Friars and karma

Growing up with vivid images of lecherous Spanish friars and abusive Guardia Civil from grade school and high school courses in Philippine history and literature, I was surprised to see the flip side of the coin in college when we were required to go through the 55-volume compilation of Spanish-era documents on the Philippines known to scholars as the “Blair and Robertson.” Here I read about the work of early missionaries who established hospitals and schools, and erected churches in the heart of settlements that later developed into our towns, cities and provinces.

I was taught that Spanish friars destroyed the existing native culture and planted their own instead. Yet unlike many Spanish Americans who speak Spanish to this day, Filipinos still speak their regional languages because these were preserved in grammars and dictionaries compiled by the early missionaries. The Doctrina Cristiana, one of the two earliest books printed in the Philippines, in 1593, preserved the baybayin to become the Rosetta Stone that enables us in the 21st century to read this ancient script. There is only one known copy of the Doctrina Tagala in the universe, preserved in the US Library of Congress that has made it available online for research and even downloading.

Our K-to-12 history curriculum should invite textbook writers to revisit friars in our history. It will come as a surprise to many that some towns during the Philippine Revolution were split over how to deal with or dispose of captured Spanish friars. Contrary to popular belief, some people and some communities protected Spanish priests from the excesses of the Revolution. But not all were lucky: Some were either tortured or executed. In 1897 the people of Maragondon, Cavite, refused to have the blood of friars spilled in their town and moved a group of prisoners to Naic where they were maltreated and executed. The story becomes significant because Maragondon was the site of the execution of the Bonifacio brothers, Andres and Procopio, on Mount Nagpatong, near Mount Buntis, on May 10, 1897. Some people believed that the end of the Bonifacios in Maragondon was karma for the torture and killing of Spanish friars by one of Andres’ brothers and their execution on orders of Andres himself.

A contemporary account by Telesforo Canseco, an employee at the Dominican hacienda, was translated from the original Spanish by the Jesuit Fathers Pedro S. Achutegui and Miguel Bernad, who published it in a readable compilation of documents titled “Aguinaldo and the Revolution of 1896: A Documentary History” (Manila, Ateneo de Manila, 1972):

“After the fall of Silang to the Spanish troops, several Spanish friars were brought prisoners to this town (Naic), namely Fathers Agapito Echegoyen, Recoleto and Parish priest of Amadeo; Domingo Candenas, Augustinian and parish priest of Talisay; Piernavieja, an Augustinian who was sick at Buenavista at the outbreak of the insurrection… I am told that Fr. Echegoyen and Fr. Candenas had been well treated when they were in the territory of E. Aguinaldo, but after they were transferred [from Magdalo to Magdiwang] territory of M. Alvarez, they were no longer treated with so much consideration. On the day that the feast of [Soledad de Nuestra Señora] was celebrated at San Francisco in November, Fr. Echegoyen was made to swear to the flag of the insurrection because they did not trust him. But after the coming of Andres Bonifacio and of his brothers to this province (Cavite), the friars were sent to prison with the rest and were made to suffer much.

“When in the month of October I was brought a prisoner to San Francisco and from there to Buenavista, I spoke to the Fathers who were kept prisoners there, confined in the same shed where [I] was also kept prisoner, and I saw that they were not treated with proper consideration. Afterwards, although I do not know the exact day or month, it became public knowledge in this town, and they assured me of it in San Francisco when I was a prisoner there that a brother of Andres Bonifacio had beaten up the Fathers in Buenavista, and that on one occasion he had whipped them with thorns (aromas) and with reeds on the soles of their feet, in such a manner that the Fathers would have preferred to be shot to death. Learning of this from the Minister of Finance, Diego Mojica was very angry against the brothers of A. Bonifacio and he forbade them to torture the Fathers again.”

Canseco attributed the maltreatment of the friars to Bonifacio and M. Alvarez who were “bad men in the matter of religion—especially Bonifacio [who was] a furious mason.” Another reason for the beating was that Fr. Piernavieja who had served in Bulacan implicated many in the events of 1872 best remembered for the execution of Gomburza. Fearing rescue of the friars by the Spanish forces, Bonifacio verbally ordered their execution, but the people of Maragondon refused and returned the captives to Naic where they were shot before a curious crowd on the evening of Feb. 28, 1897, in a spot on the boundary of Naic and Maragondon. Canseco said Aguinaldo’s good treatment of prisoners earned him goodwill that led to his election in Tejeros later.

History should be taught with all its nuances and complications so that K-to-12 students will learn to read critically rather than memorize data by rote.

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Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu