NOTES.

These notes are, as regards historical

matter, chiefly taken from Spanish

official documents drawn up as a

result of juridical procee-

dings against certain

individuals accused

of treason.

Note 2. In that period of time in which the evil effects of freemasonry

began to tell upon the public and private life of the government

officials and upon the morals of the people in general, the Civil

Governor of Manila, D. Justo Martin Lunas (1886), gave a ball to

which the cream of Manila society was invited. Among the selections

for the evening was an extravagant item, nothing more or less than

... a can-can! This in itself was enough; but what made the matter

so much the worse was that the governor had invited the venerable

Archbishop of Manila to the ball. The news of the innovation spread

far and wide, and very soon the whole city was in a state of wild

excitement. In the defense of public morals the Archbishop deemed it

necessary to issue a pastoral letter condemning such spectacles.

Although not directed at that particular "school of scandal", this

pastoral was interpreted by all those concerned, as well as by the

public in general, as a severe lesson for Sr. Lunas and those who

had gathered in the government house to dance the can-can or to take

pleasure therein. Hence Sr. Luna and his party considered themselves

offended, and did not hesitate to take revenge when an opportunity

occurred, upon the aged and infirm Archbishop who did all he had done,

in defense of the morals of his flock.

From this event sprung the seed which gave rise, later on, to the

famous, or rather infamous manifestation of '88: an insensate campaign

inspired against the Religious Orders by these offended ones and

their followers (See note 30).

The Civil Governor at that time was D. Jose Centeno y Garcia an active

propagator of freemasonry, holding the 33rd degree. He, together

with Sr. Quiroja, fostered and godfathered the "manifestation". In

this semi-official insult to Archbishop Payo, an insult so ably

analysed by Sr. Retana [15], we have one of the best examples that

could be furnished of the methods adopted by the masonic enemies of

the Catholic faith in this archipelago. This manifestation, fostered

by a governor who drew down upon himself the righteous ire of all

honorable men and women by reason of his protection of the houses

of ill-fame in and about the city, was a truly masonic invention by

which many, in fact some 98% of those who signed it, were grossly

deceived. The following notes taken from the analysis of Sr. Retana,

will give an idea of the real value of the "manifestation" and the

part the people had therein. In the Suburb of Sta. Cruz there were

144 people who signed the document, that is to say there were 144

names. Of these no less than 56 were unknown, 3 were minors and 3 did

not recognize their signatures; 52 were natives and 8 were Chinese

half-castes. In Sampaloc: 61 signatures, all of which were of indians

none of whom followed trades or professions which necessitated the

use of brain power. In Malate: 38 signatures, 31 of indians, only 15

of whom understood Spanish. In Binondo: 41, 31 of whom were indians;

five minors. In Sta. Ana, out of 104, the number of minors was 14,

and 50 did not understand Spanish; 66 were indians. In Caloocan: 80

signatures of which 55 were indians who did not understand Spanish; 38

were laborers, 7 were minors. In Navotas: 140 signatures; 49 laborers,

and 49 fishermen; 127 did not understand Spanish. In Mariquina:

68, 38 of whom were laborers, 51 did not understand Spanish. In San

Fernando de Dilao (Paco): 35; 6 minors and all indians. In San Mateo,

50 signatures; 39 laborers, 45 indians, 41 of whom did not understand

Spanish. In San Miguel 49; and here comes the crowning piece of the

magnificent work, for of these 49 no fewer than 16 had died! yes died

previous to the drawing up of the document and therefore could not

possibly have signed it; moreover 7 did not recognize their signatures,

and all were indians.

In recapitulation; there were 810 signatures; of these 85 did not

declare on examination, 56 were unknown, 39 were minors, 22 did not

recognize their signatures and 16 had died previous to the drawing

up of the document (Feb. 20th 1888). This brings the 810 down to

592. Of these 592 signatures 208 were of laborers, 50 of fishermen,

31 of carpenters, 7 washermen and 5 barbers: a total of 301 persons

whose occupations called for no particular amount of education, and

whose interest and concern in such a movement as this may be judged

from their social standing. Deducting these 301 from the remaining 592

we have 291 left for further analysis. Of these 25 were of tailors,

4 singers (!) and 3 school masters; 58 escribientes whose occupation

it is to make clean copies of documents and other manuscript, the most

that can be said of the majority of them being that they can write

well, not an uncommon thing anyhow for a filipino; 11 of musicians,

men who lead the life of crickets, enjoying hunger by day and noise

by night; 9 type-setters, men who after having set a dozen columns

of material could not tell you anything of the subject they were

composing, in other words, men who like the escribientes reproduce

mechanically without knowing what they are reproducing; this gives us

107 of another grade leaving 184 to be divided among the many odds

and ends of occupations followed by the native to earn his "fish

and rice". No less than 384 of the number did not understand Spanish

and 13 could not write. In the matter of races: ONE was a Spaniard,

Enrique Rodriguez de los Palacios who called himself a merchant and

was domiciled in Binondo. Upon investigation it turned out that he

also had been fooled and that he had signed the protest because he had

been told that other Spaniards had also signed it; as to its contents

he affirmed that he knew nothing. One was a Spanish mestizo, 66 were

Chinese half-castes and 524 were indians. So much for the famous

manifestation which resulted in giving a most decisive blow to the

moral and social standing of those who prepared and those who signed

it. Those concerned therein learned the bitter lesson that "they who

dig pits for their neighbors are apt to fall therein themselves."

The common opinion has always been that the document in question

was drawn up by Doroteo Cortes (see note 11) who had on several

occasions been under police vigilance; had been expelled from Navotas

and compelled to reside within the walled city, later on pardoned,

but still kept under police surveillance. But however that may be,

the document was infamous in the extreme, and was the precursor of

the modern campaign against the Religious Orders. From that time to

this present, this campaign has continued to spread, and is still

being fostered by the Federal Party.

Another of the advanced ideas which saw the light of day during

the interim governorship of D. Jose Centeno y Garcia, a 33rd

degree freemason and a stout republican, was the toleration, for

the first time in the history of the Archipelago, of houses of

prostitution. Centeno was a governor who, having erred considerably

during his governorship, attempted some years later to regain public

confidence by the publication of an insulting pamphlet against the

Religious Orders. This novelty of semi-official houses of ill-fame was,

for Manila, a most genuine expression of modern democracy. Scandals

until then unheard of or undreamed of in Manila, became the order

of the day. White girls imported or inveigled, were hired out by

their mistresses to pander to the sensual appetites of blacks, merely

because the said black-skinned sensualists were wealthy enough to pay

the price demanded. What edification! Fundicion street became a centre

in which the scandals daily increased in number and importance. The

native weaned after many long years of careful training at the hands of

the Religious Orders, from the vices in which he was found submerged

at the time of the Spanish Conquest, was brought face to face with

the same scandalous surroundings, introduced by people of the same

white race which had removed his forefathers therefrom. Gradually but

surely this leaven of corruption has eaten its way into the customs

of the people, and to-day we are witnesses of its terrible effects. A

comparison of the public morals of to-day with those of 20 years or

so ago, would reveal facts which would astound many of those who are

at a loss to account for the reason of the existence of the "querida"

evil among so many of the Filipinos of modern Manila. A quarter of

a century ago Manila was a paradise to what it is to-day, crimes so

common in these days that they are scarcely worth recording, were

unheard of; and even drunkenness was almost entirely confined to

foreign sailors. What Manila is to-day it owes to the advanced and

anti religious ideas introduced by freemasonry and modern democracy.

Note 3. Separatism, vulgarly called filibusterism, has always,

in the Philippines, been marked by essential characteristics. It

was always, under the circumstances by which it was surrounded,

necessarily anti-patriotic. One thing which helped to give it the

robust life it enjoyed among the middle class of people, was the

supposition of the existence of a Tagalog civilization anterior

to the discovery of the archipelago by the famous Magallanes. This

fantastic doctrine was preached and propagated principally by two

of the more prominent Filipinos, Pedro Paterno and Jose Rizal. The

former, much less cultured than Rizal, was the one to whom the most

insensate ideas on this subject were owing, and this because although

Rizal upheld the idea, he was led to do so by his perverse character

rather than by his belief; whilst Paterno really believes in this

pre-Spanish civilization, and that to such a degree that many of his

own country-men call him a fool and ridicule him. Another essential

mark was the enmity demonstrated against the Religious Orders. But few,

if any at all of the propagators of the doctrines of separatism labored

outside of the four walls of the masonic lodge room. In other words

they were freemasons. Masonry was to them a medium through which they

might carry on their conspiracies; it was an excuse for the creation

of the spirit of association, till then unknown in the Philippines.

The aims of separatism may be classed as direct and indirect. The

indirect aim was the independence of the country from the yoke of

Spain. At the best this idea of independence was but second hand,

a lesson learned by heart by a scholar whose power of thought was

insufficient to enable him to grasp the true meaning of the words of

the lesson. The average Filipino lacks the sentiment of nationality;

hence in the minds of the majority of the people independence is

but the enjoyment of the unbridled liberty to do as they please,

in fact to revert to the times of their ancestors when everyone who

could exert an authority was a king, a prince or a ruler of some

description. To the Filipino it is of little importance whether his

sovereign or his supreme ruler be the King of Spain or the President

of the U. S. of America, as long as he is protected from his "friends"

and from his own country-men and may enjoy his cock-fighting and have

the necessary supply of rice and fish for his daily sustenance.

The direct aims of the separatists were those they sought in public,

viz: representation in the Spanish Cortes, the expulsion of the

Religious Orders, etc., etc. The result of representation in the Cortes

would have been a veritable comedy; that of the expulsion of the Friars

a decided tragedy for Spain, in as much as the Religious was ever the

backbone of the administration of the colony. The consequences of the

independence of the country would have been equally disastrous. There

would have been the tremendous preponderance of the black over the

white and eventually inter-tribal disputes and even armed struggles

for the mastery. This would entail the complete stagnation of the

moral and material progress of the people, who would gradually but

surely drift back into the savage ways of their ancestors. And at

last, who knows but that Japan or perhaps China would have to step

in to save the inhabitants from becoming cannibals.

This doctrine of separatism was the doctrine disseminated by Filipino

masonry, a daughter of Spanish freemasonry. Filipino freemasonry

however, was to a great extent addicted to views not held or sustained

by the Gr. Or. Espanol, and hence did not make common cause with

Universal Freemasonry, although it used its ritual, its signs and

its name, to shield from public view those of its labors which could

not be allowed to see the light of day. Hence the diving into the

subject of Universal Freemasonry is somewhat irrelevant to our present

study, suffice it to say that the brotherhood, universal as it is,

suffers no other division than that into families. Its aim is one;

its methods one; its doctrine one [16]; it is the worldly imitation

of the unparalleled Catholic unity of divine foundation.

The Spanish family was founded in 1811 by the Count de

Grasse-Tilley. On the 21st of February 1804 the Supreme Council

of Charleston issued a circular to the Count in which it said

among other things which demonstrate the aim of the foundation:

"Above the idea of country is the idea of humanity"; "frontiers are

capricious demarcations imposed by the use of force." And others of

the same nature.

When the Count set forth to found the Spanish Supreme Council he was

armed with a letters patent issued by the Supreme Council of Charleston

containing this sentence: "the masonic solidity will never be effective

whilst the brethren do not recognize one only power, as is one only

the earth we inhabit, and one also the horizon we contemplate.... To

unify, therefore, the masonic labors we all journey to the one end to

which the work of this Supreme Council is directed, and hence what

we have pointed out to Spain as one of the points in which is more

necessary than elsewhere the one direction to which we refer."

In 1882 Spanish freemasons were divided into different Orientes each

of which claimed continuity with the institution of Grasse-Tilley;

the matter was finally settled by the Supreme Council of Charleston.

Opinion is divided on the question of the responsibility of the

Spanish freemason lodges or rather the ruling "Oriente" for the

beliefs and practices of their filipino brethren. That they were

indirectly responsible is more than certain; and oft-times they were

so indirectly. D. Manuel Sastron ex-Deputy to the Spanish Cortes,

ex-Civil Governor of the Philippines, speaking on this subject says:

"It is not possible for us on any account to fall in line with these

suspicious reasonings: never have we had a disposition to form a part

of such a sect, because we are old time Christians; but we repeat that

we cannot believe nor do we imagine that any masonic centre composed of

peninsular Spaniards could tolerate, and much less foment consciously,

the propagation of doctrines which, whatever masonry brought about

in the Philippines, could have given origin to the congregation of

separatist elements."

"Nevertheless side by side with this firm conviction we repeat

what we tersely maintained, viz: that freemasonry has been the

medium which marshalled the element which generalled the Filipino

insurrection. Filibusterism knew how to exploit it to a fine point."

"We do not find it inconvenient to affirm, but just the opposite, we

repeat with pleasure and absolute belief that Spanish freemasonry was

ignorant of the true ends of the Filipino masons. But it is proved to

our way of thinking, to the point of evidence, that Filipino masonry

pursued no other ends than the independence of those islands (the

Philippines.)" [17]

It must be noted that this is the opinion of a Spanish patriot, for

a patriot Sastron certainly was, and what is more natural than that

a true patriot should doubt the possibility of his own countrymen

mixing themselves up in anti-patriotic movements: Yet while Sastron

and other writers would redeem their fellow countrymen from such a

stain as that of treason, I am inclined to believe that the asserted

ignorance of the Spanish freemason was too often official, that is

to say it was not genuine, but limited to the members of the society

who enjoyed the privileges of the lower degrees.

There are two sides to every question, however, and that the "other

side" may be given a fair hearing, I will quote a declaration of

Antonio Luna on this subject. Luna, among the many statements made

before the Lieut. Col. in command of the Cuartel de Caballeria, on the

8th of October 1896, confessed that "in the year 1890 or 91, of his

own free-will, he formed a masonic project based on Spanish masonry:

a project which might, at its proper time be applied to filibuster

conspiracy. This project was discussed and approved by the Oriente

Espanol in Madrid; but that center did not know the secondary ends

to which it would be applied.... Of his own free-will he manifested

that his ideas were, when he formed the project, anti-Spanish...."

With rare exceptions the Filipinos who left their native soil to

finish their education in the Spanish peninsula, were those to whom

the real work of separatism is owing. The Filipino at home who has

fallen into line with his foreign educated brother is but a blind

worker. And the Filipino who went to Spain was as a rule, a very

general rule, taken under the sheltering care of Miguel Morayta (see

note 13). The responsibility therefore for the ideas inculcated into

the minds of those "students" lies, and that heavily, upon Morayta,

the chief of that family of freemasonry which claims ignorance of the

aims of its filipino membership. The only logical excuse that can be

brought forwards is that filipino freemasonry degenerated. When once it

took root in the Archipelago it spread with wonderful rapidity. The

adepts were for the most part Chinese half-castes; and little by

little that strange train of thought of the native, whether he be

full blooded or mixed, a train of thought which, like the filipino

pony is accustomed to walk backwards when it should go forwards,

or like the patient carabao which too often lies down just at the

moment when its services are the most needed to drag a load over a

mud hole, carried the would-be citizens of an independent country to

the verge of political insanity. Certain it is that as the idea of

separation became more and more developed the Spanish masons who were

member of the Filipino lodges severed their connection therewith. But

yet it does not appear within the limits of common sense to believe

that the Spanish masons were ignorant; the greater probability is

that they were too indulgent, too confiding. To hold too fast to the

excuse of ignorance is to profess oneself very ignorant. But whether

it was ignorance or the wanting of even that species of patriotism

which one expects to find in beasts of burden (for every horse knows

his own stables) the black fact still remains that Spanish masonry

gave birth to, and fostered, Filipino freemasonry or in other words,

the katipunan.

However, be the degree of ignorance what it may, we cannot overlook

the fact that the actions of the Tagalog freemasons, the katipunan

if you will, for the one and the other are the same thing under

different names, were the cause of no little surprise to the Grand

Oriente Espanol. The filipino mason was a traitor to the mother which

gave him being and nourished him into activity: a traitor who used

the cover of the freemason lodge only that he might the easier and

safer hatch out his plot to gain, by the most brutal means imaginable,

the independence of his country.

In his declaration made in the presence of Colonel Francisco Olive

y Garcia and others on the 23rd of September 1896, Moises Salvador

Francisco, of Quiapo (Manila) stated that "in April 1891 he came to

Manila bringing with him a copy of the agreements arrived at by the

Junta of Madrid, and these he handed over to Timoteo Paez to see if

masonic lodges could be established as a commencement of the work. In

the following year of 1892 Pedro Serrano arrived from Spain and then

Masonry (native) was introduced into the Philippines, the first lodge

instituted being the Nilad."

To give some idea of the separatist aims which gave life and

nourishment to the Tagalog revolt, I will quote a few extracts taken

from masonic documents, and from the declarations, made by persons

complicated in the conspiracy. These declarations were made in the

presence of the appointed judge, Col. D. Francisco Olive y Garcia,

and others, and are of capital interest in the study of the rise and

fall of the filipino "commune".

The citations are as follows:

I. In an act of Session of the Katipunan Sur at the commencement of

the year 1896, the session being opened, the president don Agustin

Tantoko, a native priest [18], invited the membership present to

express its opinion concerning the questions proposed, viz: how

ought we to act towards society; towards ourselves; and how ought

we to act in case of surprise. Mariano Kalisan considered, dealing

with the first question, that "as their principal object was not to

leave alive any Spaniard in all the future Filipino republic" they

should procure to make friends with them as much as possible in order

to be able to carry out their plans with more surety when the time

should arrive to give the cry of independence. D. Gabino Tantoko,

brother of the president, considered that the said principle should

be carried out especially in dealing with the members of the Religious

Orders. Both propositions were accepted.

As regards the second question, Epifanio Ramos proposed that meetings

should be held as seldom as possible "in order to avoid scandals".

In case of surprise, Hermenegildo Garcia considered that "the

strongest fort lay in denial." The brothers Tantoko remarked that such

surprise was almost impossible seeing that they had determined "not

to leave alive any of those who might surprise them." The president

moreover remarked that, from that time forward, in case of danger,

"they should destroy all the papers they held in their power, such

as acts, receipts, letters, plans and especially the arms they held,

in case the blow they were to deal in Manila should not succeed." This

was accepted unanimously.

In reply to a question, the president affirmed that "all the sections

of Katipunan existing in the future Filipino republic pursued the

same end: viz: the independence of the Filipino people, the release

from the yoke of the step-mother [19] Spain."

II. In a document dated the 12th of June 1896 and giving instructions

to those who should carry out the proposed slaughter of all the

Spaniards in Manila, we read:

"2nd. Once the signal is given every bro. shall fulfill the duty

imposed upon him by this Gr. Reg. Log. without considerations of any

kind, neither of parentage, friendship nor of gratitude, etc."

"4th. The blow having been struck at the Captain General and the other

Spanish Authorities, the loyals shall attack the convents and shall

behead their infamous inhabitants, respecting the wealth contained

in the said convents; this shall be gathered ... etc."

"6th. On the following day the bbro. designated shall bury all the

bodies of their hateful oppressors in the field of Bagumbayan together

with their wives and children, and on the site shall later on be raised

a monument commemorative of the independence of the G. N. F. (Gran

Nacion Filipina)."

"7th. The bodies of the members of the Religious Orders shall not be

buried, but burned in just payment for the felonies (sic) which they

committed during life against the Filipino nation during the three

hundred years of their nefarious domination." [20]

This infamous document is signed by the president of the

executive commission by the Gr. Mast. adj. Giordano Bruno, and the

Gr. Sec. Galileo. [21]

III. In his declaration made before Col. Olive y Garcia, the second

Lieutenant D. Benedicto Nijaga y Polonis, a native of Carbeyeng,

province of Samar, stated that the conspiracy was entered into for

the purpose of securing from Spain, by peaceful means, or by the

process of revolution, the independence of the country. He affirmed

moreover that, in the case of revolution, the aid of Japan was to be

sought and that the co-operation of the native troops was expected:

and that the plan of campaign of the rebels who were in San Mateo,

was to "fall upon Manila", the native infantry sent out to meet the

attack to pass over to the rebel ranks.

IV. In his declaration made in Manila before the same judge, Pio

Valenzuela y Alejandrino stated that he was one of the members of the

Interior Supreme Council of the Katipunan, the aim of which was to

collect a large amount of money and promote a general rising in order

to declare the independence of the islands under the protectorate

of the Empire of Japan. Further on he stated that the rising was to

have taken place at 7 o'clock p. m. on the 29th of August, entry being

made into Manila and its suburbs, the rebels "killing the Spaniards,

and the natives and Chinese who did not wish to follow them, and

then devoting themselves to the sacking of the town, to robbery and

incendiarism and the violation of women."

V. Romualdo de J., sculptor of Sta. Cruz, Manila, declared that he had

founded the Katipunan in 1888, the year in which the manifestation

against the Archbishop was made; he defined the aim of the society

to be "the killing of all the Spaniards and the taking possession of

the islands."

VI. In his declaration made in Cavite, September 3, 1896, Alfonso

Ocampo affirmed that according to the plans formulated, they

were "to make the assault, killing and robbing all the peninsular

Spaniards." And moreover, that "the rebellion had for its object the

assassination of all the peninsular Spaniards, the violation and

beheading afterwards of their wives and of their children even to

the youngest."

Many others might be cited; with these six samples an idea may be

gathered of the progressive idea advocated or fostered by Rizal,

Pilar, Lopez, Ponce, the Lunas, Rosario, Cortes, and others who were

inspired by Morayta, the Grand Master of the Gran Oriente Espanol.

Note 4. The then Civil Governor of Manila, in a report to the Colonial

Minister concerning what was taking place in Manila says, speaking

of this Corps:

"... this Corps of Vigilance which, although composed of no more than

45 persons including the inspectors of the same ... renders a service

(to the Government in secret service work) which should be confided

to 100 persons, considering the nature and the amount of the work

undertaken and performed daily, from the day of the formation of the

Corps to this day: a period of about a year. The interesting body of

police which under my orders has performed such valuable services,

is that which has attained greatest success in the fruitful labor of

making clear the vandalistic events we have been experiencing."

Note 5. Filibusters: more properly called separatists. Noah Webster

describes a filibuster as a "lawless military adventurer, especially

one in quest of plunder; a free-booter, a pirate." Hence, taken

in its true meaning, the word does not apply to the separatists of

the Philippines. Retana classifies the filibuster in three groups:

the first: he who, thinking little or nothing of the independence

of his country, showed more or less aversion to the peninsular

Spaniards. 2. He who, under the pretext or without it, of illustrating

his countrymen, inculcated into their minds political ideas which,

without meriting the qualification of subversive, tended to incite

them against supposed oppressions of the Spaniards; against all

things which appeared behind the times, hence according to their way

of arguing, against the Religious Corporations, to which they owed

everything except their anti-Spaniardism. As a rule those belonging

to this group professed great love for the mother-country and did

not preach ideas of independence; they held the belief that theirs

was the duty to prepare the way for the emancipation which should

be attained by their grandchildren. And 3. Those whose aim was to

attain the emancipation of their country as soon as possible. This

latter group were the true separatists. It is however difficult to

distinguish between the filibuster so called, and the true separatist;

perhaps the only admissible distinction is that the separatist is a man

of peaceful methods whilst the filibuster is a man of struggles. Rizal

was more or less a separatist, Andres Bonifacio a veritable filibuster.

Note 6. Sr. Olive was a gentleman who well deserved the respect and

honor paid to him by his nation, and the hatred of those whose plans of

treachery he thwarted and who, in spiteful revenge, have gone so far as

to accuse him of using torture and other forcible means of extorting

confessions, many of which they claim to have been false. Sr. Olive

was too kind-hearted a man to stoop to such methods even had the

circumstances demanded the use of moderate physical persuasion.

At one time Sr. Olive was the Governor of the Marianas Islands

concerning the which he wrote and published a very interesting

memoir. He was at that time Lieut. Colonel.

Later on he was made Colonel and as such was placed at the head of

one of the sections of the Guardia Civil of Manila. He was secretary

of the sub-inspection of arms of the Philippines. When a state of

war was declared, the charges which were at that time being prepared

in connection with the insurrection, were handed over to Sr. Olive,

who with a zeal worthy of praise, and an energy too seldom exerted,

commenced to deal out strict justice to the enemies of their

country. About a year and a half ago Sr. Olive was made General

of Brigade.

Note 7. According to a pamphlet written by a pseudonymous freemason and

printed in Paris in 1896, the first lodge founded in the Philippines

was that established in Cavite about 1860 under the name of Luz

Filipina and subject to the Gr. Or. Lusitian, enjoying immediate

correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hong-Kong

which served as intermediaries between that lodge and those of other

neighboring countries.

Another statement however, from the pen of Sr. Nicolas Diaz y Perez

who formed his data from the original documents of the lodges, places

the first foundation at the end of the year 1834. At this time,

says Sr. Diaz, D. Mariano Marti, who died twenty-seven years later,

whilst on his return to Spain, founded, together with others, lodges

in various parts of the Archipelago, but they did not prosper and soon

dissolved. The epoch of intrigues which produced so much disquietude

and perversion of moral customs and ideas, more especially in the

Tagal provinces, commenced about 1868. The masonic activity at that

time was owing greatly to the political intriguers who were deported

from Spain to this archipelago, where their influence was felt in no

small degree, to the detriment of public morals.

About 1872, during the interim government of Gen. Blanco Valderrama,

a lodge was founded in Sampaloc, subject to the Gr. Or. Esp.,

and composed entirely of peninsular Spaniards with the exclusion

of natives.

In the same year D. Rufino Pascual Torrejon reached Manila and united

his efforts to those of Marti, founding lodges purely Spanish.

On the first of March 1874 was created the lodge "Luz de Oriente" under

the obedience of the Gr. Or. de Esp., the Gr. Comend. being D. Juan

de la Somera. This was really the first successful establishment of

masonry in the Philippines. The cited Sr. Diaz y Perez says on this

point; "It may be said that freemasonry regularly constituted in the

Philippines, dates from the 1st. of March 1874, with the creation of

the lodge Luz de Oriente...."

On the 1st of March 1875 was installed the Gr. L. Departmental,

D. Rufino Pascual Torrejon being the Gr. President.

Up to the year 1884 the lodges of the Philippines did not admit to

their membership either indians or half-castes; but since that time,

and upon the initiative of the Gr. Mast. of the Gr. Or. Esp. the doors

of the lodges were opened to all indians and half-castes who could read

or write. Later on purely native lodges were founded and from that time

Spain lost, little by little but surely, her hold upon the people,

with the result that she eventually lost her colony. What masonry

has accomplished in other parts of the world it also accomplished

here very effectually. It laid the foundation for the undermining of

society, bringing forth a generation of traitors and building up a

kingdom for anti-Christ.

As has been proved over and over again by the many masonic documents

which have been discovered, freemasonry was ever anti-Catholic

in the Philippines; but it was not until it had degenerated into

filibusterism that the anti-Spanish spirit really took shape. Year

by year this spirit spread and more, especially among the natives

and half-castes of less intellectual capacity. Among this element,

separatist ideas spread with marvelous rapidity owing to the

peculiarity of the character of the native and of the half-caste,

more especially the Chinese half-caste. (See note 19).

Up to 1890, even Filipino masonry enjoyed but insignificant

development. By 1892, however, it had spread widely, and in the

following year Manila was gifted with a female lodge founded on the

18th of July of that year, under the name of "La Semilla", of which

Rosario Villareal, the daughter of Faustino Villareal, was declared

the Ven. Gr. Mistress.

From this time the element of politico-social decomposition

gained ground among the native and half-caste population. New ideas

continually gave place to the old and as the aims and purposes of the

lodges degenerated, these centers of anti-catholic propaganda became

more and more anti-Spanish.

Isabelo de los Reyes, in an attempted defense of his "friends",

makes the important confession that "Filipino freemasonry was not so

inoffensive as it was believed.... The "Liga" at least was a school of

conspiracy, and in truth, the Filipinos did not turn out bad pupils."

Another demonstration of the inoffensiveness of freemasonry is the

following series of facts taken from a pamphlet published in 1896 in

Paris by Antonio Regidor under the pseudonym of Francisco Engracio

Vergara. Regidor was a distinguished figure in the attempted revolt

of 1872, and hence may justly be supposed to know something of the

matter of which he speaks. He says:

"By reason of the rising of Cavite many Filipinos characterized as

progressives were deported to Marianas.... To the masons of Hong-Kong

was owing the flight of several Filipinos...."

"The foreign masons distributed arms in Negros, Mindanao and Jolo. The

official bank of Singapore distributed in Cebu, Leyte and Bohol over

L80,000 stg., and that of Hong-Kong more than L200,000 in Panay and

Negros.... The French freemasons at the petition of brother Paraiso,

went to aid also the escape of the deported in Marianas."

Note 8. Rizal and others: Of this group Rizal, Pilar, the Lunas and

Cortes, formed the more guilty part, they being men of superior

education and more enlightened minds. Rizal was the center upon

which almost everything connected with the revolt turned. During

his younger days he lived with his parents in Calamba, where they

occupied a stretch of land owned by the Dominican Corporation. The

Rizal family was one of those most favored by the Dominicans [22],

and one of those ungrateful ones too, which commenced law-suit against

the said Corporation to unjustly possess themselves of the land they

held at rent.

Rizal received his secondary education at the Ateneo Municipal

conducted by the Jesuit Fathers, and was always a bright attentive and

successful pupil. At that time he was secretary of the Sodality of the

Blessed Virgin and Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer. Whilst he

remained true to the traditions of Catholic Spain, he was an upright

pious youth. Much of his time he spent in carving wooden images of the

Blessed Virgin and of the Sacred Heart, and in writing compositions,

some of them remarkable for their beauty, in which were reflected a

pure love for Spain.

Having attained the degree of Bachelor he left the Ateneo and passed to

the University of Manila, continuing his studies under the Dominican

Fathers. There he studied medicine with great success for some years,

and at length went to Europe to terminate his career and take his

degrees.

Rizal left school like so many other filipino students, overloaded

with science he was unable to direct, full of pride because of his

accomplishments, and very ambitious. He terminated his studies in

Madrid and Germany, in both of which places he fell in with a class

of people who utilized him as a tool to accomplish an end at that

time unknown to him. They filled his head with new and false ideas,

making him vain promises which appealed to his pride, and by their

dark arts made of him a separatist. He also studied English and

German, his studies in this latter language making him enthusiastic

in the things of Germany and, in an extraordinary degree, with those

of protestantism.

Among his own people he was the possessor of an exceptional

intelligence and talent but outside his own circle his most famous

accomplishments are but poor to the student of Literature. His sadly

famous Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo cannot pass for more

than very second-hand for their ingenuity and literary taste, but

they possess the quality of being a mirror in which is reflected the

inclinations, character and perverse moral sense of their author. In

them he is reflected as a restless spirit anxious for human glory,

haughty and above all, anti-Spanish and ungrateful in the extreme.

It was in Berlin that he published his Noli in 1886. That this novel

was written by Rizal there in no doubt, but that the ideas therein

expressed came directly from his own head is more than doubtful. Like

the vast majority of Filipino productions, it is but a copy taken

from models which had struck the fancy of the author. The pictures

he draws therein of the disadvantages suffered by the Filipinos who

have become espanolized, are but reproductions prepared in his own

coarse and crude way of thinking, of the most scurrilous anti-Spanish

and anti-Catholic works of propaganda produced by the Bible Societies

and spread abroad throughout the world as gospel truth. Taking away

the insults hurled against the Church and the Religious Orders,

and against Spain, there is absolutely nothing new in the novel. Its

object was to attack the friars and the chiefs of the Guardia Civil,

both of which the author well knew to be the sustainment and guarantee

of peace and order in the Archipelago and consequently the strongest

support of the Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines, a sovereignty

he wished to overthrow. To a reader whose library consists of a half

a dozen books of insignificant literary value, the noli of Rizal is a

masterpiece; but to the reader who has seen a book with a cover, who

has had some experience of that portion of the world which lies outside

the limits of the town of his birth, and who is gifted with more or

less ability to think for himself, and sift the wheat from the straw

in a literary composition, noli me tangere is but a half-tone picture

cut from a newspaper and colored with water-colors by a ... school-boy.

Towards the end of 1887, Rizal returned to the Archipelago, remaining

about two months, during the which he made active propaganda of the

ideas and fancies he had picked up in Europe: ideas which he himself

could not really understand.

In February 1888 he left Manila for Japan, from whence he returned

to Europe, living for a while in Paris and later on in London.

In 1892 Rizal, relying upon the generous character of D. Eulogio

Despujols, the then Governor General of the Archipelago, decided

to return to Manila. From Hong-Kong where he was then residing, he

wrote to the governor, asking permission to return to his home; the

Governor replied by means of the Spanish Consul at Hong-Kong, that

he had no reason to prohibit him from returning, and that he could

do so when it so pleased him, providing he came with no intention to

disturb the peace then reigning in the Islands.

This Rizal lost no time in doing; he arrived together with his

sister. The baggage of both was carefully examined and in one of the

trunks was discovered a bundle of leaflets in the form of anti-friar

proclamations which indicated the bad faith of a traitor. These were

handed over to Despujols unknown to Rizal. The Governor preserved

them in his desk for future reference. In an interview with the

Governor, Rizal begged pardon for his father who was under sentence

of deportation for certain events which had taken place in Calamba;

this was granted him without reserve.

Our hero soon forgot the aims he professed to the Governor; instead

of thinking about his folks and making his arrangements for the

colonizing scheme he professed to have worked out in Borneo, he set

to work to stir up disrespect towards the authorities, and the spirit

of political unrest. He together with Doroteo Cortes and Jose Basa

were the objects of careful vigilance on the part of the secret police.

After a few days a prolonged conference took place between the Governor

General and Rizal. During this conference the latter made patent his

political feelings, at the same time making protestations of respect

for Spain. His political programme however was not in keeping with

his protestations of patriotism, and this fact so angered Despujols,

who now saw that Rizal's idea was to fool him, that he took from his

drawer the proclamations discovered in the agitator's baggage and

thrusting them under the nose of the traitor, said:

--And these proclamations; what are they, what do they mean?

Rizal taken by surprise and confounded, cowardly declared that they

were the property of his sister, a declaration which only enraged

the General the more, and he ordered his detention in Fort Santiago;

on the following day he decreed his deportation to Dapitan.

Whilst in exile his opinion and advice were sought concerning the

advisability of immediate armed rebellion. But he, crafty, more or

less far seeing and, above all, jealous of Bonifacio's increasing

ascendancy over the people, refused to countenance the idea. Granting

the unselfish desire he professed of seeking merely the independence

of his country, Rizal's jealousy was justified. Bonifacio's one

great idea was the presidency; Rizal's: the honor and glory of having

prepared the way for, and eventually, by his labors accomplishing his

country's deliverance from what he was pleased to call the oppression

of the Spanish Government. Had such oppression existed, Rizal's idea

would have been worthy of classifying as noble. George Washington well

deserved the name of the "Father of his Country," for he, laying aside

all selfish aims and desires, led a handful of men against a horde of

mercenaries sent by a cruel monarch who oppressed his people, not only

in the colonies but in the mother-country also. Washington was a man

who deserved and received the respect of those against whom he fought,

for he fought for a principle. Such an honor never has, and never

can be received by Rizal from his own countrymen. The campaign Rizal

fought was inspired by and worked out in the freemason lodges which

used our "hero" as a willing tool. Rizal was a Filipino Garibaldi,

never a Filipino Washington, and hence the honors paid to his memory

as a "patriot" must emanate from the lodge rooms which made him what

he was, and not from the people of his country.

In Dapitan the Filipino agitator was not inactive. On one occasion

he directed a letter (which never reached its destination on account

of its having fallen into the hands of Spanish authorities) to the

Capitan Municipal of the province of Batangas, giving him information

of the work of filibusterism which was at that time being carried on.

Rizal, tiring of his position in Dapitan, eventually asked permission

of the Governor General, Gen. Blanco, to be sent to Cuba as physician

to the Spanish forces there. Blanco agreed to the proposition and

ordered his return to Manila in preparation for the voyage to Spain,

where he was to be sent and placed at the disposition of the Minister

of War.

From Spain came word, however, that the petition could not be accepted;

and for a very good reason. Rizal's idea of becoming an army surgeon,

was a manifest pretence, his real aim was to aid the separatist

movement there, if he ever got there, but primarily to make his

escape at an intermediate port, Singapore probably, if opportunity

occurred. Moreover, it having come to the ears of the authorities that

certain people of Pampanga and Bulacan were preparing a reception for

the agitator, the Governor ordered that he should not be allowed to

leave Dapitan, and that should he have left there, he should not be

allowed to land in Manila on his arrival, but be transferred to another

ship which should carry him back to Mindanao. It happened that he had

left Dapitan on board the S. S. Espana, and in due time he arrived

at Manila. At 11 a. m. on the 6th of August the ship on which he came

anchored in the bay and everyone landed except Rizal. A lieutenant of

the Veterana went aboard and took possession of the person of Rizal,

holding him as a prisoner till 7:30 p. m., at which time, through an

error in the delivery of an order, he was allowed to disembark. This he

did in company with his sister Narcisa, and they made their way to the

office of the Captain of the Port and later on to the Comandancia of

the Veterana. His sister not having been under sentence of deportation,

was allowed to go to the home of her relatives.

During the evening of the same day Gen. Blanco gave a reception

at Malacanang at which were present the Archbishop of Manila, the

Illust. Sr. Bernardino Nozaleda; Sr. Echaluce; Sr. Fernandez Victorio,

President of Audiencia; Sr. Bores Romero, the Civil Director and

others. During the reception Gen. Blanco received a telegram from the

Governor of the province of Batangas stating that in the pueblo of

Taal, in the house of the brother of the filibuster Felipe Agoncillo,

had been discovered a quantity of arms and ammunition, among other

things being 10 revolvers, 10 winchesters, 10 other guns, a case of

explosive bullets, a quantity of dynamite, a Japanese flag, another

composed of red and blue with a representation of the sun in the

center surrounded by seven stars--the flag of the future Filipino

republic. Blanco realizing the importance of the news, formed a

committee from among those present, choosing those who were members

of the Junta of Authorities, to take steps in the matter. Orders were

immediately given that Rizal should be placed on board the cruiser

Castilla which was stationed at Cavite; this was carried out, the

start from Manila being made at 11 p. m. the same night. This action

was considered necessary, in as much as the news of the landing of

Rizal spread fast and caused no little stir among his followers.

Whilst Rizal was on board the cruiser Castilla which was awaiting

orders, the Katipunan revolt broke out in Manila and the suburbs. Very

soon afterwards his voyage Spainwards was commenced on board the

S. S. Colon, the insurrection becoming more and more wide-spread

daily. On finding to what an extent Rizal was complicated in the

work of the revolution, his return to the Archipelago, as a prisoner,

was demanded, and so our "hero" returned to be judged as were so many

of his fellow agitators, for the crimes for which he was morally and

physically responsible.

A council of war was constituted under the presidency of

Lieut. Col. Tabares, Capt. Tavil de Andrade taking charge of the

defense of the prisoner. The accusation preferred against him was that

he was the chief organizer of the revolution. The trial took place in

the hall of the Cuartel de Espana in the presence of a large audience

among whom were his sister and the woman with whom he had been living

in Dapitan. The charge having been read out, several declarations were

made by Rizal, some before his voyage to Spain and others since his

return were also read. During his trial Rizal denied the knowledge

of several persons who were his intimate friends and co-workers;

among them Maximo Inocencio and Mariano Linjap, and others with whom

he had been in almost continual communication. He denied knowledge

of the "Liga Filipina" stating that not only did he not found it,

but that he was not aware of its existence. He affirmed ignorance of

who Valenzuela was, and almost immediately afterwards stated that he

had held an interview with him in Dapitan when that individual had

been sent there by Bonifacio to consult him on the subject of armed

rebellion. Throughout the whole trial he pursued the same tactics,

proving that, of himself, he was but an ordinary Filipino indian who,

when left to himself to stand on his own merits, gave no signs of

particular judgement or power of thought. The Filipino on trial,

even for some significant affair, cannot tell a lie to advantage:

Rizal was no exception even in this. The trial being ended he was

condemned to execution.

Previous to meeting his death he confessed and received the Holy

Communion from the hands of the Jesuit Fathers having after long

consideration, made the following retraction of his errors:

"I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born

and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart

all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my

condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess

whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I

abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society

condemned by the Church.

"The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may

make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation

for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that

God and my fellow-men may pardon me."

"Manila 29th December 1896.--Jose Rizal.--Witnesses: Juan del

Fresno, Chief of Picket.--Eloy Maure, Adjutant."

He also entered the holy bonds of matrimony with the young woman

with whom he had been living for some time in Mindanao. On the way

to the place of his execution he remarked to one of the Fathers who

accompanied him. Father, it is my pride that has brought me here."

Of the political error committed by the Spanish Authorities in

the execution of Rizal, I do not hold myself up as a judge. All

governments, like human beings, commit mistakes and at times grave

ones. The Spanish authorities, feeling themselves justified in so

doing, ordered the execution of the prisoner who was responsible

for one of the most bloody revolts since the time of the French

revolution: the pattern taken by the Filipino leaders, for the means

of the foundation of the Filipino republic. Rizal was executed on the

Luneta. To assert that he was offered up as a victim to gratify the

wishes of the Religious Orders is but a crude and vicious argument

worthy of its inventors and propagators. Nothing, absolutely nothing,

can be brought forward to prove such an assertion, but on the contrary,

those members of the Religious Orders who concerned themselves in

the stirring affairs of the revolution were, as a very general rule,

opposed to harsh and extreme measures being taken; and among these

was the Illustrious Archbishop of Manila, Sr. Nozaleda, a noble,

tenderhearted and compassionate prelate, a prelate who has been dubbed

by Foreman as "the blood-thirsty Archbishop". Had the friars held the

reins of government as they are stated to have done, history would not

have to record the names of so many, many people who were executed:

people who were scarcely to be held as guilty, in as much as they

were but sheep who thoughtlessly followed their shepherds without

even looking to see where the road they trod would lead them.

In politics Rizal had his party composed of a number of insignificant

petty-lawyers, petty-doctors and others possessing academic titles and

a semi-formed cerebral power. These were backed by a mass of the people

of Calamba, Rizal's birthplace. In their eyes he was a "Messiah", a

"Mahdi", their prophet and redeemer. As an individual he was bright

and intelligent, and had he not been led astray by those who made a

"cat's paw" of him, and who cruelly deserted him in his hour of need,

he would doubtless have been one of the foremost Filipinos of to-day

in that sphere of life in which God had placed him.

A Spanish proverb says: "In blind man's land the one eyed man is a

king." Rizal was a king.

Note 9. Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan was a native of

Bulacan. He was, by profession, a lawyer, and had been enabled to

complete his studies in that direction through the good offices of the

Augustinian Fathers of Manila, who had given him the money necessary

to matriculate and to pay the cost of his title of "abogado." [23]

Pilar left Manila for the peninsula about the end of '88 for fear of

deportation: a punishment at that time staring him in the face. He

was one of the earliest workers on the "La Solidaridad", the official

organ of Filipino freemasonry in all its sections. He later on became

its director.

Pilar was another of the many malays whose ways were beyond human

comprehension. Spaniards who have lived a life-time among the indians

and studied them carefully from all points of view agree that the

deeper one studies the native character the more incomprehensible it

becomes. That is, the study of the average filipino: Pilar was one of

the average. He was not gifted with the education enjoyed by Rizal,

nor was he such a stupid visionary as Pedro Paterno; he possessed

touches of the character of both.

Like so many of those Filipinos who fed at the hands of the Religious

Orders, he eventually turned to bite the hand that fed him. As in the

case of the others who had done the like, he did so, not because he had

cause to, but because he fell, as did they, under the evil influence

of those who utilized them to work out their schemes of treachery.

Pilar was sent to Spain as a delegate of the Committee of

propaganda. Owing to this position of chief of the delegation in

Madrid, and by reason of his intimate friendship with Morayta,

he occupied a position from which neither Rizal nor even the whole

of the progressive indians combined, could drive him. He held, for

some time, high office in the Gr. Or. Esp. as will be seen from the

following clipping taken from page 107 of the Annual of that Orient

for the year 1894-95.

"GRAN CONS. DE LA ORDEN

1894-1895

Muy Ven. Gran Maestre Presidente

Ven. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr. 33

...................................

Ven. Gran Orador Adjunto

V. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr. 33" (h. Kupang)

It was Pilar who conceived the plan of the Katipunan; and yet after

all it was not his conception, for the scheme he formed was at the

best, a piece of patch work made up of the plans worked out in the

various revolutions which had taken place in some part of the world.

What Pilar's ambition was, it is hard to say; from his actions and

writings one is almost driven to the supposition that he had none

in particular, but was led to the separatist labors he performed by

force of compromise.

When the time was ripe for action Pilar determined to leave Madrid and

make his way to Japan. He commenced the journey arriving at Barcelona,

from whence he was to make his way east. There, however, he was taken

suddenly ill, and died on the 4th of June 1896, in the Hospital of

that city.

In many things Pilar was superior to Rizal. Unlike that agitator, Pilar

was not a sneaking, skulking petty-politician; he was straight-forward

and had the courage of his opinions. What Pilar would have done if

placed in the same circumstances as Rizal it is hard to say, but we

may be assured that he would not have acted the coward as did Rizal.

Note 10. Antonio and Juan Luna were two of four brothers. The former

was a bacteriologist, the latter an artist who at one time, whilst

he followed the instruction, and remained under the guidance of

his master, showed no little talent. Antonio went to Spain in '88,

and later on passed to Paris where he lived with his brother Juan

who supported him. There he devoted himself to the study which made

him famous; this he did in the laboratory of Dr. Roux. He became an

assistant editor of the Solidaridad, the official organ of filipino

freemasonry, and wrote many vicious articles in its columns over the

pseudonym of Taga-Ilog. As a member of the freemason fraternity he

was known as Gay Lussac.

On his return to Manila he established, for a livelihood, a school

of fencing, and like the vain, insensate "magpie in borrowed plumes"

that he was, he once sent his seconds to a Spanish officer, inviting

him to a duel!

During the second half of the rebellion of '96, Aguinaldo offered

Antonio the position of director of the War Department with the

grade of General of Brigade. This honor, however, he declined. The

Independencia speaking on this incident, says:--

"The military knowledge of Sr. Luna, acquired during his captivity

(sic) in the prisons of the peninsula (Spain), is to be found condensed

in two small works, one concerning the organization of the army, having

as its base the idea of obligatory service in which he demonstrates

that Luzon might put on a war footing 250,000 to 400,000 men, and

the whole archipelago as many as from 800,000 to 900,000. The other

work is a practical course in field fortifications as adopted by the

French and German armies." [24]

Juan, from childhood, was of an artistic turn of mind and found among

his many protectors those who sent him to Spain to study art. In

Spain he met with Sr. Alejo Vera, a noteworthy artist, under whom

he studied, receiving an exceptional education both in art and in

morals, Sr. Vera being a Christian gentleman. Later on he went to

Rome, and there formed part of the Spanish artistic colony. After some

two or three years of study there he sent to Spain his first painting

[25]. Being an artistic production of a Filipino indian it was received

with open hands and given a reception greater than it really deserved,

as a result of the influence of Luna's friends. From Rome he went

to Paris. It was in that city that he committed the fiendish double

murder which so startled and shocked his friends and acquaintances,

his victims being his wife and his mother-in-law, sister and mother

of a prominent political aspirant of modern Manila. The result of

the trial was that the courts of Justice of Paris absolved him. He

then returned to Madrid, and soon after, to Manila.

What Spain did for the Filipino brought forth fruit in only a few of

the people who fell under her beneficent christian influence. The Lunas

were among the few. They, like so many other ungrateful children,

repaid their benefactors by becoming leaders of the insensate and

inexcusable revolt against them: a revolt, the first act of which was

to be the brutal murder of all Spaniards irrespective of parentage or

other claims of consideration. Both the brothers suffered arrest by

the Spanish authorities for rebellion and sedition, but in spite of

the degree to which they were complicated, they remained practically

free from punishment, and ever at the right hand of the imbecile

General Blanco, himself a freemason, and friend of the enemies of

his country. Eventually the two brothers left the ante-chamber of

the Governor to enter the security of the military prison.

Both brothers eventually retracted their errors only to fall into

them again as soon as the lying protests of repentance had fallen

from their lips.

Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarism succumbed

to the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andres Bonifacio to

an untimely grave.

Note 11. Doroteo Cortes was banished by Governor Despujol in the year

1893, to the province of La Union where he founded in San Fernando,

the Capital, aided by Arturo Dancel, the lodge "Rousseau" and two

others in the pueblos of San Juan and Agoo. He was a lawyer and became

the president of the committee of Propaganda which was formed with

the idea of gathering pecuniary resources for covering the expense

of the distribution of all classes of pamphlets and anti-Religious

proclamations. He was at one time the president of the Superior Supreme

Council of the Katipunan [26], and received the funds collected for

the payment of the expenses of the political commission sent to Japan

to seek the aid and protection of that power. Cortes was a co-worker

with Andres Bonifacio and whilst the former devoted his efforts to the

enlistment of people for the general rising throughout the country,

the latter continued his negotiations with Japan to the end of forcing

some international struggle between Spain and that Power [27]. By

order of the Superior Council Cortes went to Japan to join Ramos and

aid in the purchase of arms. Shortly after his arrival he communicated

by letter with Ambrosio Bautista informing him that he had seen and

spoken on the subject with the Japanese ministers of State and of

Foreign Affairs [28], and that the said ministers "demanded guarantees"

of the probable success of the undertaking before entering into the

scheme. According to a statement of Isabelo de los Reyes, Cortes was

"the first person of means and position who came to the decision of

attacking, in the Philippines, the Religious Corporations. He was the

soul of the manifestation of '88." (See appendix B.) At the time of

the American occupation of the Archipelago the Cortes family showed

themselves friendly to the new sovereignty and aided in many ways

the establishment of good feeling between the two peoples.

Note 12. Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday-Pira, was a 24th degree

mason. He was a school-master of the municipal school of Quiapo. After

having done considerable work of propaganda in masonry he abjured

it. He was the cause of the entry into the lodges of hundreds of indian

and half-caste clerks, laborers, employees, petty merchants and others

of all classes and employments. He was accused by his fellow masons of

exploiting the society [29] and of treason, of frequenting the Palace

of the Archbishop and the College of San Juan de Letran, and of many

things unbecoming a mason. In a document dated the 31st of March 1894,

dispatched by the G. Cons. Reg. of Filipino masonry to the lodge

Modestia, Serrano was denounced, and all masons were urged to flee

from him. In the said document, a translation of which will be found

in Appendix C, is poured forth the complaint of the president of the

Gr. Cons. (h. Muza) of a leakage somewhere in the treasury in which

were stored up the secrets of the treasonable labors being carried

out in the Filipino lodges. By way of specific charges the president

denounces Panday-Pira because he had the courage to give vent to his

opinions concerning the doings of the Filipino lodges, to a foreign

mason; because he was known to have, for some reason or other, visited

the Archbishop's palace and Dominican College; that he had demanded

the possession of certain documents, threatening the possessors if

they did not give them up, etc. etc. On this account he was denounced

as a traitor and dubbed "reptile", the pot calling the kettle black.

Note 13. Morayta, the famous Don Miguel, the "papa" of the rebellious

Filipinos! It is an almost world-wide belief that the number 13 is

an unlucky number. If this be so, then Miguel Morayta well deserves

his name, for in it there are thirteen letters; the first letter of

each word commences with the thirteenth letter of the alphabet and

it happens also that this miserable individual falls to note 13. I

will therefore complete the coincidence by saying all I have to say

of this person in thirteen lines.

Morayta was at one time Gr. Master of the Gr. Or. de Espana, but was

later on expelled therefrom, according to a masonic publication. In

1888 he founded the Gr. Or. Espanol, the mother of the Katipunan. In

1890 he took over the proprietorship of La Solidaridad then published

by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of

the Filipino students who sought education in the Peninsula. Using

him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and

thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.

Note 14. Tagalog: The Tagalogs are a branch of the Malay family

which, in former times, dominated from Madagascar to the ends of the

Pacific. They form part of what we might call the Malay-Chinee race,

i. e. the cross between the female on the Malay side and the Chinee

on the side of the male. This cross has been taking place from time

immemorial, commencing long before the islands were discovered by

the Spanish explorers. The present Tagalog indian enjoys more of the

characteristics of the Chinee than of the Malay on account of the

potency of the Chinee blood over the Malay.

Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original

Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants

proper of the archipelago--the Negritos--marks of which mixture are

still discernible in many of the Tagalogs.

A second modification came through the mixture between the

Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in

the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the

Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the

crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesian with the Chinee, the Chinee

being marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull

and other minor marks.

During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone

another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with

Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent

but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number

about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about

Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from

which the Tagalog of to-day is derived are, although still present in

a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological

and historical circumstances.

At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native

peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage

ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.

The average Tagalog is not wanting in courage, a fact he has often

displayed, but this courage is never seen to advantage except when the

indian is under the leadership of a person of exceptional valor or a

strict disciplinarian. Like most peoples derived from the Malay stock,

the Tagalog indian is subject to strange fits of mental aberration,

the fits taking different forms, generally innocent ones, the worst

being a homicide under the influence of a "hot head". At least that

is what might have been said of him 8 or 10 years ago, previous to

the time in which he became fanaticised by freemasonry. He is not

even yet apt to run amok as is usual among the Malays and this is

undoubtedly due to the civilizing religious influence which has been

brought to bear upon him during the three centuries of Spanish rule

in the Archipelago. It is a noteworthy fact that in the same degree

as the influence of religion, of the Religious Orders if you will,

became lesser, in exactly equal degree did crime increase. Explain

this as you will the fact remains that during the four years or

so that the indian has been under the care and protection of a

government indifferent to all religion, crime has increased a hundred

fold, perhaps arithmetically so also, and crimes unheard of in days

gone by, have become so common as scarcely to merit mention in the

columns of Manila's yellow journalism. What the Tagalog indian is

equal to when free from the restraint of the Catholic religion,

has been seen from the fearful crimes and barbarities committed

against Spaniards and against Americans during the insurrection. The

brutalities committed upon the unfortunate prisoners who fell into

their hands were unheard of even among the savage Arab hordes of the

Soudan, nor have the records of the ferocity of the Chinese boxers

yet told us of things equal to the fearful events which took place in

the province of Cavite and elsewhere. And for all this the Tagalog

indian is responsible: the Tagalog for whom Pedro Paterno claims a

pre-Spanish civilization on the plan of the Aztec and ancient Peruvian

indians. Like all oriental peoples the Tagalog is superstitious and

loves demonstration, symbolism and things grotesque. About the only

thing left to him of his ancient civilization as Paterno calls it,

barbarism we generally say, is his mythology. In it everything is

more or less connected with spirits. Their faith in what they call

their anting anting [30] is unbreakable. Rizal was supposed to be

under the protection of the anting-anting but the leaden missiles

which took away his life carried away the anting-anting also: and yet

there are thousands upon thousands of indians, some of them men of

enlightenment, who still cling to the belief that Rizal still lives,

thanks to the influence of his protecting amulet. Nor did anting anting

avail Aguinaldo who now probably believes far more in the protection of

his American prison than in that offered by his anting anting charms.

Their mythology has, like their ancient character, been greatly

modified in the vast majority, by the influence of the civilization

implanted by Spain. This is one point in which Spain has differed from

most nations in methods of civilization and colonization. However

we may judge her in respect to her colonial administration in the

Philippines, we cannot deny that she has been distinguished from other

nations by her aim of preserving the native races of the archipelago,

the destruction consequent upon the radical change undergone in

everything, being limited to the savage customs and immoralities in

which the native peoples were found submerged.

The masonic lodges spoken of in the text which were asked of Morayta,

were established, although they were not exclusively Tagalog in

their membership. As a result of the petition of the Filipino colony

mentioned in the same text, the theories and practices of Masonry

were carried to the Tagalogs but instead of the needy brethren being

aided by the wealthy ones, they were subjected to a contribution

in exchange for which they received a gaudy regalia; in other words

they were bought over with strings of beads and with tinsel truck as

were the indians discovered by Capt. Cook in the South Sea Islands,

with the exception that Capt. Cook and those who followed him carried

civilization to the natives, whilst the founders of the Katipunan

carried to the Tagalogs and the other indians of the archipelago

misery and demoralization.

Note 15. Faustino Villaruel Gomara was a Spanish half-caste, a native

of Pandaran, living in Binondo. He was the founder of the lodge "La

Patria" of which he was also the Ven. Gr. Master with grade 18. He

also founded a lodge of female freemasons, for the foundation of

which he committed the nefarious crime of prostituting his daughter,

handing her over, in the period of her innocence and candor, to the

ridiculous workings and practices of freemasonry. Rosario Villaruel

(Minerva), thus sacrificed by her father, was initiated in Hong-Kong

and made venerable of the first lodge of female masons in Manila,

drawing in after her a large number of her half-caste friends, young

folk of bare instruction. This lodge was known as "La Semilla". Its

composition was: Sisters: Carlota Zamora, of Calle Crespo; Maria

Teresa Bordas, of Tabaco, province of Albay; Fabiana Robledo,

wife of Sixto Celis; Lorenza Nepomuceno, of Calle San Jose, Trozo;

Angelica Lopez, Calle Jolo; Narcisa Rizal; Maria Dizon, Calle Trozo,

and other fanatic females.

Villaruel was the Gr. Oriente of filipino masonry, a deluded fanatic,

a man of but scarce intellectual endowments, an instrument of those

who knew more and were shrewder than he. By laying hands upon him

the Spanish Authorities laid hands also upon a large number of

incriminating documents which were the means of connecting many

prominent business men of Manila with the bloody programme of the

Katipunan. Among these was Francisco L. Roxas.

Besides these documents were a large number of loose papers written

in Tagalog, in which were discovered many threatening phrases and the

expression of hopes in the success of an event to take place in the

near future. Masks and other masonic implements, including a heavily

made and sharply pointed dagger were also discovered.

Previous to suffering the penalty of his treason he made and signed

a public abjuration, for the copy of which see Appendix E.

Note 16. Andres Bonifacio was the soul of the Katipunan movement;

he was the President of the "Council of Ministers of the Supreme

Popular Council." His social condition was of a low grade, that grade

from which many of the most fanatical pseudo-reformers have come;

he was a warehouseman, a porter. In this capacity he was employed

in the establishment of Messrs Fressel and Co., and was one of the

humblest of the employees.

Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man

of sanguinary character, and held the people over whom he attained

ascendancy, in awe. His ambition was the cause of his ignominious

downfall and brutal murder at the hands of another self-asserted

dictator of the filipino Commune. Like most of his kind, he was

a great reader, and by those who knew him best he was likened to

Don Quixote, for like that worthy he passed many a night burning

away oil and candles, and sacrificing needed sleep in reading,

until his brain was turned and his whole mind given up to ideas of

revolutions. His favorite study was the French Revolution, from the

which he learned many lessons which he utilized in his projects, the

principal of which was the formation of a government after the style

of the French Commune. He was astute and comparatively intelligent,

and spoke the Tagalog dialect well. For the carrying out of his plans

he had agents in every nook and corner. No place where information

might be gathered or the work of propaganda done, was over-looked. The

offices of the Civil Government had their quota of his spies, as also

did the Intendencia, the Maestraza de Artilleria and the other large

centers. Nor were the Convents and Colleges overlooked, nor even the

big business Corporations.

Bonifacio enjoyed an envied ascendancy over the lower classes and

the ignorant. Like others of similar tendencies, Bonifacio knew how

to exploit the "membership". He was at one time treasurer of the

Katipunan, and upon one occasion after the examination of the books

by the president of the society Andres was denounced as an exploiter,

the accounts being found in a very bad condition. A series of mutual

squabbles and insults passed between the president Roman Basa, and

Bonifacio, the whole affair ending up in a re-election of officers,

Bonifacio being chosen as president. This occurred towards the end

of the year 1893.

The vanity of Bonifacio was comparable only to that of Aguinaldo. Among

the number of chief workers of the Katipunan was a certain Valenzuela,

a doctor who had, according to his own confession, been forced into

the membership by Bonifacio, on the strength of a "love" affair; he

was given the choice of membership or death. He chose the former but

later on resigned. Whilst a member he enjoyed a salary of 30 pesos a

month as medical officer, but only with difficulty could he collect

his pay. He claimed to have been exploited by Bonifacio who, whilst

merely a porter, could thus have at his command the free services of

a real doctor, spurning the services of the petty physicians which

abound in Manila. Nor was this all. His own (Bonifacio's) house

having been burned down, he went, on the strength of this same "love"

affair, to live in the house of the said doctor (see foot-note p. 48),

taking with him his paramour, the doctor paying the greater part of

the expenses thus incurred.

At the time of the organization of the popular Supreme Councils,

Bonifacio was chosen president of the Council of Trozo; but in

consequence of internal troubles occasioned by his rebelliousness,

the Supreme Council decided to dissolve the local Council. Bonifacio,

true to his colors, disregarded this order and continued working on his

own account, taking upon himself the faculties of the Supreme Council.

He preserved in a case which was found in the warehouse of Messrs

Fressel and Co., the organization of the "Filipino Republic" which

was to be, as well as a number of regulations, codes, decrees of

nominations, etc., all drawn up in Tagalog (see foot-note p. 49.)