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| News articles about the Calamba affairs appeared in La Solidaridad. |
Jose
Rizal, whose family was one of the evictees of the Hacienda de Calamba, was himself an eminent propagandist. His
earnestness, personal discipline and determination to win reforms for the Philippines
were admired not only by his colleagues but also by liberal Spaniards. Thus,
though helpless in a faraway land, he was not alone in his struggle to help the
Calambeños and his family seeking justice before the Supreme Court in Madrid . With him were his
co-propagandists who did not only espoused the Calambeños’ cause but also used
the incident as a propaganda battle cry to win reforms for the Philippines .
The Calamba Articles
at the La Solidaridad
With the assistance of Atty.
Marcelo H. del Pilar, articles were published about the banishment without due
process of Antonio Lopez, Silvestre Ubaldo, Manuel T. Hidalgo, Leandro Lopez,
Cipriano Rubio, Mateo Elejorde and Paciano R. Mercado to Mindoro .
A petition asking the government to decree their immediate return was also
filed before the Minister of Colonies.[1]
Rizal, himself, wrote a pointed article: “An
Outrage” for La Solidaridad attacking
the refusal of the religious authorities to allow the remains of Mariano
Herbosa to be buried at Calamba’s Catholic cemetery on the sole ground that the
deceased had been negligent in his religious duties.
Herbosa was Rizal’s brother-in-law being
married to Rizal’s sister, Lucia – a fact that was spitefully mentioned by the
friar parish priest when asking for instructions from the Archbishop stationed
at Manila .[2]
Herbosa died of cholera in 1889. He was buried at the Lecheria, a part of the
hacienda leased to the Rizals.[3]
In
the February 28, 1890 issue of La
Solidaridad, Jose Rizal wrote an ironic article entitled Sin Nombre (Without Title) attacking the
dismissal of the 1888 petition of the Calambeños asking for government
intervention to avert the harassments of the hermano administrador.
The
factual background of the said article follows. On 30 December 1887, the Gobernadorcillo
and the principales of Calamba were ordered by the provincial government
of Laguna to disclose whether the hacienda de Calamba had expanded its lands or
increased its produce during the last three years. This order was made in
compliance with the official inquiry of the Central Administration of Direct
Taxes dated 24 December 1887.
On
8 January 1888, more than seventy (70) principales including the
Gobernadorcillo of Calamba wrote a detailed reply which did not only reveal the
enormous increase of the products on the part of the hacienda de Calamba but
also the diminution of the possessions of the tenants. This reply reaped the
ire of the hermano administrador who threatened to raise the tenants’
rentals if by reason of the detailed reply, the Central Administration of
Direct Taxes would levy the appropriate taxes.
The
stressed Calambeños wrote the insular government asking for intervention
to avert the impending threats. The
new governor, instead of sending an intervener to Calamba, sent a private
investigator to the Provincial of the Dominicans where unilateral explanations
were made. This led to the dismissal of the petition which was regarded as
false data.
Rizal
branded the dismissal as Sin Nombre (Without Title) attacking not
only the lack of due process on the part of the investigator but also
the lack of title of the Corporacion to some lands usurped by the hacienda.
In
the December 15, 1891 issue of La
Solidaridad, Eduardo de Lete reported with contempt the sad odyssey of the
Calambeños who were driven out of their homes for failure to pay their annual
rents. The governor then was Governor General Valeriano Weyler who was branded
as the modern Nero. He sent troops to execute the evictions. De Lete painted a
dismal picture of the unpleasant incident as follows:
…Houses closed; the streets deserted; the inhabitants walking gravely; the wife with a handkerchief in one hand and as much clothing as she could take in the other; a sack of rice [carried] on top of the head; behind her, the husband leading domestic animals and sacks of palay; the houses deserted; friend and business abandoned, without any fixed place to go, knowing not if shelter will be available in the next town.[4]
De
Lete proceeded to ask a debasing question: “How low the prestige of the Mother
Country and her unfortunate colonial policy has become? What a beautiful way of
losing colonies!”[5] These prophetic questions bull’s-eyed the
long term effect of this ignored agrarian problem.
On
31 January 1892, La Solidaridad reported
that the Asociacion Hispano-Filipina
espoused the cause of the Calambeños and spearheaded the filing of the
complaint against the Corporacion
before the Minister of Colonies. The Asociacion
also organized a public gathering of the natives, Filipinos and liberal
Spaniards at the Martin Theater in Madrid
to discuss the Calamba incident.[6]
 |
| The Calamba Evictions were immortalized in El Filibusterismo. |
The saga of an ordinary Calambeño struggling
against the hacienda administrators was fictionalized by Rizal in his second
propaganda novel, El Filibusterismo.
The novel’s title came from a mid-19th century Spanish word filibustero, which was derived from the
Dutch word vrijbuiter, meaning
“pirate.”[7]
Another functional meaning was “a sea robber, especially one of the piratical
adventurers, English and French, who preyed on the Spanish ships and colonies
in America
in the 17th and 18th centuries.”[8] A
person who advocated reforms for the Philippines was branded as a filibustero and held suspect by the
Spanish authorities.[9]
Though fictionalized, Rizal cannot help but
pour out raw emotions of rage, despair and helplessness. He even named names of
real people, especially the victims of senseless banishments. After the
fictional character Cabesang Tales killed the friar-administrator of the hacienda
and the new tenants of his lands, Rizal then made the following lamentations
naming names of real people and the town of San Diego was unveiled to be Calamba:
Calm yourselves, peaceful inhabitants of Kalamba! None of you are named Tales, none of you have committed any crime! You are called Luis Habaña, Matías Belarmino, Nicasio Eigasani, Cayetano de Jesus, Mateo Elejorde, Leandro Lopez, Antonino Lopez, Silvestre Ubaldo, Manuel Hidalgo, Paciano Mercado, your name is the whole
In Chapters IV, IX, and X of El Filibusterismo entitled “Cabesang
Tales,” “Pilates,” and “Wealth and Want,” Rizal retold the story of a lowly
native farmer, a loyal subject of Spain, who prospered through hard work and
lost his fortunes when the Friars usurped his lands. He lost his fortunes, his
family and eventually his loyalty to mother Spain .
The
Saga of Cabesang Tales and his Family[11]
Telesforo Juan de
Dios, popularly known as Tales, the son of Tandang Selo, after acquiring
two carabaos (water buffalos) and a considerable capital, cleared the lands situated at the borders between the towns of San Diego and Tiani. Tales
believed the lands belonged to no one. The clearing and cultivation of
the lands was a family affair and thus, the whole family was stricken with
malaria. Tales’ wife and his daughter, Lucia
died and were buried at the said fields.
When the family began to harvest their first
crop, a religious corporation, which owned a hacienda in the neighboring town,
claimed the cleared fields on the pretext that the lands fell within their
hacienda’s boundaries. The corporation, at once, started to set up their marks.
The friar-administrator, however, offered Tales’
family to continue cultivating the lands on a minimal annual rent of twenty
(20) or thirty (30) pesos.
Tales, in order not to smash a palayok (clay jar) against a kawali (iron pot), conceded to the offer.
Rifts between the Spaniards and the natives were wryly alluded to as the clash
between a kawali and a palayok where the Spaniards were the
invincible kawali and the natives
were the fragile palayok. Tandang
Selo coaxed Tales to be patient and pretend that the thirty pesos had been lost
in gambling or had fallen into the waters and swallowed by a crocodile.
The first harvests were great and sold well.
The friars raised the rent to fifty (50) pesos. Again, without grudge, Tales
paid in order to avoid the clashing of the kawali
and the palayok. As coaxed, he
pretended that the crocodile had grown.
With his fortune, Tales built a wooden house
at barrio Sagpang, Municipality of Tiani , adjoining San Diego . Noticing Tales’ economic progress,
the community appointed him as the cabeza
de barangay (head of the barangay). Hence he was called Cabesang Tales who,
in order to avoid disputes with the government, shouldered the uncollected
taxes of those who moved out or those who died but whose names remained listed
in the tax list. The grown crocodile’s relatives have joined him.
Another
increase in the rent of his lands was charged the next year. When the rent
skyrocketed to two hundred pesos, Tales grumbled and protested. The
friar-administrator then told him that if he could not pay, someone else would
be assigned to cultivate the land.
Cabesang Tales became furious. He resisted
and refused to pay a single centavo. He would give up his fields only to the
first man who could irrigate it with blood drawn from his own veins. Lawsuit
followed and Cabesang Tales submitted himself court jurisdiction in the hope
that somehow justice will still prevail. He spent his savings to pay lawyers,
notaries, and solicitors, not to mention the officials and clerks who exploited
his ignorance and his needs. He traveled to and fro between the village and the
capital. He did not eat or sleep well. His talk was always about briefs,
exhibits and appeals.
He fought
insistently. Lawyers and judges tried to convince Cabesang Tales to instead pay
the rent demanded. Even Governor M______[12] made
a trip to Sagpang just to convince him to give in to the demands of the friars.
But the cabeza demanded that the friars must prove their ownership over the
lands first by showing documents, papers, titles and deeds. The friars had none
of these, resting their arguments only on Tales’ past concessions. The
honorable local judges, fearing for their own summary dismissal, gave the
decision to the friars. The kawali
smashed the palayok into a thousand
pieces.
Cabesang
Tales appealed, loaded his shotgun and patrolled his fields. He had two
adversaries: the hacienda and the tulisanes
(bandits). Rumors spread that he threatened to bury the friar-administrator in
his fields. The Captain-General issued a decree forbidding and confiscating
firearms. Cabesang Tales was forced to hand over his shotgun exposing him
helpless to the kidnap for ransom activities of the tulisanes. Armed with a long bolo, he continued to patrol his
fields, where “every stalk of cane growing there is one of [his] wife’s bones.”
The bolo was
also confiscated on the excuse that it was too long. Cabesang Tales took his
father’s ax and continued his rounds. As Cabesang Tales’ ax was helpless
against tulisanes’ revolvers and rifles, he was kidnapped and a
five-hundred-peso ransom was demanded from his family which must be paid in two
days. Tandang Selo and Cabesang Tales’ daughter Juli raised the amount by
selling all their valuables except Maria Clara’s locket.
Still, the family
lacked two hundred fifty pesos to complete the ransom. Hermana Penchang, a
pious woman, lent the needed amount on the condition that Juli shall be her
servant until the debt was paid. Juli accepted the condition and promised to
start serving on the very next day – a Christmas day. Suffering from great
despair, Tandang Selo became dumb.
Upon Cabesang
Tales’ return, he was shocked to find his lands being tended by another tenant,
his daughter working as a servant and his father dumb. He also received a
notice to vacate his house within three days. Before the three days were over, the
famous jeweler Simoun came to the Sagpang and
stayed at his house.
For his protection against the tulisanes, the jeweler Simoun brought
with him a revolver and showed it to Cabesang Tales firing at a palm tree two
hundred paces away. Cabesang Tales became silent.
As the Simoun exhibited his wares to
interested customers, the locket of Maria Clara, which was in Cabesang Tales’
possession, became the subject of conversation. Upon examining it, Simoun
offered to buy it for five hundred pesos or barter it with any of his jewelries
at Cabesang Tales’ choice. It was a rare opportunity, which could have reversed
his misfortunes. Cabesang Tales left to consult his daughter and promised he
will be back.
On his way to Juli, he saw the
friar-administrator together with a man whom he recognized as the new tenant of
his lands. He saw them moving over his fields. It seemed to him that they were
mocking him and laughing at his powerlessness. He shut his eyes. When he opened
them, he saw them merrily laughing and then he saw them pointing at his house
and laughed again.
Simoun waited the whole night for Cabesang
Tales. The next morning, he noticed that his revolver was gone. Cabesang Tales
took the revolver and left Maria Clara’s locket in exchange. In a note,
Cabesang Tales intimated that he will join the tulisanes. He also warned the jeweler to change his route for the tulisanes might abduct him for a large
ransom. Simoun, himself full of vengeance, found his man.
That night, the friar-administrator and the
new tenant were found dead. Their heads were hacked open and their mouths
crammed with earth. The new tenant’s wife was also found dead with her mouth
packed with earth and throat cut. And beside her was a piece of paper
containing the name Tales written in her blood.
Such was Calamba as a propaganda material.
It was a powerful propaganda material which electrified Spain and subjected the Dominican
Order to demeaning public scrutiny. This continued even after the Philippines came under the colonial clutch of
the United States of America .
[1]“Complain,”
La Solidaridad, 30 September 1890.
[2]Austin
Craig, Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal: Philippine Patriot,
(Manila: Philippine Education Company, 1913), 155-156.
[3]Angelica
Lopez to Jose Rizal, Calamba, 30 May 1890, Letters Between Rizal and Family
Members (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), 303-304.
[4]“Calamba
and Its Executioners,” La Solidaridad, 15 December 1891.
[5]“Calamba
and Its Executioners,” La Solidaridad, 15 December 1891.
[6]“The
Kalamba Incident,” La Solidaridad, 31 January 1892.
[7]
“Filibuster,” Encarta Dictionaries,
2007 ed.
[8]
Florentino H. Hornedo, “Notes on the Filipino Novel in Spanish,” in Ideas and Ideals: Essays in Filipino
Cognitive History (Manila : Florentino H.
Hornedo and the University
of Santo Tomas
[9]See notes
of Encarnacion Alzona (trans.) in “Los Frailes en Filipinas,” in MH. Plaridel, La
Soberania Monacal En Filipinas (Quezon City: Philippine Historical
Association, Inc., 1958), 15.
[10]Rizal,
Jose, El Filibusterismo, Charles
Derbyshire (trans) (Manila: Philippine Education Company, 1912), 87-88.
[11]Rizal,
Jose, El Filibusterismo, Charles
Derbyshire (trans) (Manila: Philippine Education Company, 1912), 31-41, 74-86.
[12]Probably
Governor Juan Mompeon, the provincial governor of Laguna who rushed to Calamba
on night of 6 August 1890. The Governor insisted that the Calambeños must
settle their accounts with the Dominicans, or he would strictly fulfill his
duty as governor. See Silvestre Ubaldo to Jose Rizal, Manila , 11 August 1890, Letters Between
Rizal and Family Members (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964),
314-316.
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