Gordon on cousin Cardinal Tagle as first Asian pope & their revolutionary ancestor

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. — PEARL S. BUCK                               

Coincidentally, just a few days before Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world by announcing his resignation, I had a chat with Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard “Dick” Gordon prior to his Feb. 10 Million Volunteer Run (MVR) to Save Lives, a nationwide fun run to demonstrate that the Philippines leads in championing the spirit of volunteerism as a means of saving lives.

Atenean, summa cum laude honors, Asian & young

Iask Gordon about his cousin, the newly elevated Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio “Chito” Cardinal Tagle, as a possible pope, the first Asian pope. Businesswoman Ana de Villa Singson, daughter of former Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican Henrietta de Villa, told me that when they attended the Nov. 24, 2012 rites elevating Tagle to cardinal, some Italian monks described Tagle as “papabli” or Italian word for “possible pope.”

Dick Gordon says, “All cardinals are eligible to become pope, they’re part of that body called the College of Cardinals. The answer to your question is, yes, Chito is absolutely on the high end in terms of his intellectual and spiritual faculties. He is an alumnus of the Ateneo and the Loyola School of Theology, a summa cum laude doctorate graduate from the Catholic University of America.  He has written important articles and he is on several committees in the Vatican.”

He continues: “An advantage Cardinal Tagle has is youth, he’s 55 years old, and the Catholic Church needs to reintegrate with the youth. Another thing going for him is he’s from Asia, where 60 percent of the world’s population lives. He’s also part-Chinese; I didn’t ask him yet if he speaks Chinese. On the possibility of being pope, I don’t think he’s running for it. Cardinal Tagle is a very self-effacing person. People really appreciate him more than he does himself. He is not afraid to express his views, but without being disagreeable. He would definitely make a great pope.”

How did Gordon become a cousin of Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle? The Ateneo de Manila University history graduate replies: “My maternal great-grandfather Jose Tagle and Cardinal Tagle’s great-grandfather Macario Tagle were brothers, so my grandmother Veronica and Chito’s lolo Florencio Tagle were first cousins. Tiyo Maning and Tiya Mila are his parents and both are close to me.”

COL. JOSE TAGLE WON BATTLE OF IMUS & CAPTURED FAMOUS SWORD OF GEN. AGUIRRE

Gordon recounts: “My great-grandfather — and Cardinal Tagle’s great-grand-uncle — Jose Tagle won the 1896 Battle of Imus, the first and most significant victory for the Philippine Revolution. Former Governor Maliksi said Tagle’s victory there in Imus helped turn around the fortunes of eight provinces. Emilio Aguinaldo and Andres Bonifacio were losing battles then. It’s ironic that Cardinal Tagle was ordained a priest and later became bishop at the Diocese of Imus, which our ancestor led the attack against over a century ago, because that’s where the Spanish guardia civil and friars were hiding. Tagle wanted to attack the church to get the Spanish arms there. My great-grandfather and Aguinaldo led rebels to go to Imus with a brass band accompanying them.”

How did Jose Tagle, the ancestor of Gordon and Cardinal Tagle’s, become a colonel? Gordon recounts, “When Jose Tagle defeated the Spaniards in Imus, Emilio Aguinaldo comes back limping from a defeat he personally led and after surviving by pretending to be among the dead or nagpatay-patayan siya. He made Tagle a colonel of the revolutionary forces and appointed him the first revolutionary mayor of Imus.”

The recent Metro Manila Film Festival movie El Presidente showed Aguinaldo often carrying a sword —  was that historically accurate?

Gordon replies: ”Not only was Aguinaldo’s carrying a sword true, that sword used in that movie was given by me, I had the original sword copied for that movie. The revolution caused a lot of deaths, kari-kariton ang mga patay (the dead were cart loads). When Jose Tagle defeated the Spaniards in Imus, they were then led by the famous Gen. Ernesto de Aguirre. Tagle also captured Aguirre’s equally famous sword or sable del mando crafted in Toledo, Spain in 1869, which was coincidentally also the year of birth of Emilio Aguinaldo.”

Gordon adds, “Tagle gave the sword to Aguinaldo and it became his sable del mando or sword of command throughout the revolution until his capture by the American invaders led by Gen. Frederick Funston 1901. The American colonizers kept that sword and only returned it to Aguinaldo just before he died. It was presented to Emilio Aguinaldo by then US Ambassador Charles Bohlen. That historic and famous sword is now in the Aguinaldo mansion museum in Kawit, Cavite.”

He continues, “The Americans don’t usually return war booty, look at the stolen church bells from Balangiga, Samar, they’re not yet returned… Another question by others was Emilio Aguinaldo’s having favored Japan during World War II. It was partly because his revolutionary ally General Artemio Ricarte was close to the Japanese and it was natural naman for Aguinaldo to side with Japan versus the US because the Americans stole the Philippine Revolution.”

Ironies of history & questions on heroes

Gordon says, “By the way, not only was it ironic that our forebear Colonel Tagle attacked the church in Imus and his descendant would become the bishop of that diocese in Imus, the other irony is that after the revolution ended in American colonial occupation, Colonel Jose Tagle’s daughter, my grandmother Veronica Tagle, would marry an American, kasama doon sa mga nanloko sa rebolusyon (part of those who stole the revolution). She married John Gordon, an American of Russian Jewish roots, and originally I heard with the Jewish surname Cohen, and their only son James would become mayor of Olongapo City. After our dad James Gordon was assassinated on February 20, 1967, Jose Diokno said: ‘Here was a man born to an American father, with an American surname, but he lived his life like a Filipino, chose to be a Filipino and died a Filipino.’”

What is his opinion on the movie El Presidente, which seemed to have glorified Aguinaldo at the expense of other revolutionary leaders like Andres Bonifacio and Antonio Luna, both killed by Aguinaldo’s men?

Gordon says, “Andres Bonifacio was a bad general, a very poor general. He should never have gone to Cavite for the 1897 Tejeros Convention, because he would be outmanned and outvoted for sure by the Caviteños of Aguinaldo, but nonetheless he should have accepted the election results. He got angry because of Daniel Tirona’s personal insult questioning his credentials as elected director of the Interior. Up to now we’re like that in our politics, very personalistic. Napikon siya, nagkatutukan ng baril (He lost his temper, he drew his gun and they almost came to shoot each other).”

But was executing the revolutionary founder of the Katipunan necessary, and was Bonifacio such a bad person as portrayed in that movie which was said to be based on Aguinaldo’s memoirs? Gordon explains: “What would have happened was unavoidable, because Andres Bonifacio was then leaving the revolution to form another revolution, and that would have divided the Filipinos.”

Should he have been killed? Wasn’t it an injustice?

The historian Gordon says, “Aguinaldo’s generals and men went after him. Bonifacio and his brother Procopio Bonifacio were shot, and I think his wife was raped… I heard Andres Bonifacio did indeed burn a certain portion of Indang town in Cavite out of anger, he was petulant. Aguinaldo reportedly initially said not to kill Bonifacio, but his men said this could not be. The question now for us in Philippine society is this — are Emilio Aguinaldo and Andres Bonifacio heroes? I’ve always asked that question. Even now, we have not declared Bonifacio a national hero, even his bones couldn’t be found and they were reportedly lost during World War II.  In other words, there’s no closure in our history with Aguinaldo and Bonifacio.

“Not only with them but also with the assassination of Ninoy Aquino,” Gordon continues. “And is there closure with the issue of the collaborators with the Japanese invaders during World War II? The late UP student leader, later youngest delegate to the 1935 Constitutional  Convention and Bicol guerrilla leader against the Japanese military occupation Wenceslao Vinzons, his execution by the Japanese invaders was reportedly the result of the then Speaker of the Japanese era National Assembly and director-general of the Kalibapi political party pointing him out — that’s what a daughter of Vinzons herself told me. Vinzons was my idol, that’s why I donated a bust of him done by sculptor Juan Sajid Imao for Vinzons Hall at UP Diliman. Vinzons was my inspiration to join the Upsilon fraternity and to be a student leader.”

Why do we have a whitewashed history of the Philippines? Those who collaborated were not described for their wrongs and true heroes are often not remembered well? Gordon replies: “It’s because usually it’s the elite who write history… Wenceslao Vinzons refused to pledge allegiance to the invaders and even steadfastly refused one final entreaty to cooperate with them; he was executed and the Japanese forces also killed his father, wife, sister, two of his children and even a maid. Vinzons was really a hero.”

* * *

Thanks for your feedback! E-mail willsoonflourish@gmail.com or follow WilsonLeeFlores at Twitter.com, like at Facebook, go to willsoonflourish.blogspot.com.