Sakdalista

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The Sakdalista (coming from the tagalog word sakdal, meaning Accuse) Philippine party was founded in 1930 by a right wing leader, Benigno Ramos, a writer and discontented former government clerk. The name of the party was based on Emile Zola's J'accuse.

Drawing strength from the Masses, the movement advocated which advocated tax reductions, land reforms, the breakup of the large estates or haciendas, and the severing of American ties.

During the early 1930s the Sakdalista, through writings such as Sakdal,Free Filipino,Filipinos Libres and Malayang Tao, all drwaing inspiration from Gandhi's noncooperation movement in India that urged nonparticipation in government, boycott of elections, and withholding of taxes.

In 1933 the Sakdals organized as a political party. They did surprisingly well in the Philippine election of 1934 and were thus encouraged to attempt an uprising the following year.

On the night of May 2, partially armed mobs seized municipal buildings in 14 towns. The uprising was crushed the next day, with the loss of about 100 lives. Ramos fled to Tokyo and the Sakdalistas were nearly disbanded, and rural conditions remained a source of frustration and dissension and led to numerous other such peasant rebellions. But Benigno ramos drew support to Japan, until he returned during the Japanese Occupied Philippines. Its remnants became the right wing Japanese collaborationist Ganap Party, led by the same leader.