A Cursory Study of the Lapiang Malaya-Its Membership, Organization and Implications to Present Philippine Society

Transcription

1 JULY.OCTOBER, A Cursory Study of the Lapiang Malaya-Its Membership, Organization and Implications to Present Philippine Society determine some characteristics of this group, their motivations for joining the Part I _ Introduction Purpose and Obiectioe of the Study Soon after what was reported as a "rebellion" took place, 358 male members of the Lapiang Malaya (LM) were rounded up by the Philippine Constabulary (PC). The incident occurred when members of the LM had gathered at their Taft Avenue, Manila headquarters supposedly to participate in a parade-demonstration on invitation of their leader, Valentin de los Santos otherwise referred to as Tatang Valentin. The latter had demanded to see the President with his followers within 72 hours, allegedly to discuss some matters pertaining to the government and the country. This study was conducted on May 23 25, 1967 while the LM members were confined by the PC at Camp Crame, Quezon City. Specifically the researchers sought to Lapiang Malaya, their attitudes and values, their concepts and expectations of government, and the extent of their participation in the Taft Avenue incident. Answers to the following questions were sought: Who are the members of the LM? What special characteristics, if any, do they have? What brought them to join the organization? How do they regard the LM? o Estefania Aldaba-Lim is a clinical psychologist; Eugenia jamlas, a psychiatric social worker; Antonio Perlas, a psychiatrist, and Roberto R. Suegang, a social group worker. ESTEFANIA ALDABA-LIM, EUGENIA JAMIAS, ANTONIO PERLAS and ROBERTO R. SUCGANGo What was the extent of their participation in the May 20, 1967 incident? What is their idea of constituted government? What are their concepts of religion? What form and type of organization is the LM? What is its structure? What is its binding force? Initially this study was requested by his Excellency, President Ferdinand E. Marcos, for data on the social-psychological facts on which to base a decision regarding the immediate disposition of the case of the LM members who were rounded up by the PC the morning after the May 20th incident. An initial report was submitted to the President on June 4, Because of several interesting facts brought to light in this preliminary report, the research committee decided to expand the report to include a detailed statistical treatment of the data and other information gathered through open-ended questions so that the general public, particularly our leaders, political and otherwise, may draw some meaning, from the findings regarding this experience in the light of current social, political and economic conditions in the country. Methodology One hundred seventy-nine of the 358 members confined at the PC gymnasium at Camp Crame were studied, through a 69-item questionnaire, drawn up by a multi-disciplinary team composed of a psychiatrist, a psychologist and two social

2 152 workers. Nineteen interviewers, 1 of whom 17 are social workers and two, psychology students, conducted the interviews which lasted about an hour.each. Of the 17 social' workers, 10 are employed at the Social Welfare Administration (SWA) and seven, volunteers from private agencies. The questionnaire was in Tagalog and in Ilocano, the dialects most widely spoken by the group. When the study was begun, the plan was to interview all the 358 LM members confined at the PC headquarters. These were arranged by provinces of their alleged origin. No list of theconfined members became available either before or during the study. When the interviewers began their task, a team of PC employees had just started interviewing and fingerprinting the members for the PC files. While the study was going on, the researchers were pressed for time inasmuch as the members of group were to be "released from confinement any time." Accordingly, the researchers interviewed the members "at random," that is, as they sat, grouped together by provinces. Each interviewer was assigned one province. Members from the provinces of Rizal, Cavite and Laguna, the smallest in number, were assigned to one interviewer; members from the cities of Manila, Pasay, Caloocan and Quezon, to another. Those from Lipa and Cabanatuan cities were included among those from Batangas and Nueva Ecija provinces who were grouped together. The data gathered were tabulated by the SWA Statistical Re- Ilnteroiewers: Flora Eufemio, Zenaida Borromeo, Herminia Martinez, Estelita de Leon, Amelia Felizmeiia, Lourdes Manahan, Liwayway Paredes, Rebecca Legarde, Filomena Creus and Lourdes Gundran of the Social Welfare Administration (S\VA); Nina. Lim and Evie Dimagiba of the Maryknoll College; Cora de Leon and F. Tumlos of the Settlement House; Juliet Orzal of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA),; Aida Gabriel of the Catholic Charities (CC); Prima Guazon of the Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA); and Estrellita Tabin and Julia Rosal, private volunteers. PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW search Division," and analyzed by the research team. Scope and Limitation of the Study As indicated earlier, the researchers originally planned to interview allthe confined LM members. Because of limited time and the lack of interviewers, however, the research group decided _1:..0 interyieyv only 50 per cent of the Llvlmembers. There were several limitations to the study. In the beginning the study was solely intended to be a cursory report to give the President an idea of the psychosocial characteristics of the members of the "movement"so that he may be guided in making certain decisions on their case. The researchers were made to understand that the study needed to be completed at the soonest possible time - for there was a high probability that the subjects would be released immediately. Consequently, the senior members of the team prepared the questionnaire within a very limited time without the benefit of being pre-tested. There was also the absence of an official listing of the rounded up members. Furthermore, the members of the group were exposed to numerous interrogators. Several representatives of different government agencies such as the SWA and the PC, radio and TVcommeiltators, several government officials simultaneously interviewedthe LM members' -for purposes of thei~ own. Undoubtedly, this affected to some _extent the responses of the interviewees; specially to questions on constituted gov~ ernment authority. The resulting interviewee fatigue rendered the establishmentof rapport with some of the int~_~viewees rath~r difficult. On the other hand, it gave ~ thejnterviewees a feeling of importance, which, undoubtedly also affected their responses. 2 Headed by Mrs. Rosita L. Fondevilla, chief. of the division. -~ f \'..\ ~

3 JULY.OCTOBER, The setting of the interviewing, the gymnasium in Camp Crame, was large but congested and did not allow depth interviewing. There was also a strong possibility that the team of interviewers were identified with figures of authority. The researchers made an attempt to explain their roles to the LM members to dissociate themselves from the other authority figures, but this might have only added to more confusion. One problem not anticipated by the planning group was the fact that several of the interviewees did not speak Tagalog and could be interviewed only in llocano, a dialect familiar to only four of the interviewers. There is, therefore, a wide possibility of error due to hasty or "on-the-spot" translation of the English-Pilipino questionnaire. It was also found that those from Albay did not know Tagalog well enough to communicate adequately. Because there was no chance to pre-test the questionnaire, the interviewers later realized that some questions were vaguely framed. The interviewers made their own clarifications while administering the questionnaire. Many other items that should have been asked were not included in the list of questions. To fill this gap, one of the members of the senior team, much later on, probed some of the key LM members to get the answers to such questions. Still another limitation was that the interviewers had full-time jobs elsewhere and had volunteered for the study only because of their personal interest in the subject. Therefore, they could not devote the necessary ample time for this purpose. Part II _ Findings Social Background of LM Members The LM interviewees came from 17 provinces: - Zambales, Pangasinan, Quezon, Bulacan, Isabela, Batangas, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Leyte, Rizal, La Union, Al- 153 bay, llocos Sur, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Bataan and Cavite. The rest came from six cities: Manila, Quezon, Pasay, Caloocan, Cabanatuan and Lipa. The places of origin appear to be limited to certain areas rather than national in scope. Their ages ranged from 16 to 80 with a median of 43 years. This median, however, did not include 19 who disclaimed membership in the LM whose ages ranged from 16 to 21. There were two individuals above 80 years: one was 83 and the other 97. Most of the LM interviewees were married. One hundred thirty-seven (17 per cent) of the 179 stated they were married; 26 (fourteen per cent) single; 11 widowers; and two, separated. Three did not indicate their civil status. The average number of children in the family was five. From these figures, obviously the organization appealed to older and more mature rather than young adolescent individuals. The mean school achievement was Grade III. Thirteen per cent of the subjects were unschooled; the rest had very little schooling, which ranged from the 1:Cartilya to a few who had gone to high school. Fifty per cent said they could read and write, while the other half said they could not. This may mean that those who went to school but dropped out, reverted to illiteracy. The median yearly family income was 1"334.80, the monthly median family income, P Compared to the 1961 yearly stated average family income of 'Pl, for rural areas and 1"2, for urban areas" the average of the LM sample is considerably much lower. Sixty-seven and five tenths per cent were farmers (mangaararo, magbubukid, magtatanim); eight per cent were unemployed. A few (25) 3 Peregrina S. Reyes and Teresita L. Chan, "Family Income Distribution in the Philippines," The Statistical Reporter, IX: 2 (April-june 1965) pp

4 154 were skilled workers: drivers, house painters, tailors,' blacksmiths, carpenters and barbers. One hundred eleven or 62 per cent stated that their present religion was the Bukal na Pananampalataya. Sixty-nine or 39 per cent of them stated that they were Roman Catholic: Of these, 24 said that they were converted to LM. Some of those who did not regard themselves converts thought the LM was a supplementary religion to Roman Catholicism. Concept of Religion and Religious Practices Religion, as understood and practised by LM members, however, appeared vague. Fifty-five and three tenths per cent said they went to church. When asked how often, 31 per cent said they went to church at least once a week and the rest, from once' a year and once a month to whenever they "go to town." Most of them ~clnot.go to church regularly. However, this did not necessarily mean they lacked the desire to go. Out of 55 interviewed later to check on the accessability of churches, only 13 said there were churches in their neighborhood. Several other reasons were given by the subjects for nonattendance: absence of a church in the' barrio; great distance of the church from their houses; lack of priests, and so forth. One hundred six or 59 per cent of the subjects did not know fully well the "head" of their professed religion. It was noted, however, that of the III who considered the Bukal as their religion, 66 per cent definitely identified Valentin de los Santos as the "head." Sixty-three or 35 per cent of those who professed to know the head of their churches attributed to the latter some "accomplishments." These accomplishments were identified as either religious (63 per cent) or non-religious (37 per cent) in character. The maintenance PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW of churches, improvements and building of schools were regarded the non-religious accomplishments. It was interesting to note that the activities of the Roman Catholic priests were identified primarily with building churches, schools, and town fiestas. Prayers and teachings about God were associated with Tatang Valentin, not with the priests. Membership in the LM One hundred or 55.8 per cent of the members first heard of the LM from LM sources; the rest heard about it from nonmembers, and became interested in the movement. Their main knowledge about the LM was about religious activities, according to 133 or 74 per ce~t of thos; interviewed. Others heard about the faithhealing powers of Tatang Valen tin (6); his curative powers for certain ailments (5); and the organization's goal and promotion of freedom for the country (3). Eleven per cent (21) of the LM interviewees had been with the movement as early as but the great majority, 65 per cent or 117, joined the movement only after One hundred two (57 per cent) claimed to have joined the association on their own. It may be pointed out, however, that since one of the teachings of the LM stresses free will (bukal ea iyong puso) this might be a reflection of th;~integra:- tion of this teaching rather than the actual situation by the subjects. The binding force among the members was religious in nature. Fifty-seven and five-tenths per cent or 103 joined the LM for purely religious motives. The others had several reasons such as for "our own good" and the fact that membership in the LM did not' entail any monetary or material contribution. Seventy five or 41.8 per cent said they expected to receive 4 The year Valentin de los Santos ran as a candidate for the Presidency of the Philippines., ~.

5 JULY.OCTOBER, 1967 eight received personal! Eighty-nine (49 per cent) of the subjects said the LM fully met their expectations. But a larger number, 51 per cent could not say one way or the other. Only 20 categorically stated that it had not met their expectations. Nineteen had no idea what to expect. specific spiritual benefits from joining the movement. Sixty or 33 per cent had no specific expectations or did not know what benefits to expect. Asked about the benefits they had actually derived from the LM after joining, 102 (57 per cent) denied having received benefits. Sixty-four or 36 per cent said they actually received spiritual benefits; satisfaction from belonging to the group; two liked the civic aspects of the association; and three claimed to have benefited economically. Significantly, those who expected to receivi ;pecific spiritual benefits were those who said they actually received these benefits. One hundred fifty (83 per cent) did not know what else the LM could do for them. It was evident from the responses that the great majority, believing strongly in the LM, were contented and neither expected much more for themselves nor for others. It was noted that many who considered their spiritual expectations met in the LM could not say this about the Catholic Church. They pointed out that the LM is truly Filipino and applicable to them, while the latter is foreign (dayuhan). Responsibilities of Members to the Organization The description of their duties as LM members were given by 75 per cent as primarily religious. This consisted mainly of performing regularly the ritual of prayer and of obeying the teachings related 155 to love of fellowmen. There were thirty 'six (20 per cent) who did not know their duties and responsibilities while eight per cent mentioned other duties such as that of making a living. One hundred two (57 per cent) complied with all the required duties while 54 or 30 per cent admitted non-compliance. Ten (6 per cent) stated they sometimes did. On the other hand, there appeared to be no sanction for the compliance of duties, nor were the respondents aware of the existence of any sanctions. No contributions were required of LM members but uniforms were encouraged, and most of them managed to buy these out of their own money. As a whole, LM members did not see themselves as different from other people. Rather, they were a group of ordinary people, seemingly complacent yet looking for "something" and proud of their LM affiliation. Leadership Pattern in LM Ninety-six per cent or 173 of the sub-. jects recognized Valentin de los Santos as their leader. The majority, 135 (75 per cent) knew of no "chief" other than Valentin de los Santos. Nevertheless, 17 other names were identified as leaders by the remainder of the responses. ' The main contribution of Tatang Valentin consisted of teaching the members to know God, how to pray and how to relate to others. This was the opinion of 43 per cent of the subjects (78). Forty-six or 26 per cent were grateful to Tatang for having "invented the traffic lights," for his plans to print money, and simply fbr his being recognized leader. Noticeably, Tatang Valentin's contribution to the rnembers was not felt personally and individual Iy but in general. Ninety-six (54 per cent) could not remember anything specific

6 156 which Tatang did for each of them. On the.other hand, 77 or 43 per cent were emphatic.that his religious teachings were specific benefits received from him direct" ly. Seventy-three per cent did not know what he did for other members; 24 per cent identified his' religious teachings as. specific benefits received by others. Neither was 'there it prevailing sentiment that Tatang Valentin had contributed anything specific to the country as.a whole, as indicated by 76 per cent (136) of the respondents. Thirteen felt that his "inventions" could benefit the country; 14 credited him for' working hard "to obtain Philippine independence;" nin~ to' unite the Filipino people; one to establish new laws to replace the colonial ones...seventy-six per cent of the' subjects had 'seen Tatang Valentin in person, and 90 (50 per cent) 'of them clai~ed to have talked with him. Of the latter, 59 per cent. did not' indicate.what' they' talked about, while 34 per cent said they talked about religious matters. The rest (7 per cent) talked with him about other subjects. One may suspept here the presence of a vertical communication from the top down and the absence of communication among the members them~elves.. Knoioledge of Government and Constituted Authority Knowledge.. of the existing political structure appeared limited, Eighty-four (46 per cent) did not know or could not indicate who headed their barrios; 25 identified.,'. their barrio captain; one mentioned ~. ' Tatang Valentin and five mentioned Albino Bantiles, an officer of the LM, as heading -.. their barrio. As to their knowledge of government on: the town level, 63 (35 per cent) did notknow who headed their towns, although 32 indicated the town mayor's names. Whether these were actually the names of town officials could not be veri- PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW fied, Seven mentioned the name of Tatang I" Valentin, Albino Bantiles and Domin~dor de Guia as heading their towns. This appeared indicative of the confusion and ignorance of local political structure. Furthermore, although 68 (38 per cent) could not identify the most powerful person in the barrio, the majority were able to mention specific names. Again, the identity of these individuals remained unknown. One hundred (56 per cent) were unable to point out the specific group that was "strong in the town;" 28 identified the Catholic church; five, the LM. The rest mentioned political parties (11); the Iglesia ni Cristo (6); the Aglipayan church (2); the government (2); 21 gave names of specific individuals. President Marcos was recognized as the incumbent leader of the nation by i' all except four of the respondents. Of this ~ number, 137 (79 per cent) could not say IJ what he had done for them. Twenty-nine iii,1 stated that the President had contributed '1' to the welfare of the country in the form' of giving relief following a' disaster, road I building, irrigation projects, school building, and the like..seventy-four (43 per. cent) did not know or did not care or could' not think of what he could do for the country. Sixtythree felt he could do something to help them economically, 23 (13 per cent) wished he would release them from their present confinement, -while 10 per cent (18) were of the opinion that he could assist them through more intensified road building, maintenance of peace and order, 'and putting a stop to smuggling.. On the other hand, 79.8 per cent (143) could not think of anything he had done which they did not like; 18 (10 per cent) felt that he had not done enough for them' economically; eight disapproved of his denialof executive clemency to the prisoners -I

7 JULY OCTOBER, 1967 out his programs; 18 (10 per cent) 'tcp7 j 10 members of the LM; 119 (66 per cent) knew only few (less than 10); 34 (19 per cent) did not know other LM members. who were recently electrocuted; two lamented his numerous unfulfilled promises. Eight others felt he should not have involved the country in the Vietnam war, and should not tolerate corruption in the government. One hundred two (57 per cent) did not know who could help the President carry felt government officials were in the best position to assist him; 17 felt that Tatang Valentin or the LM could help him. On the other hand, 40 (22 per cent) felt the citizens (mga taong bayan) could help. Only two said God would' help. Motivation behind the May 20 rally What was the reason for coming to Manila? One hundred sixty-six (92 per -cent) came on or before May 20, 1967, the 'date. of the massacre. One hundred thirty 'four (74 per cent) of them came because of the projected assembly for a parade and a' general meeting which were required of all members on the rising of the full moon. : One hundred sixty-eight (92 per cent) paid their own fares, mostly coming by public transportation. One hundred thirtyfour (74 per cent) of the interviewees came with others, such as members of their family, friends and others. -' Only 26 (15 per cent) knew more than Again, the lack of horizontal communication is indicated. Seventy-nine (44.1 per cent) arrived on Friday. By Saturday almost everybody was at the LM headquarters in Taft Avenue. One hundred sixty-three (91 per cent) said they were caught unaware by the incident which resulted in the death of many of their co-members. An almost equal number (164) denied they knew why the incident happened. Future Plans 157 The LM interviewees' plans for the future were generally homebound in orientation. One hundred twenty-seven wanted to be released and to go horne, but only six indicated categorically they wanted to break from the LM. Others (9) were resigned to whatever the authorities decided. Thirty-one of them did not know what to do. Need for Help One hundred fifty-two (84 rer cent) admitted they needed some kind of help, but only 42 (23 per cent) said they were actually being helped. One hundred twenty-five (69 per cent) felt that they could be helped. Most of them (127) hoped they would go back to their hometown if they were given a choice. General Observations The interviewers were one in their observation of the naivete, docility' and lack of overt hostility manifested by the LM interviewees. They were all respectful, cooperative and eager to answerqulestions. They seemed shy and timid but they showed no shame or embarrassment. Rapport was not difficult to establish. The general impression of the interviewers was that the subjects were rather "simple" people whose thinking was limited to the tangible and direct, who had difficulty abstracting, and could communicate only in simple, concrete ways. They were generally friendly and curious about the activities around them, but they were more of passive observers rather than of active participants. There was no visible interaction among members except when one of them came back from an interview; then the others wanted to know what went on. The interviewers also had a chance to observe the subjects at prayer and were

8 158 impressed by the ardor of their fatih. This was in contrast to the cold and almost rejecting' rnan'n~r,whicp 'dla~acteiized their behaviour during the'rqm~n'catholic serv-!, ' ',,' ice which was conducted at the gymnasium. 'They were,,also impressed by the fact' that many professed no intention of yielding, membership, f~o'm the LM and ' that they could communicate the doctrines of' the' LM with facility and 'consistency. The spontaneity with which they talked about this teaching carried no apparent effort of persuasion and appeared to reflect some, integration, of the doctrines learned from Tatang Valentin. ' :.' Part III_' Analysis.of the ' Findings Nature of Member~hip' ",ih~ me~bers' belonged to the lower economic class with..family incomes failing below the natio~al average, grossly lacking in education, and mostly engaged in marginal unskilled. occupations. They were ' ll~'poor:'.lot but they: did not give the, impression of defeat. rheyc~me main.' ly fro~ '16 Luzon provinces and from only one Visayan province {Leyte) which may pot be representativ~of,th~, entire membership. Proximity, to Manila and the relatively small expense involved in coming for most of them might havebeen the factor that influenced the coming of:the majority. On the: other hand, it" is, possible that the LM membership was,limityd, to the areas near Manila, and may be revelatory to the fact' that there is no,ge~uin~ national network.or organization. '. The lack 'offluency in Tagalog among some members may pose problems of communication' 'among members as well as among leaders. 'It would,be'interesting to explore' what' is 'the chief means of commtinicati6n' amorigmoii-tagalog members. One of the LM members pointed out that the wisdom :of.~ Tatang-Valentin covered knowledge of '.various.'dialects. PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL' REVIEW ~ Sixty-nine per cent of the LM interviewees-regarded themselves Roman Catholics, at: the same time one may question the/nature of their Catholicism because most of them admitted their non-fulfillment of the duties required by the Catholic religion as well as the meager knowledge they had of the' structure' of the Roman Catholic'church. Itis quite evident among them that' there was very little knowledge and integration of the Roman Catholic doctrine: and no identification with either the Church or the Pope.' Furthermore, Catholicism was regarded as foreign and abstractin contrast to the LM which was seen as concrete, personalized and indigenous. ThisIs consistent with the general picture of a simple, unsophisticated group of individuals, who, in spite of material poverty, seeksispiritual nourishment and satisfaction. This is also supported by the fact that most of them joined the LM for certain motives and are content to derive only spiritual benefits thereby. This sentiment is evident from almost all responses. Thei~.im~ge of the LM was that of a spiritualbrotherhood, which, above all else, teaches' the importance of man's relations with God, his country and fellowmen. It is apparent that membership in the LM filled a spiritual void and, in somi instances; fraternal needs. The ritual connected"with the Buk'dl na Pananampala-, taya had tremendous, appeal to the members." The 1?olitical obje_~t~v~ of the 01'- 5 A particularly interesting ritual is the so-called "okay" ceremony : The prospective member is required to recite certain prayers, prostrate on the ground; at certain times (9: 00 a.m., 12: 00 noon, 5: 00 p.m.;: 2: 00 midnight, and 5: 00 a.m.), for 49 days before the rising of the full moon. kt ~ the completion of this, the prospective member _. goes'to the Taft Avenue headquarters of Tatang Valentin for the ceremony conducted before an altar' with two candles suspended from a certain elevation. Should the drippings continue unt'm the entire candles are consumed, the initiate automatically is' declared O.K,,' and, therefore, becomes a member.

9 JULY-OCTOBER, 1967 The present membership was of recent vintage, many of them having joined only within the last two years. This may partly explain the lack of acquaintanceship with one another and the absence of interrelationships indicated by the prevalent reticence among them during confinement. This may also be directly related to the fact that the members came from different their assemblies at headquarters. Even on such occasions, they probably had little reason for intellectual intercourse. Communication appeared to be, to a great extent, a one-way or vertical affair, that is, from the leader down to the followers. This was aggravated by the fact that the LM membership appeared to have no welldefined or organized structure or place of ) ganization, if there were any, appeared to be a minimal factor or almost' non-existent' in ihemembership motivations. Although the LM was "the political entity that launched the presidential candidacy of Tatang Valentin in 1957, at present hardly any member, as the findings revealed, look upon the LM as a political group. This is i~t"er-;ting to note in the light ot one comment that the appeal of the LM as a religion, was its being "ours," in contrast to Roman Catholicism which was considered foreign (dayuhan and gazing sa Roma], This appears to be indicative of the compelling need of these individuals to seek spiritual security in the face of material deprivations compounded by their disillusionment over the failure to gain the spiritual satisfaction from what they considered an alien religion. provinces and had little chance to communicate with each other.except during assembly other than the Taft Avenue, Manila, residence of Tatang Valentin. Very few members seemed to be acquainted with the existence of a "cabinet" and only a handful could identify the alleged cabinet members as leaders. 159 The fact that no contributions were required might be a significant inducement factor for joining the LM. Added to this were the simplicity of the duties required of members and the non-imposition of sanctions. It is significant that the members kept stressing the voluntary nature of membership. One may speculate that this might reflect the. members' unconscious aspiration for freedom, for spiritual reasons and for release from the conditions in which they lived, which is compatible with the general Bahala na ang Dios attitude. The membership appeal was apparently deeply rooted in the spiritual dimensions of the members' life plan. Even under the threat of punishment and under confinement, only a handful stated categorically that they would defect from the organization. Nature of Leadership Undoubtedly Valentin de los Santos who appeared to have charismatic appeal for this level of people was the recognized leader. There seemed to be no formal sub-leader group. The leadership of de los Santos had been accepted, more or less, on the basis of his personality, although he had never been formally elected or selected. While there apparently was some form of personal contact between the majority of the members and Tatang Valentin, communication between them was one-way (leader-follower). Neither did Tatang Valentin appear to have made any Of the informal sub-leaders to communicate with the members. There was no election of leaders and if Tatang Valentin had designated any of the sub-leaders formally the members were not aware of this. The organization appeared to have loose horizontal structure, that is, the members seemed not to be familiar with any formal structure in the organization, if there was

10 160 any. There were no specific rules to be followed nor any sanctions to the rules of prayer that seemed to be the only requirement of members. This raises some questions as to whether the LM is an "organization" or a "movement." Part IV _ Implications and.conclusion The fact that such an incident as the one under study occurred, should make us come to the conclusion that there must be some dissatisfaction with the present Philippine social-political structure among a segment of our population. We may treat it as some sort of symptom' signaling the existence of a disruption more basic than the formation of a "religious". group whose precepts may run contrary to the present order. It is, therefore, pertinent that as we try to look into the implications of this phenomenon, we should dissect it into its component parts: 1. The members themselves, 2. The organization to which these members belong, and 3. The present,socio-political structure. The Members Summarizing the data gathered, we have the following factors to consider: 1. Majority of this people belong to an economic class lower than the national average; 2. Majority of them come from the rural areas; 3. Majority of them were at one time or another members of one of the traditional.religious groups from which they have broken off or remained nominally affiliated; PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW 4. Majority of them are illiterate (that is on the basis of being able to read and write);' and 5. The median age is 43 years which would place them in the relatively "more mature and stable" and adult stage of life. The Organization Here, the factors to consider are: 1. Their religious beliefs (the prime reason for their affiliation) which involve a very personalistic and concrete understanding of supernatural phenomena; 2. The strong element of rejection' of.anything foreign; and 3. The provision for a "beautiful way" with which to say one's prayers which apparently is not provided by the other.religious-ecclesia and sects, which rather are being identified more with the building of churches, schools, fiestas, and oth~r religious activities. For instance, priests were identfiicd with pangaral (counsel) whereas Valentin de los Santos was identified with praying. The Present Set-Up One can only speculate as to how the present set-up may appear to these people, and perhaps this may become clearer' as we reconstruct the possible sequence of events which could have led to the present situation. In doing this, the most important question to be answered, of course, is how the. aforesaid factors interacted to give rise to the particular expression under study. Our basic assumption in this paper, that there is some sort of discontent with the way things are, must be kept in mind' in this discussion. Corollary to this is the

11 JULY OCTOBER, 1967 question of why this group of people did what they did, i.e., affiliate with a religious group as an expression of their discontent with the present form of our society. There are many other ways by which the same ends or release of dissatisfaction may have been achieved. The Huk movement would provide just one example of such a way. But this group of people did not choose any other form but to affiliate with the Lapiang Malaya. It may, of course, be that this organization was the only one which presented itself at this time to this group of people and which was then made use of as a vehicle of expression of their discontent. The other possibility is that there may be something in this religious organization which was appealing to them. To mention a few, these may be the following: I. Its non-violent, nationalistic precepts; 2. Its highly personalistic teachings that are more concrete and understandable to these people; and 3. The importance given to human dignity and the seeming provision for brotherhood and fraternity. As pointed out previously, it seems that in spite of their poverty in material possessions, they still seek spiritual nourishment and support. This is their conscious response to the questions asked which seemed contrary to a generally held belief that satisfaction of such basic needs as food and shelter must first come before a person is able to turn his attention towards satisfying other needs. One may perhaps speculate that in this instance since they cannot find any way of satisfying their basic needs, then their only recourse is to turn to something which may be emotionally satisfying and at the same time attainable. We think, however, that this 161 may also imply that these people unconsciously carry with them a hope that their affiliation assumes the possibility that it will offer a solution towards the satisfaction of their basic needs. In other words, if one cannot get it through physical and material means then perhaps "prayer will do the job." It would be interesting, therefore, to get into the content of the prayers and beliefs to see whether it may support this view. The fact that there is an overwhelming feeling against things foreign may give a hint as to their discontent with the status quo. In this light, therefore, the Taft Avenue incident will assume a different meaning than what may immediately be obvious; that this incident may be an expression of a breakthrough in. behavior of what has already been present in the organization in an unconscious form. At this point, the most important problem to resolve, therefore, would be a consideration of why this group of people has come to consider the present set-up as something foreign to them. We think that perhaps this may be understood a little more if we think along the lines of the communication process. It is very possible that as a result of the distortions in communication the image of the governmental structure to this group is that of a foreign and artificially created organization in which they do not, in the least bit, take part. (An insight into this may have been gathered if there was a question about their voting behavior and the meaning of the ballot to them.) The government also may be looked upon as not being concerned with their welfare and concerned only with things that do not affect them directly, if at all. Some of the factors that might have determined such an image are: (a) The fact that the governmental activities were transmitted to them in lan-

12 162 gpage that was not understandable. Going back again to' them LM appeal, we may say that what was most meaningful to them would be those that were correctly expressed 'withimplications that they could see personally applicable. (b) The distortion that the message might have undergone as it trickled down from the government to these people; ( c) The possible blocks. in the line of communication as well as the differences in background between that of the sender (in this case the government) and the receiver ( in this case the people); and lastly PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW (d) The fact that communication, if it existed at all, seemed to be one-way in that these people were always receiving and were never able to send their own messages so that then the government could respond to it. If the aforementioned speculations were true, then there is implied a responsibility to the effect that government officials should see to it that the projects and activities of the government be made understandable to these people, who, after all, may very well represent' the majority of our population. The same could be said regarding the other established institutions of our society such as the Roman Catholic Church and civic organizations. Comments: On the Computation of.the Chi Square from' Derived Tables of Contingencies * LEONEL CAMPOS"" Ateneo de Manila University Loyola Heights, Quezon City Occasionally it is desirable to modify a. complex' fable of contingencies with multiple degrees of freedom (df), for the purpose of obtaining more meaningful information. A complex table of contingencies can be modified by: a) combining frequencies from adjacent categories; b) eliminating some category or categories altogether; or. c) by a combination of both ( a) and (b). A table that' results after carrying out these procedures we will call, a derived table of contingencies (D'I'C'for short).. o This. comment illustrates a statistical tool derived by others in the study of society. 00 The author is connected with the Department of Behavioral Sciences of the Ateneo de Manila University. Being able to' modify a complex table of contingencies by'any of the procedures described above becomes.a need when: some of the cells contain expectedfrequencies smaller than 3, since very small expected frequencies will tend to give spuriously large chi-square; and 2. the researcher wishes to test specific hypotheses about the data, which require the combination orland the elimination of some. categories. In any case, the investigator is anxious to know that in modifying his original information he is following procedures