Picture imperfect: did Xi and Duterte agree to a ‘Blood Compact’ in Manila?
- The two presidents were photographed in front of a painting that, according to a historian, represents the start of Spain’s colonisation of the Philippines
When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte posed for an official photograph with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the ceremonial hall of Malacanang Palace on Tuesday, their choice of a backdrop could hardly have been less auspicious.
The leaders, who witnessed the signing of 29 bilateral agreements during Xi’s two-day official visit to Manila were pictured in front of El Pacto de Sangre – or The Blood Compact – a 19th-century painting by internationally known artist Juan Luna that shows Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi performing a traditional ritual of friendship with Datu Sikatuna, chieftain of the island of Bohol.
Filipino historian Xiao Chua, who teaches at De La Salle University, said: “Maybe someone in Malacanang was thinking this painting was a symbol that we are in good faith treating the Chinese government as a brother.”
But Chua, whose great-grandfather was a migrant from Fujian province in mainland China, said the scene actually represents “the start of our colonisation [by Spain]”.
The ceremony that is depicted reportedly involved the pair drinking from cups of wine into which the other had bled, took place in 1565. Known in the Visayan language as Sandugo, it symbolised the first treaty of friendship ever entered into between the Spaniards and native Filipinos.
The problem with this analogy is what happened after the Sandugo, Chua said.
“They (the Spaniards) did not know the significance of the blood compact to us. That’s why they colonised us. The Spaniards thought we were OK to be colonised.”