The Katipunan Part 20

[63] See note 56; also foot-note, page 180.

[64] The witness might have added that Blanco as a mason did more than "know" of it: he took no steps to counter-act it, till circ.u.mstances demanded that harsh measures should be taken to maintain national honor.

[65] In plain English, this is a lie and no one could know it better than the witness.

[66] By an element. Even would-be-president Bryan has his followers here.

[67] In other words: he allowed a certain wealthy and influential cla.s.s of people to lead him around wherever they would, by the nose.

[68] This statement is the result of either ignorance or malice. (See note 97, 98.) This account also materially differs from the "faked up"

story of Legarda. How little some people know of the truth when they do not wish to tell it!

[69] This is another. Now that Tavera and Legarda are side by side in the U. S. Commission they might compare their testimony with advantage: it might aid them to preserve somewhat of the truth in future.

[70] It would be interesting to know just how many of the late insurgents who now hold position of importance under the Government, are following up this piece of advice of Aguinaldo.

[71] Domestic: i. e., made for household use, for cutting up meat, cutting down bamboos, and in fact for every use for which a knife or chopper is needed.

[72] Castillo y Jimenez; El Katipunan o el filibusterismo en Filipinas: pp. 128-129.

[73] That is men of the lower cla.s.ses, laborers.

[74] It is difficult to determine whether such statements are due to ignorance or to malice. The real truth of the situation is that although the friar came to the Philippines to perform sacerdotal duties and preach the Gospel, his beneficial influence was not confined to the mere preaching of the Gospel. "What most honors the whole membership past and present of the Religious Orders is the intense zeal shown in the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of their parishioners. To merely defeat and drive out the bad that was in them was not sufficient, for Satan finds mischief for idle hands, and when one devil is driven out of a man he roams around seeking other devils with whom he returns and re-enters the soul and "the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." So to thoroughly carry out their christianizing and civilizing purpose they did their best to instruct their converts to occupy their time in the fields, in the building of houses, of churches, of structures of all kinds necessary. They taught them to be self-supporting and to build up happy homes around them. The few industries, if the little then done by the natives in the way of manual labor can be cla.s.sed as industry, that existed among the people at that time were copied from the Chinese and Mohammedan traders who visited and traded with them. These industries however were but crude as a rule; and moreover the connection with these anti-christian influences had to be cut for the moral protection of the indian and therefore the friar missionary, ever on the alert for his children's welfare, instructed them in industries which, whilst occupying their time formerly spent in abject laziness, also gave them the advantage of money making.

"As soon as the natives had become accustomed to living after the manner of civilized beings, the friars taught them the art of making lime, mortar and bricks and of utilizing these materials in buildings and fortifications for the common protection against their enemies. They instructed them in the method of tilling the virgin and fertile soil, of utilizing the many streams of water that nature had provided."

And yet there are those who would make us believe that the friar missionary has done nothing to civilize the Filipinos. To whom then do they owe the civilization they enjoy?

[75] Faith in their anting-anting; courage to maltreat and murder the helpless and sometimes dying prisoners that fell into their hands; and as to constancy...? The majority of the leaders eventually became traitors to the most cherished ideas of independence. Three figures alone stand out as really constant throughout the whole rebellion, and these three are Aguinaldo, Mabini, and Pio del Pilar; and of these three the most constant was Aguinaldo, a misguided man who deserves far more honor than those who deserted him and who never thought of raising a finger to alleviate his hard lot, a lot for which they are morally responsible.

[76] A kind of altar on which bonfires are lighted for illumination.

[77] The name of this plant signifies that it possesses the power to bring to life again--to resuscitate.

[78] This granting of pardon to those who should present themselves is contained in Art. 7. of the proclamation of the Governor General Blanco, issued on the 30th of August 1896, and which reads as follows:

"Art. 7. The rebels who present themselves to the authorities within 48 hours after the publication of this proclamation, shall be exempt from punishment for rebellion, with the exception of the chiefs of the seditious groups and those who relapse into those crimes. The chiefs to whom reference is made shall be pardoned of the punishment due them if they surrender within the fixed time suffering a punishment immediately inferior according to grade."

[79] Previous to 1896 Aguinaldo was an almost unknown indio. He was at that time about 23 or 24 years of age, and like the far greater majority of the indios of the archipelago had forgotten what little he had learned at school. He was a lavandero ((Washerman.)) for the a.r.s.enal at Cavite, and possessed little command over the Spanish language, speaking it after the Cavite style, de cocina as the Spaniards say. He was the son of Carlos Aguinaldo who had several times held office under the Spanish Government, and who was at heart a bitter anti-Spaniard. Like the remainder of his fellow Tagalogs, Aguinaldo demonstrates a different character in connection with each event which takes place in his life. As capitan munic.i.p.al in 1896 he was very Spanish in dealing with the authorities, but in dealing with his own people quite the reverse. Like the Taveras, the Legardas and the Buencaminos etc., he was an adept at political lightning changes. Buencamino in one of his absurd articles to the Filipino press (La Independencia, Sept. 6th 1896) speaking of him says: "... all the Filipinos unconditionally obey the president Aguinaldo seeing in him the messenger of G.o.d sent to redeem the Filipino people from all foreign domination, and because they see in the said chief the great virtues of fort.i.tude, honor and magnanimity which ought to adorn all saviors of their country."

The belief among some Filipinos that Aguinaldo was a semi-G.o.d was not uncommon at one time, and many hold to it even in these days. A certain Bray (apparently related very closely to the bray of an a.s.s) went a step further in an article to the French Revue de Revues and compared Aguinaldo to Christ, to Alexander the Great, to Mahomet, to Caesar, to Napoleon and others!

Aguinaldo certainly demonstrated fort.i.tude, and did not sell his sword to those he considered his enemies. His misfortune was that he fell into the hands of such advisers as Buencamino and others, who, after working up his stupid pride, deserted him in his hour of need. Aguinaldo showed fort.i.tude and was never a traitor to what he considered the honor of his country. Honor to Aguinaldo in this respect.

[80] As to the goodness of customs read the testimony of the most reliable chroniclers and historians of the earliest days of Spanish history.

[81] The pacto de sangre was performed thus: a wound was made in the body of each person who was to form a party to the treaty about to be made, and the blood that flowed from the wounds thus made was mixed in a receptacle prepared for the occasion; each then drank a portion of the blood thus mixed. It is needless to say that Legaspi refused to perform such a savage, cannibalistic ceremony.

[82] Worthy perhaps but certainly not legitimate. The Katipunan was illegitimate from all points of view; nor was it a child really of Bonifacio. The conception was of Pilar (Marcelo H.) and Bonifacio was but the foster father encharged with the bringing up of the child.

[83] A people's language is the expression of its sentiments. There are in this archipelago, native languages in which no word exists to express "thank you."

[84] F. Buenaventura Campa was one of the two Dominican Fathers who willingly devoted themselves to the care of the sufferers stricken with the cholera plague which has carried off so many people both in Manila and the provinces. He, together with his companion, P. Candido, bore with remarkable patience and self-abnegation the troubles and trials consequent upon the extraordinary plans adopted by an inexperienced Sanitary Department for the treatment of the dread enemy.

[85] Half mad.

[86] Juan Utor y Fernandez (bro. Espartero) confessed that Blanco was a freemason; he affirmed also that his masonic name was bro. Barcelona. Lacasa, Lieut. Auditor of war, and one of the heads of freemasonry in the Philippines declared that among the freemasons of the archipelago was counted Sr. D. Ramon Blanco, Capt Gen. of the Army and Gov. Gen. of the Islands.

[87] The following interesting notes will give some idea of what the Blanco administration was like.

In the report of the secret police for the 3rd of June 1896, appears the following:--

"Notice is hereby given of the confidential information given by a freemason in respect to the reason why the masonic lodges are at rest, and the att.i.tude of Generals Blanco and Echaluce in regard to the same.

"This freemason, Juan Merchan, says: "we are now sleeping; we cannot work; we are tutored by the experience of the persecution directed against us by General Echaluce. Until General Blanco returns from Mindanao we can do nothing, for he at least does not disturb us, and even helps us. The proof of this is that during the previous voyage to Mindanao (of Blanco) Gen. Echaluce commenced to deport people; but when Blanco got to know of it, he wrote to him ordering him not to deport anyone without his consent, and not to do anything in the matter till his return from Mindanao."

[88] El Katipunan, etc.; p. 89.

[89] Blanco, whether because he was bound by compromise, or because of fear, heeded not the warnings of the approaching danger. As a soldier face to face with an enemy Blanco was not lacking in courage; but when the enemy was invisible, and more tact than courage was needed in the combat, Blanco was like a little child in the dark, frightened at the least sound--chicken hearted. It is certainly a remarkable thing that bro. Barcelona had the courage to pa.s.s through the ordeals of his initiation into freemasonry.

[90] The head of a pueblo. The most ancient form of rule in the Archipelago.

[91] See page 63.

[92] Pascual H. Poblete: a pobre diablo who speaks Spanish like a chino and writes it far worse. Poblete is greatly devoted to c.o.c.k-fighting; but being as reckless in the enjoyment of this sport as he is in everything else he undertakes, he finds his pocket always more or less empty. To fill this pocket he is ever hunting up schemes to make money in the easiest way possible. The subscription lists he has started for various pious or patriotic objects are well nigh innumerable.

The Heraldo de Madrid, of the 19th of November 1896, says of this charlatan:

"Well paired with Tomas del Rosario, the indio who, by literary fraud gained from Senor Nunez de Arce a good position in the Philippines, is Pascual H. Poblete also an indio ((If I am not in error, Poblete is a Chinee halfcaste.)) and a person of history too.

"His first steps in work in the newspapers of his country were as translator of the Spanish text of a bilingual review into Tagalog.

"He propagated political themes widely, but above all, those articles of the Civil and Penal code favorable to his countrymen; to these articles he added comments.... Under the pretext of competing with the Chinese he founded a cooperative a.s.sociation which was the subject of much talk. It was really nothing else than an a.s.sociation distinctly political and eminently anti-Spanish. He however succeeded in dissimulating, and when he created the newspaper El Resumen, placed a peninsular Spaniard, a native of Aragon, at its head. He then did all he could to gain the confidence of Despujols, whom he visited every once in a while.

"As Despujols step by step lost favor with the European element, Poblete praised him more and more and this was, in itself, a good sign of the direction in which was going this Poblete, a man lacking talent, lacking wit, and enjoying nothing but an insane intention. During the last years he made continuous anti-Spanish propaganda, and was a bitter enemy of the Spaniards, excepting some few degenerates who yet believed in the good faith of this pobre diablo."

In later days he changed his religion--that is if he ever had one to change, and devoted himself to sponging upon the Bible Societies and the protestant and Mormon missionaries who came to the Philippines. On one occasion he translated from Spanish into Tagalog the Holy Scriptures, and seeing that never in his life had he been a successful translator even of newspaper paragraphs, but could only succeed in giving little more than a very general idea of what was contained in the Spanish text, it was not to be wondered at that, as a famous literary critic well versed in the Tagalog once said: "Poblete's Tagalog bible reads more like a badly written chronicle than a version of the sacred Scriptures. If I thought that our Lord and his Apostles preached and taught what Poblete puts into their mouths, I would go to China and become a disciple of Confucius."

In the latter days of Spanish rule Poblete was always more or less under the eyes of the authorities, and on the 17th of April 1896 the Secret Police asked of General Blanco the necessary permission to search the houses of several highly suspicious people, among them that of Pascual H. Poblete.

Our hero figured at one time as an expert in the raising of subscriptions for monuments and if I am not very much mistaken, he once had a hand in the raising of money for the coming monument to Rizal the hero and martyr of the Filipino Libre party. It would be very interesting to know what became of all the funds that pa.s.sed through his hands: the majority apparently went to back his favorite birds at the c.o.c.k-pits.

Since the American occupation Poblete's chief enterprise, apart from c.o.c.k-fighting and "sponging upon the ignorantes who listened to his ravings with more or less favor because he was a protestant, was the editing and publishing of a dirty little "sheet" known as the Ang Kapatid nang Bayan." In this so called newspaper Poblete aired his radical political ideas with such vigor that the Provost Marshal was compelled to call him down. The pobre diablo then turned his attention to another pastime which would combine the advantages of demonstrating his unsurpa.s.sable abilities, of airing his opinions and, last mentioned but of the greatest importance, the quality of putting into his pocket a goodly number of easily earned dollars. This pastime took the shape of a theatrical enterprise: Constancia, the daughter of the said mountebank "composed and wrote" a play ent.i.tled Ang Pag Ibig Sa Lupang Tinubinan: For the Love of Country. Poblete's better half (which is not saying much) played the part of the heroine. The whole play was incendiary in the extreme and the audience being Tagalogs of the lowest and most ignorant cla.s.s, the result was that they were thrown into a state of the greatest frenzy. Poblete put this play on the boards of the Teatro Oriental. All went well in the first acts; and following out the "plot" of the play, the town of Imus was supposed to have been taken by the rebels. Dramatic shouts of Viva La Independencia; were raised from time to time by the actors, followed by shouts from the audience of Viva Filipinas! Viva Aguinaldo! Suddenly there rushed from the "wings" a gaudy looking creature who ought to have been the Tondo market selling c.o.c.kles and crabs; this turned out to be the heroine. In one hand she held a revolutionary flag and in the other a bolo. Viva La Independencia was the shout which almost raised the roof; but as fate would have it Poblete was doomed to be humbled to the dust. Just as he was promising himself a fine string of dollars from his new enterprise Capt. Lara and a number of police appeared on the scene, and Poblete, his katipunan banners and bolos etc., were seized and the house cleared of its fanatical occupants.

To-day he amuses himself in fitting out bands of little boys who on "state" occasions parade the streets with American flags and j.a.panese lanterns, and placards with various inscriptions, the chief ones being pet.i.tions for an amnesty on behalf of all those who have "done what they ought not to have done". Poblete would open the doors of the prisons of the Archipelago and let loose all their occupants. The result? A political boom for Poblete, an increase in the membership of the Partido Nacionalista and an increase of crime to a thousand fold, not only in Manila but throughout the whole archipelago.

Poor Poblete a pobre infeliz, a stain upon the good name of the filipino. But then, what would Filipinas be without her Poblete; almost like a cat without fleas.