The Sakdal Uprising begins in Luzon, Philippines - May 2nd, 1935

On this day in 1935, thousands of Filipino peasants staged a rebellion in the agricultural region of Central Luzon. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that shines a light on the ups and downs
of everyday history. I'm Gabe Lusier, and in this episode,

(00:21):
we're looking at a pivotal chapter in the philippines long
struggle for land reform and an end to American occupation.
The day was May two, nineteen thirty five. Thousands of

(00:43):
Filipino peasants staged a rebellion in the agricultural region of
central Luzon. Most of the rebels were poor tenant farmers
who had struggled for decades under a government that catered
only to land owning elites. The growing political ten between
the classes finally boiled over on the evening of May second,

(01:04):
when a few thousand members of the sack Doll Independence
movement decided to mount an uprising. Just after sunset, the
partially armed peasants gathered in the countryside surrounding Manila. They
promptly split off into groups and began seizing municipal buildings
in fourteen nearby towns. The rebels took control of at

(01:25):
least three communities before government troops arrived at sunrise. To
snuff out the revolt. When the smoke cleared on the
morning of May third, nearly one hundred revolutionaries lay dead
and half as many others were wounded. Their brief rebellion,
later known as the Sak Doll Uprising, was suppressed just
as quickly as it had started, but it wasn't forgotten.

(01:49):
Frustrated peasants would remember it for generations to come, even
as they attempted uprisings of their own. By the time
of the Sak Doll Uprising, the Philippines was no stranger
to agrarian unrest nor to revolution. In June of eighteen
ninety eight, the country had declared its hard fought independence

(02:11):
from Spain, putting an end to three hundred and thirty
three years of outside rule. Unfortunately, the newly formed Philippine
Republic didn't last long. Later that same year, the Spanish
American War ended with a U S victory, and part
of Spain's terms of surrender was to turn over control

(02:31):
of its colonized territories, including the Philippines. The fact that
the Philippines had already established itself as a free republic
was summarily ignored by both parties and the people of
that nation found themselves shunted from one colonial master to another.
American occupation proved far less hostile than Spanish rule, but still,

(02:54):
the Filipino people hadn't fought a revolution for a more
temperate form of colonialism. They continued to express their desire
for independence, and as a result, the US promised to
step aside once the country was on its feet again. However,
more than thirty years later, the transfer of sovereignty still
hadn't happened, and in the meantime, a corrupt interim government

(03:17):
had taken shape in America's shadow. The same nationalist movement
that had waged armed rebellion against the Spanish became eager
collaborators with the American occupiers. That's because the movement was
led by the Philippines elite, a group of wealthy landowners
who happily accepted positions in the new bureaucracy and then

(03:37):
promptly set to work building a system that benefited them
first and foremost. As you might imagine, that arrangement didn't
sit well with the agrarian peasants who constituted the majority
of the population. Many of them worked as tenant farmers
and bristled at the injustice of having their country's new
laws dictated by their landlords. They worried that by the

(04:00):
time the Philippines was finally granted its independence, the political
and economic odds would be completely stacked against them. Benino
Ramos was particularly troubled by that imbalance of power and
by the Philippine senates of parent acceptance of prolonged US rule.
He wasn't a tenant farmer, though. Instead he was a

(04:20):
former clerk of the Philippine Senate, one who had fallen
out with the body's president, Nationalist leader Manuel K. San.
In nineteen thirty, Ramos started a grassroots movement called Sakdal,
a Tagalog word meaning to accuse or to strike. He
founded an organization and a newspaper bearing that name, and

(04:43):
the purpose of both was to publicly accuse government officials
of working against the best interests of the country and
the common people. Because of that betrayal, Ramos urged his
followers not to participate in the corrupt government in any way,
neither by holding office, nor by voting, or by paying taxes.
His rhetoric was so compelling that Filipinos from all walks

(05:06):
of life joined the movement and By nineteen thirty three,
the sak Doll organization had enough members to constitute a
political party and perhaps affect real change. Candidates of the
so called Sakdalista Party ran on a platform that prioritized
the welfare of the working class. They pledged to distribute

(05:26):
land to landless peasants and to crack down on political
corruption and favoritism. The party also directly opposed the policy
of the Nationalists in power. The then current government was
content to accept a gradual independence over the course of
another decade, whereas the sak Dalista Party called for an
immediate end to US imperialism. Despite that rather ambitious platform,

(05:52):
or maybe because of it, the sak Doal movement did
quite well in the Philippine election of nineteen thirty four,
securing a number of seats across the country. It wasn't
enough to wrestle power from the Nationalista Party, but support
for the movement was strong enough to inspire confidence in
a more drastic form of action the following year. The

(06:12):
timing of the sakdal uprising was carefully chosen. It occurred
just two weeks before a new constitution was set to
be ratified, one that would provide for a transition government
to last for a further decade. Ramos explained the sak
doll's rejection of that plan, writing quote by saying that
they will recognize independence in ten years. The Americans are

(06:36):
doing nothing more than suppressing independence agitation. For ten years.
They have over and over promised to recognize our independence
and have always broken their promise, So why should they
be believed this time? We have affirmed that, at whatever cost,
we must secure independence by our own strength. Ramos selected

(06:57):
May second as the day to demonstrate that strength because
he knew the attention of the powers that be would
be focused elsewhere. Senate President Manuel K. Shan was off
hobnobbing in Manhattan, Acting Governor General Joseph Hayden was far
north on an inspection tour, and Major General Frank Parker
was on vacation in China. It was the perfect time

(07:20):
to strike, and Ramos refused to waste it. That evening,
bands of sak dolls, many of whom were armed, stormed
the towns of central Luzan. They took control of numerous
government buildings, cut communication lines, lowered the American flags, and
asserted immediate Philippine independence. Some light gunfire was exchanged between

(07:43):
the insurgents and military police detachments and several locations, but
the bulk of the fighting took place at kabu Yao,
on the south road between Manila and some US owned
sugar plantations. The several hundred Sack Dolls stationed there fought
under the command of a woman named Salud Algebra. Together,

(08:04):
they had taken over her hometown, seized the weapons of
six US sailors, and fought off the local police force. However,
once the military police arrived, the sak Dolls quickly lost
their advantage and dozens were killed in a one sided firefight.
Salud Algebra managed to survive, but was quickly arrested. She

(08:25):
was later tried, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in prison,
though she wound up only serving two years before being
pardoned by her enemy, President ka san As. For Benino Ramos,
he evaded capture and went into exile in Japan. Meanwhile,
back in his home country, the movement he had started
was declared illegal and disbanded. About a hundred lives had

(08:49):
been lost in the ill fated uprising, and no lasting
change had been achieved. Still, there are many who'd argue
that the campaign wasn't a failure. Future peasant rebellions would
carry on the fight against oppressive landholders both before and
after Philippine sovereignty was restored in nineteen forty six. The

(09:10):
Sock Doll Uprising succeeded not because of what it accomplished,
but because of what it started. Because, as Salute Algebra
once said, no uprising ever fails. Each one is a
step in the right direction. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully
you now know a little more about history today than

(09:33):
you did yesterday. If you want to keep up with
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by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks
to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett for producing the show,

(09:54):
and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back
here again tomorrow for another Day in History play at
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