(This article by the late eminent law professor and journalist Atty. Luis General Jr. graphically shows the lack of conclusive proof that the 15 Bicol Martyrs for whom a monument was erected in Naga City all deserved to be honored. This article was first published ten years ago in another publication by the PENINSULA MONITOR editor but after that length of time the Naga City government has not shown any initiative to unravel the truth about these hazy alleged martyrs - EDITOR )
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Naga City monument to alleged martyrs |
At least 4 of the 15 Bikol Martyrs were Tagalogs. At least 2 more were sons of a Tagalog. Three of them were public works employees, one was the chief of the night watchmen, 3 were priests, one a pharmacist, another one a photographer, one was a millionare who was the clerk of court of the CFI and a notary public; none was a lawyer. Only one had a reputation as a filibustero. There is no strong evidence that anyone of them had any connection with the katipunan. We know very little of the life of 7 of them, and more research is needed to determine even the maternal family name of 9 of them. These are some of the interesting items that come out of a study of the martyrdom of the 15 filipinos in whose honor the monument in this city was erected by the people of Camarines Sur.
There is indeed, a pitiful dearth of material on the life of some of the men we call martyrs to the cause of the Philippines Revolution. The most serious and comprehensive study so far undertaken is “An Mga Sinarakit na Bikolnon” written by Ignacio Meliton and Jacinto Ursua about 50 years ago. The manuscript kept by the UNC Museum has 104 pages, typewritten single-spaced on short sized mimeograph paper. The publication of this work, so that it could be easily available to the public, could be a project that could contribute immensely to the promotion of Bikol Culture. The late Vice Mayor Pat Obias said much when he called attention to the lack of middle initials in the names of the Martyrs as shown in their monument. (Again, a careless underling ordered to repaint the names on the monument pulled another boner. This time, Rev. Fr. Inocencio Herrera was denied his ecclesiastic title.) In fact, it was Pat’s question on the initials that made me reread “An Mga Sinarakit”.
Even Messrs. Meliton and Ursua, however, could not fully answer the question. This is particularly true with the Tagalogs, whose parents were never mentioned, most probably because the authors had no way of knowing, or they did not have the opportunity to research further. The Tagalogs were: Fr. Herrera, a native of Pateros, Rizal; Manuel Abella, Catanauan, Tayabas (now Quezon); Florencio Lerma, Quiapo, Manila; and Mariano Melgarejo, Sta. Cruz, Manila, Abella’s sons, Domingo (uncle and namesake of the historian) and Ramon, had of a course, a Tagalog for their father.
But why were Tagalogs were included in a group identified as “Bikol Martyrs”? The circumstances common among all the 15 are that they were all residents of Camarines Sur (when this city was still its capital town).All were Filipinos, and all suffered from the heavy hand of Spanish tyranny. Thus, even the monument itself, erected some 60 years ago under the auspices of the provincial board of Camarines Sur, headed by Governor Julian Ocampo, does not mention the phrase “Bikol Martyrs”; it refers to the 15 honored by the monuments as “Martires del ‘96”.
There was no apparent intent to exclude other Bicolanos or residents of Bicol who died under similar circumstances. The provincial board of Camarines Sur then must have known or that it had no authority to declare who were the martyrs in other provinces of this region, and thus it honored with the monument only those who were residents of Camarines Sur, regardless of their places of birth. This is evident in the monuments dedicatory statement: “El Pueblo de Camarines Sur a sus Quince Martires de ‘96” (The people of Camarines Sur to their Martyrs of ’96). This is further supported by the fact that 3 Albayanos – Agustino Samson, Enrique Villareal and Bonifacio Villareal – were also exiled to the island of Fernando Poo off the western coasts of Africa, like Ramon Abella and Mariano Arana, and died there of Malaria like Arana (Ramon Abella died in jail in Cartagena, Spain). If Arana was a Bikol Martyr, why not Samson and the 2 Villareals?
The earliest references to the “Bikol Martyrs” were in the journalistic reports and in the writing of Filipino nationalists. In fact, some of these made mention of 13 Bikol Martyrs. This was, because there were 13 men executed together on the Luneta that morning of 4 January 1897 (only 5 days after Rizal suffered martyrdom of the same field in Bagumbayan, Manila). They were: the 3 priests, Rev. Frs. Gabriel Prieto y Antonio, Severino Diaz y Lanuza, Inocencio Herrera; Manuel Abella and his son, Domingo Abella y Isaac; Tomas Prieto y Antonio, younger brother of the priest; Mariano Arana y Valenciano, Camilo Jacob y Soledad, Florencio Lerma, Cornelio Mercado, Macario Valentin; Rafael Gutierrez and Francisco Valera.
The last named above, mentioned in a poem written by Mariano Perfecto, were not among the 53 who were arrested in 1896 in this city, in Camarines Sur and Norte and in Albay, and brought to Manila for trial. We can now only presume that they were 2 of the numberless Tagalogs who were killed in the reign of terror that followed the discovery pf the katipunan. But, since 11 of the group of 13 came from this region, the journalists reporting on the event identified the entire group as Bicol revolutionaries, to distinguish them from those from Manila and the Tagalog provinces (e.g. the martyrs of Cavite) who were also executed on the Luneta.
The 4 others included in the list of 15 died in jail or in exile, certainly less dramatic than the mass execution on the Luneta of the 11. It just happened that all the 11 were residents of Camarines Sur. Although 4 of them were Tagalogs, they had resided here long enough to sink their roots deep enough.
