Posts made in June, 2011

The Sesquicentennial of Dr. Jose Rizal’s birth: An Introduction

Posted on Jun 19, 2011 in Articles

I am a Filipino. In my blood runs the immortal seed of heroes—seed that flowered down the centuries in deeds of courage and defiance. In my veins yet pulses the same hot blood that sent Lapulapu to battle against the alien foe, that drove Diego Silang and Dagohoy into rebellion against the foreign oppressor.

That seed is immortal. It is the self-same seed that flowered in the heart of Jose Rizal that morning in Bagumbayan when a volley of shots put an end to all that was mortal of him and made his spirit deathless forever; the same that flowered in the hearts of Bonifacio in Balintawak, of Gergorio del Pilar at Tirad Pass, of Antonio Luna at Calumpit; that bloomed in flowers of frustration in the sad heart of Emilio Aguinaldo at Palanan, and yet burst fourth royally again in the proud heart of Manuel L. Quezon when he stood at last on the threshold of ancient Malacañan Palace, in the symbolic act of possession and racial vindication.

—Carlos P. Romulo, I am a Filipino

To commemorate the sesquicentennial of the birth of Jose Rizal, the website of the Presidential Museum and Library makes its debut today, June 19, 2011. Rizal himself was familiar with Malacañan Palace, as the extract we are publishing online from the official history of the Palace explains (1); we are also republishing extracts from Rizal’s diary and letters, recounting his visits to the Palace, as well as a telegram quoted by one of his early biographers (2).

The official history tells us that Rizal’s sisters went to the Palace to plead for the life of their brother; and that they were turned away. The legend that arose from this event is even more heart-rendering, and is recounted by the first Filipino to reside in the Palace as the elected head of his people. Manuel L. Quezon, in his autobiography, The Good Fight, wrote,

From the grandstand, I went through streets crowded with people acclaiming their first President, on to the Palace of Malacañan, the great mansion on the bank of the Pasig River which had been the seat of power of foreign rulers for many decades past. As I stepped out of the presidential car and walked over the marble floor of the entrance hall, and up the wide stairway, I remembered the legend of the mother of Rizal, the great Filipino martyr and hero, who went up those stairs on her knees to seek executive clemency from the cruel Spanish Governor-General Polavieja, that would save her son’s life.  This story had something to do with my reluctance to believe that capital punishment should ever be carried out.  As a matter of fact, during my presidency, no man ever went to the electric chair. At the last moment I always stayed the hand of the executioner.

Since the time of the Commonwealth, a portrait of Rizal has been prominently displayed in the Palace. The largest and most prominent room in the Palace today, the Ceremonial Hall, is named after the nation’s foremost hero and man of letters.

(1) Malacañan Palace in the time of Rizal

(2) Rizal, his sisters, and Malacañan Palace

Rizal, his sisters, and Malacañan Palace

Posted on Jun 19, 2011 in Articles

José Rizal and Being Known For The Enemy (1887, 1892)

It was not long after I had begun to write a letter, and was already virtually finished with it, when I was summoned by the Governor General …

My book [Noli me Tangere] has raised a great storm, and everyone is asking me for it. They wanted to anathematize me and the General summons me to obtain a copy of the same. He told me: You have written a novel that has caused much comment; they tell me there are subversive ideas in it. I want to read it.”

“General—I told him—I have the intention of sending copies to Your Excellency and to the Archbishop as soon as I receive them from Europe. I did not have more than one copy and I gave it to a friend. If Your Excellency permits it, I will search for one.”

“I not only permit it, but command it.”

I went to the Jesuits to obtain their copy, but they did not want to be parted with it; thus it was that I had to take to the General a copy quite dirty. He received me with more friendliness and asked me whether or not I will return to my home [in Calamba] …

-José Rizal, Letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt, Calamba, September 5, 1887

*

I arrived at Manila on June 26 [1892], Sunday, at 12 in the morning. I was met by many guards, including a commandant. There was in addition a captain and a sergeant of the G[uardia] C[ivil] V[eterana] in disguise. I descended with my luggage and passed the Customs. From there I went to the Hotel de Oriente where I occupied Room 22 that gives out on the church of Binondo.

In the afternoon, at 4, I presented myself to His Excellency [at Malacañan] and was told to return at 7. At 7, I met with him and was granted my father’s freedom, but not that of my brother’s. He told me to return on Wednesday at 7:30. From there I went to see my sisters. I met first with my sister Nacisa [López], later with Neneng [Saturnina Hidalgo].

On the following day, I went at 6 in the morning to the railway station to go to Bulacan and Pampanga. I visted Malolos, San Fernando and Tarlac and, on the way back, Bacolor. I arrived in Manila on Tuesday at 5 in the afternoon.

At 7:30 on Wednesday I met with His Excellency, and again did not obtain the lifting of the exile; but he gave me hope for my brothers. As it was the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, our interview was ended at 9:15, with arrangements for me to present myself on the following day at 7:30.

On Thursday the following day we spoke of the Borneo question and the General showed himself opposed to it, indeed very opposed.  He told me to return on Sunday.

On Sunday I returned, we spoke of indifferent things and I was made to give thanks for the exile of my brothers having been lifted. I announced that my father and brother would arrive on the first mailboat. He asked me if I wanted to leave and return to Hong Kong; I told him yes. He told me to return on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, he asked me if I insisted on my desire to return to Hong Kong; I told him yes. After some conversation, he told me that I had brought manifestos in my luggage; I told him that I had not. He asked me to whom could the pillows and bed mats belong; I told him they were my sister’s. With this reason he told me that I would be sent to Fort Santiago.

Don Ramon Despujol, his nephew and aide, took me in a Palace carriage…

On Thursday the 14^th in the evening, at 5:30 or 6, the nephew came to notify me that at 10 at night I would leave for Dapitan. I prepared my luggage and was ready at 10; but as they did not come to get me I slept.  At 12:15 they came for me: the aide brought the same carriage that I had taken, and by the gate of Santa Lucia was taken to the Pier…

The Cebu left at 1 in the morning…

-José Rizal, Diary, 1892

***

The Rizal Sisters and Cries for Mercy (1896)

The sisters of Rizal went to the gates of the palace of Malacañang, where they waited for Polavieja to emerge. When he finally appeared, they “collapsed into tears”, “throwing themselves at his feet, pleading for clemency. The General would have wished that the fulfillment of unavoidable duties could permit to identify the clemency of authority with the pity of his own intimate feelings.”

-Wenceslao Emilio Retana, Vida y Escritos del Dr. José Rizal, 1907, citing a telegram by correspondent Santiago Mataix to the Heraldo de Madrid which was published in the evening edition of December 29, 1896

Malacañan Palace in the time of Rizal

Posted on Jun 19, 2011 in Articles

(From Malacañan Palace: The Official Illustrated History)

Rizal and the Palace

Things now moved a little slower and more true to form that was seen with [General Joaquín] Jovellar under whom papers and funds had moved with admirable dispatch, but the new azotea may well have been completed when Rizal, the most celebrated and notorious proponent of liberal reform of his generation, was ordered to visit [Lieutenant General Emilio] Terrero at Malacañan in late August or early September 1887. Ordered to give an explanation for his novel Noli Me Tangere – a scathing portrayal of the Spanish administration and the religious orders branded immediately as subversive and subsequently banned – Terrero confronted Rizal in his office at the Palace and actually asked for a copy of the book that he may know what all the fuss was about. Rizal returned a second time to bring one to Terrero who “received me with more friendliness.”[i]

Terrero was to suffer for his relative leniency in matters such as this – behavior that was anathema to the conservatives. Probably due to their influence in Madrid, he was relieved from office in March 1888 after an alarming and sizeable public demonstration, which was held against the Archbishop and the religious orders. His replacement was the more intimidating Marqués of Tenerife, General Valeriano Wéyler…

…Malacañan as the stage for the display of Spanish prestige would find its most exquisite expression in Wéyler’s successor. Lieutenant General Eulogio Despujol, the Count of Caspe, arrived on the last day of November 1891. From a noble Catalan family, and with a wife, Vicenta Vasquez Queipo de Despujol, of equal stature, both Count and Countess would set a new standard for entertainment and display at the Palace as well as usher in an Indian summer of relative tolerance and many reforms before things would change forever after the handful of years to follow…

Despujol’s reputation as “the fairest, most honorable and most liberal Viceroy the Philippines have ever known” had reached Hong Kong, where the leading Filipino reformer José Rizal had settled the previous year.[ii] Inspired by the possibilities of the new regime, he returned to Manila in June 1892, informing the Governor and Captain General of his intention to call at Malacañan upon his arrival. In his diary, Rizal records five visits to Despujol at the palace, the last of which, on Wednesday, July 13, ended with being led to Fort Santiago and exile to Dapitan in Mindanao. What had turned the initially receptive Governor, who was a devout Catholic, against Rizal was the discovery of literature, supposedly within Rizal’s luggage denouncing the church and papacy as well as the colonial regime…

The conservatives could never have allowed the liberal Despujol to serve a complete term in office – and indeed he was suddenly relieved in February 1893 and replaced by Lieutenant General Ramon Blanco y Erenas, Marqués of Peña Plata.

The Palace and the Revolution

By this time, being all too aware of the forces behind Despujol’s recall, a climate of unrest had gathered in Manila among the Filipinos, and security for the Governor became a renewed concern.

February 1896 saw a proposal, based on security concerns, – timely in view of the events which would take place six months later – to build a stone perimeter wall on Malacañan’s northeast side. “The residence of the highest authority of these islands must be surrounded with all due conditions of security.”[iii] Apparently, such a wall had still not been built. The project was approved and the contractor, Moises Salvador, hired.[iv]

Ironically, Salvador himself was a member of the Katipunan, a secret society founded to overthrow Spanish rule, and with its discovery and the consequent outbreak of the revolution on led by Andrés Bonifacio at the end of August, the last days of Spanish Malacañan began. Gone certainly were the Despujol days of ceremony and society and the symbol of a benevolent motherland.

Blanco removed himself from Malacañan during Bonifacio’s campaign in the hinterland behind San Juan del Monte. But while the General’s political enemies would accuse him of running off to the safety of Intramuros in an act of cowardice, Blanco would later, back in Madrid, tell the Senate that he had moved to the city (most likely the Palace of Santa Potenciana once again), “because it is well known that at the distance which Malacañang is from Manila, it is not possible to direct any [military] operation with precision and skill.” His family, however, remained, attended by the major domo, who was a peninsular Spaniard, and the 54 native servants “who for all functions are at Malacañang” – and none of which deserted to join the rebels.[v]

The Palace was actually not far from defensive perimeter established by Blanco against Bonifacio’s forces and later against the fighting led by Emilio Aguinaldo to the south of Manila in Cavite. Advanced posts were established at nearby Sampaloc, Nagtajan, Santa Mesa and Pandacan across the river. The honor guard at Malacañan was included as support for the soldiers along this reach as well as responsible for policing the river.[vi]

Despite his relocation, Blanco seems to have maintained his general presence at Malacañan – which was therefore to play its part in the ending of Rizal’s life. For after Rizal, shortly after leaving Dapitan for Cuba, had been arrested for alleged complicity in the Katipunan uprising, the results of the preliminary investigation and the approval of the charges prepared against the Filipino were referred to the Palace. For instance, on December 13, 1896, the papers concerning the charges, testimonies, evidence, and refutations were sent back to Malacañan for a final decision.[vii]

On this very day, however, Blanco – whose policy of regarding the uprising as a localized incident did not please those who believed sterner measures were called for – was replaced by a general who had just arrived in Manila.

This man, Camilo García de Polavieja, Marqués of Pidal, must also likewise have kept a presence at Malacañan, because after the court martial had found Rizal guilty and passed a death sentence on him, the judgment was endorsed to Malacañan which passed it on to the Judge Advocate General who agreed with it and recommended execution by firing squad at a place and time of the Governor’s choosing. Thus it was that within the walls of Malacañan, on 28 December 1896, Polavieja gave the order for Rizal to be shot at seven in the morning of the 30th in the field of Bagumbayan. [viii]

The Palace would see one final and famous drama in this affair that became a defining moment for a nation yet unborn, when that very evening Rizal’s sisters waited at the Palace gates to appeal to the Governor, who declined.[ix]