LUNA-TIKO?!

Was the tempestuous Antonio Luna really a raving lunatic? Or did he come so close to killing Filipinos who slept or collaborated with the “enemies” because of his all too consuming love for flag and country? But first this disclaimer: You may be reading the musings of an “enemy” I being a descendant of an American soldier who fought against the forces of General Luna during the Philippine-American War.

The Americans won that war in 1902 with Emilio Aguinaldo going in exile to Hong Kong after receiving   largesse from the US. My great grandfather, the American, lost however the battle of the hearts, never to return to the States again after falling under the spell of a Filipina enchantress. Several generations down the road, here I am, as Filipino as chicken adobo but with a name that is as American as apple pie.

Aguinaldo lived a long, long life to repeat with the Japanese invaders of World War II his chummy relationship with the Americans. Aguinaldo had all the time in the world to deny that the Magdalo-Magdiwang schism was just a farcical trap to lure the Bonifacio brothers into a kangaroo court and a death sentence carried out at Mount Buntis (always mentioned by tourist guides in the same comical breath as the Bundok ng Susong Dalaga).  Of course,  Aguinaldo did not order too the assassination and mutilation of General Luna.

But enough digression. If you’re a Filipino and you have yet to see the R-13 movie Heneral Antonio Luna, what are you waiting for? It’s our patriotic duty to do so. While the movie’s treatment of Luna was almost like a caricature with his overblown wry sense of humor and volcanic temper bordering on utter madness, it surely drilled in the message that sometimes we Filipinos, and not foreign invaders, are our own worst enemies. This is as true today as in Luna’s time.