Been seeing a lot of discussions about the history of 🇵🇭 p…

Been seeing a lot of discussions about the history of 🇵🇭 police forces (like 👇) but what hasn't been mentioned so far are their connections to the revolutionary Katipunan. Some surrendered Katipunan officers were absorbed in the colonial policing apparatus 1/11

The police in the Philippines is not the product of democracy. The Philippine Constabulary (PC), from which the Integrated National Police (INP) and later the Philippine National Police (PNP, as a merger of PC and INP) was created, is a gendarmerie created by US colonists. 1/
— James Miraflor (@futilityfunc) December 21, 2020

The 2 examples I know are Licerio Geronimo and Juan Cailles. *I wouldn't know these if I hadn't done research for my chapter in this book here: 2/11

Gen. Licerio Geronimo is credited w/ the death of Major Gen. Henry Lawton, the highest ranking American officer to be killed in the Philippine-American War, during the Battle of San Mateo. But after surrendering in 1901 he joined the PC & was instrumental in the defeat ... 3/11

...of his former comrades, most notably Gen. Luciano San Miguel, a veteran of the 1896 revolution who continued to battle the Americans until his death in 1903. He had been routed by Geronimo's troops but San Miguel preferred to die on the battlefield than be taken alive. 4/11

Juan Cailles, like Geronimo, was a Katipunan commander who surrendered to the Americans in 1901. He was then appointed governor of Laguna and enjoyed several years of being a local politician. But in the 1930s, in the midst of landlessness and social unrest... 5/11

...and organized resistance under various formations such as the Sakdalistas, the Katipunan ng Anakpawis, the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas, & even "millenarian" peasant groups, Cailles responded with an iron fist, on behalf of the Americans & in cooperation with the PC... 6/11

His claim to fame was the killing of resistance leader Teodoro Asedillo, who had been mischaracterized as an ordinary "bandit" and whose corpse was publicly displayed as a warning against quarreling with the state. 7/11

I can't remember if there are any more examples, I don't have a copy of our book with me. These are all off of the top of my head! I apologise for any errors. 8/11

I guess if there is something this can add is that, yes these are indeed colonial institutions but we must also take a hard look at the complicity of former "patriots". 9/11

For money? For privileges like a govt position? Because they were members of the elite and had narrow self-interest? I don't know. They were tired of fighting? They really thought that joining the (colonial) govt was the only viable option left? All of the above? Maybe. 10/11

These are the historical episodes that we need to keep mining, and mulling over to perhaps help us make sense of these unimaginable yet all-too-familiar times. 11/11

Been seeing a lot of discussions about the history of 🇵🇭 police forces (like 👇) but what hasn't been mentioned so far are their connections to the revolutionary Katipunan. Some surrendered Katipunan officers were absorbed in the colonial policing apparatus 1/11

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