On This Day - June 19, 1861 - Dr. Jose P. Rizal, was born in Calamba, Laguna
On June 19, 1861, Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda,
Philippines National Hero, was born in Calamba, Laguna to Francisco
Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Morales Alonzo Realonda y
Quintos both of Chinese descent. Jose was the seventh of eleven
children, Jose was baptized by Father Rufino Collantes on June 22, 1861,
with Father Pedro Casanas as his godfather. Jose’s siblings were:
Saturnina, Paciano, Narcisa, Olimpia, Lucia, Maria, Concepcion, Josefa,
Trinidad and Soledad.
(Dr. Jose P. Rizal)
Early on, Jose manifested exceptional intelligence. He learned the
alphabet at the age of three from his mother and was trained to do
outdoor
activities like riding horses. Father Leoncio Lopez influenced him to
exude character that held high respect for the rights of others. At the
age of
nine, his parents sent him to study Biñan in the school of Don
Justiniano Aquino Cruz, who, after a few months, reported to his parents
that he had
nothing more to learn in school. Jose excelled in academics and in
physical activities.
Jose was allowed to study in Manila at the prodding of his brother,
Paciano. By this time, he was already using the second family name,
Rizal, in
order to avoid complications in his studies, which the Mercado family
name used by his brother Paciano could bring on him. His brother Paciano
had
earned the ire of the Spanish friars because of his relationship with
Father Jose Burgos. Jose passed the entrance examinations at Colegio de
San
Juan de Letran owned by the Dominicans but he chose to study at Ateneo
Municipal after learning that Dominican friars in Calamba were pursuing a
court case against his mother. In 1872, he was admitted at the Ateneo
through the help of Dr. Manuel Xeres Burgos, a nephew of Fr. Jose
Burgos, and
a close friend of Paciano. Burgos was able to convince Father Magin
Fernando to admit Rizal at Ateneo.
On March 14, 1877, Jose obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree at Ateneo
Municipal with high honors for excelling in academics. It was during his
student days in Ateneo that his extreme giftedness in poetry, writing,
painting and sculpture became known. One of the masterpieces he did at
Ateneo
was a sculpture of the statue of the sacred heart of Jesus and some of
his literary works have won prizes like: Felicitacion, Por La Educacion
Recibe Lustre la Patria, Un Recuerdo a mi pueblo, and El heroismo de colon.
In 1878, Jose studied Medicine, and Philosophy and Letters at the
University of Santo Tomas and at the same time pursued a course in
surveying at
the Ateneo. Alongside with his academic studies at UST, Rizal actively
participated in literary activities. He won first prize for his poem "A La
Juventud Filipina" (To the Filipino Youth) in the literary contest sponsored by the Liceo Literario Artistico. Because he was a native, he
experienced discrimination like when his entry "The Council of the Gods" which many spectators adjudged winner was awarded second to a work
of a Spaniard.
In 1882, Jose sailed to Spain where he hoped to have better education
and training, with the help of Paciano, his uncle Antonio Rivera and his
friend Chenggoy (Jose Cecilio). It was Antonio Rivera who helped secure
passage ticket for him to board the ship that would bring him to
Singapore
where he would take another ship to Spain.
(Left to right: Jose Rizal, Marcel del Pilar, and Mariano Ponce)
In 1884, he finished his licentiate in Medicine and his licentiate
in Philosophy and Letters, also at the Central University of Madrid on
June 19, 1885. By then, he was already deeply involved in the propaganda
movement, together with Mariano Ponce, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo
del Pilar among other patriotic Filipino students in Europe. He wrote
articles for reforms in the La Solidaridad newspaper.
One who had wielded influence among his countrymen abroad; Rizal’s
speeches in gatherings of Filipino students were considered a gem. His
speech,
honoring Juan Luna and Felix R. Hidalgo, who both won the top prizes for
their respective paintings during the Art Exposicion in Madrid in June
1884, saying: "Juan Luna and Felix R. Hidalgo are glories of Spain in the Philippines ..." was published in La Solidaridad.
Wanting to become an expert in the medical field, he trained under known
specialists in Europe, like under Dr. Louis de Wecker, a famous
ophthalmologist in Paris. He acquainted himself with other doctors like
Otto Bayer, and Hans Meyer in Heidelberg, Germany. Alongside with his
trainings and busy activities in the campaign for reforms was his
pursuit in literature. He translated Schiller’s William Tell and
Andersen’s Fairy
Tales to Tagalog. He joined prestigious scientific societies in Europe.
Rizal’s committed campaign for reforms in the Philippines led him to write his two novels: the Noli Me Tangere, and El Filibusterismo.
His first novel, partly written while he was staying in the home of a
Protestant Minister, Pastor Karl Ullmer, in Wilhelmsfeld town in
Heidelberg,
Germany, was published in March 1887 through the financial assistance of
his friend, Dr. Maximo Viola. His friend loaned him P300 to print the
first 2000 copies. Both of his novels portrayed the pathetic situation
of the Filipinos in the hands of the Spanish authorities and the
influential
Religious corporations. Copies of the novels were smuggled into the
country since the Spanish authorities banned them.
(Maximo Viola)
In May 1887, Rizal and Viola toured several cities in Europe before they
separated. Viola returned to Spain and Rizal passed by Italy on his way
back to the Philippines. He arrived in Manila on August 5, 1887. Several
days later, Rizal performed an operation on the eyes of her mother.
Word
spread about his expertise that patients started coming in but Rizal did
not only concentrate in treating his patients. He initiated sports like
sipa, arnis, and fencing in the hope of weaning his townspeople, who
dubbed him as Dr. Uleman (German) since he came from Germany, from
gambling and
other vices. Used to having outdoor activities, he explored the fields,
hills, and mountains. He hoisted a banner on Mt. Makiling.
Since the publication of his first novel, Rizal's life in the Philippines became different. The Spanish friars who declared Noli me Tangere,
impious, heretic, scandalous to the Catholic Church and injurious to
the government, hated him. Thus, the liberal-minded Spanish
Governor-General
Emilio Terrero, concerned for his safety advised him to leave.
On February 3, 1888, Rizal left Manila. He sailed to Hong Kong, where he
met Jose Ma. Basa. From Macao, he sailed to Japan, the United States,
and
in England. In Japan, the Spanish government offered Rizal a job as
interpreter but he chose to be on his own. After staying for almost two
months
in Japan where he learned about Japanese arts, language and culture, he
sailed to America. He left Japan on February 28, 1888 aboard the SS
Belgic.
He arrived in San Francisco on April 18, 1888, lodged at the Palace
Hotel and then took a transcontinental train to the US East Coast via
Chicago
and the Niagara Falls in Lake Ontario. He stayed at the Fifth Avenue
Hotel in New York for a while and sailed for England aboard the SS City
of
Rome, arriving at the Liverpool on May 24, 1888.
(Leonor Rivera)
(Beautiful Japanese, O-sei-san)
(Frenchwoman Nellie Bousted one of Rizal's love)
During his travels in different countries, Rizal was romantically linked
with different women. Among these ladies were: O-sei-san, a beautiful
Japanese girl of noble descent, who became his faithful guide and
interpreter; Gertrude “Tottie” Beckett, daughter of his landlord in
England; and
Nellie Bousted, a French whom he met in Paris; Susanne Jacoby of Belgium
and Consuelo Ortiga of Madrid. Among the Filipinas he was romantically
involved with were: Leonora Valenzuela of Intramuros, Leonor Rivera of
Tarlac and Segunda Katigbak of Batangas.
He Spoke Spanish, French, German, English, Dutch, Greek, Latin and
Tagalog. He had knowledge of Ilocano, Visayan, Russian, Sanskrit,
Arabic,
Swedish, Hebrew, Malayan, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian.
While in London, Rizal copied Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipina, published in 1609, which he planned to annotate. It was during
this
work that he became acquainted with Dr. Reinhold Rost, a librarian and
editor of Trubner’s Record. Rizal busied himself with other works while
in
England, he wrote the "Vision of Father Rodriguez" and "Letter to the Young Women of Malolos", both published in 1889.
In 1889, Rizal was in Paris where he published Morga's book with his
annotations, founded Indios Bravos and witnessed the International
Exposition.
On January 18, 1890, he moved to Belgium where he became close with Jose
Albert and Jose Alejandrino. Later, Albert would receive honor for his
contributions in the medical field while Alejandrino would be remembered
for fighting during the revolution against Spain and America. In
Belgium,
Rizal lived in poverty. The printing of his second novel, El
Filibusterismo, a sequel of Noli Me Tangere, was stopped because of
financial
constraints until Valentin Ventura, a rich compatriot, came to his aid.
Thus the book came out of the press on September 18, 1891.
Depressing news reached him from home. His sweetheart Leonor Rivera
married Engineer Kipping; his folks were ejected en masse from Calamba;
and the
Spanish officials who were sympathetic to the reform movement turned
hostile. He took his vacation at Biarritz at the invitation of the
Bousteds.
While there, Nellie Bousted proved to be a balm for his wounded
feelings. Later, he left for Paris then went to Marseilles and boarded
the SS
Melbourne for Hong Kong. With his dwindling funds, he received money for
his passage ticket sent to him by Jose Ma. Basa, a rich Filipino
merchant
who was living in exile in the British colony.
He arrived in Hong Kong on November 20, 1891. There, his family, ejected
from their lands in Calamba, joined him through the financial help
extended
by his compatriots led by Jose Anacleto Ramos (Ishikawa). He practiced
medicine to earn a living and at the same time, continued to support the
campaign for reforms and to look for ways that could better the lives of
the Filipinos. He proposed that a Filipino colony to accommodate
Filipinos
ousted from their lands in the Philippines be established. With funding
from his friends, he went to Borneo aboard the SS Memnon. The British
authorities were already agreeable to a 950-year lease of the proposed
colony in Borneo but the Spanish Governor General Emilio Despujol
refused to
allow the Filipinos to migrate in North Borneo.
On June 26, 1892, he arrived in Manila with his sister Lucia aboard the SS Don Juan. Few days after, on July 3, he founded the Liga Filipina
in the house of Doroteo Ongjunco on Ilaya Street in Tondo, Manila. The
association was aimed to unite the Filipinos and for them to help each
other in
times of need, and to encourage them to be educated and trained in
agriculture. The association was, however, short lived for after a few
days of
its founding, Rizal was arrested on flimsy charges. One of which was the
leaflet entitled Pobres Frailes, a sarcastic allusion to the friars
found
on his baggage when he arrived from Hong Kong.
(Eulogio Despujol)
Governor General Despujol published in the Gazette the reasons for his
arrest and copies were forwarded to the Spanish Embassy in Hong Kong for
circulation. The British Consul commented on the strange reasons for his
arrest. The editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph devoted an entire column
of
the newspaper on the sad news of his detention.
On July 17, 1892, Rizal was deported to Dapitan under the watchful eye
of Ricardo Carnicero, the
military commandant of Dapitan. One who never allowed time to be spent
idly, Rizal busied himself with activities that were also beneficial to
others. He established a clinic, a school, and constructed a water
system. He bought tracts of land from his lottery winning and developed
it into a
farm. Loneliness impelled him to write Mi Retiro but reflected the
strength of his spirit when he composed the hymn "Talisay".
He corresponded unceasingly with Ferdinand Blumentritt and other
scientists he met abroad. He gathered specimens of plants and insects
and sent them
to his scientists friends abroad. His fame as an eye specialist lured
patients to visit him in Dapitan. Among the most important was Engineer
George
Tauffer, who arrived with his foster daughter, Josephine Bracken. Soon,
Josephine became his wife. Having inspired the revolutionary spirit of
the
Filipinos, Rizal was visited by Pio Valenzuela, an aid of Bonifacio to
get his word about an armed uprising against the Spaniards. He was also
offered help for his escape but he refused.
On July 31, 1896, Rizal sailed to Manila with Josephine, his sister
Narcisa and other relatives after the Spanish government took his offer
as
doctor for the Spanish soldiers fighting against the rebel forces of
Jose Marti in Cuba. Upon reaching Manila, Rizal was informed that his
boat to
Cuba had already sailed, thus, he was transferred to the Castilla then
anchored in Cavite until another boat, the Isla de Panay took him to
Singapore. There, Pedro Roxas urged him to leave the boat, assuring him
his safety in the British Territory but he refused.
On September 30, 1896, while the Isla de Panay was sailing
through the Middle East, the ship captain received orders of Rizal’s
arrest on charges that he had a hand in the revolution that was already
raging in the Philippines. Thus, Rizal arrived in Barcelona as a
prisoner and was briefly detained at the Montjuich Penitentiary. The
following day, he was shipped back to the Philippines on the boat Colon.
His friends tried to rescue him by court proceedings. While the boat
was in Singapore, Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor and some British lawyers who,
through Lord Hugh Fort, filed writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court
of the Straits Settlements for his release on the ground that he was
illegally detained. But Judge Lionel Cox ruled that the Colon was a
troopship flying the Spanish Flag and that he was a Spanish subject.
Therefore his case was not under British
jurisdiction.
On November 3, 1896, the famous prisoner arrived in Manila and was
imprisoned at Fort Santiago. On November 26, he was tried by the
military court
on the charges of rebellion, sedition and illegal organization of
societies presided by Judge Advocate Enrique Alcocer at the Cuartel de
España.
Rizal’s defense counsel was Lieutenant Luis Taviel de Andrade, whose
efforts to save him failed. He was meted the death penalty.
(Execution of Dr. Jose Rizal at Bagumbayan (A reproduction of an original photo taken during the execution of Dr. Jose Rizal))
On the eve prior to his execution, Rizal wrote the poem, Mi Ultimo Adios,
which he hid in the alcohol burner. Hours before his execution, he gave
to his sister, Trinidad, the alcohol burner and the book of Thomas
Kempis, Imitation of Christ, to his wife. Presumably he retracted
masonry; married Josephine Bracken before a priest, with guards as
witnesses, and wrote letters to Professor Blumentritt, to his brother
Paciano; and to his beloved parents.
On December 30, 1896, he was marched out of Fort Santiago toward
Bagumbayan Field. With him were Fathers March and Villaclara and his
legal counsel,
Luis Taviel de Andrade. Before he was shot, he handed his belt to his
nephew, Mauricio. The Spanish doctor, Ruiz y Castillo, felt his pulse
and
found it normal. Rizal faced the Filipino soldiers of the firing squad
guarded by the Spanish soldiers. Volleys were fired. He fell but with a
great
effort, he turned his back and fell facing his executioners.
Two years after, on August 17, 1898, his sisters exhumed his remains
buried at the Paco Cemetery and kept it at their residence in Binondo
before it
was finally rested at the monument in his honor at Luneta, now Rizal
Park.
References:
(Bantug, Asuncion Lopez. Lolo Jose An Intimate Portrait of Rizal. 1982.
Coates, Austin. Rizal Philippine Nationalist and Martyr. Manila:
Solidaridad
Pub. House, 1992.
Eminent Filipinos. Manila: National Historical Commission. 1970
Fernandez, Jose Baron. Jose Rizal Filipino Doctor and Patriot. Manila: Rex Printing Co.,
1980.
Zaide, Gregorio. Great Filipinos in History. Manila: Verde Bookstore, 1970.) all via The Philippine Historical Commission
On This Day - June 18, 1898 - Aguinaldo signed the decree establishing the Dictatorial Government
SA BAYANG PILIPINAS:
Tinalaga ng Dios na malagay aco sa isang luclucang naquiquilala cong di matatabanan ng catutubo cong lacas, nguni, yayamang di aco macalabag sa calooban ng Dios at di macaiuas sa manga catungculang ipinapapasan ng sariling puri at pag-ibig sa bayan, mula sa luclucang ito'y binabati quita iniirog cong bayan.
Ipinatanghal co sa sangcalibutan na ang pinagtutuyo nang boo cong buhay, ang hilagang tinutungo ng lahat cong nasa at pagsisicap ay di iba cundi ang iyong casarinlan, pagea't binubuo nang aquing isip na iya'y siya mong laguing hinahangad, palibhasa'y ang casarinla'y siya nating tunay na pagcatubos sa caalipnan at capusungan, ang lubos na pagcasauli ng naualay na Kalayaan at siya ring paquiquihalobilo sa cabilugan ng mga bayang timaua.
Di nalilingid sa aquin na ang unang catunculan ng isang mamamahala ay ang mamulot at magtipon ng lahat na hinahangad ng bayan; dahil dito'y baga ma't sa pagalinsunod co sa di caraniuang gaui ng digma ay napilitan acong magcana ng Gobierno Dictatorial na nacalilicom ng boong capangyarihan sa tauong bayan at sandatahan, ay uala acong laguing pinapacay cundi ang agapayanan at saclolohan ng mga tauong lalong quinaaalang-alanganan sa baua't cabayanan (provincia) at napagquilalang mapagcacatiualaan ayon sa ugaling ipinaquita, upan ding, cung maquilala co na ang tunay na quinacailangan ng baua't isa ay macapaglathala ng mga lalong mabisang paraan ng yao'y matacpan at malagyan ng tapal alinsunod sa hinahangad ng calahatan.
Napag-aaninao co rin ang mahigpit na pagcacailangang magtayo sa baua't bayan ng matibay at matatag na cahusayan, mistulang cuta ng capanatagan ng bayan at nacaisaisang paraan upang mapagtibay ang pag-cacaisang loob na quinacailangan sa pagbabangon ng Repuiblica ng pamamahalang sarili ng bayan at paghuhusay ng ano mang sigalot na mangyari tungcol sa mga taga ibang bayan.
Alang-alang sa mga pasubaling ito ay ipinag-uutos co itong mga susunod:
Unang Pangcat. Pag-totoosin at pagcacayamcayaman ng mga naninira sa baua't bayang quinalalaguian ng mga sandatahang castila ang lalong mabuting gauing paraan upang malusob at malipol sila alinsunod sa lacas at cayang magagamit, at ang mga mabihag sa laban ay bibiguian ng pitagan at asal na lalong naaayos sa pag-ibig sa capua tauo at sa inuugali ng mga bayang may pinagaralan.
Icalaua. Pag-naagao ang bayan sa cuco ng mga castila, ay ang mga mamamayang matangi, dahil sa liuanag ng caisipan, pagcatao at cabaitan maguing sa loob ng bayan maguing sa mga nayon ay magpipisan sa isang daquilang Kapulungan at dito pipiliin at ihahalal ang pagcaisahan ng marami na maguing Puno sa bayan at maguing Pangulo, sa baua't nayon, at dito sa ngalang nayo'y cabilang ang loob ng bayan. Macahaharap sa Kapulungang ito at maihahalal naman ang sino mang magtaglay ng mga casangcapang nasasabi sa itaas, cun mapagquilalang may pag-ibig sa casarinlan ng Pilipinas at may dalauang pu at isang taong singcad.
Icat-lo. Sa naturang Kapulunga'y maghahalal din ng pagcaisahan ng marami na tat-long catiuala: isa ang sa pangangalaga at cahusayan sa loob, isa ang sa catuiran at tandaang bayan at isa ang sa yaman at pag-aari. Ang catiuala sa pangangalaga at cahusayan sa loob ay siyang tutulong sa Puno sa paglalagay ng sandatahang sa dapat palaguiin baua't bayan sa bilang na nababagay sa pinagcucunan ng isa't isa, upang mapanatag sa catahimican at cahusayan at mailaya ang mga capoocan sa ano mang icasisira ng lacas ng catauan.
Ang catiuala sa catuiran at tandaang bayan ang tutulong sa Puno sa pag-babangon ng mga sulat-usap o hatulan, sa pagdadala ng mga librong tandaan ng mga iniaanac, namamatay at casundo sa pag-aasaua, pati ng talaan ng lahat na namamayan.
At ang catiuala sa Yaman at Pag-aari nang tutulong sa Puno sa paniningil ng ambagan, pangangasiua ng salapi ng bayan, pag-dadala ng mga librong tandaan ng mga hayop, bahay at lupain at sa lahat na dapat gawin upang mapasulong ang lahat na hanapbuhay ng tauo.
Icapat. Ang Punong Presidente pati nang mga Pangulo at ng mga nasabing catiuala ang magbubuo sa mga Kapulungang bayan na mangangalaga sa ganap na catuparan ng mga cautusaing umiiral at sa mga sariling pag-aari ng baua't bayan. Ang Pangulo sa baua't bayan ang siyang pangalauang Presidente ng Kapulungan at ang cagauad nito ay ang catiuala sa catuiran.
Ang mga Pangulo ang catiuala ng Puno sa pamamahala sa loob ng canicanilang nasasacop.
Icalima. Pag naitanong ng mga Punong bayan ang caisipan ng canicanilang Kapulungan ay mangagcacatipon at maghahalal ng pagcaisahan nang maraming maguing Punong cabayanan at tatlong casanguni ucol sa tatlong tungcol na nasabi na.
Ang Punong Kabayanan na siyang Presidente, ang Punong bayan sa loob ng cabayanan na pangalauang Presidente at ang manga naturang casanguni ang mag bubuo ng Sanguniang cabayanan na mangangalaga sa catuparan ng manga pacana nitong Gobierno o Pamunuan sa boong nasasacop niya at sa manga pag aari ng boong cabayanan, at tuloy maghahamong dito rin sa Pamunuan ng manga pacanang nauucol sa cagalingan ng lahat.
Icaanim. Ang manga naturang Puno'y mag hahalal din nang pagcaisahan ng maraming tatlong Tagatayo sa baua't cabayanan ng Maynila at Kavite; dalaua sa baua't cabayanang cun tauagui'y de termino o pinaca-malaqui sa cautusang castila; at isa sa iba't iba pang cabayanan nitong Sangcapuloan.
Ang manga naturang Tagatayo ang mangangalaga sa mga pag-aaring ucol sa lahat nitong Kapuluan, at sa sariling pag aari nang canicanilang cabayanan at siyang mag bubuo ng Kapisanang taga pagbangon (Congreso Revolucionario) na cusang maghahamong dito sa Pamunuan ng manga pacanang dapat, upang manatili ang cahusayan sa loob at ang capanatagan sa labas nitong Kapuluan, at didinguin sa lahat ng usap na mabigat at ucol sa calahatan, cun ang pasiyang dapat ay mangyayaring ipagtiguiltiguil.
Icapito. Ang sino mang ma-atangan nang catungculan sa paraang nabibilin sa manga nangungunang Pangkat ay di macagagamit ng capangyarihan cundi mapagtibay muna nitong Pamunuan, na cusang mag gagauad ng catibayan cung maquita ang mga casulatan sa paghahalal.
Quiquilalanin ang calagayan ng mga Tagatayo cun maiharap nila ang casulatan sa paghahalal.
Icaualo. Ang manga Punong sandatahan na ihalal nitong Pamunuan sa baua't cabayanan ay di macapaquiquialam sa pamamahala sa loob nito, at ualang ibang magagaua cundi ang huminging tulong sa lahat nilang cailangan sa manga Punong cabayanan at Punong bayan na di macapagcacait cun may tunay na cadahilanan.
Gayon ma'y cun ang cabayana'y pagbalaang sirain o mapasoc ng manga caauay ay malilicom ng lalong Punong sandatahan ang boong capangyarihan ng Punong cabayanan, hangang macaraan ang panganib.
Icasiam. Maghahalal ang Pamunuan sa baua't cabayanan ng isang tanging sugo na may capangyarihang macapagtayo ng cahusayang nabibilin sa cautusang ito alinsunod sa manga tagobiling ipadala sa caniya nito ring Pamunoan. Talagang sugo na may sariling capangyarihan ang manga Punong sandatahan na macapagligtas sa manga bayan sa sacupan nang castila.
Ang nasabing sugo ang mangunguna at mangangasiua sa unang Kapulungang dapat gauin sa baua't bayan at cabayanan.
Icasampu. Pagcatayo nang cahusayang nabibilin sa cautusang ito ay mauaualang bagsic ang manga naunang paghahalal sa ano mang catungculang bayan, cahit saan nagbuhat at ano man ang dahilan, at gayon din ang mga pacanang masalansang dito.
Lagda sa Kavite ng 18 ng Junio ng taong 1898. EMILIO AGUINALDO
Source: The laws of the first Philippine Republic (the laws of Malolos) 1898-1899. Compiled & edited by Sulpicio Guevara, Manila : National Historical Commission, 1972.
GENERAL MANUEL TINIO - YOUNGEST GENERAL IN THE KATIPUNAN
Manuel Tinio was born to Silveria on June 17, 1877 in Licab, a barrio of Aliaga that became an independent municipality in 1890. He was the only son and had two sisters, the eldest, Maximiana, married Valentin de Castro of Licab and Catalina, the youngest, married Clemente Gatchalian Hernandez of Malolos, Bulacan. Manuel was his mother's favorite, his father having died when Manuel was twelve.
When the Philippine-American War broke out on Feb. 4, 1899, General Manuel Tinio, military governor of the Ilocos provinces and commanding general of all Filipino forces in Northern Luzon, had 1,904 men (the "Tinio Brigade" ), consisting of 68 officers, 1,106 riflemen, 200 sandatahanes or bolomen, 284 armorers, 37 medics, 22 telegraphers, 80 cavalrymen, 105 artillerymen and 2 Spanish engineers.
He distributed them along the more than 270-kilometer coast from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur Province to Bangui, Ilocos Norte Province.
Two American reporters, Sargent and Wilcox, described the coastal trenches in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur Province: "On the shore at Salomague, there is a fortification about five feet high and one hundred fifty feet long. This barricade is built of sticks arranged in two rows and filled in between with sand and coral stones. Its walls are about four feet thick, and it is built in the form of a crescent with the concave part toward the sea.
By April 1899, Tinio had built 640 defensive trenches from La Union Province to Ilocos Norte Province. They were designed by Gen. Jose "Pepe" Alejandrino, a Belgian-educated engineer from Pampanga Province.
In November 1899, General Tinio, who was based in Vigan, Ilocos Sur Province, was ordered to go down south to Pangasinan Province to block the Americans pursuing Aguinaldo and his party who were retreating northward. His deputy, Gen. Benito Natividad, stayed on as post commander in Vigan with a few officers and 50 riflemen.
After losing to the Americans at San Jacinto (November 11) and Pozorrubio (November 15), General Tinio withdrew to La Union Province to continue protecting Aguinaldo's retreat. He engaged and delayed the Americans in Rosario, Sto. Tomas , and Aringay. This gave Aguinaldo's retreating party enough time to reach Candon, Ilocos Sur Province, on November 21, from where Aguinaldo decided to move east to the mountains in the interior.
On November 23, Aguinaldo reached the highland town of Angaki (now Quirino), Ilocos Sur Province, and stayed there until the end of the month. Tinio withdrew his forces to Tagudin, Ilocos Sur Province, and later moved on to San Quintin, Abra Province.
On November 26, the warships U.S.S. Oregon, U.S.S. Samar, and U.S.S. Callao bombarded Caoayan, Ilocos Sur Provinceand, unopposed, landed 201 volunteer infantrymen and marines led by Lt. Col. James Parker.
The Americans proceeded to occupy the adjacent town of Vigan, the provincial capital. The post commander, Gen. Benito Natividad, and his men, had evacuated the town at the onset of the shelling of Caoayan.
Brig. Gen. Samuel BM Young, who was chasing Aguinaldo and Tinio relentlessly; reached Candon on November 28. He learned that Aguinaldo was at Angaki, 25 kms. away to the southeast, while Tinio was up north some 40 kms. away. Young realized immediately that General Tinio's purpose in taking his forces to the north was to lead the Americans away from following Aguinaldo. Forthwith, he sent Lt. Col. Robert Howze's battalion to Concepcion, Ilocos Sur Province, to resume the pursuit of Aguinaldo, while the bigger part of his force marched towards the north in an attempt to destroy the Tinio Brigade, the last remaining army of the Republic.
On November 29, Tinio was positioned about 20 kilometers south of Vigan at Tangadan Pass, located between Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Province, and San Quintin, Abra Province.
Not too far south of Tinio was Tirad Pass, Concepcion, where General Gregorio del Pilar was killed a few days later on December 2 while trying to block the American pursuit of Aguinaldo.
On November 30, Aguinaldo and his party left Angaki for Cervantes, Ilocos Sur Province. As the latter offered good conditions for defense and an abundance of food, Aguinaldo planned to stay there for a long time and defend himself.
On December 2, on the same day that Del Pilar died at Tirad Pass, Aguinaldo fled from Cervantes. He and his entourage endured the long, difficult trek over the Cordillera mountain range, until they descended on the Cagayan Valley on May 28,1900. Aguinaldo finally established himself at Palanan, Isabela Province, on September 6, 1900.
On December 4, at 2:00 a.m., Tinio's men, estimated to number 800, sneaked into Vigan under cover of darkness and attacked Company B, 33rd Infantry Regiment of US Volunteers (USV), which consisted of 153 soldiers. Severe street fighting ensued and continued for four hours until the Filipinos were driven out.
The Annual Reports of the United States War Department 1903, in its summary of major engagements in the Philippines, listed 8 Americans killed and 3 wounded, and 100 Filipinos killed at Vigan. A separate report added that 32 Filipinos and 84 rifles were captured.
Four US soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for heroism at Vigan. They were: Lt. Col. Webb Cook Hayes (son of former US Pres. Rutherford Hayes), Lt. Col. James Parker, Pvt. James McConnell and Pvt. Joseph Epps. General Young ordered a general assault upon Tangadan Pass in the afternoon of the same day of the Vigan attack. Companies F, G and H of the 34th Infantry Regiment, USV, engaged the Filipinos for 3 hours. In the dark of night, they were able to climb an adjacent hill without being noticed. Realizing that their position had now become indefensible, the Filipinos withdrew, leaving 35 dead. Thirteen Americans were wounded.
General Tinio and his men returned to San Quintin, Abra Province.
The following day, December 5, the Americans attacked San Quintin and Bangued in succession. Tinio withdrew to Dingras, Ilocos Norte Province then proceeded to Solsona, Ilocos Norte Province. He spent the next couple of months in the mountains of Solsona, where he began fortifying the peak of Mt. Bimmauya, northwest of Cabugao, Ilocos Sur Province.
The Americans at Vigan were soon reinforced by 160 men shipped from San Fabian, Pangasinan Province.
Lt. Col. James Parker (LEFT) proceeded north from Vigan past Cabugao and reached Batac, Ilocos Norte Province on December 7. The U.S.S. Wheeling landed more marines and army troops farther north in Laoag and Bangui on December 10. On December 17, United States troops captured the Cabugao and Sinait trenches and had Tinio's men, under Capt. Francisco Celedonio, on the run.
In the middle of the night on December 20, Celedonio sneaked back into Cabugao with a commando unit, abducted and bayoneted to death Presidente Municipal Basilio Noriega and his son-in-law, Benigno Sison y Suller, an innocent bystander. Noriega had been falsely accused as being a pro-American sajonista (Saxonist or pro-Anglo-Saxon). He was in fact condemned without trial by tiktiks (informers) who held personal grudges against him. His son-in-law unfortunately happened to be there and was a witness to the kaut (abduction).
Their bodies were found the following morning in the wooded area north of the church, each marked on the forehead "traidor de la patria" (traitor to the country). Ironically, Benigno's family of Sisons and Sullers and their Azcueta-Serrano wives and in-laws were the wealthiest and biggest contributors to the revolutionary movement in Cabugao.
Today in Philippine history, June 16, 2020, Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr, died of heart failure and pneumonia
On Tuesday, June 16, 2020, Beer Tycoon Eduardo "Danding"
Cojuangco Jr., who led San Miguel Corporation (SMC), a food and beverage
empire that produced San Miguel beer, died of heart failure and
pneumonia at the St. Luke's Medical Center. Cojuangco served as chairman
and chief executive officer of SMC for decades. He was 85.
(Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. with Former First Lady Imelda Marcos on June 19, 2011)
Cojuangco had a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes' list of
the world's billionaires, with interests in cement-manufacturing,
orchards, a stud farm and Australian wineries, aside from SMC. SMC, one
of Southeast Asia's largest conglomerates, with a workforce of more than
28,000 people, has ventured into fuel and oil, power and
infrastructure.
Aside from business, Cojuangco delved into politics and sports, and
owned three teams in the Philippine Basketball Association namely: San
Miguel Beermen, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, and Magnolia Hotshots.
But Cojuangco had also been mired in controversy.
He fled from the Philippines when President Ferdinand Marcos was
overthrown by an army-backed "people power" revolt in 1986. During his
years in exile, he was known to have traveled to the United States and
Australia, where he bred thoroughbred racehorses.
Cojuangco had been linked to the 1983 assassination of former Sen.
Benigno Aquino Jr., but the allegation has never been proven and
Aquino's family later said he was not involved. The killing of Aquino
while in military custody at Manila's international airport sparked
street protests that culminated in a failed coup and the 1986 uprising
that toppled Marcos.
Cojuangco had also been accused of involvement in the misuse of large
amounts of coconut levy funds during the Marcos years that were intended
to develop the country's coconut industry. He has denied any wrongdoing
and has never been convicted amid allegations of illegally amassing
wealth during the Marcos era.
In the 1960s, Cojuangco served as governor of Tarlac, the base of the
Cojuangco clan, which has interests in sugarcane plantations. After
returning to the Philippines following Marcos's downfall, he ran for
president in 1992 under the Nationalist People's Coalition but lost,
although the political party he founded has remained an influential
political bloc.
Cojuangco backed the successful presidential bid of Joseph Estrada in 1998, the year he regained the chairmanship of San Miguel.
Cojuanco was born on June 10, 1935 in Paniqui, Tarlac. He was the eldest
child of Eduardo C. Cojuangco Sr. and Josephine B. Murphy. His mother,
the daughter of an Irish-Canadian U.S. Army volunteer who married a
Filipina woman, was born and raised in Baguio. His father Eduardo Sr.,
the son of Melecio Cojuangco, was of Chinese descent.
Cojuangco was educated at Lafayette College in Pennsylvaia. Besides
English and standard Tagalog, he also spoke the Filipino regional
dialects of Ilocano and Kapampangan, which are the native languages of
Tarlac province.
He was married to Soledad "Gretchen" Oppen-Cojuangco of Negros
Occidental. They had four children: Margarita "Tina" Cojuangco Barrera,
Luisa "Lisa" Cojuangco-Cruz, Carlos "Charlie" Cojuangco and Marcos
"Mark" Cojuangco.
Charlie is the current Representative of Tarlac's 1st District, while Mark once served as Pangasinan Congressman.
As of 2018, he lived with his partner, 1996 Binibining Pilipinas Universe winner Aileen "Leng" Damiles. They had two daughters.
On This Day - June 15, 1945 - Miriam Defensor Santiago was born in the city of Iloilo.
On June 15, 1945, Miriam Defensor Santiago, a public servant, a judge and legal scholar, and an outstanding Philippine senator, was
born in the city of Iloilo.
(Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago)
Miriam learned to take charge early in life. As a precocious child and
the eldest of seven, she was running the household well before she was
out of
grade school. Her mother was a career woman who eschewed housework, so
responsibility for the daily marketing, for supervising the family's
untrained village maids, and for organizing her younger brothers and
sisters to do their chores devolved upon her.
She also saw to it that the Defensor brood arrived promptly and
well-scrubbed for weekly catechism classes and Catholic mass. Discipline
was her
mother's watchword, and young Miriam came to accept her authoritarian,
achievement-oriented environment as "the natural working of the
universe".
The Defensor family enjoyed high status but little wealth. Her father,
Benjamin Defensor, was a lawyer and trial judge; her mother, Dimpna
Palma, was
a locally prominent educator. They circulated socially among Iloilo's
elite, but the family budget had to be managed carefully to make ends
meet,
and, until Miriam was nine years old, the family occupied a modest
house with a nipa (palm frond) roof. Miriam's playmates were equally
poor;
together they fashioned homemade toys from sardine cans and bottle caps
and played happily in the sand. "We enjoyed the luxury of filth",
Miriam says looking back.
Miriam Defensor was enrolled in the kindergarten of Lincoln School,
later called Lincoln College, the private school where her mother was
dean. She
quickly demonstrated her insistence on fair play. When her kindergarten
teacher's niece teased her one day by repeatedly erasing her work from
the
blackboard, Miriam lost patience, grabbed the girl's hair, and wrestled
her to the floor. "My teacher never forgave me", she says, explaining
why
she
graduated only sixth in her kindergarten class—one of the few times in
her school career when she was not first.
Miriam continued in Lincoln until her mother quarreled with the school
president and resigned. At grade five, therefore, Miriam entered La Paz
Public
Elementary School. There she took her turn minding the canteen at recess
time. Students who did so were permitted to select one food item in
lieu of
pay; this delighted Miriam, who had no money to buy school snacks. As
her reward she always chose banana cake, "because for me," she says, "it
was the
height of luxury."
Defensor was a voracious reader and, unable to afford books of her own,
became a frequent patron of the United States Information Service (USIS)
library in downtown Iloilo. Her deepest childhood anxiety, she says, was
that "the world's book supply would run out and I would, in my middle
age, have nothing left to read."
She also excelled at writing and, in the fifth and sixth grades, was
student editor of the elementary school newspaper. When she entered
Iloilo
National High in 1957, she immediately bested all others in the
examination to be editor of its paper, The Ilonggo. She held this post
for all four
high school years. The literary pages were also filled with her work,
and as a freshman she won a school-wide spelling contest.
Defensor's precocious talents made her an instant high school celebrity.
This was probably a good thing, she thinks, since it permitted her to
stand
out without arousing the jealousy of her friends— "it habituated them to the things I would do later". The latter included graduating as
valedictorian and receiving the "All-Around-Girl Award".
Her mother had long since instilled in Miriam a drive to fill every
moment with worthy activity. This drive propelled her into a life of
super-
achievement. But alongside her brilliance in school, and her diligent
management of household and siblings, MIriam Defensor began to develop a
deep
spiritual life. This she did quite on her own, since neither parent was
devout, and her father had virtually abandoned the Roman Catholic Church
in
anger over the high-handed behavior of some Spanish priests.
At Lincoln MIriam had been inspired by the serene voices and ethereal
personalities of the teaching nuns. For a while she yearned to be one
herself,
but she remembers her father telling her, you wouldn't be serving God
very much that way." She abandoned the idea but in high school began a
lifelong
habit of going to mass daily; she had, as she says, "the gift of faith."
In 1961, at age sixteen, Defensor entered the University of the
Philippines, Iloilo campus (UP Visayas). Here she began to prepare for
the study of
law, since her father had advised her that she would never be able to
support herself with literary pursuits. Political science the usual
pre-law
curriculum, was "embarrassingly easy".
She speeded through the four-year curriculum in three-and-a-half years
so that she could devote her final semester to her love, literature.
As a college student, Defensor studied so efficiently that she had
plenty of time left for other activities. From her freshman year onward
she edited
the college monthly magazine. She also competed in debating and, in
summers, took outside courses in journalism and stenography. Having
decided that
she could write better stories than the ones she was reading, she
proceeded to do so and began selling them to national magazines. In
everything, she
was brilliantly successful. She won award after award. For example in
1963 she won first prize in the university competitions in orator
poetry, short
stories, and essays. All the while she maintained excellent grades, so
that when she graduated in 1965 she did so magna cum laude.
Miriam at the University of the Philippines
Early in her college career Defensor had undergone a prolonged,
debilitating illness. From a stubborn case of amoebic dysentery, she
slid into a
serious bout of depression: "I felt that my physical energy were totally
exhausted and that I had nothing left to give." Having been taught by
her
mother always to be doing something useful, she believed herself to be
utterly worthless, and lay in bed for weeks on end and wept. She
attributes her
recovery to her maternal grandmother who patiently and lovingly nursed
her back from the depression. By the time she recovered MIRIAM had
missed all
but one month of the school semester and was still so weak that she had
to write holding her pencil with both hands. With gritty determination
she
took her final examinations—and earned the highest average in the
college.
After university graduation Defensor went directly to the UP College of
Law in Quezon City. In fact, she acknowledges, she studied law mainly
"out of
a sense of filial duty". At UP she found the law courses tedious, and
she became scornful of the approach of most the professors, who simply
"spoon-
fed" the students, pointing out necessary readings, probable issues, and
correct responses.
This was a boon for Defensor however. Her superior memory made the
courses relatively easy. Still, she studied industriously. While others
students
read their law books once or twice, she read hers five times. Even so,
she recalls, "it didn't take that much intellectual energy". Once again
she
found lots of time for other things.
Defensor was a sparkling success at UP, thereby breaking ground for
other women students. She was the first female to win the Ferdinand
Marcos Gold
Trophy in debate and the first female editor-in-chief of UP's Law
Register. In 1968 she became the first female editor-in-chief of the
hallowed and
influential Philippine Collegian as well. She was chosen corps sponsor
for UP's Reserve Officer Training Corps and, in both 1968 and 1969, won
the
prestigious Vinzons Achievement Award for leadership. She also managed
to find time to write short stories for the nation's leading weeklies.
The
money she earned from writing supplemented her competition-won
scholarships so that she was virtually self-supporting in law school.
One journalist
referred to her as, "Super Girl at the UP Campus".
The mid-to-late 1960s were days of great political ferment at UP. A
campus leader of high profile, Defensor nevertheless shunned the
radicalism
popular at the time in favor of the more moderate stance of the UP
Student Catholic Action. "I never could really bring myself to hate the
Americans
as much as my rabid friends did", she says, attributing this to her
childhood gratitude for the USIS library in her hometown. "The radical
leftists
always criticized me for being wishy-washy, but I just stood my ground."
However, Defensor did join in objecting to Philippine military
participation
in the war in Vietnam and, as editor of the Philippine Collegian, she
exposed UP involvement with the Dow Chemical Company in Vietnam-related
chemical
weapons research. Based on purloined university documents given to her
secretly "in the dead of night", her editorial, "Dow is Here",
revealed that
the company had leased research facilities at the UP College of
Agriculture at Los Banos. The editorial was reprinted verbatim in a
popular Manila
daily. Embarrassed, UP President Carlos Romulo tried to persuade
Defensor to reveal her midnight source. She refused.
As an honor student at UP College of Law, Defensor was courted by
Manila's most prestigious law firm, the law office of Alexander Sycip.
Sycip
entertained her in his lavish home, but he warned her that in his office
one often had to work all night and through the holidays. Far from
being put
off, Defensor was impressed. But in the end she declined his offer. As
the recipient of a largely state-funded education, Defensor felt
obligated to
repay the public's investment, and "the best way I could do it", she
says, "was to work in government".
As it happened, she had also been approached by Secretary of Justice
Juan Ponce Enrile. Upon graduation in 1969, she became his special
assistant.
When Enrile moved to the Defense Department Defensor stayed on under the
new secretary of justice, Vicente Abad Santos. Abad Santos had been
dean of
the College of Law at UP, although Defensor had not known him there. For
the next several years she would work in daily contact with Abad
Santos, and
he became her professional mentor.
Miriam met the man who would become her husband, Narciso Santiago, Jr.,
at law school but, as she says, law school was about all they had in
common.
She was from an established, but not well-off, family from the Visayas;
he was the son of a newly rich family from Luzon. She was a diligent
honor
student who always sat in the front of the class; he was an indifferent
student who sat in the back.
They met one day when Defensor, arriving late to class because of a
meeting with President Marcos, slipped quietly into the back of the
room. There
sat Narciso with his friends, gambling and rating the legs of their
women classmates. "I was absolutely flabbergasted", she remarks,
"because I
always thought all students were like me, terrified of the professors
... in his case, he was having a grand time." Their romance was a case
of the
attraction of the opposites. Although she had many other beaus, Santiago
was especially ardent. After finishing law school Miriam agreed to
marry him.
On June 1970 their wedding took place. Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., a friend and provincemate of Narciso, was the sponsor.
"My husband had very flexed ideas about marriage", Miriam recalls. He
believed that a marriage must produce a child. So I accommodated him and
my
mother-in-law, who gave me a cash reward for my efforts. Their first
child, a son, Narciso III, was born 13 April 1971. Defensor Santiago,
who had
added her husband's name to hers, took two months' maternity leave and
then plunged back into her work at the Justice Department.
As special assistant to the secretary, Defensor Santiago now found
herself very close to the center of her country's political life.
Ensconced in a
little room beside the secretary's office, she was assigned to do
everything his regular staff members could not do, or could not do
quickly enough.
She researched materials, drafted speeches and memoranda, and prepared
him for television interviews. Moreover, she often drafted speeches on
law and
justice for President Marcos.
Abad Santos monitored her work closely and, in academic fashion, graded
it, noting "good," "very good," or "excellent," as the case might be.
From
Abad Santos, Miriam Defensor Santiago acquired her own, now famous,
management style, which she candidly calls "headbashing." Miriam
herself, was
spared Abad Santos's tantrums, however; in fact, he had the much
appreciated habit of complimenting her in public.
Defensor Santiago was not content to meet the demands of a full-time
job, marriage, and motherhood. (In one of her short stories written
about this
time, a young lawyer says of herself, "Adrenalin runs in my veins.") In
1971 Miriam accepted an evening teaching position at Trinity College in
Quezon
City and also began to write law articles and legal textbooks.
Her most sensitive assignment as special assistant to Enrile had been to
prepare a confidential memorandum for President Marcos on the
advisability of
declaring martial law. Locked away in a room, she and three others pored
over their law books. "Our conclusion", she recalls, "was that the
president
was better advised not to avail [himself] of this drastic measure. We
felt that the many crises that had surfaced at that time did not yet
suffice to
mandate such a dramatic action."
Two years passed before Marcos decided that the time had come: he
declared martial law on September 21, 1972. Congress was dissolved and
many of the
president's political opponents were arrested. Abad Santos, who, like
Defensor Santiago, was not personally in favor of the declaration,
managed to
resolve his doubts in favor of the president and cooperated. Following
the lead of her mentor, Miriam "almost automatically adopted the same
attitude." Like many others at the time, she nourished the hope that the
urgent problems of the day could better be solved "in one bold stroke".
Marcos adopted a new constitution and declared it legal on the basis of
a voice vote in villages around the country. Defensor Santiago's book,
The
1973 Constitution, was an analysis of the new constitution for students
and lawyers. Bowing to the strict censorship of the times, she refrained
from
expressing her doubts about the legitimacy of the document in print.
However, with her law students at UP—including, at one point, the
president's
son—she held that the constitution had not been validly ratified. The
Supreme Court justices who upheld the constitution, she said, "were
suffering
from a state of doctrinal confusion." Despite such reservations, she
carried on as special assistant to Abad Santos, who had become minister
of
justice in the martial law government.
By 1974 her Saturday morning writing had resulted in a scholarly study
on "The Archipelago Concept in the Law of the Sea" and a textbook
entitled
International Relations. She was also writing regular columns for the
Philippine Daily Express on the subject of feminism. At that time she
believed
"there was an authentic need for a women's liberation movement," since
"women were generally oppressed by the social and cultural system. Now
that I
am older," she says fifteen years later, "I don't think it is relevant
or that it is cost efficient ... you alienate more people than you win
over."
In the fall of 1974, with the blessing of Abad Santos, Defensor
Santiago took a leave of absence from the ministry to study at the
University of
Michigan in the United States. She and her husband and son moved to Ann
Arbor where, as a Dewitt Fellow, she began work toward a master's
degree.
(Her desire to study abroad dated from her disappointment with the UP
College of Law. At that time, she had wondered, "how could U.S. Supreme
Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes have achieved such stature if he went to a
law school like mine?")
At Michigan, Defensor Santiago enrolled under Professor William W.
Bishop, a distinguished legal scholar of international law. Under his
rigorous but
kindly tutelage, she honed her analytical powers and, for the first
time, enjoyed law as an intellectual discipline. "Michigan is where I
really went
to school," she says. "It was like graduating from a fishbowl into the
ocean." Bishop encouraged her to work for a doctorate, which she
achieved by
disciplined study during the academic year 1975-76. Her thesis was
published in 1977 as Political Offenders in International Law, followed
over the
next decade by seven other articles on major legal questions.
In Ann Arbor, Defensor Santiago and her family joined in the social
life of the local Filipino community. For parties she cooked rellenong
bangus, a
stuffed fish dish requiring painstaking preparation. Normally, she
recognized, someone in graduate school did not take the time to do that,
but her
perverse streak compelled her to prove she could.
The Santiagos returned to the Philippines in 1976 and Miriam joined
Abad Santos at the Ministry of Justice. When he moved to the Supreme
Court three
years later, she stayed at the ministry but, on occasion, helped him
draft decisions. But when later in 1979 she was offered the post of
legal officer
with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva,
Switzerland, Abad Santos encouraged her to accept, and she did. Thus,
with her
son and "most competent maid", Defensor Santiago moved to Europe, while
her husband—who was not permitted to work under Swiss law—remained in
Manila.
Her duties involved planning and attending conferences on refugee law
and analyzing draft treaties affecting refugees. In 1980, however, her
father
developed terminal cancer and she returned to Manila to care for him; he
died six months later. Nevertheless, she remained in Manila and became
consultant to the UP Law Center. On October 2, 1981, her second child,
Alexander, was born.
The young lawyer was then invited to become legal consultant at the
Philippine Embassy in the United States, where President Marcos's
brother-in-law
was ambassador: "that was an invitation I couldn't refuse," she notes.
When she reported for work, however, she found she had little to do but
attend
cocktail parties.
Quezon City Trial Court Judge
On leave in Manila a few months later, ostensibly to arrange to move
her children and husband to Washington, Defensor Santiago learned of an
impending nationwide reorganization of the judiciary. She seized the
opportunity to fulfill a deathbed pledge to her father—"that I would do
my best
to serve my country as a trial judge, as he had." She sought an
appointment as regional trial judge in Quezon City, the part of Metro
Manila housing
the legislature of the Philippines and many of the government offices.
This was considered a plum post. Appointments to trial judgeships
anywhere in Metro Manila were generally awarded only to those who had
served in the
provinces for seven to ten years. In her case, she had not seen a
courtroom in her entire adult life.
With characteristic forwardness, Defensor Santiago went directly to the
chief justice of the Supreme Court, Enrique Fernando, who had once
offered
her a judgeship on Mindoro Island, and asked to be nominated for Quezon
City. She requested Quezon City, she told him, so that she could
continue
teaching at the UP College of Law. ("Fernando was known to be very, very
partisan in favor of UP.") Her mentor (now Associate Justice) Abad
Santos was
also enlisted to support her candidacy. Leaving nothing to chance, she
sought the help of Juan Tuvera, an old, personal friend, who was
President
Marcos's executive assistant. It was Tuvera who approached Marcos with
the appointment letter and who stood by and watched as the president
signed
it.
As a regional trial judge, Defensor Santiago heard major cases in
criminal and civil law and handled special proceedings. In any given
week, she
might hear criminal cases ranging from bad checks through drug dealing,
robbery, rape, and murder, and civil suits involving adoption, probate,
or
large claims between competing businessmen. The Philippine judicial
system follows the European system in eschewing jury trials: the judge
determines
guilt or innocence and metes out sentences.
Defensor Santiago assumed her new post, determined to redeem the
reputation of her country's judiciary. Philippine judges were then
widely perceived
to be corrupt—a perception she believes to have been all too accurate.
She was determined "to prove that a party could go before me and rest
assured
that I would decide the case on the merits, that I would never receive a
bribe to decide a case."
To emphasize this position, she established strict procedures limiting
access to her chambers by litigants: "You can always tell me everything
you
want to tell me ... in the courtroom when the other party is present,"
she announced. Those who tried to bribe her, she threatened with
citations for
contempt of court. To make the point, she sent some immediately to jail,
ordering them released, relieved but shaken, shortly thereafter. She
admonished her staff against accepting or forwarding to her any gifts
from interested parties. In a procedure manual she wrote, now used
widely by
other judges, she stated: "The first rule of this courtroom is no
bribes, no extortion." To a judge who sent her unsolicited advice about
one of her
cases, she replied through his messenger that, "if he wants to decide my
case, then I should take steps to have the case transferred to him."
Rebuffing influences from all sides, Miriam Defensor Santiago eventually
got her message across. After six months people stopped trying to
influence
her decisions.
Defensor Santiago'S most famous case pitted her stubborn independence
against the government forces of Ferdinand Marcos. By presidential
decree,
criticizing the government in a public assembly was an offense
punishable by death. And, as she points out, "an illegal public assembly
was defined as
a gathering of two or more people."
Following the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., in August 1983,
rallies, demonstrations, and strikes against the Marcos government
proliferated.
The government made selective arrests. During a military rally on the
occasion of a jeepney driver's strike in 1985, several speakers who
criticized
the government—and in particular the First Lady—were rounded up by the
police and military. They were held under a Preventive Detention Action
Order
issued by the president himself. Those arrested included film director
Lino Brocka. When he and his companions requested release on bail,
Defensor
Santiago faced the question: "In a martial law situation, can a mere
regional trial jury overrule the president of the republic ?"
Judges in the past had prudently sustained such arrests a denied bail.
Defensor Santiago now experienced indirect intimidation from military
men and
anonymous death threats. She knew that a decision against the president
might place her in jeopardy assassination ("at that time people had a
mysterious habit of getting killed in vehicular accidents") or of being
detained herself. Having scrupulously examined the issues, however, the
judge
ordered Brocka and the others released.
In the severely repressive climate of the times, her decision was
sensational. Because of it, she became a hero to those opposing the
Marcos regime,
and she welcomed the publicity because "it represented an opportunity
for me to demonstrate that the judicial system was working, that it was
intellectually honest."
Aside from restoring integrity to the judiciary, Defensor Santiago was
eager to restore efficiency. Among the problems she found was
interminable
delay. Delays occurred, in part, because there were too many litigious
Filipinos. But aside from this, there was the habit of postponement of
cases.
Lawyers routinely appeared in court on their appointed days, only to
request postponement, usually pleading "diarrhea" on the part of
themselves,
clients, or witnesses. (Lawyers were paid by clients whenever they
appeared, even though the case was not brought to trial.) In many
courtrooms this
habit was so entrenched that the vast majority of cases scheduled to be
heard on any given day would be postponed.
The young judge moved decisively to break this habit, refusing to grant
postponements without real cause. In so doing, she says, "I created my
own
monster". The faster cases were tried, the sooner her decisions had to
be rendered. She had to work doggedly to prevent a backlog and was under
great
personal stress. Nevertheless, she had a case disposal rate of fifty per
month, one of the highest in Metro Manila. What is more, her
meticulously
constructed decisions were rarely appealed; three are pending before the
Supreme Court. During this period, she received four major awards:
Outstanding Woman in Iloilo in 1984, and in 1986 the National Police
Commission Distinguished Achievement Award, the Lion's Club Award to
Outstanding
Women in the Nation's Service, and the prestigious Jaycee TOYM (Ten
Outstanding Young Men) Award, opened to women the previous year.
As the crisis attending the later years of the Marcos regime deepened,
Defensor Santiago carried on her personal battle for judicial integrity
in her
courtroom and addressed constitutional issues in her classrooms. But she
adhered strictly to the prohibition barring judges from taking part in
partisan political activities. Privately, she came to feel that the
downfall and disgrace of Ferdinand Marcos was inevitable, but also
rather sad. In
her years in the Justice Department she had come to admire him as a
truly gifted Filipino, "a man with the law at his fingertips ... and a
masterful
politician."
Commissioner, Commission on Immigration and Deportation
By the time of the February Revolution of 1986, however, Defensor
Santiago was seen as an exception in Marcos's corrupt government. She
seemed to
represent the spirit of integrity that many Filipinos hoped to see
restored under the new president, Corazon Aquino.
Although President Aquino's husband had been a sponsor Miriam's wedding,
the two women had never met. Defensor Santiago first came to the
attention
of Aquino as the Judge who stood up Marcos in the Lino Brocka trial. The
president offered her several positions, but Defensor Santiago declined
them
all so that she could continue to work close to her home in Quezon
City—she treasured having lunch with son Alexander—and to the UP campus
where she
was still teaching. Finally, faced with finding a new chief for the
country's notoriously mismanaged Commission on Immigration and
Deportation (CID),
Aquino made a special appeal to Defensor Santiago to accept. Miriam
likes to say that her first instinct was to say, "insanity does not run
in my
family!" But in a heart-to-heart talk with the president she relented,
although not before express her preference for a Supreme Court
justiceship. "I
told her ... if you think this is the best way for me to help you, so be
it. It's my duty to accept."
On January 4, 1988, the "fighting judge" of Quezon City took charge of
the CID and showed how a "traditionally corrupt government agency can be
reformed."
With breathtaking decisiveness, she threw out the fixers, transferred
suspected bribe-takers from sensitive positions, and filed
administrative
charges against corrupt employees. She swept away corruption-breeding
disorder and red tape. She declared war on crime syndicates and exposed
drug
pushers, pedophiles, gunrunners, and passport forgers.
During this time, Miriam Defensor Santiago received the 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service.
Secretary, Department of Agrarian Reform
Impressed with her performance in the CID, President Aquino appointed
Santiago as Secretary of Agrarian Reform in 1989. Miriam lost no time
in
overhauling the department's policies. She instituted three major
policies in agrarian reform.
First, to concretize the basic philosophy of the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law (CARL), she stressed that all doubts on the inclusion of
lands in
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) should be resolved in
favor of inclusion.
Under her term, the DAR policy was to prefer the contract-growing
principle over the lease-back arrangement, particularly with respect to
corporate
farms or plantations. Under the lease-back arrangement, the tiller would
end up as the lessor who receives rent and remains a mere laborer of
multinational corporations. In contrast, the principle of land to the
tillers would still be practiced under the contract-growing scheme. The
contract
grower would have a say on how much would be produced and in marketing
the produce.
Most important, under her term, the DAR shifted its land acquisition
thrust from the voluntary offer-to-sell (VOS) scheme to compulsory
acquisition of
lands to hasten the pace of the CARP. The VOS scheme implemented during
her predecessor's term was riddled with anomalies and corruption.
Miriam
assumed her duties when the DAR was being rocked by the highly
controversial and fraudulent Garchitorena land deal. The former agrarian
reform
secretary was forced to resign due to the scandal. One of Miriam's first
acts as agrarian reform secretary was to halt all land transactions
under
the VOS method, and order the investigation of all past and pending
transactions.
Miriam's boldest move as agrarian reform secretary was to ask President
Aquino to inhibit herself from deliberations of the Presidential
Agrarian
Reform Council (PARC) on the stock distribution scheme of Hacienda
Luisita. The president was the chairperson of PARC, while Santiago was
its vice
chairperson.
The Cojuangcos availed themselves of the CARP's stock-transfer option
scheme allowing the President's family to distribute shares of stocks to
the
Cojuangco corporation instead of distributing land titles from the
estate. Critics decried the scheme, saying it allowed the owners to
retain control
of the estate.
Miriam endorsed to Congress an alternative "people's agrarian reform
program" (Parcode) drafted by the Congress for People’s Agrarian Reform,
a
coalition of farmers' groups including the militant Kilusang Magbubukid
ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the conservative Federation of Free Farmers
(FFF). She
said the Parcode was a "superior piece of legislation" and "rational,
highly logical, and consistent". The Parcode put land retention limits
to five
hectares. Under the CARL, the retention limit was 11 hectares, which
virtually exempted 75% of all agricultural lands from land reform.
Miriam’s
endorsement was hailed by farmers' organizations.
Santiago ran for President
After President Corazon Aquino declared her intention not to seek
another term in the 1992 elections, Santiago ran for president, seeking
Aquino's
endorsement. She founded the People's Reform Party (PRP) as her vehicle,
inviting Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. to be her running mate. The party did not
have
any other candidates at the national level and endorsed only two local
candidates Alfredo Lim and Lito Atienza for the position of mayor and
vice
mayor of Manila.
Aquino decided instead to back her Secretary of National Defense Fidel V. Ramos in his bid for the presidency.
Santiago was leading the canvassing of votes for the first five days.
Following a string of power outages, the tabulation concluded, and Ramos
was
declared President-elect.
Santiago filed a protest before the electoral tribunal citing the power
outages during the counting of votes as evidence of massive fraud. Her
election protest was eventually dismissed. Many believed that this
election was marred by fraud because of the nationwide power outages.
The public outrage over the presidential results prompted Newsweek to feature her and her rival on the cover with the question:
"Was the Election Fair?"
In another cover story, Philippines Free Press magazine asked:
"Who's the Real President?"
Senator of the Philippines
Santiago ran for the Senate of the Philippines in 1995 elections, again
as a candidate of her own PRP. She was elected to the senate and served
as a
senator from 1995 to 2001. As a Senator, Santiago became a vocal critic
of the Ramos Administration. She filed the most number of bills in the
Senate
during her term. Santiago again ran for president in the 1998 elections
and invited former Marcos crony Francisco Tatad to be her running mate
against Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino candidate Joseph Estrada but lost by a
landslide. After losing the election, Santiago returned to the Senate.
In
2001 Santiago ran for reelection but lost.
In 2004, Miriam won her second term as senator. In late 2006, a group of
her former students nominated her for Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. All
candidates were requested by the Judicial and Bar Council, the
nominating body, to submit an application and bio-data and undergo an
interview. No one
showed up but Santiago. Deeply humiliated, she threw a series of public
tantrums and tried to save face by saying she would give way to the
senior
associate justice, because at age 61 she was "too young for the post".
Santiago ran for reelection in the Philippine Senate election in 2010
under the her PRP and as a guest candidate for six different political
parties.
She finished third among other senatorial candidates, she garnered more
than 17 million votes.
In 2012, Santiago proved to be the most important personality in the
Impeachemt trial of the Chief Justice Renato Corona. She, along with
fellow
Senators Joker Arroyo and Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., were the only
senator-judges to vote to acquit the chief magistrate.
Also in 2012, Santiago sponsored two controversial bills: Sin Tax Reform
Act of 2012 (with Senator Franklin Drilon) and the Responsible
Parenthood and
Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (with Senator Pia Cayetano).
Judge of the International Criminal Court
On December 12, 2011, Senator Santiago was elected to a nine-year tenure
as judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague,
Netherlands. Although she is currently listed as a judge by the ICC, she
has yet to take her oath and assume her office there. Santiago was
absent
during the March 9, 2012 oath-taking of new judges due to medical
reasons, citing her elevated blood pressure and bone marrow aplasia, but
later went
on to reveal that she had written the president of the ICC to request
that she be the last of the six newly elected judges to take her post to
allow
her more time to fulfill her responsibilities as a Philippine senator.
Senator Miriam Santiago died on Thursday 8:52 in the morning, September 29, 2016.
References
James R. Rush for the Ramon Magsaysay Award
Foundation, September 1988, Manila
(
Acosta, Omar M. "German Women Held for Selling Infants." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 25 June 1988.
"Nine Suspected 'Bamboo Gang' Men Nabbed." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2 July 1988.
Barrameda, Nes. "Santiago Defends Airport Revamp." Manila Times, 5 July 1988.
"Santiago Defies Order of Justice Secretary. " Manila Times, 13 April 1988.
Callo, Kathleen. "Death Threats, Armed Guards Easy Parts of Miriam's Job." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10 February 1988.
"Child Prostitution Network Busted." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 February 1988.
"CID Chief Hurls Chairs at Erring Employees." Manila Chronicle, 25 June 1988.
"CID Names Government Officials Listed as Aliens." Business World, (Manila), 24 March 1988.
Defensor Santiago, Miriam. The Archipelago Concept in the Law of the
Sea Problems and Perspectives. Makati: Development Academy of the
Philippines,
1982.
The Archipelago Concept in the Law of the Sea." Philippine Law Journal 49 (1974).
"The Culture of Corruption." Outline of extemporaneous speech delivered
before the Manila Rotary Club, 14 January 1988. Typescript.
"Fighting Graft and Corruption in Government." Paper presented at
Awardee’s Forum, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila, 1 September
1988.
Typescript.
"The Infinite Intelligence." Manila Times, 21 April 1988.
International Relations. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1974.
Interview by James R. Rush. Tape recordings, September 1988. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila.
The 1973 Constitution. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1973.
Political Offenses in International Law. Quezon City: University of the Philippine Law Center, 1977.
Staff Manual. Regional Trial Court, Branch 106, Quezon City, 1983.
"The Supreme Court Applies 'Clear and Present Danger': But Which One?" Philippine Law Journal 60 (1985).
"Suerdo." Philippines Free Press, 3 July 1971.
"What About This Women's Lib Thing?" Focus Philippines, 27 January 1973
"Defensor Santiago Vows to Lead by Example at CID." Business World (Manila), 21 July 1988.
Estacio, Athle Wijangco. "Miriam Defensor Santiago: All Set to Dig in
Her Heels at the CID. " Sunday Times Magazine (Manila), 3 January 1988.
Flores, Jamil Maidan. "The Wages of Virtue." Philippine Panorama, 3 April 1988.
"Immigration Men at Airport Reshuffled." Manila Times, 2 July 1988.
Mangaser, Lito. "Miriam Loses Temper." Manila Chronicle, 7 July 1988.
"Santiago Eyes Legalization of 300,000 Aliens." Manila Chronicle, 17 June 1988.
Manlogon, Melanie. "The Lady Is a Tiger." Midweek. 6 April 1988.
Paunlaqul, Milagros D. "CID Boss Cracks Down on Corrupt NAIA Personnel." Journal (Manila). 23 June 1988.
"CID Busts International Swindling Ring." Journal (Manila), 20 February 1988.
Pelaez-Marfori, Berry. "I Was Born to Raise Hell." Chronicle on Sunday (Manila). 8 May 1988.
Republic of the Philippines. Commission on Immigration and Deportation. Accomplishment Report. January to August 1988.
"SC Upholds CID on Pedophiles." Manila Bulletin, 20 July 1988.
Severino, Horacio. "The Wrong Way to Fight Aids." Chronicle on Sunday (Manila), 10 April 1988.
"Tough Job, Tough Lady." Asiaweek, 1 April 1988.
Various interviews with and letters from persons acquainted with Miriam Defensor Santiago and her work.
)
On June 14, 1945, combined forces of Filipino and American
soldiers defeated the Japanese troops of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in
the epic Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon.
(Japanese General Yamasita in Ifugao)
This was a three-month uphill battle between the guerrilla forces under
Colonel Russell Volckman in the Cordilleras on the border of Ifugao and
Mountain Province close to Cervantes town in Ilocos Sur.
The fall of the Japanese to the hands of the United States Armed Forces
in the Philippines paved the way for the entrapment of Yamashita's
forces in the Cordilleras. Yamashita finally surrendered in September
1945.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita was known as the “Tiger of Malaya”, a nickname he earned for conquering Singapore.
On June 13, 1896, Casimiro V. del Rosario, who was recognized in 1984 as National Scientist in Physics, Astronomy and Meteorology, was born in Bantayan, Cebu.
(Dr. Casimiro del Rosario)
Dr. Del Rosario is known for his researches on ultraviolet light of different wavelengths, effect of radioactive radiation on euglena (a genus of unicellular organisms), high voltage electrical discharges in a vacuum, and many other accomplishments.
He finished BS in Civil Engineering with honors at the University of the
Philippines in 1918; MS in Physics at Yale University in the United
States in 1924; and PhD in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania in
1932.
Notably, Del Rosario was the co-founder of the Bartol Research
Foundation (Franklin Institute) in Philadelphia, an institution which
did pioneering researches in physics.
Del Rosario also headed the Philippine Weather Bureau (now Philippine
Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Adminstration
(PAGASA)) for 11 years. He was vice chair for the National Science
Development Board in 1958.
He was given the Presidential Award in 1965 for his outstanding works in physics, meteorology and astronomy.
