Last of 2 parts

THE story of our nation began with a boat with the coming of our Austronesian ancestors. As a maritime people and culture, boats became an inseparable part of our culture and experience as a people. This was also the case during the rise of the Filipino nation.

During the Philippine Revolution against Spain, our revolutionaries seized a number of Spanish ships, which they commandeered for the use of the revolutionary government even before Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898. Aside from the eight steam launches that were taken from the colonial authorities, wealthy Filipinos also handed over some of their ships to the Aguinaldo government: Leon Apacible, Manuel Lopez and Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio, the latter dubbed as the Angel of the Revolution. Their ships were the Taaleño, Balayan, Bulusan, Taal and the Purísima Concepción. The Compañia de Filipinas became the flagship of our erstwhile navy.

According to the research of my colleague, Dr. Lars Raymund Ubaldo, for a forthcoming maritime museum of the Philippines, President Aguinaldo appointed Pascual Ledesma as the director with the rank of general of the Department of Navy, along with Angel Pabie. By that time, the navy was under the Ministry of Foreign Relations. When the Malolos Constitution was adopted and the First Philippine Republic was established, it was placed under the Ministry of War. They even had actual naval stations in Aparri, Legazpi, Balayan, Calapan and San Roque, Cavite.

While fighting a brutal war against the Filipinos, the Americans wanted to also capture our hearts and minds to fulfill their imperial ambitions. Their most enduring legacy to the Filipinos, for good and or bad, was immortalized through a ship’s name. On Aug. 21, 1901, the largest contingent of American teachers — 357 male and about 200 female teachers — arrived in Manila via the USS Thomas. They would be sent all over the country to strengthen the public school system. They would be known as the “Thomasites.”

Yet, what is also surprising is the brotherhood that was forged by the Filipinos and the Americans. During World War 1, the Philippine Legislature, under the American regime, donated an actual destroyer named USS Rizal. The war had ended when it was commissioned on May 18, 1919. It had a crew made up of a majority of Filipinos and was in active use until 1931.

As we sang in our national anthem, “Ne’er shall invaders trample thy sacred shore,” many fought in the beaches to defend us from the occupation of the Japanese Imperial Forces. When the formal forces fell in Bataan and Corregidor in 1942, the Southwest Pacific Area command coordinated with the Filipino resistance or the guerrilla movement through the submarines of the Spy Squadron. On Aug. 27, 1944, the USS Stingray dropped a few men and armaments meant to augment the Ablan-Madamba guerrillas to prepare for the liberation of the Philippines. In October 1944, the largest naval battle in the history of the world happened at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed and fulfilled his promise to return even as the Filipino guerrillas were finishing the job of expelling the invaders in many parts of the country.

As we rebuilt our country after independence was returned to us in 1946, we continued to use our boats for fishing, interisland travel and for the transport of goods. Eventually, the Strong Republic Nautical Highway System was envisioned in 2013, and the Road Roll-on/Roll-off Terminal System, also known as RORO, made it possible to drive vehicles and goods from Luzon directly to the Visayas and Mindanao. As a maritime culture, we continued to practice our worship and festivals in rivers and beaches.

Despite the lack of ships in relation to the overwhelming length of our coastline, the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard have been valiantly defending our territory and our national patrimony from foreign threats, however challenging. In our seas can be found the “center of marine biodiversity in the world.”

And like the old bagani, Filipino seamen, sought after for their talent, are struggling against homesickness and hardships to bring back kaginhawahan and dangal to their families and their nation. They may just fulfill what our national hero José Rizal predicted in his essay “The Philippines in a Hundred Years’’: “… perhaps the people will revive their maritime and commercial activities. … And free once more, like the bird that leaves his cage, like the flower that returns to the open air, they will discover their good old qualities which they are losing little by little and again become lovers of peace, gay, lively, smiling, hospitable and fearless.” The country is edified and honored by their sacrifices.

Overall, our maritime industry is still a major provider of Filipinos’ well-being — kaginhawahan. And with our mariners and expats both here and abroad, the Austronesian migration seems to continue to spread that kaginhawahan and the kapatiran of Filipinos to humanity.