Special Friends in the Virgin Forest

The issue of Filipino-American friendship always brings out difficult questions like “What is friendship?” and “Do you believe in long engagements?” Describing it can be likened to the answers you once wrote on those high school slum notes: serious to the point of madrama. They gave you pride at the time you scribbled them. And then you grew up they became embarrassments.

If you were to ask me how to sum up Filipino-American relations since they imposed themselves upon us some 100 years ago, I can do in two words: Virgin Forest. By this, I don’t intend to evoke poetic imagery connoting “unexplored” or “rich with wealth” or whatever. I simply mean the award-winning 1982 movie that was directed by Peque Gallaga and written by Uro dela Cruz from a story by T.E. Pagaspas. This film sums up the saga of Fil-Am friendship: it begins with wide-eyed, open-armed hospitality that leaves us beaming with pride. Then it degenerates into treachery and deception, much to our collective chagrin and shame.

In case you were one of the geeks who actually paid attention to the story of Virgin Forest -- and not just on Sarsi Emmanuel’s primeval nakedness -- you’ll know that the film is the story behind the capture of President Emilio Aguinaldo by the American, during the Revolution in 1901.

The movie did not discuss how North America invaded our country, but let me prime your memory, in case you didn’t keep notes in school. To understand it in a personal level, let me put you in the Aguinaldo’s shoes. You’ve just gained the upper hand in the war against Spain. Then the Kanos arrive, grabbing victory from you. They actually have the nerve to negotiate with the losers of the war. To add insult to injury, they pay off the losers to get our country!

And that, dear friends, is how our friendship with America started. As the butiki would say, tsk-tsk-tsk!

Virgin Forest starts from this backdrop. Leaving out the steamy sex scenes, here’s what happened, according to the movie and with additions from historical accounts.

During the Filipino-American war, Aguinaldo’s capture became important for the Americans because it would symbolically end the war. However, thanks to the difficult terrain and the support of sympathetic Filipinos, Aguinaldo continued to elude the Americans. But Aguinaldo’s luck was eventually overrun by the usual Filipino quirks (Reader! Try to identify these quirks as we continue the drama). Americans were able to bribe Aguinaldo’s courier, who gave away this important bit of information: Aguinaldo had asked his cousin Baldomero Aguinaldo to send reinforcements.

In a burst of imagination that can only be called “Hollywood-inspired”, the Americans concocted a devious plot. First, Funston studied Baldomero’s handwriting, until he was able to forge it. Then, using letters purportedly from Baldomero, Funston corresponded with Aguinaldo, saying that reinforcements were on the way, along with a bunch of American prisoners of war. Funston removed all indications in his uniform that he was a general and traveled among the Macabebes as a prisoner of war.

The fake reinforcements were some 80 Macabebe natives whose participation in the scheme is also controversial. (Virgin Forest portrayed them as paid mercenaries while a historical account quoted by Twain says that they had an axe to grind against Tagalogs. The truth is probably somewhere in between, since the Macabebes did not really use axes at war.)

What happened next is more Hollywood fare. The fake entourage went through a 90-mile march to Isabela, through mountains and thickets. As luck would have it, they eventually ran out of food when they were a mere eight miles away from Aguinaldo. Exhausted and hungry, the Americans sent a courier to Aguinaldo, asking for food. Aguinaldo sent back rice and a missive to take good care of the American “prisoners”. This act by Aguinaldo alone speaks a lot about the soft spot in our hearts that we always reserve for Americans.

Anyway, after that, the fake troops regained enough strength to push through and make proverbial history. They reached the unsuspecting rebel base and were welcomed by Aguinaldo. Then all hell broke lose and Aguinaldo was finally captured.

Today, we would probably accept Funston’s underhanded methods as normal. But it appalled the Americans in the 1900s. Or at least, it appalled Mark Twain in 1902, who remarked with usual sarcasm:

By the custom of war, it is permissible… for a Brigadier-General… to persuade or bribe a courier to betray his trust; to remove the badges of his honorable rank and disguise himself; to lie, to practice treachery, to forge; to associate with himself persons properly fitted by training and instinct for the work; to accept of courteous welcome, and assassinate the welcomer while their hands are still warm from the friendly handshake.

The irony of the “rice incident” also did not escape Twain’s eye:

When a man is exhausted by hunger to the point where he is "too weak to move," he has a right to make supplication to his enemy to save his failing life; but if he take so much as one taste of that food--which is holy, by the precept of all ages and all nations--he is barred from lifting his hand against that enemy for that time!

Twain then proceeded to bemoan the beginning of a new era of Funstonism, citing the fact that some public schools were already honoring Funston as “a model hero and patriot in the schools” and recalling other atrocities such as Gen. Jake Smith’s order to raze Samar (Gen. Smith to his men: "Kill and burn--this is no time to take prisoners--the more you kill and burn, the better--Kill all above the age of ten--make Samar a howling wilderness!")

I am sorry if I spoiled Fil-Am day for you by digging into the past. But in the same ironic vein as Twain -- and in the hope that someday I will be compared to him, hint hint – we should celebrate the fact that Funston is alive and well today. But don’t ask me for his phone number.

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(A copy of Twain’s speech is available at the Public Broadcasting Service website. http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/timeline/m_twain_s.html).