Portait of My Father as a Young Man

 

August 3, was the death anniversary of my father. I was just 5 and a half years old when he passed away, so I don’t really know much about him, esp. when he was a young man. For whatever I remember of him, he was already an old man. He was already starting to have grey hairs. He used to ask me to pull out his grey hairs and I would be paid 10 centavos per silver strand.

All I know of him as a young man was through my mother. According to her, when my father was born, a bayok or Mranao epic song was composed. The song began with the word Macapanton. That was his name. She said his full name would be the whole bayok.

The year was 1910. Less than 20 years earlier, the Spaniards decided to finally attack Lanao, more than 200 years after they first tried attacking Lanao during the time of Sultan Qudarat and Spanish Governor-General Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera in 1637.

In 1891 and again in 1895, the Spaniards called for a “Crusade” against the people of Lanao. Together with their Indio subjects, the Spaniards invaded Lanao, gained a foothold, but could not maintain it. The people of Marawi, led by Datu Amai Pakpak and other datus, held their ground.

But soon, the Indios themselves revolted in what came to be known as the Philippine Revolution. And so the Spaniards were sent packing from Moroland.

But then came new invaders – the Americans. In 1910, Moroland was still, technically, at war with the USA. American and Western historians call the period of 1901-1913 as the Moro Rebellion or Moro Wars.

In such a setting was Macapanton born to Hadji Darapa Abbas, the Datu of Marawi, who was the son of Hadji Okur, the Rajah Muda of Marawi, who was in turn the son of Rampatan, the Datu of Marawi. The rank/title of Datu of Marawi is firmly in the line of Macapanton’s patrilineal heritage.

The Datu of Marawi was the Defender of Marawi and is the ruler the people of Marawi paid tribute to. The Sultan of Marawi is more of a figurehead position, and is passed on through matrilineal lineage.

Macapanton’s mother was Bai a labi Dalumabi, sister of Cotawato, who was the Sultan of Dayawan and Wato. Her other brother was Bacarat, who also became Sultan of Marantao.

Upon Macapanton’s birth, his uncle Cotawato and his wife (Paramanis?) adopted him. According to my mother, Cotawato’s wife was the sister of Hadji Abbas. Adopting nephews and nieces was quite usual among Mranao families. Adopted children also acquire the rights and privileges to the ranks and titles of their adoptive parents. Thus, Macapanton held the rights and privileges to two sets of royal bloodlines.

Cotawato was known as Ama i Macapanton or father of Macapanton. This confused and still confuses people as many, including their descendants, think that Amai Macapanton was Hadji Abbas.

EARLY SCHOOLING

In the early decades of the American Occupation, most Mranao parents refused to send their children to school for fear of being converted to Christianity. But my father insisted on going to school. I suppose he could easily manipulate his two sets of parents.

After elementary, he wanted to pursue his studies further but his parents refused.

One day, the American Secretary of Education of the Philippine Islands visited Marawi and went to his uncle’s house. His uncle was Ibra Gundarangin, the Sultan of Lanao, who would later become the first Congressman of Lanao. Without much ado, my father, who had just finished elementary school, approached the Secretary and with pen and paper, asked the American official to write a letter to have him admitted to a high school in Manila. The Secretary was at first surprised, and after asking the Sultan who the boy was, proceeded to write there and then a letter for his admission to a school in Manila.

His elders were then forced to send him to Manila. He enrolled at the Torres High School in Tondo, which was then run by Americans. According to my mother, he was placed in the lowest section because he came from Mindanao. But after the first grading period, he was transferred to the first section. That was in the 1920s.

My father was an ardent swimmer as he used to swim in the Agos River in Lanao. In Luzon, he joined swimming competitions in Laguna.

PHILIPPINE LAW SCHOOL and NEBRASKA HALL

For college, he went to the Philippine Law School, which was then the leading private law school. In 1931, his uncle the Sultan of Lanao was appointed Representative of the Third District of the Province of Mindanao and Sulu. He was the very first Mranao congressman, serving at the same time as his in-law Datu Sinsuat Balabaran, who was representative of the Fourth District. My father got extra money as the Congressman’s secretary and interpreter.

He stayed at a dormitory called Nebraska Hall with schoolmate Diosdado Macapagal and his Moro best friends Domocao Alonto, Duma Sinsuat and Salipada Pendatun. The latter three were students at the neighboring University of the Philippines. Duma was the son of Datu Sinsuat. Duma’s mother was an aunt of my father. Later, Macapagal took a break from school, and transferred to the University of Santo Tomas.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP

As a student, my father was reportedly a member of the Order of the Swastika where he became the Mahatma Grand Lama. The Swastika was then, as today, a mystical symbol of Hindu origin, not a symbol of Hitler’s Nazism.

According to my mother, my father’s close friends were the students of Philippine Law School and University of the Philippines. She said Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, the first female Supreme Court Associate justice and later leading oppositionist against the Marcos regime, was one of my father’s “barkada” or clique.

I recently found out through the Internet that my father was a founding member of Vinzon’s Young Philippines Party. I came upon an article by Emmanuel Dooc for his Telltales column in the Business Mirror newspaper. Titled ‘Wenceslao Q. Vinzons: The Hero the Nation Forgot,’ it says: “He (Vinzons) founded the Young Philippines Party, which counted as members Arturo Tolentino, Lorenzo Sumulong, Diosdado Macapagal, Ferdinand Marcos, Domocao Alonto, Jose Laurel Jr., Macapanton Abbas and many others who all became prominent figures in Philippine politics.”

In an FB page Kasaysayang May Saysay, there is an entry titled MAHAHALAGANG ARAW SA KASAYSAYAN dated Jan. 5, 2015. It listed 6 dates on January in Philippine history. The last date was this:
“Enero 7, 1934

“Inaprubahan ng isang komite ng mga student leader ang mga alintuntunin sa pagtatag ng samahang Young Philippines. Kabilang sa mga tagapagtatag na kasapi ay sina Wenceslao Vinzons, Macapanton Abbas, at Arturo Tolentino. Ayon naman sa memoirs ng huli, noong Enero 8, 1934 naman pormal na inilunsad ang Young Philippines sa isang hotel sa Maynila; ang paglulunsad na ito ay dinaluhan nina Manuel Roxas, Jose Laurel at iba pang mga pangunahing pulitiko. Magiging partido ang Young Philippines sa bungad ng dekada 40.” (https://www.facebook.com/394043717340442/posts/mahahalagang-araw-sa-kasaysayanenero-1-1899-ayon-kay-cesar-majul-pinanukala-ni-e/736546696423474/)

Again, in an M.A. thesis, this was mentioned about the Young Philippines Party:

“Siyempre pa, kailangan ding banggitin ang mga pangunahing nagtaguyod ng Young Philippines: Arturo Tolentino, Wenceslao Vinzons, Macapanton Abbas, at iba pa.” [ Asuncion, Ruben Jeffrey (2015) Kasaysayan ng mga Samahang Kabataan, 1934-1978 , M.A. thesis p.174]

It looks like the Young Philippines’ Party, composed of the crème de la crème of the youth at that time, was an anti-Quezon, anti-Establishment, and even anti-US organization. This negates the dominant historical narrative that at that time, practically all Filipinos loved Quezon and Osmeña and the U.S.A..

As mentioned above, the YPP was formally launched in a hotel in Manila with big-time politicians like Manuel Roxas and Jose P. Laurel in attendance. But The New York Times twisted the story and claimed that it was a “Fascist Party…Complete with a Salute”. It claimed that Roxas, who was then complaining that Quezon and Osmeña were hogging the limelight, headed the party. But at least, it reported that the aim was “clean government”, that the party would “Bow to No Man”, and that it was against Quezon’s plan.

And then there’s a photo I got from the Internet. The original caption of the photo is: “Nucleus Group, Pan Malayan People’s Union, Organized by Student Council Leaders”. Beneath the photo, there’s another caption that says: “above photo from Philippinensian 1933, Wenceslao Q. Vinzons is in the front row center”. The gentleman at the back row, rightmost, in a bow tie, is my father. (The photo was colorized.)

It appears that student leaders then were not as parochial as today’s. They even think of the Greater Malay region which includes Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Pan Malayan People’s Union’s slogan was Malaya Irredenta (Malaya Unredeemed) and it encouraged the use of the Malay language.

My father finished his law studies in 1935 ahead of his dorm-mates. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar in November of that year; thus becoming the first Moro lawyer.

GRAND HOMECOMING

My mother said that when he came back to Lanao, there was a big celebration, with the traditional cannons being fired for the occasion. To my father’s shock, his elders had arranged it to be his wedding day, too. He was to choose between the daughters of a sultan. He took his father aside and told him that he would only marry the daughter of the Sheikh in Davao.

Unexpected arranged weddings are not uncommon in Lanao, until up to the 1960s. Some unlucky guys did not even have a choice. When they came home, they found out that they were already married by proxy, without their consent. I have a cousin who experienced that when he came home from abroad.

I don’t know how my father’s elders appeased the sultan and his daughters, but it seemed like a successful celebration.

In the early 1980s in Jeddah, a gentleman from Lanao who used to be assistant to the late Senate President Amang Rodriguez, told me that he had met my father. I asked when. He said, 1935, after he passed the Bar. I laughed, I thought he was joking. That was a long time ago.

He said that he was just in his teens, then. He said that it was a grand celebration, with the traditional cannons (lantakas) being fired. Firing of traditional cannons was reserved for great occasions. He confirmed the story told to me by my mother. He said the Mranaos were delighted that my father passed the Bar with a much higher rating than the Constitutional Convention delegate of Lanao Tomas Cabili. He then mentioned my father’s rating. I don’t remember exactly; but, it was in the higher 80s. I was dumbfounded. He even remembered my father’s bar exam rating!

First Maranaw Barrister Honored

THE COURTSHIP OF MY MOTHER

It was actually Domocao Alonto who first courted my mother while she was vacationing in her father’s hometown in Bayang. Some time later, he introduced my father to her. Soon, both of them were courting my mother. After a while, Pendatun also saw my mother, and started courting her, too. My mother spoke fluent Mranao and Maguindanaon so Pendatun, a Maguindanaon, was not handicapped in terms of local language. Of course, they all spoke English.

And so the three law students – Alonto, Pendatun and Abbas — all vied vigorously for my mother’s hand in marriage. She was then studying in Cebu.

My mother said that one day, she was summoned to the school headmistress’s office. The headmistress informed her that three letters from three gentlemen arrived that day for her. But she could not have them because letters from gentlemen who were not close relatives were forbidden. My mother said she was very embarrassed but quite flattered and found the incident rather funny.

My mother had quite a number of Christian suitors in Cebu. But her father insisted that she must choose among the three Moro lawyers or else she would be married to a “black teeth”, i.e. one of the uneducated indigenous highlanders.

After passing the Bar, with his two Moro rivals still studying, the 26-year old Datu Macapanton Abbas of Ranao asked for the hand in marriage of Sitti Rahma Yahya of the Sultanate of Bayang (in Lanao), Rajahnate of Buayan (Cotabato), and Sultanate of Lahej (in Yemen). She was 18.

They were married in my mother’s hometown Malita in Davao. The town – Malita – was a vassal state of the Rajahnate of Buayan and was inhabited by the indigenous tribes Manobos and Tagakaulos. The modern-day Malita was practically built by her grandparents, the core of which was their 3000 – hectare plantation. Her grandfather and later her father became the town presidente, now called mayor.

Datu Macapanton Abbas and Sitti Rahma Yahya
in Malita, Davao, 1936

In a strange twist of Fate, my father could not attend his second daughter’s wedding to the son of his friend and cousin Duma Sinsuat, who was then the Secretary of General Services in President Macapagal’s Cabinet. The wedding was held at the Manila Hotel around 1955. His friend and former rival Senator Domocao Alonto was the one who “gave away” his daughter. The Senator told my sister that it was all right because “she should have been his daughter anyway.”

In 1977, I went to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during our school’s Hajj break. I was then studying at Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. Senator Pendatun, or Uncle Pendy, as he wanted to be called, was a guest at my brother Jun’s house. He told me, in his stentorian voice, that Jun and I should have been his sons, if only my mother chose him over my father.

My mother said that Uncle Pendy wrote to her that he had hitched his wagon to the stars, and that my mother should hitch hers to his. He indeed hitched his wagon to the stars — he became a war hero (which was the basis for his appointment as a General), a Governor. a Senator, a Congressman and Speaker Pro-tempore and after briefly leading the Moro opposition against Marcos and Martial Law, joined Marcos’s government to be an Assemblyman and Speaker Pro-tem.


FORAY INTO POLITICS


After law school and the wedding to Sitti Rahma in Malita, Davao, my father brought his young wife to Marawi, which was then called Dansalan. He practiced law and briefly entered politics.

The Second National Assembly elections was scheduled for November 1938. My father’s clan repeatedly asked him if he wanted to run for office. He said, "No, No, No." His clan, led by his father Hadji Abbas, the Datu of Marawi and uncle/adoptive father Sultan Cotawato of Dayawan and Wato, then announced their support for the popular Tomas Cabili, whom they supported in the previous 1934 and 1935 elections.

A new law allowed block voting, which favored the governing Nacionalista Party (formerly divided into the Democratica and the Pro-Independencia factions, which later reconciled). Non-Nacionalista politicians were thus wary of putting up their candidacies. In Lanao (then comprised of del Norte and del Sur), no one wanted to challenge Cabili, a member of the Nacionalista Party and the incumbent.

However, for some reasons, my father’s political mentor Congressman (and later Senator) Alauya Alonto, father of his best friend Domocao, persuaded him to run. My mother was against it, my father’s own family; nay, his own clan was against it. His relatives had already sworn to the Holy Qur’an to support Cabili.

Tomas Cabili was appointed Justice of the Peace of Dansalan in 1934. My father’s clan decided to support him as their delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention. He won, along with Congressman Alonto. Cabili showed his gratitude to his supporters by refusing to sign the Philippine Constitution because it did not protect and promote the rights of the Moro people, esp. his constituents, the Mranaos. This made him quite popular among Mranaos.

In the 1935 elections for the First National Assembly, my father’s clan again put up Cabili as their candidate. And he won as the sole representative of Lanao.

Upon hearing my father’s decision to run, Mr. Cabili tried to reason with him. He explained that it was too late to put up a decent campaign, esp. since he was a newcomer. More importantly, his own clan had already pledged their allegiance to Mr. Cabili. He was, Cabili, the champion of the Abbas clans since 1934. Besides, the new law on block voting favored the dominant party, esp. the incumbent.

But, my father was just 28 years old. Still hot-blooded, he wanted to test the political waters. Although it was quite late already, the young Macapanton threw his hat in the ring, with former Congressman and Con-Con delegate Alonto’s party supporting him.

It was a close contest. According to my mother, the Alontos went all out campaigning for my father while my father’s own family went campaigning for Cabili. She said that many of my father’s relatives were in a dilemma and quite conflicted. Some donated sacks of rice and food but they refrained from campaigning for him. My mother also said that surprisingly, my father got more votes than Cabili in the Christian areas.

The Fates were playing with my father. It was indeed the perfect time for him to run, had he announced his candidacy earlier, before his clan announced their support for Cabili, their champion. But he did not do so because everyone thought that the Alonto clan would put up their candidate, most probably Cong. and Con-Con delegate Alauya Alonto himself.

It was too late in the day when Cong. Alonto invited him to run under his party. The Abbas – related clans of Marawi, Dansalan, Dayawan, Madaya, Marantao, Guimba, Piag-apo, Taraka, etc. have already announced their support for Cabili.

My mother said that even if his own father and other relatives were against his running, he felt quite confident that he would still win. Perhaps according to his calculations, new law or not, he would still win if he could just get half of the supporters of his clan to add to the supporters of the Alonto clan.

But my father did not reckon the power of the swearing to the Qur’an (sapa sa Qur’an.) Some of his relatives, who had pledged to the Qur’an to make Cabili win, burned the main voting precinct in Dansalan – with all the ballots cast there uncounted. Dansalan/Marawi was the Abbas’s hometown. It was the capital of Lanao and most of the votes cast were there.

Even if his clan campaigned against him, he believed that at least half, if not most of his relatives and clan supporters would still vote for him. Apparently, some of his relatives thought so, too and thus burned the precinct down.

My father was so disappointed that his own relatives would do that to him –burn the precinct down. After this experience, my father refrained from running for political office again.

Because of the new law on block voting, all the 98 seats of the National Assembly went to the Nacionalistas. It was the only time in Philippine history that one party won all the seats in the legislature.

For his part, Mr. Cabili offered to endorse my father to the post of City Attorney of Baguio. But again, his whole clan was against it. During those times, Moros were afraid to live in far-away lands, like Baguio City, because of the off-chance they die there, it would be difficult to bring the body back to Lanao within 24 hours.

My mother said that my father’s relatives, esp. his aunts and great-aunts, came crying to him to please not go to Baguio City, which was at the farther end of the Philippines. My father could not go against the wishes of his relatives, again.

My father politely declined Cabili’s offer; to the chagrin of my mother. She would rather be in Baguio than in Lanao. Besides, they spent their honeymoon there just two years before.

WORLD WAR II and the LEGAL PROFESSION

Then came World War II.

My father wanted to join the guerrilla movement like his friend Salipada or my mother’s cousins Ali Dimaporo and Rashid Lucman, but my mother had none of it. They had 4 daughters, the youngest was just a few months old.

To attract the Moros, the Japanese had their own policy of attraction. The Korean foot soldiers, who created terror in Luzon, were not brought to Moroland. The Japanese invited the young Moros to join the Japanese government and take over the leadership from the Christian Filipinos. Many Moros were attracted, but not my father,

The Japanese then called a manhunt for him. So; my father, my mother, my mother’s mother, my 4 eldest sisters who were small children then, with their servants, had to go on the run. They ran from village to village. I don’t recall if they took with them my mother’s car. But a car would be conspicuous. Thanks to Mranao culture, they were welcomed to the village’s torogan (royal house, if any) or to relatives’ and friends’ houses.

But the war took its toll. My father got wounded. The wound festered, and he had to take massive doses of antibiotics. And then their youngest daughter, Salma, a mere infant, died. That was the last straw. My father decided to surrender.

He finally surrendered to the authorities. He was accompanied by practically all his relatives, who promptly surrounded the premises. He was not arrested. Instead, the Japanese commander asked him to accept the post of Justice of the Peace.

On July 22, 1943 my father was appointed Justice of the Peace of the Momungan groups of municipal districts in Lanao by President Jose P Laurel. He was 33 years old.

From then on, my father blazed the trail for Moros in the legal profession becoming the first Moro First Assistant City Attorney, first Moro Provincial Fiscal, first Moro District Judge and first Moro CFI (now RTC) Judge.

The friendship among Alonto, Sinsuat, Pendatun and Abbas did not stop in college. After the war, they formed a secret society called the Knights of Muhammad, together with Datu Ombra Amilbangsa, the husband of the Sultana of Sulu, Hadja Piandao, and some other Moro leaders. They vowed to advance and protect the rights of the Moro people(s). They continually discussed among themselves issues concerning the Moros.

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APPOINTMENTS AND DESIGNATIONS
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

Macapanton Abbas, 33, Justice of the Peace of the Momungan groups of municipal districts, Lanao, July 22, 1943 (appointed by Jose P. Laurel)


Macapanton Abbas, 35, appointed, ad interim, Justice of the Peace of Tamparan, Mulundu, Taraka, Maging, Gata and Maciu, Lanao, September 22, 1945. Confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, October 2, 1945. (appointed by Sergio Osmeña)

Macapanton Abbas, 37, appointed ad interim First Assistant City Attorney of the City of Davao, August 7, 1947. (appointed by Manuel Roxas)

Macapanton Abbas, 38, appointed ad interim First Assistant City Attorney of the City of Davao. Confirmed by the Commission, on Appointments, February 24, 1948. (appointed by Manuel Roxas)

Acting Provincial Fiscal; Macapanton Abbas, 39, Sulu. Aug. 30, 1949 (appointed by Elpidio Quirino)

Macapanton Abbas, 44, as District Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District of Sulu and Basilan City, date of appointment, June 21, 1954. (appointed by Ramon Magsaysay)

Judge Macapanton Abbas, 46, as Court of First Instance Judge of Sulu, appointed by Ramon Magsaysay. 1956

Judge Macapanton Abbas, 48, from the Court of First Instance of Sulu, to the 2nd Branch of the Court of First Instance of Davao and Davao City. 1958 (appointed by Carlos P. Garcia)

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In 1964, he was set to be appointed as Justice of the Court of Appeals by former classmate and dorm mate Diosdado Macapagal. The CA seat was to be vacated by September as the concerned justice was going to be kicked upstairs (to the Supreme Court.) Unfortunately, my father was suddenly kicked upstairs — to Heaven — in August 1964 at the age of 54.

I was all set to go with him to Manila to start schooling there. He had been preparing me for it by teaching me lessons from the Grade 1 books of my older sister Landasul.