Macario
Sakay was born on calle Tabora, San Nicolas, Manila, out of wedlock in
1870, the date and month unknown. He adopted the family name "Sakay"
from his mother, his father left when Sakay was still an infant.
Sakay was with Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto when they fled Caloocan to
evade capture, but he was in the victorious battle of Montalban, battle
of Nanka River and the retreat to Balara. After the tragic murder of
Bonifacio in Cavite, he was with the new Supremo Emilio Jacinto in
Laguna to continue the struggle of the Katipunan, they never recognize
the ilustrado revolutionary government established by Aquinaldo's
elitist coup in the snap election during the Tejeros Convention. After
the early death of Gat Emilio Jacinto, it was Macario Sakay who
continued the Katipunan revolt of the masses.
After grabbing
the victory from the Filipinos against Spain by the Americans at the
Mock Battle of Manila, at 11:30 am on Agosto 13, 1898, they continued
the illegal possession of the whole archipelago. During the
administration of Governor-General Luke E. Wright, he passed a law known
as "Ley de Bandolerismo" to force all the rebels and bandits to
surrender immediately at their given deadline or be labeled and
considered as a bandit. Freedom fighter Sakay was strongly against the
American Governor-General's law. Filipino patriots badly equipped
guerrillas were constantly on the move and captured by the Gringo army
with help of the Philippine Constabulary which comprised of native
soldiers under American officers. Disgraceful to reveal, former Filipino
revolutionists; Gen. Licerio Geronimo, Gen. Pio del Pilar, Gen. Juan
Cailles, Col. Agapito Bonzon, Maj. Lazaro Macapagal aided Americans to
hunt their former comrades-in-arms.
Sakay was successful with
his guerrilla warfare and established the "Tagalog Republic" basing it
from Supremo Bonifacio's "Haring Banyang Katagalugan." Sakay, his
officers and men refused to have their hair cut as a symbol of protest
and counter-culture, it was also to measure the length of time they
stayed in the mountains in their struggle for freedom. Sakay, a big
problem to the Americans in establishing their pacification program and
their benevolent assimilation campaign in the country, in 1905
Governor-General Henry Clay Ide authorized Dominador Gomez a Filipino
labor leader, to negotiate with Sakay. Gomez met with Sakay at his camp
and persuade him that the establishment of a national assembly was being
held up by Sakay's resistance and that its establishment would be a big
step toward Filipino independence. Sakay agreed to end his resistance
on conditions that a general amnesty be granted his men, that they be
permitted to carry firearms, that he and his officers be permitted to
leave the country. Gomez guaranteed Sakay that his conditions the would
be acceptable to the Americans and Sakay's emissary, General Leon
Villafuerte, obtained agreement to them from the American
Governor-General. Sakay and Villafuerte went to Manila where they were
welcomed and invited to receptions and banquets. One invitation came
from the Constabulary Chief Col. Harry Bandholtz was a colonial trap,
Sakay and his officers were disarmed and arrested while the party was in
progress Sakay was accused of "Bandolerismo under the Brigandage Act of
Nov. 12, 1902, which interpreted all acts of armed resistance to
American rule as banditry" and the colonial Supreme Court of the
Philippines supported the decision.
At 8:30 in the morning of
September 13, 1907, General Macario Sakay and Lucio de Vega were taken
out of their "bartolina" and led to the death platform inside the
Bilibid Prison compound. At 9:00 am, the decision finding him guilty was
read to him, General Sakay shook his head to show his protest. Lucio de
Vega and General Sakay took confession against his will before Fr. G.
Foradada a Jesuit priest.
General Sakay and de Vega were
attended by the following priest; G. Foradada, Macario Hernandez, Marcos
Dombrosky, Leoncio del Rosario and a doctor, on the death platform.
Reaching the gallows, General Sakay shouted at the top of his voice...
"Death comes to all of us sooner or later, so that I will face the Lord
Almighty calmly. But I want to tell you that we are not bandits and
robbers, as the Americans have accused us, but members of the
revolutionary forces that defended our mother country, Filipinas!
Farewell! Long, live the republic and may our independence be born in
the future! Farewell! Long Live Filipinas!"
...the American
executioner immediately covered General Sakay's face with a black cloth,
which the general offered his head to be placed on the rope gallantly.
- ka tony
the 12 of Sept. '08
