Religious and Bloody Dissuasion:

A Marxist Analysis of "The

Capture" by Ramon Bautista
Summary
• The story begins with the news of the furtive rebel Abundio Espera's
death.
• Nitoy, an eighteen-year-old militia who has his life spared by the
rebels in one bloody encounter with them, hears the news of Espera’s
death through the kids selling pandesal.
• In the middle of the Holy Week, the people of Pinamalayan gather to
celebrate not the death of Christ, but the execution of Abundio. The
jail cell where Abundio's bullet-stuffed corpse lies is packed with
people.
Summary
• Nitoy recalls his encounter with Abundio and his anting-anting (a
pendant that contains a wisp of golden hair from a tikbalang; or an
amulet that a blooming banana heart had released on a full moon.)
• Colonel Marasigan (the town’s general) interrogated Nitoy about the
whereabouts of Abundio and what he looked like.
• Col. Marasigan blames the New People’s Army, a communist guerilla
group led by Abundio, for the murders of wealthy citizens (Don
Tiburcio Dimaandal and En Chong).
Summary
• Nitoy learns from the boys selling pandesal about how a whore in the
brothel distracted Abundio and robbed him of his talisman.
• In the plaza, Col. Marasigan and his wife Dona Milagros arrived with
the other powerful people in the town.
• The mayor said he would award P50,000 pesos to the person who
helped the constabulary kill Abundio.
Summary
• Pepito (the pimp) said two men dressed as Roman soldiers entered
the brothel and asked for the youngest girl for their boss (“Longinus”)
• Pepito identified the boss as Abundio and told the sentries in duty.

• Rufo Cabalfin, the colonel’s lieutenant, narrated that the sentries on

duty informed him of Abundio’s presence. He gathered his troops
(drunk with lambanog) and speed to the brothel.
Summary
• Epifania had to be coaxed by the women before narrating. She said
she was unaware that the man was Abundio.
• While the judges were deciding, the mayor showed the talisman. It
was a cross of emerald and nephrite and was shaped like a sitting
Buddha.
• Padre Holzgartner arrived in the plaza to discuss Abundio’s burial with
the mayor.
• The judges hailed lieutenant Cabalfin as the winner.
Summary
• Nitoy visits the cell where Abundio’s corpse is being blessed by the
priest. Nitoy remembers Abundio's revelation that the New People's
Army has nothing to do with the killings of wealthy men. But rather, it
was Colonel Marasigan's black propaganda against the New People's
Army, blaming them for his murderous crimes.
Analysis
• On the surface level, the story speaks of the injustice behind police
brutality. In the guise of restoring peace, the soldiers execute an
unarmed revolutionary. They set out an example to the public by
killing a nonconformist who poses a threat to their imposed and
oppressive government system. The inhumane killing of Abundio
becomes legitimized, made possible by the consent of the mass, the
proletarians, stuck in the trance of false consciousness.
Marxist theories:
I. Class Struggle (Bourgeoisie versus Proletariat)
II. Superstructure and Base
III. Commodity Fetishism
I. Class Struggle
• Macmillan cited the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels in describing class struggle which said that society has split up
into two great and hostile classes directly facing each other:
bourgeoisie and proletariat (Macmillan, 24)
• The class struggle in the story is caused by the friction between
socioeconomic classes: the bourgeoisie and proletarians. The
inevitable conflict has always been marked by the attempt of the
lower class to obtain power and the effort of the upper class to
retain their social, economic, and political power (26).
Class Struggle (Ruling Class)
• The ever persistent presence of the bourgeoisie in the society is
portrayed by the chief leader of the local Constabulary named
Colonel Marasigan and his wife Dona Milagros. With them are his
cronies which include the Chinese merchants Yu Yek and En Chong,
the high school principal Alejandra Dimaandal, the late rice mill
owner Don Tiburcio, and the politician Mayor Dominador Madrid.
Class Struggle (Bourgeoisie)
• Together, the six characters represent the concentration of power
portrayed in the story. As a member of the bourgeoisie, they either
own or control the means of production.
• En Chong and Don Tiburcio monopolize the people's basic needs –
rice, bread, canned goods, wood, raw products, as they own the
biggest factory and merchandise in town. And Mayor Dominador
Madrid is their managing partner in making the monopoly and other
anomalies possible, as he controls the government offices. They
represent the bourgeoisie class, owning natural human resources
and perpetrating the prevailing system which favors them.
Class Struggle (Bourgeoisie)
• The social icon Dona Milagros glamorizes the class “with her purple
robe fashioned after Jesus Christ's royal robe.” In the Philippine
tradition, being the Hermana Mayor in an occasion brings honor and
social recognition. A Hermana Mayor, usually from the wealthiest
family, hosts the party and feast in town.
• In the story, Dona Milagros promises to shoulder all the responsibility
for managing and financing the celebration of Easter Sunday in the
story. She completes the picture of the Bourgeoisie class, the self-
appointed elite in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro.
Class Struggle (Bourgeoisie)
“When they passed by the ancestral house of the colonel, they
heard his wife Dona Milagros announcing to passersby that she
would throw a party on Easter Sunday after Abundio was buried.
It was only eight o’clock, but the noises of the activities of her
servants already spilled on the street…” (439)

“She was the hermana mayor for the year, and it was understood
that one of her duties was to reflect in her attire the color of the
robe the Lord had worn before he died. “ (430)
Class Struggle (Proletariat)
• There are more proletarians in the story than bourgeoisies, but this is
not used as an advantage to overthrow the ruling class. The
proletarians in the story are the workers and local townsfolk who
blindly follow the system. They are first portrayed as mere followers,
“like acolytes in a procession” in the first scene.

“…even the school children, like acolytes in a procession,

anticipating a circus treat so rare in this seaside village where the
monotony of life during the long dry season was broken only by
an occasional beached dolphin, or the landing on the park of a
helicopter carrying a campaigning senator from Manila.” (435)
Class Struggle (Proletariat)
• The pimp, whore, stevedores, peasants, fishermen, low-ranking
soldiers, policemen, clerks, and teachers who are falsely conscious of
their position in the society are all included here. They are given
consolation prizes and traditional all-expense paid feasts for co-opting
with the upper class against the rebels, the revolting lower class.
• “The back seats were occupied by low-ranking soldiers,
policemen, clerks, schoolteachers, and barangay captains, who
were given bonuses in their paychecks to attend and lend an air
of grandeur to public ceremonies.” (440)
• “The mayor had somewhat recovered from his hangover and
realized the opportunity in the situation. In order to placate the
crowd and be diplomatic, he convinced the panel of judges to
create a second and third prize with the money from his own
pocket.” (444)
Conclusion on Class Struggles
• The bourgeoisie achieves this as they are fully aware and conscious of
their power as a class. The colonel exhibits Abundio's dead body to
the mass, his wife throws a party, and the mayor rewards the killer of
the rebel.
• All three realize they can control how the lower class thinks of the
society. They can make the proletarians think everything is in place
and God-given by using social, political, and religious belief systems to
keep their high social rank.
II. Superstructure and Base
• From the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political
Economy, Macmillan discusses that the sum total of relations of
production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real
foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to
which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. (42)
• “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but,
on the contrary, their social being that determines their
consciousness.” (42)
Superstructure and the base
• As the commander of the armed military men enforcing the law,
Colonel Marasigan signifies the muscle of the ruling class. He instills
horror to those who consider going against the system.

“But deep inside, Nitoy knew that the colonel was exhibiting the
corpse in such a state of disgrace to discourage potential recruits
and dishearten the supporters in the crowd.” (445)
Superstructure
• The same way the upper class, in reality, instilled the socio-political
stigma that all radical rebels, the nonconformists of an oppressive
government, are anarchists and must be killed for the safety of all.
And in the story, the proletarians are left to believe that the army
protecting civilians are righteous heroes of peace.
• The six characters represent the ruling class who must consolidate
their hegemony over the lower class by use of force and ideology.
They use the police, army, Holy Week, town celebration, and prize
money for Abundio's head to keep the proletarians in the lower class
from questioning their authority.
• “The colonel said the rebels would use the money to build an arsenal
of guns, ammunition, and bombs from Moro smugglers in Palawan,
who were getting their supply from terrorists in Libya. In a lecture
given by the colonel at the rookies’ graduation from the academy, he
gave what little information was available on Abundio Espera.” (437)
• “But our nightmares are over. And we are here today to honor, and
give the key to the town, to the hero that helped the Constabulary
capture Abundio.” (441)
Superstructure shaping the base
• Like other proletarians in the story, the colonel made the people
believe that the rebels, the country's outlaws, are ought to be killed
for the murders they are accused of perpetrating. This certain
constructed belief by the upper class legitimized their overkill of
Abundio and the colonel's self-interested murders of his cronies.
• “Nitoy also heard Abundio’s words of parting: that his was a peaceful
group that did not believe in killing, except when it was avoidable.
That yes, it was the colonel, through his henchman Rufo Cabalfin,
who had killed En Chong and Don Tiburcio, because they had once
insulted his manhood at a party. They were the perfect victims in his
smear campaign against the New People’s Army while he avenged his
slighted ego at the same time.” (446)
Superstructure shaping the base
• As the bourgeoisie in the society controls the means of production,
they gain the power to manipulate ideas and information. In fact,
they use an ideology to keep their place in the social pyramid. They
construct this belief system that serves their interest and secures
their power in a repressive system (32). In the story, it is the
celebration of the Holy week and the prize money that keep people
from realizing the stark reality.
Religion as superstructure
• In the seaside village of Pinamalayan, religion is used to distract the
people from the issue of police brutality. Not only does the religion
itself promotes passivity and considers suffering as virtuous, the Holy
Week is the perfect time to forgive and celebrate. The authority
finally 'forgives' and agrees to give Abundio a Catholic burial, a way of
compensating the ghastly exhibition of his dead body to the public.
Religion as superstructure
• “When the priest stayed in his van, the mayor realized the tension
and decided to wrap up the program. He told the audience that he
would consult with the parish priest and the town committee to
decide if Abundio could be given a Catholic burial, in keeping with the
spirit of forgiveness of the Lenten season.” (444)
Religion as superstructure
• Although the story problematizes the Philippine Army's integrity, it
mends the evil notions that priests are always the ones who side with
the oppressors against the oppressed. In the story, the old Padre
Holzgartner is equally helpful to the people in need, be it rebels or
thieves. He too is a victim of the colonel's accusation of funding those
who oppose the system.
Religion as superstructure
• “The colonel had alleged that while the priest was condemning
Abundio’s killings from the pulpit, he was using his confessional box
as a tool to deliver to the rebels money dropped in the collection box
by secret supporters of their cause.” (444)
Religion as superstructure
• Also, the Hermana Mayor's extravagant party on Easter Sunday is a
subtle way to make the proletarians think they are of equal ranks and
not members of an economically oppressed lower class. And the
public gathering on Good Friday, the reward, and the consolation
prizes of Mayor Dominador are little ways of the upper class to make
amends with the proletarians they are exploiting.
Conclusion
• The story reads like reportage, highlighting the socio-political
upheaval caused by the conflict between the government and the
Communist armed group in the Philippines. Mainly, the conflict can
be characterized as man versus society. The external struggle comes
from the system itself, and the victims of oppression like Abundio and
Nitoy are rendered helpless in the story. The freedom fighter and the
young member of the working class cannot overcome the ruling class
who controls the means of production. In few numbers, they have
nothing against the dominant class who manipulates the belief
system and institutions to serve their self-interests.
Works Cited:
• Gemino H. Abad, editor. Hoard of Thunder: Philippine Short Stories in
English, 1990 to 2008. Diliman, Quezon City: University of the
Philippines Press, 2012. Print.
• Slaughter, Cliff. Marxism, Ideology, and Literature. London: Macmillan,
1980. Print.
• Williams, Raymond. Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1977. Print.