ONCE UPON a time, Teodoro A. Agoncillo, in response to persistent requests for historical markers relative to Jose Rizal, growled, “Aba! Pati ba naman eskinitang inihian ni Rizal ibig lagyan ng marker!?”
I remembered Agoncillo as we celebrated Rizal’s 150th birthday with many different activities and I am glad that most, if not all, Rizal markers were installed and unveiled on or around his 100th birthday in 1961. If the Historical Commission were to entertain all the requests for “Rizal slept here” markers, it would need a bigger budget from the national government to fabricate such heavy metal markers. Now retired from the commission, I have drafted a marker to be installed outside my home in the future that reads: “Tahanan ni Dr. Ambeth R. Ocampo, Tagapangulo ng Pambansang Komisyon Pangkasaysayan (2002-2011). Sa pook na ito, noong 1896-1898, panahon ng Rebolusyong Pilipino, walang nangyari.”
Agoncillo’s sarcastic remark on Rizal markers reminded me of dogs who raise their legs and deliberately pee on objects bigger than themselves to mark their territory. Perhaps the Historical Commission installs cast-iron markers all over the archipelago not just to mark territory but to remind people of a historical event or person who once lived in their midst. I have always maintained that before a child learns “national” history he must learn “local” history, the history of his place. However, one does wonder whether people read these markers, because it seems the only ones interested in them are scrap metal dealers. Aside from disappearing cast-iron man-holes and railings on overpasses, historical markers do have base metal value.
Today, July 6, Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim will lay a wreath in front of statues of Katipuneros that now marks the spot where the Katipunan was born. A stone house with a red tile roof once stood on 72 Azcarraga corner Elcano Street in Tondo. It was there on the evening of July 6, 1892 that charter members of the Katipunan met to discuss the arrest and deportation of Jose Rizal who, days before, had founded and organized the Liga Filipina in a house in Ilaya Street, Tondo.
One could say that the revolutionary Katipunan grew out of the reformist Liga. There is slight confusion here because liga and katipunan literally mean the same thing though they had different ends and different means to achieve those ends.
A heavy bronze marker on Azcarraga Street reads:
“El pueblo Filipino mediante de la durabilidad del bronce consagra y perpetua el valor historico de esta casa, cuna de las reinvidicaciones populares donde el 6 de julio de 1892 nacio para luchar y triunfar acaudillada por Andres Bonifacio la muy alta y muy respetable asociacion de los hijos del pueblo, El Katipunan.” (The Filipino people through the durability of bronze, consecrate and perpetuate the historical value of this house, cradle of popular revindications, where on July 6, 1892 was born, to fight and triumph, under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, the most exalted and most venerable association of the Sons of the People, the Katipunan.)
It’s a very inspiring text indeed, different from a detailed marker on Ilaya that reads:
“Remember. In front of this site and in the house on Calle Ilaya No. 176, Dr. Rizal founded and organized on the night of July 3, 1892 the La Liga Filipina, a Secret National League, in the presence and with the approval of the following:
“Dr. Jose Rizal, Founder, Executed. Board of Directors: Ambrosio Salvador, President, Imprisoned; Agustin de la Rosa, Fiscal, Imprisoned; Bonifacio Arevalo, Treasurer, Imprisoned; Deodato Arellano, Secretary, imprisoned (first president of the Katipunan).
“Members: Andres Bonifacio, Supremo of the Katipunan which gave the first battle cry against tyranny on August 24, 1896; Mamerto Natividad, who seconded in Nueva Ecija the movement headed by Bonifacio on August 29, 1896, Executed; Domingo Franco, Supremo of Liga Filipina, Executed; Moises Salvador, Worshipful Master of the Lodge Balagtas, Executed; Numeriano Adriano, Senior Warden of the Lodge Balagtas, Executed; Jose A. Dizon, Worshipful Master of the Lodge Taliba, Executed; Apolinario Mabini, Legislator, Imprisoned; Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, Patriot of ’68, Imprisoned; Timoteo Lanuza, Leader of the Rally calling for the expulsion of the friars in 1888, Imprisoned; Marcelino de los Santos, Compromisario and Protector of La Solidaridad, organ of the Filipinos in Madrid, Imprisoned; Paulino Zamora, Venerable Master of the Lodge Lusong, Deported; Doroteo Ong-junco, Member of the Lodge Luong, Owner of the house; Arcadio del Rosario, Orator of the Lodge Balagtas, Imprisoned; Timoteo Paez, Imprisoned.
“The people of Tondo erected this monument to perpetuate the memory of the illustrious patriots, and the mother of Dr. Rizal unveiled it in the presence of the families of the martyred Filipinos, officers of Masonic lodges, and of the associations Samahan ng may Pagasa and Club de Martires Filipinos. Tondo, Manila, P.I. December 30, 1903.”
I don’t know if the marker is still extant, but the above text is quoted in T. M. Kalaw’s “Philippine Revolution” (1925). I have been advised to visit cemeteries and read history off tombstones, but historical markers are more informative and better located, if only more people read and cared for them.
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