Boac, 1 de Noviembre 1897

(From a cemetery treated sacred for at least two hundred years - to a plain cornfield peopled by informal settlers from elsewhere)

“1 de Noviembre 1897” was the name of a street at the back of the original “Casa Real” building in Boac running in the north-south direction. It was so named to mark a local episode during the Filipino-Spanish war that followed the “10 de Octubre 1897” gruesome raid on the Casa staged by the local revolutionists from Mogpog led by Fabian Medenilla that resulted in the death of Medenilla and his comrades that they had attempted to set free from the Casa – Remigio Medina and the top leader of the revolutionary forces in Marinduque at that time, the poet Hermenegildo Flores. The tragedy in Boac occured after a long procession in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. (Santo Rosario).

(Icon of Our Lady of the Rosary)

Flores wrote “Hibik ng Pilipinas sa Inang Espana” that stirred similar poetic responses from Marcelo del Pilar and Andres Bonifacio. Flores caused the ire of the “prayles” who must have thought of excommunicating the poet in the same manner that our President Noynoy Aquino was similarly threatened with excommunication by the CBCP for the president’s seemingly firm stand on reproductive health.

Flores complained that the Church had become more interested not in salvation but “to blind the people’s minds, to silence their mouths… as the prayles only thought of nothing but to enrich themselves with mere Holy Water and priestly blessings as puhunan, investment…”

Excerpts:

“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.

“Nang di maisigaw ang santong matuwid
na laban sa madla nilang ninanais
palibhasa'y wala silang iniisip
kundi ang yumaman at magdaya ng dibdib.

“Sa pagpapalago ng kanilang yaman
bendita't bendisyon lamang ang puhunan,
induluhensiya't iba't ibang bahay
ng mga sagrado naman ang kalakal.

“Sapagkat anumang bilhin sa kanila,
kaya namamahal, dahil sa bendita,
kahit anong gawin pag may halong kanta
ay higit sa pagod ang hininging upa.”


Before midnight of November 1, 1897, remnants of the Mogpog ‘insurrectos’ led by Basilio Mendez entered Boac in a renewed attempt to free their comrades probably haunted by the killing of Medenilla, Medina, Flores only three weeks earlier. But what could a group only armed with bolos do?

The Spanish casadores were ready with their pistols and rifles. It was almost a repeat of the October encounter with heavy firing by the casadores followed by deathly cries, then deep, creepy silence. Some prisoners were found dead the next morning. One that layed motionless on the floor of the Casa showed no signs of being wounded and was found to be merely unconscious. He was lifted by a guardia and was given water laced with ether to drink. Regaining consciousness, the said prisoner, named Juan Manuba, was set free.

(A tenant offered to light the candles we brought during a visit to the old, forgotten cemetery of Tampus)

Today no candles burn anymore at Cemeterio de Tampus, a cemetery on a hill east of Mataas na Bayan, and as old as the Boac Cathedral itself. There the dead prisoners were laid to rest, to join the town’s founders and noble gentry. Some informal settlers from elsewhere call it their home now, and as if bent on leaving no tombstone unturned, turned the entire space into a cornfield.

The adobe stones that surrounded the cemetery and the huge iron fence that faced the direction of the church is no more. Bushes cover a few empty chambers built above ground that the elements and balete vines have consumed as a monument to a people’s forgetfulness.