US SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO RP

March 25, 2007

The Editor

Philippine Daily Inquirer

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has apologized for Britain’s role in instituting the slavery of Africans that lasted 300 years. Religious leaders have also called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to make a formal apology and not just express “regrets.” The occasion was the 200^th anniversary of the abolition by Britain of the “slave trade” in 1807.

Last February, the legislature of the State of Vrginia, USA, also voted unanimously for a resolution apologizing for the government-sanctioned slavery of African-Americans. Slavery ended in the US less than 150 years ago but only after a bloody civil war. The Virginia measure also expressed regret for “the exploitation of Native Americans.”

Japan has also apologized for its role in the Second World War, including the occupation of the Philippines, and for the colonization of Korea. Germany likewise has apologized for the War and for the holocaust in which six million Jews were allegedly roasted in ovens.

But Filipinos have yet to receive an apology from the United States for its war against Filipinos from 1899 to 1909, counting the resistance in Mindanao, in which hundreds of thousands of Filipinos died. The Philippine-American war had lasted as long as the Vietnam war. Americans came to the Philippines to fight the Spaniards but after defeating the Spaniards, the US attacked the Filipinos, and conquered their country. It is as if after landing in France to attack the Germans in the Second World War, the US turned their guns on their French allies and colonized France.

The Americans claimed they came to “teach” us democracy although we already were able to adopt our own democratic constitution in Malolos. So what kind of “demo-crazy” are we now enjoying in our country? Isn’t it just as bad as that of Iraq? If the US should apologize to their former slaves, why not to their former colony, the Philippines? To show its sincerity, the US should also stop treating our country as a neo-colony.

MANUEL F. ALMARIO

mflmario@yahoo.com