Descendants of ‘anti-cleric’ are devoutly Catholic

With public interest trained on the Basa family as an offshoot of the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, I looked into some papers from my previous research works on the family patriarch Jose Maria Basa.

Basa was a very anti-clergy propagandist from the revolutionary period. He purportedly wrote “Escandaloso, horrendo y punible delito perpetrado en el Monasterio de Santa Clara por el Fraile Franciscano, Vicario de la misma” (A scandalous, horrendous, and punishable delict perpetrated in the Monastery of Saint Clare by a Franciscan Friar, vicar of the same). The article was most probably published in Hong Kong, where Basa was then based.

The leaflet details in Spanish the supposed horrible fate of one “Sor Pepita” who was said to have been forced by the abbess of the monastery to submit to the illicit advances of its Franciscan curate. Sor Pepita was said to have been so disgusted as to climb to the rooftop of the old monastery in Intramuros to escape and was seen by a couple of Guardia Civil. An investigation from the civil authorities then ensued, although penalties were not meted out supposedly because of bribes from the Franciscan friars.

The article ends with the line “Fuera los cannalas frailes, y vengan clerigos peninsulares” (Down with rascal friars and come peninsular priests)! The story from the pamphlet would later be immortalized in Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere,” where Maria Clara tries to evade the same monastery in the same manner. Details from the archives of the Monasterio de Santa Clara, particularly from a manuscript by Sor Carmen de San Miguel Arcangel, OSC, give some credence to the story.

Indeed, one Sor San Rafael who had been experiencing some mental problems (not because of the alleged illicit going-ons in the monastery) tried to escape the monastery, only to be brought back by authorities. She died in the monastery after two years due to illnesses.

I find it interesting and quite ironic that the two feuding branches of Jose Maria Basa’s descendants both project themselves as living in the bosom of the Catholic Church. On one side of the fence, we have the deceased Sr. Concepcion Basa and the nonagenarian Sr. Flory Basa, an FMM (Franciscan Missionary of Mary) as fate would have it.

On the other side is Cristina Basa Roco, wife of the Chief Justice, who has been sponsoring sets of novena Masses in the Supreme Court since late last year, with no less than three  Catholic bishops officiating in the Masses.

—AARON JAMES R. VELOSO,

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