I engage in and registered "advocacy journalism" as an occasional Pahinungod activity for the University of the Philippines. As a journalist, my function is to chronicle, and not to create, events. But I am also an academician who has done research on Leyte history and culture. This brought me to a direct collision course with Leyte Governor Remedios Petilla.

In early January, Gov. Petilla announced that Leyte will commemorate its 80th Founding Anniversary on March 10, 1997. The date marks the enactment of Republic Act 2711 by the Philippine Legislature in 1917, which provided for "non-autonomy government in several islands of the Philippines."

The announced date bothered concerned officers of the Leyte Private Media (Leyte PRIME), Inc., of which I am a director. They felt something was wrong with the governor’s plan but could not quite articulate what this was. So I offered to clarify the confusion after looking at my documentary sources.

On January 28, I issued a press statement through Bombo Radio in Tacloban. The article argued that the March 10 anniversary date was wrong and offered three alternative dates for Leyte’s founding: April 22 or 24, 1901, the enactment and inauguration, respectively, of America’s "civil government" in Leyte; and April 25, 1777, the date of the Spanish royal decree separating Leyte and Samar into two alcaldias (provinces).

On January 29, I read a follow-up statement proposing the adoption of April 22 or 24, 1901 as Leyte’s founding date. I noted that "the basic government structure and the perennially harmful effects of Leyte’s adolescent provincial politics on local constituents could be traced back to April 1901 ... (after which) Leyte served as the ‘showcase of American benevolent administration to the American public’."

The reading was followed by a live radio interview, which solicited phoned-in reactions from concerned listeners who derided the governor for her wrong choice of date.

I left the next day for a three-day vacation in my hometown. I was told days later that the same issue raged in the local media during my absence. "Leyte founding" sounded like "Leyte Landing" and telephone reactors remembered the unliquidated P5-M funding released to Petilla in 1994. As wife of the previous governor, she headed the provincial committee for the 50th anniversary of the Leyte Landing of General MacArthur on October 20, 1944.

A local newsweekly reported that only about P1.5-M of the P5-M released to Petilla had been accounted so far.

On February 1, the governor held a press conference wherein she tried to defend the March 10 anniversary. Her defense would be totally refuted by more opinion-makers in other radio stations over the next few days.

On February 3, fresh from vacation, I sent requested copies of my statements and documents to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Leyte, care of Board Member Fr. Ben Aniceto who invited me to present my side of the debate to the SP the next day.

That same day, I received a letter dated January 31 from Gov. Petilla, inviting me to become a member of a research group to "study ... historical facts surrounding the creation of the province." I verbally accepted the invitation through her staff who hand-carried the letter. But the next developments forced me to take back my word.

On February 4, I went to the Provincial Capitol for my audience with the SP of Leyte. But in a noon caucus with her partymates, Gov. Petilla issued a letter dated February 3, informing the SP of her decision to "cancel for the moment the celebration of (Leyte’s) 80th Founding Anniversary" for various reasons. As a result, my SP appearance was also cancelled.

On February 5, Gov. Petilla publicly uttered threats against my person in interviews broadcast over different media channels in Tacloban. She wanted me to "prepare," perhaps for a libel suit, and defend my statement about the "P1.5-million approved budget that had been partially spent."

Only Bombo Radyo and GMA’s local TV station cared to get my reaction to the governor’s statements, which contained more slander than threats. I said I inferred my "controversial" statement from an official press release of the Leyte Provincial Media Center and from a color-printed program for the anniversary that was shown me by a provincial official.

Anyway, it was the listening public who rebuked the governor for her tactless language.

On February 15, after the issue had cooled down a bit, I came across a new press release from the Capitol’s media center. It announced that the provincial government will launch the Leyte Centennial Celebration on March 10, the same date I had disputed the previous two weeks.

In an interview over another Tacloban radio station, Gov. Petilla announced a new set of activities for the centennial launching, in addition to the activities for the "cancelled" founding anniversary. Invited to the same March 10 affair with a different program title were former Vice-President Salvador Laurel, chairman of the National Centennial Commission, and Mrs. Gloria Angara, chairperson of the Philippine Centennial Movement.

On February 19, I issued a press statement disputing Gov. Petilla’s choice of another affair for March 10. This time, I argued that 1898 was a shameful year for Leyte provincial officials to celebrate with appropriate centennial ceremonies.

Two major events happened in Leyte in 1898. The first, around August 1898, was the ouster of the last official Spaniards by Katipunan-type peasant revolutionaries known as the Pulahanes. No member of the Leyteño elite claimed any credit for that feat, though they assumed formal leaderships of the province and its towns because of their education and wealth qualifications.

The second event occurred on December 16, 1898, when the appointed provincial officials and representatives of Leyte towns, apparently in exchange for cash, consented to give their full support to "Aguinaldo’s untiring and heroic effort." This consent resulted in the unconditional abdication of Leyte’s patrimony to the Aguinaldo government. It was followed soon after by the influx of Caviteño sub-colonizers who married children of local elite families and later surrendered the province to the Americans, the new patrons.

My third statement was read and followed by interview over Bombo Radyo last February 20. I opined that Leyte’s provincial officials would probably celebrate the shameful centennial of the betrayal of the Leyteño masses by the local elite in 1898.

The launching of Leyte’s centennial movement on March 10 also violates guidelines set by the National Centennial Commission. A Bombo Radyo research showed that such affair ought to fall on a date of local significance 100 years ago. No significant event happened in Leyte on March 10, 1897 or 1898.

Anyway, as I write this, the March 10 centennial launching in Leyte will still push through. But Gov. Petilla and her close-in officials are already mum about its budget and expenses. An independent-minded SP member informed a local radio station that the affair would go on because the programs had been printed and distributed and the guests had accepted the invitations.

Meantime, Gov. Petilla’s threats against me have not been withdrawn. For my own peace, I keep in mind my class origin. My peasant Pulahan ancestors fought or died for the noble cause of Philippine "self-hood." The governor’s ancestors include Caviteños who were among the first to jump to the American side in Leyte. One of them also stood trial for collaborating with the Japanese during World War II.

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