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Ang Pagpatay kay Padre Moises: Difference between revisions
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Ang Pagpatay kay Padre Moises (view source)
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Probably the most hated 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 in the hands of assassins whom authorities would point their suspicion towards the revolutionary Isidoro Torres. | |||
==== Why kill the cura? ==== | ==== Why kill the cura? ==== | ||
Confrontations between the cura and the local leaders went back years before. On 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 days 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. 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 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. page 55-56, Dahon | |||
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. page 51, Dahon | |||
The traveller, John Foreman who had conversations with Father Moises Santos OSA 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> | |||
Paranoid he could have been, the ''cura parroco'' requested for additional ''guardia civil'' to Malolos during the town fiesta, December 9, 1895, 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. | |||
In an article from Revistas Filipinas (1898), General Isidoro Torres was referred to as the one responsible for the death of Father Moises. | In an article from Revistas Filipinas (1898), General Isidoro Torres was referred to as the one responsible for the death of Father Moises. | ||