by Eli J. Obligacion
(By coincidence, I am on my way to Marinduque from Malolos, Bulacan after attending an arts and council forum there with all-Luzon participants. Did succeed in finding additional data...)
The last two decades of the 19th century saw Filipino writers in Spanish expressing themselves in poetry urging Filipinos to shake off the chains of imperial rule that had imprisoned them for three centuries. These included Jose de Vergara, Pedro Paterno and our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.
During the last decade of that century appeared a trilogy of poems expressing sentiments that ranged from reformism to separation from the Mother Country, Spain.
Hermenegildo Flores wrote the first of this trilogy in Tagalog in 1888, with “Hibik ng Filipinas sa Inang Espana”. At this time, Rizal was in London doing research for his annotations on Morga's history of the Philippines. (Perceptions of the Past in Southeast Asia, ANthony Reid, David Marr). "Hibik" is composed of 66 quatrains where the poet, speaking as an oppressed daughter pours out his major grievance to Mother Spain – the abuses committed by the frailes, friars.
Among others, the daughter complains:
“Sa bawat nasa mong kagaling-galingan,
ayaw ng prayleng ako'y makinabang,
sa mga anak ko'y ang ibig lamang
isip ay bulagin, ang bibig ay takpan”.
And she specifies:
“Sa pagpapalago ng kanilang yaman
bendita't bendisyon lamang ang puhunan,
induluhensiya't iba't ibang bahay
ng mga sagrado naman ang kalakal”.
Flores, son of Bulacan, the Philippine province known as the cradle of revolutionary heroes, had a role to play in the life of Marcelo H. del Pilar, foremost of the Filipino propagandists of that era. National artist Bienvenido Lumbera referred to Flores as del Pilar’s “former teacher and fellow propagandist” (Tagalog Poetry, 1870-1898: Tradition and Influences in its Development”, by Bienvenido Lumbera).
Del Pilar left the Philippines for Spain in October 1888 joining Graciano Lopez Jaena, Mariano Ponce and Jose Rizal, the leading lights of the Reform Movement. The following year, while in Barcelona, Spain, del Pilar's response to Flores, “Sagot ng Espana sa Hibik ng Pilipinas” saw its publication. The longer poem had 82 quatrains. The poem has been described as “for the most part pedestrian verse, yet it is powerful because of the theatrical design behind the poem”. In the poem, Mother Spain recognizes how the friars have maltreated her daughter, but advises the daughter to bear her cross in silence.
While in Spain, Del Pilar succeeded Lopez Jaena as editor of La Solidaridad, the Filipino reformists’ propaganda paper that lasted for six years under del Pilar. Its last issue was on Nov. 15, 1895. Under extreme penury, he fell ill and died in a hospital in Barcelona on July 4, 1896.
By this time, Bonifacio has re-organized the remnants of La Liga Filipina that was originally organized by Rizal for reforms through “peaceful and legal means”. Convinced that such efforts were futile it became a revolutionary society under Bonifacio called “Kataastaasang, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan” (KKK).
Events were to prove that Filipinos kept her vigil until seven years later, in 1896, the founder if the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, wrote his rejoinder to the Flores-Del Pilar companion poems. “Katapusang Hibik nang Pilipinas sa Ynang Espana” has been described as “the climactic moment to the history of Tagalog poetry during the 19th century”. In Bonifacio’s poem, the terms of endearment exchanged between the poems of Flores and Del Pilar are no longer contained. Spain is described as “inang pabaya’t sukaban” (negligent and malevolent mother), and “inang walang habag” (merciless mother). (“Metaphors of Protest: Anti Colonial and Nationalistic Themes as Tradition in Tagalog Poetry” by Ruth Elynia Mabanglo, Univ. of Hawai’i; “Navigating Islands and Continents, Conversations and Contestations In and Around the Pacific”, Selected Essays Vol. 17, edited by Franklin, Hsu & Kosanke).
Flores, with his comrade Del Pilar forever silenced by death, with Rizal deported to Dapitan and eventually in the Intramuros cell to await his martyrdom, and with the armed struggle reaching its point of no return, joined the revolution.
In the later part of 1896, Hermenegildo Flores, who was also a friend of General Emilio Aguinaldo, choosing to follow the beaten path and completely giving up his writings, contrary to the general picture written about him, “went to Mindoro and Marinduque and persuaded the patriots there to rally to the libertarian cause”. Flores raised a revolutionary army and set up his headquarters in Sta. Cruz, Marinduque. (The Philippine Revolution, Gregorio F. Zaide, footnote on p. 145). On March 4, 1897, Flores was to lead the first direct assault on the Spanish quarters at the Casa Real of Sta. Cruz, Marinduque.
On March 23, 1897, the date when Aguinaldo took his oath as President of the revolutionary government, Flores convened the patriots of Mindoro and Marinduque in Sta. Cruz. The assembly attended by local patriots was presided over by him with Mariano Ricaplaza acting as secretary. “After mature deliberation, the patriots took the oath of loyalty and adherence to the cause of the Revolution and Flores was elected governor of Mindoro and Marinduque”.- by Eli J. Obligacion
(to be continued)
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