The Birth of Heroes and the Rise of Filipino Nationalism By Richard Rivera The middle 18th century in the Philippines was a period of perpetual destabilization. The islands are slowly being reconfigured—both physically and in socio-economic terms. On the surface, geophysical forces are making physical transformations, complimenting the deeper and more serious reconstruction happening within the colonial society. A new socio-economic class composed of Chinese mestizos and Indio professionals is emerging, and starting to dominate both the economic and political landscape.
Creoles, pure-blooded Spaniards assigned to administer these groups of islands in the Far East, are slowly being eased out. Socio-economic relations are starting to assume a different form. Traders are slowly weakening the hold of the Spanish military and religious aristocracy over the colony. Those who traditionally dominated the affairs of the state are now being challenged by a new aristocracy, whose claims to possessions and ownership are based on land and capital, not solely on blood neither on royal patronage.
Intense trade has precipitated the creation of newer forms of production and this has substantially changed the relations between the dominant and the conquered classes. As the colonial society grapples with the entry of capitalism, and the traditional ways are gradually being transplanted by newer things, the old order tries to impose itself upon the emerging classes. Resistance was fierce, with the old order using superior arms and the cross. Unbeknownst, the newer form of production comes with it, new thinking and new ways of doing things.
The synthesis of the old feudalist order with that of nascent capitalism comes with it the more dominant thinking of trade regardless of race or religious beliefs. Racial and religious lines are becoming blurred, as fresh, often, liberal ideas are permeating the vulnerable social membrane. The conquered peoples are deliberately regaining their freedom without need of arms. Social mobility, for the first time, now depends not on blood but on industry. With this comes a newer challenge to power. As the conquered classes awake from its stupor, now consciously aware of the economic opportunities capitalism has given them, clashes are inevitable.
As resistance becomes futile yet necessary, a showdown between the old and emergent forces is becoming more likely. This is a period where the old order is gradually being defeated, unknowingly, that is. A thick black smoke rises in Manila, capital of the Spanish regime in Asia. The smoke can be seen almost a mile away. For someone unfamiliar with how things are, these columns of smoke may mean war or another pirate attack against the city. The putrid smell of the fumes belies a far deeper reason for this conflagration. The year was November 30, 1645, feast day of Saint Andrews, patron saint of the Manilenos.
A year ago, Manilenos were feasting on roast pig and lighting their incenses, made by Indian hands. For religious Manilenos, the feast day is the most important in the liturgical calendar because it ushers the feasts of Saints. Today, Manilenos are neither rejoicing nor worshipping but, weeping. Manila, the pride of the Far East, the Venice of Asia, has just been hit by a powerful earthquake. The entire city was a disaster zone, as if hit by an atomic bomb or ravaged by hordes of warriors. Everywhere you look, devastation, even, desolation.
Piles of crushed adobe blocks were are all that were left of those fabled European-styled palatial stone house of Manila’s elites. The quake, a 7. 5 magnitude in the Richter scale, reduced everything to rubble. Those left standing looked like twisted Rubick’s cubes, with huge cracks in their walls. The proud structures of Spanish colonial power—Malacanang palace and Manila Cathedral—were both pulverized. Curiously, only those made of nipa straws and bamboos withstood the tremendous power of Nature. Six hundred to 3,000 people are killed and many left homeless. For those who survived, it was the blackest day to hit Manila in centuries.
Was this a sign from above, a portent of things to come? Years before, hordes of conquered natives assisted by marauding Chinese and Indian migrants, stormed the capital and left it for dead. They killed every Spaniard in sight, only to be repulsed by Tagalog mercenaries. Or is Ladia the Bornean, and a descendant of Lakandula, and who led a revolt two years before, just suddenly rose from the grave and tried to again raise the people to revolt? Or, this was punishment from God against Manilenos for not supporting their compatriots in Zambales and Pampanga who are now rising against the Spanish?
For whatever it is, the quake was a reminder of how deadly Nature’s wrath is. For many Filipinos and Chinese living in Manila at that time, this was not just a quake. This was the Fates telling the Filipinos to rise up against their oppressors. This is Bernardo Carpio speaking from the caves of Montalban, trying to wrestle his chains and trying desperately to break free. Two hundred and fifty years later, no one ever thought that this tragic scene will ever repeat itself, much the same way as in 1645. The year was June 3, 1863.
Manilenos had just finished saying the Angelus and most were enjoying their simple meals together when, at half past seven, the church bells rang. It was customary to ring the bells thrice. This evening, however, the bells continued ringing. The sounds grew louder and longer, accompanied by loud crashing and thrashing sounds. It was horrifying, as everything started swaying and thrashing wildly, even violently. After a minute, silence came. Then, moans, screams, moans, shrill and wailings began. A 6. 3 magnitude quake hit the capital and nearby provinces.
It was stronger than the 1645 quake because the epicenter was just in the East Zambales fault line near Manila bay. In a blink of a minute, everything changed—from a city filled with pleasurable sights—to a desolate, howling wilderness. All churches, except one, were completely obliterated from the face of the earth. Nothing was spared—the Palacio del Governador, the military barracks, hospitals, buildings and stone houses—all were left in ruins. Stone churches bore the brunt of the strong earthquake similar to the big one which occurred in 1645.
Nature’s wrath was so strong; many analysts say that this was probably an intensity 10 earthquake. Stone structures built along the banks of Manila Bay and the Pasig River was heavily damaged. Many residents of Tanay, Pilillia, Taguig, Cainta and San Mateo were left homeless. Scores of Bulakenos in San Isidro and Guinguinto died. A large avalanche claimed the lives of people in the mountains of Angat while those in Lubao Pampanga were mortally injured. Houses and churches were wiped out in Cabugao and San Pedro in Laguna, as well as in Tunasan in Muntinlupa.
Coastal towns in Cavite were likewise destroyed, most swept away by a huge tsunami. Only Pangasinan and the Ilocos provinces were spared. All in all, about 1,172 structures collapsed while most were heavily damaged. More than 400 people died and 2,000 injured. In Manila alone, 300 people died. The districts of Binondo, Santa Cruz, Tondo, San Miguel, Quiapo, Lipa, Tambobo and Navotas were completely ruined. Thirty five people were buried when the church and portions of the general garrison collapsed in the district of Santa Cruz. Forty six public buildings and 570 houses crumbled.
Based on accounts, cracks were seen in the ground. Over at Manila bay, ships littered along the coasts and fragments of destroyed trading vessels are seen floating all about. The force of the quake was so strong, it launched a huge 20 foot tsunami that literally swallowed and destroyed the ships docked in the bay. Waters receded from the bay and swamped Cavite before returning in an opposite direction. Aftershocks were strong enough to reach even the sleepy town of Hinulawan in Cebu. Manila and nearby provinces were left desolate and in complete disarray.
What the Filipino rebels and insurgents failed to do for decades, Nature destroyed in minutes. The political and economic structures of the Spanish government were completely destroyed. Property damage is estimated at US$ 3 million. German traveler Jagor Fedor in one of his writings vividly narrated the state of destruction wrought by this devastating earthquake. Manila is situated on both sides of the river Pasig. The town itself, surrounded with walls and ramparts, with its low tiled roofs and a few towers, had, in 1859, the appearance of some ancient European fortress.
Four years later the greater part of it was destroyed by an earthquake. On June 3, 1863, at thirty-one minutes past seven in the evening, after a day of tremendous heat while all Manila was busy in its preparations for the festival of Corpus Christi, the ground suddenly rocked to and fro with great violence. The firmest buildings reeled visibly, walls crumbled, and beams snapped in two. The dreadful shock lasted half a minute; but this little interval was enough to change the whole town into a mass of ruins, and to bury hundreds of its inhabitants.
A letter of the governor-general, which I have seen, states that the cathedral, the government-house, the barracks, and all the public buildings of Manila were entirely destroyed, and that the few private houses which remained standing threatened to fall in. Later accounts speak of four hundred killed and two thousand injured, and estimate the loss at eight millions of dollars. Forty-six public and five hundred and seventy private buildings were thrown down; twenty-eight public and five hundred twenty-eight private buildings were nearly destroyed, and all the houses left standing were more or less injured.
At the same time, an earthquake of forty seconds’ duration occurred at Cavite, the naval port of the Philippines, and destroyed many buildings. Three years afterwards, the Duc d’Alencon (Lucon et Mindanao; Paris, 1870, S. 38) found the traces of the catastrophe everywhere. Three sides of the principal square of the city, in which formerly stood the government, or governor’s, palace, the cathedral, and the townhouse, were lying like dust heaps overgrown with weeds. All the large public edifices were “temporarily” constructed of wood; but nobody then seemed to plan anything permanent.
Manila was a disaster zone, littered with animal carcasses and rotting corpses. Swarms of flies and birds of prey feasted on the bodies. It took two months before authorities were able to clear the streets of debris, rotting bodies, mud, and shards of glass. Compounding the problem, huge torrential rains inundated the city for days. Large portions of the city were submerged in waist deep floods. Mud affected those in higher areas. Barely three months past, another 7. 4 magnitude quake hit Manila on September 27. A full month later, another big one destroyed all that were left standing after the June and September earthquakes.
It was like God was not letting Manilenos have some breathing room. The Birth of the Supremo It was the twenty seventh day of October, a full month before the feast day of Saint Andrews. The year was 1863. Barely four months past after the devastating June quake, when Manila was hit by another earthquake. Though it was relatively “milder”, the quake still destroyed newly constructed shacks built in the swampy Tutuban area, while newly paved roads cracked due to strong aftershocks. Men, women and children all lay lifeless in the streets, most mortally wounded from fallen trees and adobe blocks.
Survivors all rushed to get the bodies to the hospital. But not all were recovered. Days past before medical teams recovered the rotting corpses. Most were thrown in hastily dug burial pits and covered with soil. Neither pitch nor salt was ever put in their bodies. No effort was made to clean the streets, all muddied up because of torrential rains. Mud was a foot high in most places. After the quake, came huge floods. Bodies buried in shallow graves were reportedly washed up and the bay ate them. Some were left rotting in the streets.
Those who survived nature’s wrath died one after another, victims of the dreaded cholera and Malaria. In the newly established community in Tutuban, Santiago Bonifacio, the local teniente mayor, is deathly worried. His beautiful Spanish mestiza wife Catalina de Castro is seven months pregnant. They survived the quake, but barely had the resources to survive another one. Catalina was worried for her relatives in Zambales, as reports came in that her hometown was also damaged. The Bonifacios lived in a small nipa hut built in a swampy, shrubby area fronting the place where the central train station was soon to be constructed.
Azcarraga street where the Bonifacios are, is sited near the place where local wine makers get the sap juices of the nipa shrub for tuba. When authorities cleared the place, and announced plans of building a train station, many Filipinos, especially budding entrepreneurs like Santiago, decided to build their houses there. They all thought Tutuban was the next boom town. And why not? Tutuban is very near the docks, and the first place where traders load their cargoes sent to Divisoria, Quiapo and San Nicolas. Today, however, Tutuban is more like hell than heaven. Tondo is heavily damaged.
Binundok, the center of Chinese trade, is left desolate. Many Manilenos died, including Santiago’s big named clients. Some who survived left the capital. Many abandoned the city, most except the Bonifacios. They have nowhere else to go. The strong quake eroded the soil and made huge cracks on the roads. What made it worst, torrential rains flooded the streets and made the roads un-passable. Many people got stuck in one foot high mud. 1863, was by far, the worst year for Manilenos. For one hundred and twenty two days, it rained in the capital, a record compared with only 26 the year before.
Manila, particularly, its sub-district of Tondo, was the perfect disaster area. Yet, this day was not all gloom. After hours of labor, a baby boy was born, the first of a brood of six of the Bonifacio family. Despite that gloom, misery and the terrible landscape emerges a bundle of joy who Santiago and Catalina named Andres in honor of their patron saint. The Birth of the Ilustrado Two years before, on June 19, 1861, another child was born, forty five kilometers away from Manila. Thirty five year old Teodora Alonzo y Quintos had just given birth to a bouncing baby boy.
No one thought that at her age, she could still give birth. The boy was her seventh child, and for her husband, Francisco Mercado Rizal, his second son. They both named him, Jose. Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonzo. 1861 was a lucky year for the Mercado Rizals. After relocating his family from Binan, Francisco Mercado got himself a lease agreement with the Dominicans for a huge hacienda and farm lot. The birth of another son is considered fortuitous for a Chinese mestizo like Francisco. Francisco came from a wealthy Chinese-Filipino family from Binan, Laguna. His ather, Juan Mercado was formerly the municipal mayor of Binan, a post he inherited from his own father, the first Francisco Engracio Mercado. The Mercados were actually Sangleys or former Chinese immigrants. Francisco Engracio is the son of Ke Yinan, a Chinese trader from the village of Siongque, a suburb of Fujian province in nearby Guangzhou. Ke or que is a 19th generation member of the Que/Ke/Cua clan, which traced their ancestry 3,000 years ago to patriarch Chua Siok-To in Henan province. Chua was a Duke, the fifth son of the founder of the Chou dynasty. When Ke sailed to Manila from the ports of Amoy, he changed his name to Co Lam.
As a young migrant from China, Ke had to live in Pantin, a small community built sometime in 1581 by then Governor General Gonzalo Ronquillo Penalosa outside the city walls. Pantin, which was later called “parian”, was a ghetto, a refugee center, if you will or a sort of “holding area” for non-Christian and un-converted Chinese migrants. Parian was a swampy place fronting the Spanish cannons at Intramuros. The place was some sort of a compromise between the Chinese traders and the Spanish authorities. Pantin is an ideal place for a budding entrepreneur like Lam-co.
The community had more than a hundred shops which sell Chinese silk, small shops of tailors, cobblers, painters, bakers, confectioners, candle makers, silversmiths, apothecaries and other tradesmen. Trade however, between the parian and the walled city or Manila pueblo was limited. Since no Chinese trader can enter Intramuros, traders either smuggle their goods in or choose to convert to the state religion to be able to do trade. As more Chinese traders converted to the state religion, a rising number of them formed a community called Chino Cristianos or more often, referred to as Sangleys.
Under the religious policy of the times, these converts can transact business and intermarry with the natives. Their numbers ballooned and posed both a population problem and a threat to the Spaniards. On June 1697, at the age of 35 years old, Ke decided to convert to Catholicism. After being baptized in the parian church of San Gabriel, Ke changed his name to “Domingo” and assumed the surname “Lam-co” in honor of his parents, Siang-Co and Zun-nio. Despite of his conversion, Domingo was not able to enter Intramuros—not yet.
Like others before him, Domingo was asked to live in Binundok, a community established in 1594 by then Spanish Governor General Luis Perez Dasmarinas for Sangleys living outside Manila’s fortifications. A year after a treacherous revolt which led to the death of his father, Luiz Dasmarinas tried to forge a compromise with the Chinese. He thought of giving them their own place, different from the parian. Dasmarinas saw ysla de Binundok (or in some accounts, Minundok), a hilly island between two estuaries or esteros—Estero dela Reina and Estero de Binundo—as a perfect place for the Chinese.
Prior to Spanish rule, the place was already a trading hub by the Chinese before Martin de Goiti forcibly seized Manila in 1570 from the chieftain of Tondo. The place was then put under the possession of Don Antonio Velada who converted it into a hacienda and allowed the small community of Chinese traders to live there. Dasmarinas expanded the area and included the village of Baybay, now the sub-district of San Nicolas. Sangley traders controlled Binundok and converted it into a thriving commercial trading center. Sangleys prospered there.
Taxes were not levied upon the traders and there was limited state interference. However, the place is small and congested. Newly converted traders, like Domingo, had limited commercial success there, if at all. Domingo decided to migrate to the outer fringes of the regime. He chose Binan, a town in Laguna, which has a bustling community of Sangleys. Sangleys founded the area shortly after the brutal massacre in 1602. When they fled Manila away from the knives of Sinophobic Spaniards, they saw Laguna as a promised land.
Laguna was a prosperous place. Trade was unhampered between natives, Chinese and foreign traders. The Dominicans allowed traders in their lands. While in Binan, Domingo befriended two very influential Dominican friars by the name of Fr. Francisco Marquez and Friar Juan Caballero, a former Catholic missionary in China. He built his house in St. Isidore, a Dominican estate and became a pioneer in Barrio Tubigan, one of the richest barrios in the estate. In no time at all, Domingo became one of Binan’s wealthiest Chinese community leaders.
People loved him because he was honest and hard-working. His popularity spread and he soon attracted other Chinese traders, including a wealthy Chinese rice trader from Chuanchow, by the name of Augustin Chinco. To formalize their friendship, Domingo married Augustin’s daughter, Inez dela Roza. They tied the knot in the Dominican church of San Gabriel, officiated by the same priest who baptized Domingo a few years before in Binundok. The marriage was propitious. The couple was immediately blessed with a healthy son: Francisco Engracio Mercado y Chinco.
In 1697, since his surname was still Chinese sounding, Domingo decided to adopt the surname “Mercado”, a fitting one for a successful trader like him. Francisco Engracio inherited his father’s industriousness and became one of Binan’s wealthiest ranchers with a large herd of carabaos. On May 26, 1771, Francisco married Bernacha “Cirila” Monicha, a Chinese mestiza from San Pedro Laguna. Twelve years after, Francisco became alcalde mayor of Binan. Francisco Engracio inherited his father’s good name and became one of Binan’s longest serving town mayors.
Their union produced Juan, who also became Binan’s municipal mayor thrice, in 1808, 1813 and 1823. Juan married Cirila Alejandra, the beautiful daughter of an immigrant trader and his grandfather’s grandson, Siong-co. Their union produced thirteen children, with one of the youngest named Francisco, in honor of Juan’s father. One of Juan’s children, Gregorio, was one of the original founders of the town of San Juan in Batangas. Francisco was only eight years old when his father, Capitan Juan, died. He was taken care of by his mother and older sister Potenciana. When their mother Cirila died, Potenciana and Francisco moved to nearby Calamba.
In 1847, Potenciana died. Francisco then married 20-year old Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda, second daughter of the former mayor of Binan, the famous Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo. Lorenzo is a Spanish mestizo who represented the province of Laguna in the Spanish Cortes and according to accounts, was a Knight in the Order of Isabel la Catolica. He married Brigida, daughter of Manuel de Quintos, a Sangley trader from Dagupan, Pangasinan and Regina Ursua. They settled in Meisic, Santa Cruz. It was during the time when Teodora stayed with his mother in Binan when she met Francisco.
There are conflicting accounts about the real genealogy of Teodora. An account made by her cousin, Jacoba Faustina-Cruz, alleged that Teodora is an illegitimate child of Lorenzo, a half-sister of Lorenzo’s youngest child, Jose Alberto, Jacoba’s father. When Jose’s father, Lorenzo was just 24 years old, he reportedly married a 12-year old Ilocana by the name of Paula Florentino in 1814. It is unclear whether this union resulted to an offspring, but there are several accounts made by the Albertos that Teodora was actually the daughter of Lorenzo in an earlier marriage, or, as some say, by Brigida’s brother, Jose Alberto Quintos.
Other accounts, those made by Ambeth Ocampo, tells of Teodora as being the daughter not of Lorenzo, but of Jose Alberto Quintos, brother of Brigida. Jose Alberto Quintos is a trader from Dagupan, Pangasinan. I believe that the assertions made by the Albertos and even that of Ocampo are, at best, downright malicious and based not on facts. Teodora was born in 1827, thirteen years after the alleged marriage of Lorenzo with Paula in 1814. Since there was no existing evidence that the union bore other children aside from Teodora, how then will we believe that assertion that it was just when Paula was 25 years old when she sired Teodora?
Likewise, accounts say that Teodora was the second child of Lorenzo and Brigida, older by a few years than Jose Alberto. The first child of Lorenzo and Brigida was Narcisa, followed by Teodora (Jose’s mother), Gregorio, Manuel and Jose. Jose was clearly the youngest child born from the Lorenzo-Brigida union. How then can we say that Teodora was illegitimate? When the Rizal sisters were interviewed sometime in the 1900s, they refer to “Jose Alberto” as an “uncle”. They were not referring to a “Jose Alberto Quintos”, because if they were, they would have said that Jose was their “lolo”, not “uncle”. Despite this, Teodora is a prized catch.
Not only was she of Spanish blood, Teodora also had Chinese, Japanese and royal Filipino blood in her veins. Her grandmother, Regina, is the daughter of Eugenio, a Japanese mestizo trader and a Filipina named Benigna, direct descendant of Rajah Lakandula, former King of Tondo. When Governor General Narciso Calaveria decreed that all natives change their surnames to Spanish or Castillian names, the Alonzos changed theirs to Realonda. Francisco Mercado in turn, decided to adopt the surname “Rizal”. Francisco often interchanges his surnames to either Mercado or Rizal. In some instances, Francisco combined the two surnames together.
When his mother Cirila died, Francisco migrated to Calamba. Through his forebear’s connections and friendship with the Dominican Order, Francisco was granted a lease to the order’s hacienda and a farm lot. Francisco’s decision was timely. His family was spared from the 1863 quake which devastated Binan and Los Banos. Binan, which was then the toast of Manila’s principalia, and Los Banos, a frequented tourist attraction in 18th century Philippines, were devastated. People died of hunger and disease. Los Banos was hardest hit. Most stone houses and the church were severely damaged.
It took seventeen years before the church was reconstructed. During that time, it served as a municipal hospital. Those injured were treated inside the church ruins. After the debilitating disaster and a severe typhoon, drought came a year later. 1864 was the driest year on record, with rainfall just below 1400. Farmers and traders both suffered. Farm yields came in trickles. Food became scarce. Famine and pestilence followed soon after. Jose was just two years old when the drought came. As a son of a trader, the Mercados did not even felt the famine. It was, however, entirely different in Tutuban. Food was scarce.
Manilenos had barely survived the devastating quake, then the typhoons and now a drought that threatens the lives of those who survived the twin disasters. The Bonifacios, like the Mercados, were lucky. Being the teniente mayor, Santiago’s post had its perks. The family did not have to scrape the bottom of the barrel, so to speak. His allowance as a petty government official and his earnings as a tailor kept the family a-float. Despite the drought, Manila, surprisingly recovered from the twin tragedies a year ago. Commerce recovered and people again, had jobs. Foreign merchants were again, active in the trade with mestizo traders.
In Laguna, the town is slowly recovering from the pestilence and the drought. Agricultural production recovered and is now, in the upswing. This benefitted the Mercados, as more orders from their hacienda grew. Swamped with orders, Francisco Mercado had to ask his wife, Teodora to help him in the hacienda. Teodora had no choice but to assist in the family business at the same time, took care of Jose’s education. A former colegiala from the Colegio de Santa Rosa, Teodora was equally strict and loving to her son, Jose when it comes to teaching the arts, literature and the Spanish language.
Born from a wealthy Chinese-Filipino family in the barrio of Meisic in Santa Cruz Manila, Teodora wants her son to be like her, a passionate lover of the arts, literature and business. For two years, Teodora tirelessly taught Jose the finer things in life and in no time at all, her son has shown flair as a budding artist, painting, sketching and writing lovely poems. Over at Tutuban, the sickly Catalina takes care of her firstborn, Andres. The peace that allowed trade to thrive once again was short-lived. A revolt broke out in nearby Cavite and affected life in the capital.
A young officer by the name of Eduardo Camerino led a small army of natives from Imus Cavite to a mutiny against the Spanish regime. His forces quickly engaged the Spanish colonial forces in a war which lasted for four years. Manilenos suffered during these four years, as food stuffs coming from Cavite were blocked by the rebels. Intermittent skirmishes between Camerino’s insurgent groups and Spanish forces affected trade. Traders feared crossing the boundary separating between Cavite and Manila, as casualties mount of civilians killed in numerous crosses fires.
In 1869, the Spanish Cortes sent a young liberal by the name of Carlos Maria dela Torre to serve as Governor General. The young administrator quickly went to work. After being apprised of the situation in Cavite, de la Torre decided to go there and talk with the rebels. He went to the estate house of the Recolletos in Imus and sent an emissary to try and reason with Camerino. Finally, the two met. The governor general promised amnesty for the rebels. Camerino agreed and immediately after, dela Torre pardoned all the insurgents. The governor then appointed Camerino, head of the local police force which he named Guias dela Torre.
Upon learning that the war is over, Manilenos went on a rapturous celebration. The Ilustrados hail Dela Torre as a peacemaker, while the natives prayed for his soul for days and nights. On the evening of July 12, 1869, ilustrados, priests and students gathered in front of Malacanang palace and serenaded dela Torre to express their gratitude for his liberal policies. Prominent ilustrados of Manila, led by Civil Governor of Manila Jose Cabezas de Herrera, Jose Burgos, Maximo Paterno, Manuel Genato, Angel Garchitorena, Andres Nieto and student activists, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera and Jacobo Zobel offered their undying loyalty to dela Torre.
The peace, however, was short-lived. Violence again broke out in Cavite and trade was once more interrupted. This time, however, the young Liberal was not as forgiving as before. Dela Torre placed Manila and nearby provinces under a State of Emergency. He ordered his troops to quell the revolt. Camerino and his men were arrested and court martialed in Cavite. The peace that Dela Torre instituted helped Manilenos get back on their feet. Trade blossomed and people got jobs once more. Santiago was getting more and more popular as a tailor. Many rich people hired him.
The industrious Santiago supplemented the family income by working as a ferry boat operator, plying the Pasig river route. They were so fortunate, the Bonifacios had enough money to send their eldest kid to a private school run by the town’s most distinguished lawyer by the name of Guillermo Osmena. Osmena is a highly respected and popular figure in 18th century Meisic in Manila. A scion of a wealthy Chinese mestizo from Carcar Cebu, Guillermo migrated to Binondo with his beauteous wife, Manuela Carballo. The Cebuano lawyer established his office at no. 18 Calle Jolo (now Juan Luna street).
Nearby, Osmena built a private school for young boys. He became a household name when he championed the retention of the parian as a parish and town. Things were also starting to get more prosperous and better for the Mercados in Laguna. The family business is on the rise. The family is also getting more people to work on their hacienda, and Francisco soon needed more of Teodora especially in administering the family’s finances. With a natural flair for business, Teodora had no choice but to abandon her son’s teaching. Jose was left under the care of private tutors.
His first teacher, a maestro named Celestino, left after a few months. He was quickly replaced by Lucas Padua, a local maestro. When Padua left, his father asked his old classmate by the name of Leon Monroy to be his son’s tutor. Monroy stayed in the Mercado house as Jose’s teacher until his death five months later. Jose was left in the care of his nanny, Aquilina Alquitran. After Monroy’s death, Jose’s parents decided to send him to a private school run by Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Binan, Laguna. Cruz was the former teacher of Jose’s elder brother, Paciano.
Jose lived in the stone house of his purported aunt, Tomasa Mercado-Rivera in Binan. Tomasa lived in the house of his father, Juan Mercado. It was under the tutelage of Cruz where Rizal first learned about painting. He not only distinguished himself as a great student of the Spanish language, Jose also did extremely well as an artist. By the age of eleven, Jose’s parents decided to send him to Manila. In February 1872, Paciano, his brother, went with him to the house of Manuel Hidalgo along Calle Espeleta in the district of Santa Cruz Manila. Jose first took the entrance examinations in San Juan de Letran.
Afterwards, he came back to Calamba. Before the semester started in June, Jose passed the examinations at the Ateneo de Municipal de Manila, the most famous school for young boys in Asia at that time. The young lad stayed in the house of his maternal uncle, Antonio Rivera, the husband of Tomasa in Manila. Jose graduated at the top of his class. He continued his studies at the Ateneo, this time for a degree in land surveying and assessor. Subsequently, he also enrolled himself for a degree in Philosophy and Letters at the Universidad de Santo Tomas. The mutiny of 1872
In April 4, 1871, a Spanish military officer by the name of Rafael de Izquierdo y Gutierrez was sent by the Spanish monarchy to replace dela Torre. Unlike his predecessor, Izquierdo was a despot. He rescinded most of Dela Torre’s liberalist policies and issued harsher laws including forced labor. One of his most criticized orders was a decree imposing taxes to soldiers of the Engineering and Artillery Corps based in Fort San Felipe, the Spanish arsenal in Cavite. Izquierdo’s tax measures require soldiers to pay a monetary sum as well as perform forced labor known as “polo y servicios”.
The order was sternly opposed, not just by the soldiers but also by Liberal segments of the colonial society. When the soldiers saw their pay slips deducted by taxes and one called “falla”, the fine that exempts one from forced labor, the soldiers mutinied. It was January 20, 1872. A sergeant by the name of Ferdinand La Madrid led 200 soldiers and laborers in the mutiny. The soldiers burst into the officer’s quarters and killed them. The mutineers thought that other soldiers based in different provinces, especially in Manila, would join them in an uprising.
Unfortunately, what the mutineers thought to be the signal was actually a burst of fireworks in celebration of the feast of St. Loreto, the patron saint of Sampaloc. With no reinforcements, the mutineers lost against a stronger Spanish force. The ringleaders were executed. Izquierdo then used the mutiny to prosecute the liberals in Manila. Prominent liberals were ordered arrested who included Fr. Jacinto Zamora, the parish priest of Pandacan, Fr. Mariano Duran of the parish of Sampaloc and Fathers Jose Burgos and Mariano Gomez.
These priests were executed by garrote before huge crowds in Bagumbayan on the 17th of February, 1872. Other prominent Filipinos including Jose Maria Basa, Antonio Regidor, Fr. Mariano Sevilla and a host of others were exiled in the islands of Marianas. Forty one Filipinos were executed by Izquierdo. The killing of the Filipino priests sent a chilling effect on Ilustrados who desired for change in the Philippines. They would have to wait for five or even a decade before any change would happen. On March 21, 1877, Rizal graduated from the surveyor’s course and passed the examination on May 21, 1878.
Because of his age, 17 years old, he was not granted license to practice the profession until December 30, 1881. When Rizal learned that his mother was going blind, he decided to shift course and in 1878, enrolled in the study of medicine specializing in ophthalmology at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. He did not complete the course due to discrimination made by the Spanish friars against the native students. While Rizal was completing his studies and even thinking of going to Spain to finish medicine, it was not so for 18 year old student Andres Bonifacio.
It was 1880, a year when Bonifacio was to face his most daunting challenge. On the fifteenth day of July, an earthquake hit Tayabas town in Quezon and eastern portions of Laguna that surrounds Laguna de Bai. Manila was spared—but not for long. Three days later, exactly 4:40 in the morning, Manilenos awoke from a loud shout of what seemed like a shrill trumpet. Like what happened in 1863, the year when Bonifacio was born, a powerful earthquake again rumbled throughout Central and Southern Luzon, killing scores and injuring thousands more in its wake. The 7. magnitude quake destroyed communities along the banks of the Pasig river and the Manila bay, including Tutuban and Binundok. Scores of people were killed along the banks of the Agno and Pampanga rivers as a huge tsunami swelled and inundated the towns. Cracks appeared in the grounds and destroyed huge towns and municipalities in Bataan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. Forty minutes past, strong aftershocks rumbled throughout Tayabas in Quezon, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Pampanga and Tarlac. Manila was left desolate. Towns in the Southern and Western portions of Lake Bai in Laguna were also heavily damaged.
Only the San Agustin church was spared. Malacanang palace, the official residence of the Spanish Governor General, was also reduced to rubble. Tondo was hit the hardest for the third time. Everywhere, signs of decay, disaster, desolation. People panicked as rumors of a huge flood swept the capital. Even Paciano Rizal, brother of Jose, wrote him, and asked him to return to Calamba. And just like in 1863, after a devastating quake, survivors again faced another catastrophe—an epidemic of cholera. Rizal’s nanny, Alquitran, was one of the victims of this epidemic. The contagious and deadly disease spread like wildfire.
Worse, a strong typhoon hit Manila, and inundated huge parts of the capital. Cholera spread and became a deadly epidemic, killing thousands of people not just in Manila but in nearby provinces. While Manila was being battered by severe storms and earthquakes, the city of Seville in Spain was experiencing a heat wave. On August 4, 1881, hundreds of thousands of people died due to a heat wave which reached 122 degree Fahrenheit. As cholera waste men’s souls, a lethal strain of foot-and-mouth disease wiped out the whole animal population in Manila and nearby provinces. People who ate the carcasses of sick animals also died.
The virus strain then passed from animal to human. Many people succumbed to this debilitating disease. Tondo, the dirtiest district in Manila, had the most number of people sick from cholera, diphtheria, small pox and even tuberculosis. The unsanitary condition of the streets is getting worse. Manila was actually transformed into a breeding ground of killer diseases. By then, Santiago was working as a porter in the docks of Binundok, while his wife, Catalina helped by working as a supervisor in a cigarette factory in Meisic. Santiago just lost his tailoring business.
He had to work the filthy docks for his family to survive. In no time at all, Santiago caught tuberculosis, which was a lethal disease back then. Tuberculosis is a contagious disease, popular among the porters and workers in the ports of Manila. It was just a matter of time for Santiago to get it, since he was in poor health and severely malnourished. Though tuberculosis is a curable disease, the Bonifacios had no money to send Santiago to a convalescence home. The patriarch decided to just stay home, while his wife works in the factory. Santiago started making paper canes and fans.
Andres and his young siblings sold this stuff in Tutuban. Catalina herself was not in good physical condition. She ate a little. When she’s at home, she took care of her sick husband and it was not surprising that she too, contracted her husband’s disease. In a matter of months, Catalina succumbed to the disease and died. A year later, just a few months after another quake hit Manila, Santiago breathed his last. Santiago died leaving Andres to take care of his six young siblings. While Bonifacio grieved for his beloved father, a young Rizal was preparing to board a ship which would send him to Spain.
Rizal is boarding for Madrid where he is to study medicine. After Rizal left for Spain, Andres was gathering what was left of the family’s possessions. The authorities just passed a decree abolishing houses constructed along the Manila-Dagupan tram line. The small shack which the Bonifacios lived for many years was demolished. The poor family, along with many others, migrated to Santa Mesa, a small district away from Intramuros. Despite these tribulations, Andres did not lose hope. He soon found work as a mandatorio (clerk or messenger) for an English trading firm J.
M. Fleming and Company. He was so good at his job that Andres was promoted to corridor or an agent of tar and other goods. Two years later, in 1884, Andres transferred to Fressell and Company, a German trading firm where he worked as a bodeguero or warehouseman in their mosaic tile factory based in Sta Mesa Manila. He was just 21 years old. While working for the Preyler family who owns the tile factory, Andres was a voracious reader. In her memoir, Dona Elvira Preysler recalled seeing Andres always with a book in his hands, reading.
As Bonifacio toils in a factory in Santa Mesa, Jose Rizal just got conferred a degree in Medicine in the Universidad de Madrid. A year later, Rizal finished his course in Philosophy and Letters with a grade of “excellente”. Bonifacio, meanwhile, is suffering and trying to make ends meet for his family. After working as a warehouseman, his salary was not enough to satisfy the needs of his family. He resigned and continued the family business of selling canes and paper fans which his father started. Andres was determined not to lose hope. He started reading books, whatever he gets hold of one.
It was 1885, the time when Spain appointed a 33rd degree mason to head the government as Governor general. Emilio Terrero y Perinat was a liberal. He revived the liberal measures which began during the term of dela Torre. Under Terrero’s administration, books considered “heretical, revolutionary and socialist” began to spread in the capital. This was also the time when masons started influencing the affairs of the Spanish regime. Terrero appointed fellow masons Jose Centeno as acting Civil governor of Manila and Benigno Quiroga, director general for Civil administration.
On March 1887, a small book written by a young doctor named “Rizal” quickly circulated among the elites of Manila. A supposed book project of a small expatriate group of Filipinos based in Europe, the book entitled “Noli me Tangere” became popular among the ilustrados in Manila. Copies of the book went around. It was probably during this time that Andres got hold of one copy. What interested Ilustrados back then was the straight forward way the author of the book depicted Manila and the colonial society. Coming from an obviously wealthy guy, it was a painful reflection of life, of one lived in the backwaters of Manila’s society.
How in the world could this guy who lived a perfumed life throughout his life wrote a very sad parody, a dramatic comedy, if you will, of Las Islas Felipinas. It soon became apparent that the author, Dr. Jose Rizal, was a Mason and a staunch critic of Spanish rule. Despite being a member of the privileged class, Rizal felt discriminated upon by the friars during his stay at the UST. Rizal was not a Spanish mestizo. He was actually a member of the Sangleys, often discriminated and chastised by the ever-so morally upright members of society’s upper crust for their Buddhist ways. Rizal Mercado was not a Buddhist.
He was a devout Catholic until the friars cast a very discriminating eye upon him. On August 5, 1887, the young Rizal went back to Manila. He was immediately summoned by Terrero, a fellow mason to explain about the book. The two met twice in Malacanan. Upon learning that some quarters plan to harm Rizal, Terrero assigned a lieutenant of the Civil guards, Jose Taviel de Andrade as his bodyguard. What was so different from Rizal when he was born in the same land just like these friars and their bastard sons? How it was different when every one learns the Spanish tongue can eat like them and can dress like them?
By writing this book, Rizal has just openly challenged, nay, declared war against Spain. And Andres Bonifacio, upon reading it, must have realized that Rizal was probably the one prophesized by the old folks, of someone who would arise and save the people from the tyrannical rule of the Spaniards. The regime ranted and riled against the book and its author. Archbishop Pedro Payo, upon reading the book, was aghast. He condemned the novel as heretical, impious and scandalous to the taste and requested that a special committee of the faculty of the University of Santo Tomas be formed to ban the spread of the book.
On the twenty eighth day of December in 1887, Father Salvador Font, the curate of Tondo and chairman of the regime’s Permanent Commission of Censorship ordered Noli me Tangere removed from the university’s libraries and reading rooms and prohibited anyone who will circulate this pernicious book. The governor general did not approve of the decision. Reading the Noli, says Font, is like committing sin. The order was circulated throughout Manila. However, instead of being prevailed upon, more people got excited and everyone tried to get hold of a copy. The book became a sensation.
The church tried to squelch the rising curiosity and interests of the public by publishing a counter. An Augustinian friar by the name of “Jose Rodriguez” wrote a pamphlet denouncing the Noli and accusing Rizal of committing heresy. The pamphlet failed to dampen public interest about the book. Noli and Rizal’s popularity quickly spread throughout the country, mainly among the ilustrado circles. The furor the book caused even reached Madrid. In January 1890, a Spanish writer by the name of Vicente Barrantes bitterly criticized the novel while one member of the Spanish Cortes assailed it as an “anti-Catholic, Protestant and socialistic. Still, many of those who lived and know about colonial Philippines supported the publication and circulation of the book. Andres and his young brothers, Cirilo and Procopio who were working in the Manila Railway Company, must have thought that a revolt was in the offing, and Rizal was being asked to lead it. Andres and his brother Procopio joined the masons and soon found themselves members of a radical yet secretive group out to denounce Spanish rule over Felipinas. Andres joined the Taliba Lodge No. 165 under the Gran Oriente Espanol. It was there when he met Deodato Arellano, brother in law of Marcelo H. el Pilar, the publisher of the La Solidaridad. Through Arellano’s prodding, Andres became active in the underground Masonic lodges. He organized and recruited members for the lodge. There was a trade-off—while Andres works as a recruiter, Deodato allowed him to read the incendiary works of Jaena, del Pilar, Luna and Rizal. While remaining active in the underground Masonic lodge, Andres met Monica, a lovely woman who probably lived as his neighbor in Sampaloc. Monica was a resident of Palomar, which was then, the red light district in Manila Sampaloc. The two got married.
The union however, was short-lived. Rumors had it that Monica died of leprosy, a prevalent and contagious disease since the disease was prevalent at that time. Some, however, doubts the veracity of this. Monica probably died of a sexually-infected disease or foot-and-mouth disease complicated by rinderpest. The last years of the 1880’s saw the spread of sexually infectious diseases like syphilis and leprosy. People caught the disease because of government’s ineffective inoculation program. Soon after Monica’s death, Andres Bonifacio became more involved in the political affairs of his time.
The young patriot must have felt that the Spanish government had abandoned the Filipinos, especially when a cholera epidemic broke out in 1888 which killed thousands of Filipinos. By this time, Rizal was with Jose Maria Basa, Jose Sainz de Veranda and some Portuguese liberals in Hong Kong. Rizal left Hong Kong for Macao on board the ship, Kui Kiang. In Macao, the group lived in the house of Juan Lecaroz, a Spanish mestizo married to a Portuguese. In a letter by Rizal to Jose Maria Basa on July 9, 1891, there was an indication already that the famous author was going to meet the Filipino dissident again in Hong Kong.
A month before, Basa sent Rizal passage money to get him to Hong Kong. Before meeting Basa, Rizal decided to publish more copies of his book, Noli me Tangere and start the publication of a second novel, which Rizal described as more explosive than the first one. On August 26, 1891, copies of the book were already printed and Rizal told Basa in his letter that he expects to arrive in Hong Kong a month later. It was never meant to be. It took Rizal three months more before he was able to meet Basa. By then, on one letter he sent to Basa, Rizal had completed his second novel, El Filibusterismo.
On the evening of November 19, Rizal arrived at Hong Kong. He resided in the house of Filipino dissident Jose Ma. Basa. On one of their conversations, Basa told Rizal how the Masonry was having great success in reforms in Manila. Inspired by this, Rizal wrote the by-laws of the La Liga Filipina, an association whose rules are similar to Masonic practices. After learning the exile of his four town mates to Jolo and the summons received by his mother and sister before the governor general, Rizal wrote his parents on December 1, asking permission to return to Manila.
Instead of him travelling to Manila, his father Francisco, brother Paciano and brother-in-law Silvestre Ubaldo met him five days later in Hong Kong. Six days later, Rizal wrote his sister Maria on his plan to establish a Filipino colony in Northern Borneo. On the 17th of December, Rizal shared his plan with Governor General Despujol in a letter he sent to Manila. His pleas and appeals were ignored. Seeing that his letters were just being ignored, Rizal decided to go back to Manila. On board the steamship Don Juan, the 31 year old doctor arrived in Manila.
After a thorough inspection by the customs police, Rizal and his sister Lucia immediately went to Hotel de Oriente, a ritzy three-storey hotel between Oriente and Veronica streets in Binondo. Hotel Oriente faces Plaza Calderon de Barca, a small park fronting the Binondo church. Rizal chose to stay there because he has a meeting later on somewhere near the hotel. That meeting has already been arranged even prior to Rizal’s arrival. Timoteo Pelaez, a young mason and aligned with the reformist block of the Filipino masons, met Rizal and told him about the desire of Filipinos to meet him.
After getting some hours’ worth of rest, Rizal started walking from the hotel to a house at number 176 Calle Ylaya in Tondo Manila. His friend, Don Doroteo Ongjunco, a wealthy Chinese mestizo, is hosting a dinner for him. Ongjunco is the head of the Masonic lodge of Lusong (Luzon), one of the lodges affiliated in the Central Grand Lodge Nilad of the Free Masons. The testimonial dinner gave Rizal the opportunity to meet other Masons who were active in the local resistance movement. It was also the first time that Andres Bonifacio, a member of the Taliba lodge and Rizal met.
A young law student by the name of Apolinario Mabini, a member of the Lodge Balagtas and purportedly known as the Grand orator of the Regional Grand Oriente Espanol was also present. It was there, in the house of Ongjunco, that Rizal gave him a Tagalog translation of the French document, “ The Declarations of the Rights of Men”. Rizal also took the occasion in discussing the La Liga Filipina. Members of the lodge held a toast in honor of Rizal. Masons led by Panlino Zamora, Juan Zulueta (Lusung), Arcadio del Rosario (Balagtas) made Rizal the Honorary Venerable Master of the Central Grand Lodge and addressed as Brother Dimas-alang.
This meeting was very significant because all the lodges recognized Rizal as the unifying force behind the campaign for reforms in the Philippines. On the morning of June 30, Rizal left Manila for a pleasure trip to Bulacan and Pampanga. At the Malolos train station, he was met by a young man named Pedro Serrano, and Timoteo Paez, the young Mason he met at the testimonial dinner over at Ongjunco’s house. The group went to Tarlac and also visited some people at San Fernando Pampanga. After a day and a half of travels, Rizal retired in a house in Bacolor. He went back to Manila shortly before five in the afternoon.
Rizal rose early the morning after and went to the palacio del gubernador to see Governor General Eulogio Despujol. The young doctor discussed plans of settling in Sandakan in Borneo which the governor opposed. Later, in a meeting with Maximo Viola in his hotel room at number 88, Rizal confided with his friend what happened. Rizal stayed on for a few more days in Manila. Many prominent Filipinos invited the young doctor to spend dinner with them. Estanislao Legaspi, hosted one of these dinners in his house at Encarnacion street in Tondo. Legaspi is a Mason and the one writing those letters to Rizal’s friend Jose Ma.
Basa in Hong Kong. Rizal was introduced by Juan Zulueta (Lusung) and Timoteo Paez (Lusung), masons of the Central Nilad. On July 3, he again went to see the governor general. He thanked the governor for lifting the order of exile for his sisters. The meeting went by without any problem. The governor however, again rejected Rizal’s offer to establish a Filipino colony in Borneo. Seeing that his efforts were getting nowhere, Rizal asked Don Ongjunco if he could gather all the masons together at his house for dinner. Rizal intended to discuss the formal establishment of the La Liga Filipina.
At dinner, all the members of the Masonic lodges were in attendance, including the 29 year old Bonifacio and Mabini. During the meeting, Pedro Serrano asked if the La Liga Filipina be fused together with the Masonic lodges. No one opposed. By this time, La Liga Filipina was divided into two (2) groups: the group of the reformists, led by Moises Salvador, friend of Rizal and founder of the Balagtas lodge. The other one was the National War Katipunan Society, led by Deodato Arellano and Andres Bonifacio. Arellano led the block and was believed to be Marcelo H. el Pilar’s Masonic acolyte. Moises was the courier by the Propaganda Movement which sent Masonic documents from Europe to the different lodges in Manila. While Arellano, along with a young 19 year old Emilio Jacinto, helped in publishing the La Solidaridad. It was Moises’ father, Ambrosio, a Mason, who became the Liga’s first president, together with Augustin dela Rosa as Fiscal and Bonifacio Arevalo as treasurer. All of those elected, with the exception of Deodato Arellano as Secretary, were members of the reformist group. Rizal was not elected in one single position.
It was a reformist mestizo by the name of Domingo Franco who became the Supreme Head of the Liga. Though they do not agree with the election, Bonifacio and the rest of his group composed of Mamerto Natividad, Arellano, and Jose Dizon respected it. Other Masons who include Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, Marcelino de los Santos, Arcadio del Rosario, and Jose Ramos were also there and witnessed the event. Three days later, the governor general called Rizal for a meeting at the palacio. The Governor general confronted him for several anti-friar bills supposedly found in the baggages of his sister Lucia.
Rizal was immediately ordered arrested and jailed at Fort Santiago. Rizal spent three days in jail. On the seventh of July, Despujol ordered the banishment of Rizal to Dapitan, a sleepy town in Zamboanga peninsula. The decree was published in all newspapers in Manila. After reading the news over at the “Gaceta”, members of the lodges secretly met again in the house of Ongjunco. There, in the closed quarters under the heat of the mid-day sun, the two groups, the reformists composed of the Balagtas and Lusung lodges and radical members of the Taliba met and discussed the future direction of the association.
Apolinario Mabini, one of the more conservative members of the society, suggested that the remaining members form what he called the “Cuerpo de Compromisarios. ” Mabini thought of reviving the La Solidaridad in Europe. Moises Salvador and the other masons, agreed. Bonifacio and his co-members of the Taliba lodge, strongly opposed Mabini’s suggestion. Bonifacio thought that Rizal’s arrest and deportation was a sign that Spain did not agree with reformist suggestions. For Bonifacio, the time was ripe for a revolution.
Jose Dizon, who attended the meeting said that most of the members in Bonifacio’s group already made up their minds on building a more radical and more revolutionary group that would continue the fight against Spain. With their differences exposed, the two groups left the flat, one strongly with a reformist slant while the other, determined to use arms to attain independence. Bonifacio and his co-Masonic brothers were determined to institutionalize the National War Katipunan Society into a full-pledged revolutionary movement.
In the evening of that same day, Bonifacio, together with his brother in law, a young law student by the name of Ladislao Diwa, and Teodoro Plata, Diwa’s law classmate, met in the house of Deodato Arellano on Calle Azcarraga corner Salinas near Calle Elcano in Tondo. Other members of the Masonic lodge of Taliba were also present, including Valentin Diaz and Jose Dizon. Deodato Arellano, Bonifacio’s friend, arrived later. There, illuminated with oil lamps, the first cries of the Revolution were heard. The Katipunan was born.
A week later, the nephew of Despujol, Don Ramon, informed Rizal that they were bound to leave for Dapitan at ten in the evening. They boarded the boat SS Cebu bound for Dapitan, at one ‘clock early morning the next day. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Richard Rivera is a former lecturer in History at the University of the Philippines in Manila. He finished his Bachelor of Arts, major in History (with Masteral units) in the UP-Diliman and taught Philippine history in UP-Manila and Dela Salle University. [ 2 ]. Jagor, Fedor, de Comyn, T. , Wilkes, C. , and Virchow, R. (2004). The Former Philippines
Through Foreign Eyes, Kessinger Publishing, 500 p. [ 3 ]. According to Tsunami, it was the movement in the San Manuel and Gabaldon faults that caused the earthquake. Tsutsumi, H. , Daligdig, J. A. , Goto, H. , Tungol, N. M. , Kondo, H. , Nakata, T. , Okuno, M. , and Sugito, N. (2006). Timing of surface-rupturing earthquakes on the Philippine fault zone in central Luzon Island, Philippines. EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union 87, Supplement. [ 4 ]. The 1602 Chinese revolt which led to the capture and burning of Manila and Tondo. It nearly succeeded in toppling Spanish power when the rebels tried to enter Intramuros. 5 ]. Ladia led some natives to revolt against Spain only to be arrested and executed. [ 6 ]. Officially, according to Philvocs, it measured 7. 9, not just 6. 3. Recent studies however established it as 6. 3. The reason why many cities were destroyed because of ground cracks and a tsunami. [ 7 ]. Bautista, Maria Leonila P. Historical Earthquake Damages to Intramuros, the walled city of Manila. Philvocs. 2009, p. 17. This is part of a powerpoint presentation. [ 8 ]. This earthquake killed 600 people and destroyed the Manila Cathedral. Philvocs said that the quake measured 8. 4 in the Richter scale. 9 ]. Garcia, L. C. , R. G. Valenzuela, and E. P. Arnold 1985 Southeast Asia Association of Seismology, U. S. Geological Survey, Vol. IV – Philippines, June. [ 10 ]. Soloviev, S. L. , and Ch. N. Go 1974. A catalogue of tsunamis on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, 439 p. [Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences No. 5077, 1984, translation available from Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A OS2, 447 p. ] [ 11 ]. Maso, Rev.
Miguel Saderra 1910 Catalogue of Violent and Destructive Earthquakes in the Philippines, with an Appendix, Earthquakes in the Marianas Islands; 1599-1909. Department of the Interior, Philippine Islands Weather Bureau, Manila Central Observatory, 1910. [ 12 ]. Lomnitz, C. 1974 Development in Geotectonics #5, Global Tectonics and Earthquake Risk, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co. , Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1974. [ 13 ]. Ibid, Soloviev. [ 14 ]. Milne, J. 1911 Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes, Report of the 81st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Portsmouth, London, United Kingdom, pp. 49-740. Sevilla, Valenzuela and Bellosiool 1965 Seismicity of the Philippines. Individual Studies by Participants to the International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Tokyo, Japan, December 1965, Volume 2, Part 1, p. 34-63. [ 15 ]. Ramirez Martin, Susana Maria. El terremoto de Manila de 1863: medidas, politicas y economicas. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 2006. Pp. 1-155. [ 16 ]. http://www. ngdc. noaa. gov/idb/struts/results? EQ_0=928=101650=8=22,26,13,12=display. Fedor’s account however pegged the destruction at US$ 8 million. [ 17 ].
Jagor’s Travels in the Philippines in the “The Former Philippines thu Foreign Eyes” (The out-of-print 1875 English translation corrected from the original German text). [ 18 ]. Diseases spread very rapidly in Manila during colonial times because of unsanitary conditions and lack of an immunization program by the government. Linda A. Newson, “Conquest, pestilence and demographic collapse in the early Spanish Philippines. “ in Journal of Historical Geography, Volume 32, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 3-20. [ 19 ]. Catalina is a Spanish-Chinese mestiza from the province of Zambales. [ 20 ]. Hermenegildo Cruz.
Ang Kartilya ng Katipunan, November 1922, p. 6. From the Gutenberg Project. [ 21 ]. The place was then a very promising area for Filipinos who want to become traders. It was on June 28, 1875 when a royal decree from Spain was passed regarding the establishment of a railway system in Luzon, with its key central station in Tutuban Tondo Manila. | | [ 22 ]. J. M. Vaquero, “ Early Meteorological records of Manila: El Nino episode of 1864” in Atmosfera 18(3), 149-155 (2005). [ 23 ]. Wilson Y. Lee Flores, “Rizal’s “rags-to-riches” ancestor from South China, “ Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 26, 1999. [ 24 ].
The location of the Parian moved from time to time and persisted until 1790. The first Parian was situated in the current location of the Arroceros Forest Park along the banks of the Pasig River. The second Parian was built in 1583 after the first Parian burned down. The oringal location is now called Liwasang Bonifacio. The area endured until the end of the 18th century. The Chinese community later moved to other parts of Manila including Binondo, Sta. Cruz, and Tondo. The second-to-last Parian was shaped liked an octagon and was also built near Pasig River. [ 25 ]. Sangley, the term used by the Spaniards for the
Chinese, comes from the word siong-tay, literally “often comes” in Hokkien. [ 26 ]. Craig, Austin. Lineage Life and Labors of Jose Rizal Philippine Patriot:A Study of the Growth of Free Ideas in the Trans-Pacific American Territory. Manila:Philippine Education Company,1913,p. 27. [ 27 ]. In October 25, 1593, a group of Chinese traders and merchants led by Pua Ho Go (P’an Ho Wu in Mandarin) led some 250 Chinese in a revolt against the Spaniards. Pua was part of the Spanish expedition to the fort of Terrenate in the Molucca Islands led by Governor General Gomez Perez Dasmarinas.
Dasmarinas headed a military expeditionary force composed of 80 Spaniards and 250 Chinese gallery slaves to invade the Moluccas islands. The expedition was slated to depart from Cavite but had to maroon itself in the Spanish fort in Batangas. The plan was to meet up with the fleet of Dasmarinas’ son, Luis, which was then in the port of Pintados. Unknown to the Spaniards, the Chinese slaves had already planned a mutiny. At midnight, while all the Spaniards were sleeping, Pua and the slaves killed everyone except a Franciscan friar and his secretary. [ 28 ]. Craig, p. 20. [ 29 ].
Based on Dr. Eus
