Philippines—Ang Manananggal [Philippine-American War, 1898-1902]
They called him over to see it and Philippines almost wished they hadn't. The Yankees usually just shot at people but this woman, they had decapitated her and put her head on a pike, at the center of the village, or what used to be a village. What had she done to deserve this special treatment? Did she resist being raped? Tried to protect her family? Philippines guessed she killed an American or two, and America ordered this to serve as a lesson to everyone who encountered her of what happened when you resist Freedom.
And he thought Spain was bad! When America offered his help against him, after he declared himself independent and Spain went mad and tried to keep him in the family by force, he thought he was really a savior. Idiot! Now, with open wounds which had him aching all day long, he wondered how someone could be so stupid. Sure no one does anything for free, and less the United States of Fucking America. Did he learn nothing from everyone who had made deals with him before? Was he blind? Or did he think it would be different this time?
He wished they hadn't shown him that severed head. He dreamt of it at night. A floating head, with the organs still attached, wailing towards him, preying on his guts and blood. That vision terrified him even after waking up bathed in sweat and panting, and was unable to go back to sleep.
And it kept haunting him while he was awake. He couldn't muffle her screams covering his ears, because sure there were many others like her somewhere. He could feel it. The blood escaping from his body was theirs. It was so cheap for America...To him, neither him nor his people were better than mangy dogs...
Well...They were no dogs!
What he said to Spain, he said to him: he was no one's possession, and wouldn't tolerate being disposed of or broken as such!
America, who acted like he was the world's savior, who was concerned about all races and all the oppressed, had no trouble shooting at children and burning villages to earn respect.
Fine.
When he got his hands on an American in the following days, he remembered the floating head, her mouth open to scream, her thirst for blood, and gave instructions to cut off their testicles and shove them into their mouths, bury them up to the neck in ant hills so the bugs ate them, or deep underground, while they were still breathing and aware. Whatever. He gave his troops complete creative freedom.
Because...Everything was valid to earn respect, right? America was the one who changed the rules at his convenience. So Philippines didn't bat an eye, didn't feel remorse, or the slightest emotion when it was the Yankees who left this world in a cruel way.