During the
years 1887 to 1889, the town of Calamba
experienced an economic decline. The tenants of the Hacienda de Calamba could
hardly pay their annual rents. The lay-brother administrators of the hacienda
tried collect payments in cunning ways they knew. In 1885, they declared all
the lands of the hacienda “vacant” and invited prospective tenants from the
surrounding towns to take over the lands. Alarmed, the tenants squeezed money
from the distressed sale of their products and grudgingly paid their dues.[1] That
year, the hacienda collected 7,465 cavans of palay and 14,136 pesos in rents.[2]
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| On 14 August 1890, the Rizals were ordered to abandon their family home . |
In 1889, the
lay-brother administrators used the governor general’s visit to Calamba to
threatened the defaulting tenants. The Syndic, Fr. Francisco Govea, repeatedly
announced that he was a friend of the governor and that whomsoever he named
would be stripped and seized by the order of the governor.[3] Some
paid, while others remained adamant. That year, the hacienda collected 8,650
cavans of palay and 9,929 pesos.[4]
In 1890,
after all the cunning means were exhausted, the hacienda resorted to
confiscations and evictions. The irrigated lands of Don Mariano Herbosa, who
died of cholera in 1889, were confiscated for his family’s failure to pay the
canons for two years.[5] Court
battles against other defaulting tenants were also commenced. The hacienda lost
before the Municipal Court of Calamba allegedly because “the presiding judge
was the deputy inspector of the fields, a low-born indio , and Rizal’s brother dictated the
sentence.”[6] The
hacienda appealed and won before the
Court of First Instance of Laguna and before the Audiencia Real in
Manila . The
tenants appealed before the Tribunal Supremo in Madrid .
Pending appeal at Tribunal Supremo, the hacienda moved for and was
granted execution of the judgment rendered by the Audiencia Real in Manila . The pertinent
portion of the judgment to be executed read as follows:
“Let the rural and urban lots held on lease to which
this case refers be evacuated, according to the terms and limits marked by law,
with the understanding that, in case of failure to comply, the law will proceed
to their demolition as provided for by the same.”
With the impending execution of judgment,
the situation in Calamba became tensed. Some brave Calambeños opted defend
their lands by force. They were dubbed as “ferocious beasts” by the opposing
side. Endangered, the lay-brother administrators never traveled around the
hacienda without being accompanied by the lieutenant of the civil guard. When
they have some orders for the hacienda, they send out the capitan (gobernadorcillo),
justice of the peace, and a certain Don V. Laureola Roque rather than
implementing these orders by themselves.[7]
In the case
of Don Francisco Rizal y Mercado, his family had already received notices of
eviction before 30 June 1890.[8] In
general, the evictees were given time, at least twelve (12) days, to gather
their personal belongings after which they were ordered to abandon their
houses.[9] The
Rizal family, however, was hoping that the proof of appeal filed before the Tribunal
Supremo in Madrid
would be sufficient to temporarily suspend the evictions.[10] But
contrary to their expectations, the evictions proceeded on 14 August 1890 . The Rizals were ordered
to abandon their family home and their furniture and other movables were
removed and left on the streets for the people to view. The spouses Francisco
and Teodora Rizal y Mercado went to live with their daughter Narcisa.[11]
Gradually,
other families were also evicted. Two, three, four and then finally, twelve
families were driven out of their homes. Their family belongings were left in
the streets. These humiliations were done “to put an end to this kind of
socialistic communism taking form there (in Calamba), to the great harm of
religion and the fatherland.” [12] It
also served as a warning to the rest of the Calambeños not to venture into
insurrectionary activities.
However, the
dispossessions and evictions seemed to have no effect on the tenants. “All those
who had been dispossessed of their lands sometime ago returned to take
possession of them by force.”[13] The
bold ones returned to their houses after abandoning them. Others were
accommodated by their relatives and friends who were not evicted. Still others
built new houses on the lands of bonafide tenants of the hacienda without
securing permission from the administrators.[14]
Irritated by
the seeming mockery of their exercise of ownership, the proprietors again
effected dispossessions and evictions against the illegal tenants on January
and February 1891. This time, however, it was done with vengeance. More than
three hundred (300) families were stripped of all their lands, houses, farm
animals, and crops (i.e. sugar, rice, and other industrial fruits). Their
relatives and friends were prohibited to extend accommodation to them. Thus,
the evictees were forced to live either in the streets, under the shade of
trees, or at the lakeshore.
Calamba was
in total chaos. The civil guards were everywhere, bothering everyone. Calesas,
carts and horses were hailed and were required to present corresponding papers.
Boys and girls aged twelve (12) and above were compelled to secure cedula from
the municipal hall which cost four (4) reales.[15] The
authorities confiscated everything that the evictees owned. If the authorities
didn’t find the concerned evictee or his farm animals, they maltreated his
manager, his peasants, or the barrio lieutenant. A Calambeño lost two
teeth as a result of a blow he received on the mouth from the butt of a gun.
There were others who fell unconscious because of similar cruelties. The
townsfolk felt helpless because all these were perpetuated under the tutelage
of the judge of first instance, the justice of the peace, the lieutenant and
the civil guards. “Believe me,” pleaded Narcisa Rizal to his brother Jose, “if
this outrage continues, Calamba is going to die.”[16]
 |
| The Order of Eviction |
Seven months
later, in October and November 1891, twenty nine (29) more tenants of the rural
and urban areas of the hacienda were evicted by the agents of the department of
justice. To help enforce the huge number of evictions, Governor General Valeriano
Weyler y Nicolau sent some fifty (50) soldiers of the Regimiento Peninsular
de Artilleria to Calamba. The deployment was under the command of the
Colonel of the 20th Tercio[17] of
the Civil guard, Don Francisco Olive y Garcia.
With the
help of the troops, the demolition of edifices surreptitiously built was
commenced. The wooden houses were dismantled and the building materials were
turned over to the owners. The provincial governor, however, ordered that the
materials should not be left at the public road for a long time. If within
twenty (24) hours these materials remained uncollected, these will be burned in
a safe place. According to a Dominican report, only four (4) or five (5) of the
dismantled houses were made of wood. Most of them were made of light materials
– bamboo and nipa – making them more apt to be called huts rather than houses.
The unusual strength of deployed troops plus the burning of the uncollected
building materials spurred loud debasing outcries against the Dominican Order
in Manila , Hong Kong and Madrid .[18] Austin
Craig, writing in 1913, estimated some 150,000 pesos worth of damaged property
during the incident. The above estimates insinuated that there were more houses
demolished than what appeared in the reports.[19]
The Spanish
newspaper, La Epoca, reported that the troops sent by Governor General
Weyler behaved well in Calamba. The colonel and his officials were billeted in
a prominent house at the invitation of its owner. The rest of the troops rented
a house which was deserted because of the evictions. The troops even helped a
team of firemen during the disastrous fires allegedly started by the “rebels.”
The “rebels” reportedly burned the house of the Justice of the Peace and a
granary full of grain. [20]
On the other
hand, La Solidaridad, a Filipino propaganda newspaper, reported a
different version of the event. Governor General Weyler reportedly sent three
hundred (300) artillerymen, two hundred (200) cavalrymen and one hundred (100)
native soldiers.[21] The “dreadful” General
Weyler sent the troops to destroy the town if the tenants refuse to leave the
territory. Col. Olive reportedly ordered to shoot anyone who resisted. The
colonial government purportedly simulated rebellion to place the Calamba under
military control. To perfect the simulation, somebody burned a house and a
granary on the night of 29
October 1891 .[22]
Rumors on
Weyler’s slavish subservience to the wishes of the Dominicans spread among the
political circles not only in Manila but also in
Madrid . As
early as November 8, 1888, he had been reported to be eating at the convents –
that is to say he had already fallen under the influence of the Friars.[23] Rumormonger
Atty. Felipe Buencamino, Sr. recounted that the Dominicans paid Governor
General Weyler in exchange of the protection he extended to the friars during
the Calamba affair. The governor deployed troops “which started to demolish the
house of Rizal’s parents, whom they arrested with his brothers-in-law, brother
and sisters, exiling the men to different places of the archipelago.”[24] In
exchange, the Dominicans remitted to Spain a par value of 300,000 pesos
in favor of Weyler. After the receiving the money, the governor immediately
arranged his departure for Spain .[25]
The truth
behind the rumored slavish subservience of Weyler to the friars was betrayed by
his confidential letters to the latter. In a letter addressed to the Dominicans,
the governor expressed his pleasure in denying the petition of the Calambeños
(and thus favoring the Dominicans). He added that the friars should have
noticed that the times demand diplomacy but, should occasion arise, he will act
with energy. Spain
promptly ordered an investigation into Weyler’s administration on charges of
extensive and systematic frauds on the government.[26] The
investigation, however, went nowhere.
[23]Mariano Ponce to Jose
Rizal, Barcelona, 17 November 1888, Rizal’s Correspondence with Fellow
Reformists, (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1992), 239 – 240.
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