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Ang Pagpatay kay Padre Moises: Difference between revisions
Ang Pagpatay kay Padre Moises (view source)
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Confrontations between the cura and the local leaders went back years before since his designation 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.<ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University.</ref> | Confrontations between the cura and the local leaders went back years before since his designation 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.<ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University.</ref> | ||
Harassment against these leaders continued. 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. 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. <ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University. page 55-56</ref> | Harassment against these leaders continued. 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.<ref>Espanol, J. (1898, April 11). La Rebellion en Filipinas, p. 4</ref> 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. <ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University. page 55-56</ref> | ||
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. <ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University. p. 51</ref> | 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. <ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University. p. 51</ref> | ||
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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.<ref>Foreman, J. (1899). The Philippine Islands: A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social and Commercial History of the Philippine Archipelago and Its Political Dependencies, Embracing the Whole Period of Spanish Rule. United Kingdom: C. Scribner's sons, p. 511.</ref> | 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.<ref>Foreman, J. (1899). The Philippine Islands: A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social and Commercial History of the Philippine Archipelago and Its Political Dependencies, Embracing the Whole Period of Spanish Rule. United Kingdom: C. Scribner's sons, p. 511.</ref> | ||
During the town | During the town fiesta of 1895, paranoid he could have been, 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. <ref>Bautista, A. (2000). Ang Malulos sa mga dahon ng kasaysayan. Philippines: Center for Bulacan Studies, Bulacan State University.</ref> | ||
==== A murder, or an exaction of justice ==== | 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 an oppressed townspeople. | ||
==== A tale of murder, or an exaction of justice ==== | |||
Fr. Moises Santos was murdered. An account of his last day was narrated in the newspaper, Espana (1898): | |||
<small>''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.''</small> | |||
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..." <ref>Espanol, J. (1898, June 27). Revistas Filipinas, p. 7. Espana.</ref> | |||