Ang Pagpatay kay Padre Moises

The Murder of Fr. Moises Santos, OSA

The last and probably the most hated friar parish priest of Malolos, Fr. Moises Santos OSA earned the ire of Malolenos during his time in the parish from 1895 up to his murder in 1898. His tenure at Malolos was marked by conflicts with the native leaders, his actions towards them were punitive, and as he sowed hatred he reaped a violent and untimely death at the hands of assassins whom authorities would point their suspicion towards the revolutionary leader Isidoro Torres.

The parish priest was killed while on his way to the Barasoain and Malolos train station

A Despicable Personality

Confrontations between the cura and the local leaders went back years starting on the year he was designated in Malolos. On a Holy Tuesday, April 9, 1895, an angry Fr. Moises Santos canceled the scheduled procession when the town's principalia did not join the religious activity. Don Antonio Bautista recounted that the cura took a vengeful attitude towards those who boycotted the procession and may have initiated the requiza or searches by the guardia civil on the residences of the principales of Malolos which sought copies of subversive La Solidaridad, Plaridel's "Soberania Monacal" and other publications deemed illegal by the church.

Harassment against these leaders continued. That same year, a month after, a Te Deum mass was ordered to be held in the whole of the country to celebrate the victory in Marawi. The cura in Malolos asked the people for money for the Te Deum which the same local leaders did not agree with as they argued that no payment was needed for the mass to be celebrated. On the appointed day for the Te Deum, the Parish Priest carried out the ceremony with no attendees other than the sacristan and the altar boys. The offended priest responded by reporting the leaders to the Governor General who then sent the secretary of the government, D. Echaluse to try them in a tribunal, May 25. This would later result in the destitucion or removal of those in public offices, the arrest and imprisonment of many at Bilibid in Manila, and the exile of eight leaders in Jolo, Mindanao, and Palawan on June 15, 1895. The exiled Malolenos were Manuel Crisostomo, Ceferino, Valentin, and Juan Aldaba, Vicente Gatmaytan, Justo Teodoro, Saturnino Buendia, and Luis H. del Pilar.

These men happened to also belong to Logia Kupang. Fr. Moises Santos strongly denounced membership to the local freemasonry lodge accusing them of rebellion against the government and the church.

The English traveller, John Foreman, who had conversations with Father Moises Santos, talked about how the priest caused all the members of the town council to be banished in 1895. Foreman in his accounts, shared how arrogant the priest was telling him what he did and that he had cleared out a few more and had his eye on others. He noted that it was usual for the priests, particularly those around Manila, to have their victims escorted to the Governor General who then issued deportation orders without trial or sentence, the recommendation of the all-powerful padre being sufficient warrant.

Deportation order against Malolos local leaders issued by Gov. Gen. Blanco

During the town fiesta of 1895, paranoid he was, the cura parroco requested for additional guardia civil to Malolos, as he reported intelligence that there was a plot to attack the church and steal the santissimo which was made of gold and adorned with gems. The plot never happened.

These confrontations in the backdrop of a growing revolutionary spirit in Malolos may have brought the priest to that summer day of March 31, 1898, when he was killed in broad daylight by unknown assassins whose motives had most likely been driven by the collective ire of oppressed and awakened townspeople fed up with the corrupt frailocracy.

A tale of murder, or an exaction of justice

Fr. Moises Santos was assassinated. An account of the event was narrated in the newspaper, Espana (1898):

On the evening of March 31 last, at a time when Father Moisés, confident and defenseless, headed towards the Barasoain railway station to bid farewell to other priests who were trying to see him off, as he had been appointed to a position in Manila, three heartless individuals encountered him in a wooded area of the road and inflicted eight tremendous stab wounds on him. He succumbed to his injuries an hour later. As for the assassins, they remain a mystery until now. What is not a mystery to anyone is that when immediately sought in Malolos and Barasoain, Torres and the deportees, it happened that none of them were found in the town.

The suspicion was against Torres. In an article from the Spanish Revistas Filipinas (1898), General Isidoro Torres was referred to as the one responsible for the death of Father Moises. The report stated that "...Isidoro Torres, the alleged murderer of the priest of Malolos, Guiguinto, Agoo and of Santa Isabel, and now commander of the militias with several hundred rifles at his disposal..."

Torres was tried for the murder and according to secondary sources, will be acquitted because of his family's reputation and influence.

The people of Catmon would remember the assassination as they reported in the Historical Data Paper of the 1950s the story of the priest's death. According to the retelling of the event, the parish priest was killed on the bridge of Catmon. "The persons who killed the priest, kissed the hands of the said priest before stabbing the said priest in the breast because it is their custom to kiss the hands of the priest whenever they met him."

Dr. Pardo de Tavera in a commentary saw the fate of Padre Moises Santos in light of the waning of the power and influence of the friars in the face of liberal ideas spreading among the Filipinos during the last decade of the 19th century. Spanish sovereignty, according to him, fell with frailocracy as it cling to it. Dr. Pardo de Tavera retold the death of the last friar parish priest of Malolos:

"Friar Moises Santos, the parish priest, was at last able to sleep in peace, after General Blanco had taken from him the residents who were sowing the bad seed, and sent them into exile on faraway islands; but one day, as he was going on foot to the railroad station in order to take the train to Manila, and was ascending a bridge near the station, three natives approach him respectfully. Supposing they came to kiss his hand, he gravely held it out to them. Then one of the natives caught it and, violently drawing the priest towards him, struck him with his right hand a terrible blow with a dagger in the breast.

"In an instant, the three men had disappeared, and in the middle of the road, bathed in blood, there lay the body of the last friar parish priest of Malolos, dying unaided, in those last days of the Spanish rule, shortly before the declaration of war by the United States and the destruction of Montojo's fleet at Cavite."

The Murder of Fr. Moises Santos: Document Set

The Murder of Fr. Moises Santos: Document Set

Citation and Link	Transcription	Translation
Espanol, J. (1898, June 27). Revistas Filipinas, p. 7. Espana.	La llegada de Aguinaldo á Cavite, traído por los yankis, no fué bastante para abrir los ojos á nuestra primera autoridad y traer consigo á su familia; pensó, sin duda, que Bulacán, entregada á la férula del cabecilla Isidoro Torres, asesino presunto del cura de Malolos, del de Grirguinto, del de Agóo y del de Santa Isabel, y ahora comandante de Milicias con varios centenares de fusiles á su disposición, semantendría leal á la soberanía de España...	The arrival of Aguinaldo to Cavite, brought by the Yankees, was not enough to open the eyes of our foremost authority and bring his family with him; He thought, without a doubt, that Bulacán, delivered to the rule of the leader Isidoro Torres, alleged murderer of the priest of Malolos, of Grirguinto, of Agóo and of Santa Isabel, and now commander of Militias with several hundred rifles at his disposal , would remain loyal to the sovereignty of Spain...
Espanol, J. (1898, April 11). La Rebellion en Filipinas, pp. 4-5. Espana.	Los asesinos de Malólos. Cuadro primero. En el año 1895, á raíz de la victoria de Marahuit, y como quiera que fuese menester dar á este hecho más importancia de la que tenía, se mandó celebrar Te-Deum en todas las poblaciones del Archipiélago. En Malolos, el Tribunal Municipal se hallaba formado por masones y filibusteros, alejados, como era consiguiente, de la Iglesia parroquial y del Convento. El Cura, Rdo. P. Fr. Moisés Santos, un alma buena, incapaz de hacer daño á una mosca y que había hecho, en cambio, á Malolos muchos beneficios, deseoso de evitar toda disensión y hasta todo motivo para ella, propuso al Gobernador civil de la provincia que el Te Deum no se celebrara; pero el Gobernador insistió, y de acuerdo ambos, se señaló para su celebración un día distinto del designado para celebrar el de su cabecera, con objeto de que, presentándose aquél en Malolos, se pusiese al frente de la principalia y en esta forma se vieran los principales obligados tácitamente á concurrir. ¡Palabras, palabras y palabras! El día señalado para el Te Deum el Gobernador se quedó muy pacífico en Bulacán y el Cura verificó la ceremonia sin más asistentes que el sacristán y los monaguillos. El General Blanco mandó á Malolos al hoy Secretario del Gobierno general Sr. Sein Echaluce; éste formó expediente gubernativo, y la principalia en masa de Malolos fué deportada á Mindanao. Segundo cuadro. Durante la insurrección surgió como cabecilla de una de las partidas levantadas en armas, un tal Torres, de Malolos, el cual, al concertarse la pacificación Primo de Rivera, cometió la primada de someterse, es de presumir que suficientemente socorrido, quedándose de reyezuelo de Malolos. Los decretos de indulto publicados con motivo de la paz devolvieron al pueblo á los deportados de Mindanao y allí no había Capitanía Municipal, ni Juez, ni Rey, ni Roque, ni más voluntad que la del tal Torres y comparsa, con mucho ¡viva España! eh la boca, pero con mucho veneno en el pensamiento. El Cura, que esto veía, cumplió sus deberes de español á macha-martillo, informando reservadamente de ello al General Primo de Rivera; y Tercer cuadro. Al anochecer del 31 de Marzo último, en ocasión en que el Padre Moisés, confiado é inerme, se dirigió hacia la estación del ferrocarril de Barasoain para esperar á otros curas que trataban de despedirle, por haber sido designado para ejercer un cargo en Manila, tres desalmados que le salieron al encuentro en un lugar bosquejoso del camino le asestaron ocho tremendas puñaladas de las que falleció una hora después. ¿Los asesinos? Hasta ahora permanecen en el misterio; lo que no es misterio para nadie es que buscados inmediatamente en Malolos y en Barasoain el Torres y los deportados, dio la casualidad de que ninguno de ellos se encontraba en el pueblo.	The Assassins of Malolos. First Scene. In the year 1895, following the victory of Marahuit, and as it was necessary to give more importance to this event than it deserved, Te Deum was ordered to be celebrated in all the towns of the Archipelago. In Malolos, the Municipal Tribunal was composed of Masons and filibusters, naturally distant from the parish church and the convent. The Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Moisés Santos, a good soul incapable of harming a fly and who had rendered many benefits to Malolos, desiring to avoid any dissension and even any reason for it, proposed to the civil Governor of the province that the Te Deum not be celebrated. However, the Governor insisted, and both agreed to celebrate it on a different day than the one designated for the celebration in the capital. This was done so that, by presenting himself in Malolos, he would lead the principales (local leaders), and thus, the prominent figures would be tacitly obligated to attend. Empty words! On the appointed day for the Te Deum, the Governor remained peacefully in Bulacán, and the Parish Priest carried out the ceremony with no attendees other than the sacristan and the altar boys. General Blanco sent Mr. Sein Echaluce, the current Secretary of the general Government, to Malolos; he compiled a government file, and the entire principality of Malolos was deported to Mindanao. Second Scene. During the insurgency, a certain Torres from Malolos emerged as the leader of one of the armed groups. When the pacification under Primo de Rivera was agreed upon, he committed the audacity to submit, presumably having received sufficient support, and remained as a sort of petty king of Malolos. The amnesty decrees published in connection with the peace returned the deportees from Mindanao to the town. There was no Municipal Captaincy, Judge, King, Roque, or more will than that of Torres and his associates, who loudly shouted "Long live Spain!" with venomous thoughts in their minds. The Parish Priest, seeing this, dutifully fulfilled his obligations as a Spaniard, secretly reporting it to General Primo de Rivera. Third Scene. On the evening of March 31 last, at a time when Father Moisés, confident and defenseless, headed towards the Barasoain railway station to bid farewell to other priests who were trying to see him off, as he had been appointed to a position in Manila, three heartless individuals encountered him in a wooded area of the road and inflicted eight tremendous stab wounds on him. He succumbed to his injuries an hour later. As for the assassins, they remain a mystery until now. What is not a mystery to anyone is that when immediately sought in Malolos and Barasoain, Torres and the deportees, it happened that none of them were found in the town.
Martínez, B. (1909). Apuntes históricos de la provincia agustiniana del Santísimo nombre de Jesús. Spain: los hijos de G. Fuentenebro. p. 510	Del P. Moises Santos se sabe que en pleno dia el 31 de Marzo de 1898 fue vil y cobardamente asesinado al retirarse de Malolos, al ir a tomar el tren de la tarde que le condujera a Manila. No ignoraba el insigne y virtuoso Agustino que sus horas estaban contadas; la atmosfera de sectarismo de que se halla saturado todo el ambiente de Malolos indicabale que debia estar prevenido para la muerte. Asi lo comprendio el P. Moises; se preparo para morir, conciendo, sin duda, que el viaje proyectado seria el de la eternidad. Ha podio recogerse su cuerpo y ser conducido al panteon de Guadalupe.	It is known about Father Moises Santos that in broad daylight on March 31, 1898, he was vilely and cowardly murdered as he left Malolos, while going to take the afternoon train that would take him to Manila. The distinguished and virtuous Augustinian was not unaware that his hours were numbered; The atmosphere of sectarianism with which the entire environment of Malolos is saturated indicated to him that he should be prepared for death. This is how Father Moises understood it; He prepared to die, knowing, without a doubt, that the planned journey would be that of eternity. He was able to collect his body and be taken to the pantheon of Guadalupe. (Note: the massacre at Guiguinto Station was narrated on the succeeding paragraphs, page 511).