He was exiled, imprisoned and tortured because of his revolutionary ideas.
Francisco Alvarez, the Caramoanon who was elected to the Philippine Assembly in 1907 in the first such election in the country for a national office and clashed swords with Sergio Osmeña who became Speaker and Manuel Quezon who emerged as Majority Leader, is among the top choices for the Most Outstanding Caramoanon award to be conferred by CRANE from May 1 to 8, 2007 during its Balik Caramoan project.
He actually deserves to be recognized as a national hero because of his role in the Philippine Revolution.
Alvarez, who was born in 1852 and was 55 years old when he was elected Camarines Sur delegate along with Tomas Arejola and Manuel Rey, was an escribano auxiliar of the Court of First Instance in the 1880’s and was a councilor of the first ayuntamiento formed in Nueva Caceres (Naga).
He became a member of the provincial government of Camarines Sur under the Aguinaldo revolutionary government. He served as Consejero de Justicia under this regime and became editor of La Union, a revolutionary weekly published in Nueva Caceres. He later edited another periodical La Paz until 1902. In 1903 he acquired license to practice law revalidated by the Supreme Court.
Around 1896, because of his prominence and liberal ideas he was implicated by envious Spaniards in the revolutionary movement and labeled as one of the personas suspechosas. He was arrested and deported to Fernando Poo in Africa and was able to return to the Philippines only after the signing of the Treaty of Biaknabato late in 1897.
Francisco Alvarez’ travails and involvement in the revolutionary movement must in fact be reviewed by the National Historical Commission for possible inclusion among the heroes of the Philippine Revolution according to CRANE president Dominador C. Alarkon, Jr.
Alarkon said he will gather more exhaustive data, including pictures, about the life of the distinguished Caramoanon who had accomplished so much in his lifetime for his country but is hardly known today among the people of his hometown and the province.
An article by Jose Fernando Obias in his own newspaper THE PAPER in its June, 2000 issue provides a glimpse into the revolutionary life of Francisco Alvarez.
He wrote: “One of the passengers-prisoners (in the boat Isla de Luzon which sailed toward Fernando Poo in Africa) was Francisco Alvarez, a native of Caramoan in the province of Camarines.
Born on June 13, 1952, Alvarez had his primary school in his hometown. To the Seminario Concilliar de Nueva Caceres he repaired for his secondary studies and later finished his collegiate studies in the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. He finished his law studies in the Universidad de Sto. Tomas in 1876 and was licensed by the Supreme Court to practice law in 1903.
He was an escribano of the Juzgado de Primera Instancia in Camarines Sur under the Spanish government.
On November 12, 1889, the Spanish government established an Ayuntamiento in the provinces of Albay, Batangas, Camarines Sur, Ilocos Sur, Cebu, Jaro and Iloilo. In Nueva Caceres, the Ayuntamiento counted Alvarez as one of its councilors.
From the period 1891-1892 he was Juez de Paz in the town of Lagonoy, Ambos, Camarines.
The uprising in 1896 in Cavite and the discovery of the Katipunan had political repercussions in Ambos Camarines and in the crackdown that followed Alvarez, one of the most influential in the Camarines political firmament, was one of those implicated in the plan to overthrow the Spanish government. He was imprisoned. He was tortured. But he was spared the sentence of death before a firing squad. Instead he was exiled to Fernando Poo in Africa.
He was freed from prison and his exile ended at the instance and petition of the Colonia Reformista de Filipinas in Madrid before the Ministro de Ultramar D. Segismundo Moret y Predergast.
Upon his release, Alvarez proceeded to Spain and stayed in Barcelona for a year. On March 28, 1898 he left for the Philippines and spent a month traveling before he stepped on his native soil, just in time for the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.
As Manila fell into the hands of the Americans after a mock war with the Spaniards on August 3, 1898 he left for Naga and joined the revolutionary army set up by General Vicente Lukban. By this time Nueva Caceres was liberated from Spanish rule by guardia civil Felix Plazo and Elias Angeles who handed to General Lukban the reign of the revolutionary government in October of that year.
The Malolos Republic which set up the civilian government in the provinces had him counted as among the designated consejero in Camarines Sur. He held on to his office until the Americans arrived in Camarines Sur in 1900.
He joined the Patido Federal set up to lay down the foundations of peace in the province under the Americans. He was also instrumental in persuading General Ludovico Arejola, leader of the Resistance forces in Camarines and Catanduanes, to surrender to the Americans and to accept their offer of peace on March 31, 1901.
Alvarez also founded and managed the paper La Paz which he published in Nueva Caceres.
For the year 1901-1902 he was Juez de Paz in Nueva Caceres. He was also the representative of the third district of Ambos Camarines in the National Assembly. While at the Assembly he was member of the committees on Public Works, on Industry and Commerce, on Municipal and Provincial Government and on Terrenos de los Frailes.
He died in Manila on July 1925.
