in type, or whether there
were later amendments. Nevertheless, any such amendments can only have
been minor, because the text of the manuscript clearly does correspond very
substantially with the Spanish translation (made from a printed copy of
Kalayaan) that was published by Wenceslao Retana in 1897.3

The manuscript copy, however, is incomplete. It has seven paragraphs,

whereas the Spanish translation has ten. To give at least an indication of how
the piece concludes, the last three paragraphs have been translated into
English below from the Spanish translation.

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Tagalog text

Sa mga kababayan

Buhat dito sa kabila ng malawak na dagat, sa sinapupunan at

pagkakandili ng ibang lupa at ibang mga kautusan, sa inyo mga kababayan
ang tungo ng aming unang bati, ang kaunaunahang salita na iguhit ng
aming kamay, ang unang himutok na pumulas sa aming dibdib, ang unang
pag bigkas ng aming mga labi…sa lahat ay sa inyo.

Inyo ngang tangapin, at masarapin tunay ng inyong kalooban, sa

pagkat nagbubuhat sa tapat naming puso, na wala nang iba pang itinitibok
kung di isang matinding pag ibig sa tinubuang Bayan at tunay na pag
daramdam sa pagkaapi at inaabot nyang kadustaan.

Kapagkarakang narinig ng aming mga tainga ang inyong mga pag

daing, kapagkarakang mapag malas ng aming mga mata ang inyong
pagkaaping walang makatulad at mabangis na kahirapan, agad nang
nukal na kusa sa aming kalooban ang isang banal at dakilang nasa, na
kayo’y maibangon sa pagkalugmok at pukawin ang inyong puso sa
pagkahimbing at malusong pagkagupiling o maampat kaya ang matinding
dagok ng sakit at kalumbayang inyong tinitiis.

Tunay na kami ay umasa din, gaya ng makapal na mga kababayan

na nagakala na ang inang Espana ay siyang tanging may karapatang mag
bigay ng kaginhawahan nitong Katagalugan. Nguni’t ang panahung
lumipas, ang patung patung na pag ulol, ang walang pangitang silo ng
daga na sa aking ininumang, ang mga pangakung hindi tinutupad, ay
siyang omuntag [?] sa aming payapang at katiwalang kalooban at nag
pakilalang tayo’y siyang gumawa at may yaman at umiasa’t antain sa
ating lakas na sarili ikabubuhay.

¿Ano pa ang inaantay at hinahangad? Tatlong dang taung mahigit

na pag titiis sa bigat ng pamatok ng pagkaalipin, malaung panahung wala
tayong ginawa kungdi ang lumuhogluhog at humingi sa kanila ng kahit
gabuhit na pag lingap at kaunting paglingin, gayon ma’y ¿ano ang nakikita
nating isinasagut at iginaganti sa ating pag mamakaawa? Wala kung di
ang tayo’y itapun [?] at isadlak sa lalung kamatayan.

Pitong taung walang tigil na ang “La Solidaridad” ay kusang

nagpumilit na iniubos ang buong lakas niya, upang tamuhin natin ang mga
matamo ng kaunting karapatan sa kabuhayan ng tao, at ¿ano ang inabot
niyang pala sa mga pagud at panahung ginugol? Pangako, daya, alipusta
at mapait na pagkamatay......

Ngayong hapu na ang ating nag taas na kamay sa laging pag luhog;
ngayong na namamaus na’t unti unting na wala ang sigaw ng ating
mapanghan na tingig sa laging pag daing, ngayong inaagaw na halus ang

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ating hininga sa bangis ng hirap, aming itinayu ang yukong ulong na gawi
na sa pag suko, at kumuhang lakas sa matibay na pananalig namin sa
tunay na katuiran, na maimulat ang kaisipan ng aming mga kababayan at
maipakitang malinaw sa kanila na ang salitang Inang Espana ay isang pag
limang at hibo lamang, na maitutulad, sa basahang pangbalut sa
tanikalang kaladkad; walang ina’t walang anak; wala kung di isang lahing
lumulupig at isang lahing palulupig, isang bayang nagtatamasa at
nabubusog sa di niya pagud at isang bayang nagpapagud sa di niya
pinakikinabangan at ikinabubusog.

 › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › ›

English translation

To the Compatriots

From here on the other side of the wide ocean, under the bosom and
protection of another land and other laws, to you, compatriots, is sent our first
greeting, the first word written by our hand, the first sigh that leaves our
breast, the first enunciation, too, of our lips... everything is to you.

Receive it then, and truly savor it in your being, because it comes from
our sincere heart, which beats with nothing but an intense love for the native
land and a true compassion for her in the oppression she suffers.

Readily our ears can hear your complaints; readily our eyes so often
have the misfortune to see your singular oppression and cruel hardship;
immediately and spontaneously there springs in our soul a great and exalted
desire that you may rise up from your prostration and rouse your hearts from
their deep and restful slumber, and thus bring to an end the heavy blows of
pain and your woeful tribulations.

Truly we also hoped, as a great number of compatriots believed, that

mother Spain has the ability to bring prosperity to this Katagalugan. But time
passes; the follies accumulate, the perennial trap for rats in which I am the
bait, the unfulfilled promises have shattered our peaceful and trusting nature
and made us realize that we must be the ones to act and create wealth and that
we must hope and wait on our own strength to achieve our welfare.

What else is to be expected and desired? Over three hundred years

suffering the heavy yoke of slavery, yet for a long time we did nothing but
beseech and ask them for just a little consideration and a little mercy. And
then what answers were seen in response to our supplications and pitifulness?
None, except that we were sent into exile or even to our deaths.

For seven years La Solidaridad worked incessantly and exhausted its

whole strength in order that we might achieve some modest right to a human
existence. And yet what was the result of the expended time and effort?
Promises, deceit, scorn and bitter death….

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 Now we are weary of raising our hands aloft in constant supplication;
now the cry of our mournful voice in constant complaint is gradually ceasing;
and now our breath has almost been taken away from us by the cruelty of our
suffering; we raise our bowed heads, accustomed to being submissive, and
drawing strength from our firm belief in true reason, we can open the minds
of our fellow countrymen and show them clearly that the phrase Mother Spain
is only a distraction and deceit that can be compared to a rag wrapped around
encumbering shackles; that there is no mother and no child; that there is
nothing else than a race that oppresses and a race that is oppressed; a people
that tirelessly enriches and satiates itself and a people that is tired of
deprivation and hunger.
____________________________________________

Note: From this point onwards, the Tagalog text has not been located. The
remainder of the editorial, as published in Spanish translation in Retana’s
Archivo, was many years ago translated in turn into English by my father,
Geoffrey Walter Richardson, and is as follows:-

Too well we know that this must cause great misgivings and fears, must
give rise to a cruel persecution and all kinds of torments and sufferings for our
compatriots there. But what do one, or five, or ten, or a hundred, signify in
comparison with a million brothers? We firmly believe, moreover, that these
abominations and vilenesses will come to us first from the arms of
collaborators, as was already predicted by the wisest, most noble and most
esteemed of the Tagalogs [José Rizal] when they notified him of the arrest of
those who were exiled: “Weep, I tell them - the son for the disgrace of the
father, the father for the disgrace of the son, the brother for the brother - but
he who loves the country where he was born, and considers what is necessary
to better it, should rejoice, because by this road alone can freedom now be
attained.”

And now that we have shown our aim and purpose, we will not end
these inadequate lines without sharing your lamentations. We see the truth,
and in our hearts and breasts we have a great and deep desire that you help us
in the publication and propaganda of Kalayaan, above all amongst the
unfortunate people of the country, for the insults they suffer are the cause and
motive of this publication.

And if by chance they could not use it for any greater purpose, may it at
least serve as a cloth to wipe the tears that fall from their eyes and the sweat
that runs from their humbled brows.

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1
Pio Valenzuela, “Memoirs” (translated by Luis Serrano from an unpublished manuscript in Tagalog (c.1914)
and reproduced as Appendix A in Minutes of the Katipunan (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), 106.
2
Teodoro A. Agoncillo, The Revolt of the Masses: The story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City:
University of the Philippines Press, 1956), 79.
3
The most evident disparity is in the second sentence of the fourth paragraph, which could be rendered from the
Retana version into English as “But time passes; the multiple follies and the unfulfilled promises have clarified
and awakened our whole view of things, and made us realize that the blood of the Spaniards here or living in the
Archipelago is the same blood as that of the Spaniards who live in Spain.”