The Katipunan Part 14

Tondo: Council Katagalugan with the sections Katutuhanan, Kabuhayan, Pagtibayan, Kalingaan and Bagong-sinag under the presidency of Alejandro Santiago, Braulio Rivera, Hilarion Cruz, Cipriano Pacheco, Nicolas Rivera and Deogracias Fajardo.

Conception and Dilao (Paco): the Council Mahaganti presided over by Rafael Gutierrez; and the sections Panday and Ilog, with a delegation in Ermita.

In Cavite was the popular Council Kawit the president of which was Emilio Aguinaldo [79] the capitan munic.i.p.al of the pueblo of Cavite Viejo and later on the dictator of the Filipino Commune. This Council comprehended Imus, Noveleta, Silang, Naic, Maragondon and other pueblos. Imus was presided over by Juan Castaneda, Noveleta by Alejandro Crisostomo.

In Bacoor was a Popular Council presided over by Genaro Valdes with three sections Dimagpatantan (not to leave in peace), Ditutugutan (not to rest till the end is reached), and Pananginginigan (formidable).

Note 93. The Kalayaan was intended to be a monthly review. Its first number consisted of thirty-two pages in quarto. The price of each number was 50c (Mexican). It was a most rabid anti-Spanish publication and advocated separatism openly, and yet in spite of the press censorship it circulated freely in the Archipelago.

As the common belief was that this paper was published in j.a.pan, as would appear from the paper itself, General Blanco decided to send a special delegate to j.a.pan to investigate the matter of its impression, its publishers, authors, etc., that steps might be taken to put a stop to its impression or at least that a check be put on its entry and circulation into the Philippines. Don Alfredo Villeta was chosen; but on account of some hitch in the arrangements, he never started on his errand. Some say that the paper did not reach its second number, but it is certain that it did not reach its third.

The heading was as under:

KALAYAAN Issued at the end of each month.

1st year. Yokohama. January 1896. No. 1.

Price of subscription, Articles must be signed If purchased will cost 3 months 1 peso; by their authors. 2 reales per number.

in advance.

The headings of the princ.i.p.al articles were as follows:

To the Compatriots.

Manifesto; by Dimas-Alang (Jose Rizal.)

What the indian ought to know and understand; by Agapito Bagumbayan.

This latter article is a mirror in which the purpose of the paper is reflected; it reads remarkably like a composition of Pedro Paterno, the visionary who claims for the peoples of the Archipelago a glorious pre-Spanish history and civilization. The following citations from the article will give some idea of the whole publication.

"In these islands, which were previously cared for by our true neighbors of Malaysia at a time when the Spaniards had not as yet set foot upon the land, there existed a complete abundance and a state of welfare. Our friends the neighboring kingdoms, and especially j.a.pan, brought commerce to our sh.o.r.es which formed the most abundant market, and there was found everything necessary, wherefore it was the richest country and its customs were all very good [80]. Everyone, youths and advanced in years and even the women, could read and write according to our manner of script."

The article goes on to say that upon the arrival of the Spaniards the natives only made friends with them after that Legazpi had performed the ceremonies of the pacto-de-Sangre [81] with one of the indio petty sovereigns.

"The Spaniards," says the writer, "have perverted us with their bad customs and have destroyed and obliged us to forget the n.o.ble and beautiful customs of our country."

n.o.ble and beautiful customs: Compulsory defloration of young girls, as a result of the belief that a girl who died a virgin could not enter heaven! Could anything be more n.o.ble and beautiful?

Kalayaan purported to be and was always considered as the soul of the defunct Solidaridad (see note 24). It was printed in the Tagalog dialect and died, as it was born and had lived--in shame.

Note 94. Pio Valenzuela testified (fols. 582-591) that on the 22nd of August he was informed by Josefa Dizon that her son Jose together with Bonifacio had fled from Manila. Valenzuela thereupon fled also, following them, and reaching Caloocan about 8 p. m. There he found Bonifacio with some twenty others. Andres informed them that they must not separate as it was now time to commence the armed rebellion, the plot of the Katipunan having been discovered. From Caloocan they went to Balintauac arriving about 11 p. m. Here they met a certain Laong with a group of men. They remained in the pueblo Sunday, Monday and Tuesday preparing for the onslaught they were to make upon the Spaniards, which was fixed for the 29th of the same month, the plans being that they should advance in groups upon Manila, killing the Spaniards and also the indians and Chinese who refused to follow them, "dedicating themselves to the sacking of the city, robbery and incendiarism and to the violation of women." Many Chinese were murdered and their stores robbed.

Whilst in the fields of Balintauac distribution was made of bolos and ten revolvers, the latter stolen from the Maestranza of Manila. On Tuesday evening preparations were made to meet the attack of the Spanish troops which had been sent out in persecution of the rebels, and the first conflict took place. Valenzuela also stated that the greater part of the people who formed the rebel forces were drawn, catechised and initiated all in a moment by the fanatic Laong, who was practically the active chief of the revolt, and who directed in person the attack upon the Chinese stores.

About 5 pm. on the 29th five hundred men under a "leader of Pasig"

appeared on the scene at the waterworks. They at once took possession of the building and of the persons of the workmen. Their first intention was to stop the machinery so that no one need be left in charge thereof when orders should be received for a start for Manila. The engineer however, reminded the chief that if such a thing was done their brethren in Manila would die of thirst. This excuse carried the day and the chief decided to leave some workmen there under the condition that the engineer and others who wore moustaches should shave, and that all should dress like indians, and that the engineer's wife should dress like a native woman and prepare food for his men. The party finally set out on their way. They tried to avoid an encounter with the troops composed of artillery and infantry, 65 men in all, stationed at the powder works. In avoiding this handful of defenders they fell afoul of other troops which gave them a good sharp reception.

As to those who, repenting, desired to return to a legal status, it is difficult to form an opinion, on account of the contrary evidence adduced in connection therewith. Isabelo de los Reyes already cited, in a futile attempt to justify the acts of the Katipuneros, claims that some of the chiefs opposed the plan of the armed resistance as contained in the propositions of Bonifacio, claiming that it would be a great and useless sacrifice, to say nothing of the imprudence of such an act, to launch forth against an armed force without possessing better arms than a few bolos and lances. He claims that Bonifacio listened to the advice and was on the point of acting upon it, but was compelled to take the step he did in declaring the revolt, by the att.i.tude of his 500 followers. The authority for this statement was Pedro Nicodemus, who was the commander of the said group, a man who was as ignorant as he was blood-thirsty.

Further on Isabelo states that "in the famous reunion of Balintauac, in the solemn moment of the breaking forth of the revolt (August, 26th 1896) Andres Bonifacio as president of the Supreme Council of the Katipunan, explained that the plot had been discovered, and that in order to save those who were compromised and who had not up to that time been arrested, it was necessary to launch forth to the fight, although the arms with which they should fight had not yet arrived from j.a.pan."

Granted however the character of Bonifacio, his aims and the methods he adopted to carry out his ideas, such an excuse as that of Reyes argue but little in pro of the good judgement or better said the good faith of its author. Bonifacio was anxious for the first blow of the revolt to be struck that he might not lose the confidence of those who had intrusted him with the undertaking and who had been fooled into the idea that the Katipunan forces were so powerful that nothing could resist their onward course once they had been started on their way. And to suppose that Bonifacio was to be so easily influenced by a few petty chiefs is to show a complete ignorance of the character of the hero of the Katipunan. If the opposition of the said petty chiefs really occurred it was probably inspired more by fear of the consequences than by the true spirit of repentance, for if the cruelties and abuses said to have been committed by the Spaniards were the cause of the revolt, what need was there of such a repentance?

The prestige enjoyed by Bonifacio among the katipuneros was natural enough, in as much as he was the father of the Katipunan, the illegitimate offspring of filipino freemasonry, itself a legitimate child of the Spanish family of universal freemasonry.

"The Katipunan," says the author of an exposition to Congress, dated 1900 and published at the printing office of the El Liberal, "the worthy and legitimate [82] child of Andres Bonifacio, was founded in his own house in calle Sagunto (Tondo) between six and seven in the evening of the 7th of July 1892. Andres Bonifacio gathered together his best friends, Teodoro Plata, Valentin Diaz, Ladislao Dina, Deodato Arellano, and Ildefonso Laurel, to whom he proposed the necessity of the creation of that Superior a.s.sociation of the Sons of the People, whose only aim should be that of the independence of the people under a Spanish protectorate or in default of that, of j.a.pan. Those a.s.sembled took to the idea with great enthusiasm and at once commenced the propaganda of the same.

Note 95. One thing which clearly demonstrates the state of fanaticism and moral degradation to which the Katipunan fell, was the savage manner in which they treated the Religious prisoners who fell into their hands. Disrespect for all authority and especially that of the clergy, was one of the chief fruits of the work of propaganda carried on by Rizal and other of the separatist element, aided and abetted by the Bible societies who gave moral as well as practical a.s.sistance to their labors.

As fanaticism increased, this want of respect became more intense and eventually led to a thirst for the blood of those whose greatest crime was the excessive favor they had extended to the indian, to whom such a thing as grat.i.tude was unknown [83].

As we have seen, the intention of the Katipuneros was the annihilation of the Spaniards, irrespective of cla.s.s or condition. The parish priest being the strongest support of the administration was the target for the bitterest treatment at the hands of the rebels.

Among the number of those parish priests murdered by the Tagalog rebels were P. Toribio Moreno; Recolet, parish priest of Silang; P. Toribio Mateo, Recolet and parish priest of Perez Dasmarinas; and the lay brothers: fray Luis Garbayo and Julian Umbon, these latter were murdered in San Francisco de Malabon. Upon the Estate of Imus, then property of the Recolet Corporation, now in the possession of a large London Syndicate, were most brutally murdered the following Recolets:

P. Jose Ma. Learte, ex-Provincial and parish priest of Imus, P. Simeon Marin, ex-Definitor and parish priest of Maragondon, P. Agipito Echegoyen, parish priest of Amadeo, P. Faustino Lizasoain, parish priest of Bailen, and the lay-brothers:

Roman Caballero, Jorge Zueco del Rosario, Damaso Goni, Bernardo Angos, Victoriano Lopez.

It is affirmed by eye-witnesses that these victims to Tagalog fanaticism were saturated with petroleum and burned alive.

Fear was entertained for the safety of of several Dominican Fathers who held parishes near by, and therefore P. Buenaventura Campa, P. Francisco Cabenas and fray Natalio Esparza immediately set out in search for them. Regardless of the great risk they ran in falling into the hands of the bloodthirsty Katipuneros, these three heroic Dominicans casting aside all thought for self and all care for their own welfare [84] set out for Naic in the steam launch Mariposa. Difficulties were encountered from the start. The native captain and engineer conspired to prevent the carrying out of the attempted rescue. P. Buenaventura calling up the refractory captain told him that he and his companions were firm in their purpose and that progress must be made. The captain pleaded inability for want of coal. Then hoist the sails, said P. Campa. There are none replied the captain. Then take my habit and those of my companions and make sails of them, thundered the Padre. The captain gave in and the journey was continued. Naic was reached; they failed to find their companions but were in time to save the unfortunate wife and children of Lieut. Perez Herrero; they discovered them barefooted and wellnigh mad with terror, dressed in native clothes and hidden in a nipa shack. P. Galo Minguez, parish priest of Naic, Padres Nicolas Pena and Jose Digne and the laybrothers Saturnino Garcia and Jose Pedida had succeeded in escaping from the clutches of the rebellious Tagalogs, having fled to Labay from whence they made their way to Corregidor, meeting there those who had come to seek them in the Mariposa.

The Augustinian Father P. Piernavieja was another victim to fanaticism. This Father has been termed medio loco [85] and in all truth he was so if the possession of a presence of mind such as that shown by P. Piernavieja is to be termed craziness. True it is that he was at times gifted with a strange turn of mind. He had, during the many years he administered the parish, established therein a christian communism. When the revolt broke out he was held as a prisoner and obliged to invest himself with the authority of an Archbishop. Had the revolt prospered and P. Piernavieja lived, undoubtedly he would have been made Archbishop of Manila by the Tagalog discontents. P. Piernavieja was shrewd enough to take well to his new office. He was once called upon to anoint the chiefs and rulers, as the kings and emperors of olden time were anointed by the Church. Padre Piernavieja told them that olive oil was not suitable for such a purpose and therefore proceeded to anoint them with cocoanut oil such as is used by the natives for their lamps! Under pretext of his office of Bishop this strange old man claimed liberty to make his pastoral visits and when he succeeded in securing this liberty which was readily granted to him, he overran all that part of the province in the hands of the insurgents, secretly collecting all kinds of information, which he immediately sent his superiors in Manila. This information reached the military authorities and would have become of utility to them for the carrying out of the campaign had it been prosecuted as a military campaign should have been. But the Padre's messenger was eventually captured with messages in his possession. When questioned as to the source of the information, and where he was taking it, he told all, and as a result Padre Piernavieja was condemned to death as a traitor to a cause to which he had never held allegiance. As a punishment he was tied to a tree exposed to the burning rays of the tropical sun, and thus left to the mercy of the voracious birds and insects, dying of hunger, thirst and of terror in the midst of inconceivable torments.

Padre David Veras, Dominican, was another of the many victims of the Katipuneros. He was the parish priest of the pueblo of Hermosa in the province of Bataan. When the insurgents attacked the pueblo they captured P. David, and after cutting off both his hands, dragged him to the most distant of the ten barrios of that pueblo, and there hacked him to death with bolos and hatchets mutilating his body in a horrible manner, and throwing the corpse on to a dung heap.

In the early dawn of the 25th of December 1896, in Morong province of Bataan, Padre Domingo Cabrejas, Recolet, was murdered at the altar while offering up the holy sacrifice of the Ma.s.s, his blood staining the sacred linen and the steps of the altar. The katipunero murderers hurriedly hid the body in the church and fled.

Padre Jose Sanjuan, also Recolet and parish priest of Bagac was another victim. To name all those who suffered barbarous treatment at the merciful hands of the insurgents would be a well-nigh impossible task. Recalling the acts of those fanaticised sectarians, one might almost recall the barbarities and brutalities of the diabolical Nero. Certainly the ancient Chinese and j.a.panese were scarcely more excessive in their treatment of the unfortunate missionaries they tortured in their attempt to stamp out the christian faith; and even the Chinese boxers of our days could have taken lessons from the disciples of Filipino freemasonry. Many, many are the unfortunate missionaries whose blood cries to heaven for vengeance and this vengeance of the G.o.d of Justice will one day fall upon this people. Even in our own days we cannot shut our eyes to the fact of the existence of the well marked track of the hand of Divine Justice as it pa.s.ses here and there throughout the land, calling now upon this one, now upon that, to pay his debt even to the last farthing. The track of the finger of G.o.d has been remarkably distinct in this archipelago and many are the cases in which that finger moving slowly and silently along has pointed out the unfruitful tree which the scythe of death shall cut down.

"For I the Lord thy G.o.d am a jealous G.o.d; visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children until the third and fourth generation."

Note 96. Some there are who see in every event which takes place, the protecting or avenging hand of Providence. Others there are who laugh to scorn the idea that Providence should concern itself in such matters.

The hand of Providence surely has manifested itself of late in this archipelago, here protecting the one from a cruel torture, there permitting the sacrifice of a martyr to the faith or a martyr to duty and honor, and the integrity of the Spanish nation. Here giving one over to a just punishment, there pointing out another as an object for Divine vengeance.

Is proof needed perhaps that the finger of the avenging hand of Divine justice has left its well-marked path in the Philippines? Then we have a notable case before us. A few months ago, a steamer, the Rio de Janeiro, left the Orient bound for the port of San Francisco, Cal. Within sight of the city, almost within sight of the crowds who stood upon the wharf in expectation of the ship's arrival, the good vessel, by the will of G.o.d who rules over all things, went to the bottom, carrying with her, among other pa.s.sengers, a man who was morally and physically responsible for the greater part of the barbarities practiced upon the long suffering Spanish prisoners, Religious, Civil and Military, at the hands of the Tagalog revolutionists. With that man disappeared from the land of the living his whole family, together with state and private papers of unknown value. How often before in the past history of the world has the G.o.d of Justice obliterated whole families and even whole nations!

And who shall say that the hand of Divine Justice has not protected as well as avenged. For many months the katipuneros had woven a fine-meshed net around the Spanish population of the Philippines, a labor the more easily accomplished in the same degree as the scandalous carelessness of the Blanco administration became more and more marked. Blanco himself was a freemason [86] and was always, like our present civil administration, surrounded by friends of his own choice, people who at no time suffered from an excess of patriotism; and the few honorable exceptions which did exist were, unfortunately, persons whose good moral influence was powerless to better a situation which day by day became worse [87].