Part 14

Isabelo de los Reyes to belittle the labors of discovery of P. Gil, affirms that Antonio Luna notified Blanco of the existence of the association previous to the discovery of P. Gil. Be that as it may; the secret police had also notified Blanco of what was going on. Three times did the Archbishop of Manila do the same, and so also did the other prelates of Manila and Prior of the Convent of Guadalupe, and Lieut. Sityer [89]. But this does not lessen the value of Padre Gil's discovery, but rather adds to its importance. For whilst Blanco was sufficiently posted on the matter to be able to judge of the necessity of taking immediate proceedings, there was wanting that healthy stimulus which was given by P. Gil. A stubborn carbuncle often needs the aid of the lance: P. Gil's discovery was the lance which brought to the surface the putrid matter which nature could not, of herself, eject. This putrid matter extending itself, would have brought about the mortification of the whole body, had not the surgeon applied his lance in good time. And although the lance of the surgeon brought pain to the patient it saved her for the time, giving back to her a state of relative health.

Note 99. The first executions which took place were those of four rebels captured in flagrante in San Juan del Monte. These were Sancho Valenzuela, Eugenio Silvestre, Modesto Sarmiento and Ramon Peralta. Of these Valenzuela was the only one of any importance. Sarmiento was a cabeza de barangay [90] of Santa Ana where he owned a small nipa house which he rented out, performing at the same time the office of cook and house boy to the tenant. On the way to execution he met his tenant-master and, in a nonchalant manner, greeted him with as pleasant a Buenos dias Senor, as if he were on the way to some joyous function or a grand "meet" at the cock-pit. Before his execution Valenzuela also showed a spirit of coolness and serenity, signing his last will and testament with a firm hand, and smiling. Both showed the spirit of men thoroughly fascinated by some superior power, neither realizing the crime they had committed nor the punishment they were to undergo.

The second execution took place in Cavite, thirteen rebels being shot. These were Francisco Osorio, Maximo Inocencio, Luis Aguado, Victoriano Luciano, Hugo Perez, Jose Lallana, Antonio San Agustin, Agapito Conchu, Feliciano Cabuco, Mariano Gregorio, Eugenio Cabezas and two constables of the public prison of the province. These constables had pressed into their traitorous service a number of the muchachos of the prison. Francisco Osorio was a very wealthy Chinese half-caste. He had been honored by Spain with several honors, among them the Grand Cross of Carlos III. He was very intimate with the authorities in Cavite. His father, a wealthy Chinee, and his cousin, a doctor, both denounced him at the moment of his execution.

"After the reading of the sentence," says an eye-witness, "in front of the square which we formed, he commenced to cry, asking pardon of the General and of all Spaniards; he affirmed that he was a Spaniard and that he would never conspire again against the country in which he had been educated, and he cursed the freemasons who in Madrid had initiated him into the hatred of religion and the fatherland. The doctor his cousin, turning to him, said: Silence Osorio! don't cry so; what will the Spaniards benefit from your repentance; but the miserable fellow paid no attention to him, and asked to be allowed to kiss the Spanish flag before he died. This permission was not granted."

Maximo Inocencio was the proprietor of a large store and was a contractor to the Arsenal. He had been previously arrested for implication in the revolt in Cavite in 1872. At that time he escaped but was afterwards pardoned; the signal rocket was to be fired from his storehouse in Cavite.

Luis Aguado was also a contractor for the Arsenal.

Victoriano Luciano, a chemist, was a wealthy half-caste who had not lived long in Cavite.

Hugo Perez, was an indio. He was the venerable of the masonic lodge. In his house were discovered two large photographs in which the majority of the thirteen persons executed were photographed in the form of a triangle; a book with a triangle and other masonic insignia on its front page, and four important letters of anti-Spanish masonic propaganda.

Lallana was a tailor, and some say a peninsular Spaniard. For a while he was chief of police of Cavite and had been a corporal of Marines.

Antonio San Agustin was an indian, a petty merchant and a man who could scarcely bear the sight of a Spaniard.

Agapito Conchu was a master of a primary school, and a half-caste. He had once been detained in the time of Despujols but granted his liberty. Apart from his school, he gave lessons to some of the children of the Spanish families of the town, including the daughter of the Governor of Cavite.

Cabuco was an escribiente [91] of the administration of State; and Eugenio Cabezas a watch-tinker.

These executions were followed by that of a member of the Guardia Civil, Mariano Magno, in Nueva Ecija. Magno had always been noted for his lack of obedience to his superiors, his hatred of discipline and ill-feeling in general towards Spaniards. Fifteen others were shot in Iligan on the 28th of October of the same year. Many others suffered the like penalty in different parts of the Archipelago.

Note 100. Those sentenced to deportation were, for the most part, sent to Jolo, Puerta Princesa, Balabac and to the penitentiary colonies.

To the first named place were sent 69 persons of all kinds and conditions, trades and occupations. Among them was a Juan Cuadra, a chemist in Ermita. To Puerta Princesa went 53, and to Balabac 56 both lots well assorted. Those most compromised in the insurrection were sent to Fernando Poo, these numbering some 200. Three hundred more were sent to Mindanao. Among the 200 sent to Fernando Poo were merchants, compositors, silversmiths, book-binders, carriage painters, laundrymen, escribientes, a clerk of the Puerta del Sol on the Escolta, hat-makers, tailors, laborers, students, lawyers and among them the irrepressible jack-in-the-box, Thomas William of the Rosary (Tomas G. del Rosario); telephone operators, school-teachers and three members of the secret police; among the rag and tag of the good-for-nothings, and as chief of them, was the famous translator of the scriptures, Pascual H. Poblete [92].

Note 101. Apolinario Mabini was born in the pueblo of Tanauan, province of Batangas, and was the son of parents of the poorer and lower classes. He came to Manila as a lad and received his secondary education in the College of San Juan de Letran at the hands of the Dominican Fathers, taking the degree of professor. Later on he was employed in the Intendencia and by careful saving and by steady application he continued his studies for law and concluded his course at the University of Santo Tomas also at the hands of the Dominicans who spared no efforts on behalf of his success. From the University he received the title of Licentiate of Law in 1895.

He entered the office of the notary Numeriano Adriano to practice law, and whilst there employed, was drawn by Adriano into the net of masonry, joining the lodge Balagtas which was one of those founded from the overflow of the original Filipino lodge Nilad. Adriano was the venerable of the said lodge. When the Liga Filipina was formed and had gotten well into working order Mabini was named a councillor of the superior Council (see page 28). According to the testimony of Moises Salvador (see page 296) Mabini was also secretary of the Association of Compromisarios.

He was arrested as one of the chief instigators of the revolt and after due trial was sentenced to death. The Spanish authorities however, took compassion upon him because of his pitiful condition, he being paralysed in the lower parts of the body [93]; so instead of including his name in the list of those who expiated their treason on the field of Bagumbayan, they foolishly gave him his liberty.

Once more free, Mabini left Manila for his own pueblo of Tanauan where he lived quietly till Aguinaldo was brought over in 1898 by Admiral Dewey to serve as a bush-beater to the American forces. Mabini was thereupon carried from Tanauan to Cavite where he joined the faithless Magdalo.

In Cavite he drew up a project of a constitutional law for the Philippines. In the first page of this he affirmed that the precepts of the Ten Commandments were an invention of the friars! And yet Mabini was the Filipino Solomon. He instructed the people that they ought not to believe in the said decalogue or practice what it commanded, but that they should only practice the precepts of the Verdadero Decalogo which he prepared and gave to the public as their spiritual guide.

Mabini very soon became radical and decidedly anti-American in his ideas, and succeeded in attaining such moral ascendancy over Aguinaldo that the latter ceased to be the leader of the people and the true dictator of the Filipino republic, becoming a toy in the hands of a man who could twist and turn him here and there at his will.

Mabini refused to take the oath of allegiance and was, on the 7th of January 1901 deported under General Order No. 4 to the island of Guam, as one of the persons "whose acts clearly demonstrate them to be favorers or sympathizers with the insurrection."

Note 102. The advanced political ideas held and propagated by the separatists were not bad in themselves; no particular objection can be raised against them as political ideas. But when we consider by whom and for whom these "reforms" were asked, we begin to appreciate the necessity to which the indian was put of endeavoring to attain them by armed struggle. Taking away the revolutionary basis upon which the plans of the Liga were raised, nothing remains but the empty walls of a roofless building. These walls or ideas are contained in the plans of reforms drawn up by almost every jackanapes in the Liga who could write down his thoughts with any amount of clearness. These plans agreed upon certain points, chiefly representation in the Spanish parliament and the expulsion of the Religious Orders. These two points appear to have been the essence of the direct aims of the separatists (see p. 69).

Others called for the Spanish constitution with its consequences: the liberty of the press and the liberty of associations. Liberty of the press was ever an unknown quantity in the Philippines. The idea of the liberty of the press is very beautiful when its liberties are not abused; it was the abuse of what little liberty the press enjoyed, in the latter days of Spanish rule, that induced the authorities to impose such a close censure upon it as they did. Whatever may be said in its favor, press censorship and such sedition laws as we enjoy to-day in this nondescript piece of the world's surface, are more proper of absolute monarchies than of territory of the U. S. of America, although in our particular case we might as well be under the despotic, ever deteriorating rule of Aguinaldo, as that of a body of men whose intentions however good and sincere they may be, fall short, when put into practice, of the proverbial ingenuity in governing, of the famous Sancho Panza in his island of Barataria. Freedom of the press is at times a blessing, and at others a curse. From 1888 to 1896 it would have been more of the latter than of the former; for giving such a liberty to the separatists who asked it, would be arming the enemy with the best arms.

As to liberty of associations. People in the Temperance world often ask themselves, does prohibition prohibit? Some make themselves believe that it does; but practice has shown what common sense tells each and every one of us, that it does not; for if a man (and I do not wish to be so ungallant as to exclude the ladies) cannot get what he wants legally, he as a rule sees that he gets it somehow. And so with the Filipinos who, denied the liberty of association, defied the authorities and held their gatherings in secret and secluded places.

All these various political ideas were decidedly advanced in as much as they had relation to a people in no way prepared to receive them. No father would put a loaded revolver or an open razor into the hands of his child; but those were the very things the separatists were howling for.

APPENDIX A.

A. L. G. D. A. M.

G. R. Log. SUNT.

"The executive Commission sends to the V. Masters D. Deg. O. O. T. and O. G. O. S. of the L. Log. of the Obedience.

L. T. M.

"Venerable Masters and beloved brethren. After our circular of the 28th of May last it would seem unnecessary to remind you, that you give the most exact fulfillment to those points which the same embraces, the which were approved by the Grand Assembly celebrated on the 15th of the same month; but nevertheless, as the time of our cause has assured and all provision is but little in the present moments, it has appeared well to us to direct this other circular to you in order to fix more correctly the points which have to be the object of the most exact fulfillment. We will now pass on to the enumeration of the same.

First: The triangles will perform strictly all and every one of the dispositions dictated by their respective presidents, and venerable honorary brethren, not allowing the least or most insignificant point to slip their observation, for even when it seems to our venerable brethren otherwise, it is of the greatest transcendency.

"The smallest omission in these dispositions might prejudice in a great manner our labors, the fruit of many years of constancy and hope of a sure triumph.

"Second: Once the signal is given every bro. shall fulfill the duty imposed upon him by this Gr. Reg. Log. without considerations of any kind, neither of parentage, friendship or gratitude, etc.

"Third: Those who on account of debility, cowardice or other considerations do not fulfill their duty, already know the tremendous punishment they will incur for disloyalty and disobedience to this G. R. Log.

Fourth: The blow having been struck at the Captain General and the other Spanish Authorities, the loyals shall attack the convents and shall behead their infamous inhabitants, respecting the wealth contained in the said convents; this shall be gathered by the commissions named for that purpose by the G. R. Log. and it shall not be lawful for any of our brethren to possess themselves of what justly belongs to the treasury of the G. N. F. (Grand Filipino Nation)

"Fifth: Those who fail to carry out what is set forth in the foregoing paragraph shall be held as malefactors and subjected to exemplary punishment by this G. R. Log.

"Sixth: On the following day the bro. designated shall bury all the bodies of their hateful oppressors in the field of Bagumbayan together with their wives and children, and on the site shall later on be raised a monument commemorative of the independence of the G. N. F.

"Seventh: The bodies of the members of the Religious Orders shall not be buried, but burned in just payment of the felonies which they committed during life against Filipino nation during the three hundred years of their nefarious domination. (see note 26.)

"And whilst awaiting the day of our redemption this executive commission shall continue giving the sure guide which we all have to follow in the presence of the facts to the end that none of our brethren shall be able to say that they were unwarned.

"In the G. R. Log. in Manila, the 12th of June 1896.--The first of the long desired independence of the Philippines.--The President of the executive Commission, Bolivar. The Gr. Mast. Adj. Giordano Bruno.--The Gr. Sec. Galileo.

APPENDIX B.

Under the title of "My part in the Revolution," Isabelo de los Reyes in an artful attempt to defend himself before those who considered him a coward because of his ever shirking that part of the task of the revolt which naturally fell to him, gives his readers the following information:

"When it was desired to effect the manifestation of 1888, (see p. 60), Ramos took me to the palace of Malacanan, to express to Gen. Terrero verbally the complaints of the "country"; but I do not know why, but on that day the manifestation did not come off...."

"From the palace of Malacanan we went to the house of Doroteo Cortes, who instructed me in the object of the manifestation, thus:

"... We reckon with the pleasure of the Civil Governor Sr. Centeno (see note 2) to make a manifestation against the friars, who oppress us with their abuses, and oppose the progress of the country."

"--Very good indeed I replied full of enthusiasm.

"But my enthusiasm disappeared entirely when Cortes told me with the greatest frankness, that they asked and were sure of attaining their wish, that the Archbishop should be deported, merely for having failed to assist at the religious functions dedicated to the King [94].

"I then doubted the ability [95] of the directors of the manifestation, and believed that they would be irremissibly crushed by the friars, who were very astute and powerful, as in fact it so happened.

"I retired leaving Ramos in that house.

"I immediately went to see his father and said to him: The manifestation has fallen flat. I have come to tell you that in my opinion, your son ought not to sign the instance of the manifestos. Let all those who like do so, but it would be a pity that your son who, in the time to come, may be able to render signal services to the country should now fall crushed by the friars. Now that Cortes says that he reckons with the authorities, your son's signature is not very necessary.

"And neither Cortes nor Ramos signed it."

APPENDIX C.

Confidential.

A L. G. D. G. A. D. U.

Liberty Equality Fraternity.

Universal Freemasonry Spanish Family.

Sends S. F. S. to the Rep. Log. Modestia No. 199.

"Seeing that there have circulated rumors among us that in spite of the masonic secret, in spite of the secrecy of our works, there exist in the hands of our enemies, lists of masons more or less correct, more or less extensive, public opinion has shown itself anxious to know whether we have been vilely sold.... And when the La Politica de Espana en Filipinas has commenced to publish correspondence which ought to have been carefully and sacredly guarded, this anxiety reached its highest point, embracing the desire to discover the author or authors although it would appear that the source of leakage has been found, even though the form and details are unknown.

"The presidency of the Cons. Reg. has not been able to remain indifferent before the scandal which is developing ..; on the contrary it has from the first endeavored to discover the truth.... ..................................................................

"I am sorry to have to confess that the hour of the revelation has not yet sounded.... But incidental discoveries oblige me to break silence giving the voice of alarm; and to what point this determination is justified, you shall judge by the facts I am about to relate.

"1st. Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday Pira, gr. 24, in his anxiety to discredit local masonry, since this refuses to be exploited has permitted himself to make calumnious affirmations to a foreign mason concerning this Federation, manifesting at the same time pretensions which are a sure sign of perverse intentions.

"2nd. It is known that the same Serrano frequents the Archbishop's palace and the College of San Juan de Letran with the peculiarity that in both establishments his symbolic name in known, and he has manifested in the formed establishment that he is a man whose companionship is to be avoided because he occupies himself with giving information.

"3rd. It happened later on that the said Serrano presented himself in the house of Sr. Marte, gr. 3, late secretary of the lodge Nilad, demanding the handing over of documents of the secretaryship which he said belonged to him, threatening that otherwise he would report the matter to General Blanco, and the extraction of the documents would be made by the friar parish priest of the said suburb.

"4th. Lastly: in the meeting of the parochial clergy held in the Archbishop's palace--the morning of the 13th of this month-- ... masonry and masons were discussed; and the Archbishop said to the parish priest of Quiapo: you must tell the school-master of your suburb that it is not sufficient to have abjured his masonic beliefs, but that it is also necessary to fulfill the conditions agreed upon.

"Consequently it will be convenient that you gather together the Cam. del Medio and read therein the present document, adding the explanation and comments you deem necessary, and that with respect to the other CCam. you limit yourselves to giving account of the fact, demonstrating its enormity, pointing out its author and taking what steps are necessary to prevent contagion.

Receive Ven. Mast. and G. bro. the fraternal embrace of peace we send you.

Manila 31st November 1894.

The Gr. Pres.

Musa (Ambrosio Flores).

APPENDIX D.

Anting-antings constitute the remnants of what was once, what might be called the religion of the peoples of the Philippines. They are most commonly met with in the form of amulets which their possessors carry about with them to ward off dangers of all kinds. There are amulets for protection against fire arms, against sword thrust or bolo slash; against diseases of all parts of the body; amulets against the bursting of fire arms or to prevent them making a noise when discharged by the wearer of the amulet; against snakes and their bites, against lightning; amulets to protect their wearers against the courts of justice and against the authorities when they pursue them for robbery. In a word amulets or anting-anting against everything.

As a rules these amulets consist of small booklets containing prayers composed of Latin and Spanish words mixed with words and abbreviations of the native dialects. Some times they are stones or mineral deposits found in the bodies of animals, or the seed portion of petrified fruits, or even parts of the skeletons of children.

Although one would suppose that such superstitions had long since ceased to exist among the indians of the archipelago such is not the case; and it is more than probable that the majority of the members of the federal party and may be two out of the three native members of the Commission carry their anting-anting carefully guarded in one of their pockets. However their use is most common among native doctors, that is those who have not studied medicine, but who dabble in the art for what they can get out of it, and by tulisanes or armed robbers. They were also much in vogue among the enlightened officers and men of the insurgent ranks, many of whom considered themselves perfectly safe from the bullets of their enemies when they carried in their person an amulet or anting-anting.