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Marcelo H. del Pilar

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For the name of school, see Marcelo H. del Pilar National High School.
Not to be confused with Gregorio del Pilar.
Marcelo H. del Pilar
BornAugust 30, 1850
Bulacán, Bulacan, Philippines
DiedJuly 4, 1896(1896-07-04) (aged 45)
Barcelona, Spain
NationalityPhilippines Filipino
Alma materColegio de San José
Universidad de Santo Tomás
Occupation(s)Writer, journalist, lawyer
OrganizationLa Solidaridad

Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán (August 30, 1850 – July 4, 1896), better known by his nom-de-plume Plaridel, was a celebrated figure in the Philippine Revolution and a leading propagandist for reforms in the Philippines.[1] A master polemicist in both the Tagalog and Spanish languages, he helped the Propaganda Movement through his speeches and liberal writings on the plight of the Filipinos as a result of the abuses of the Spanish friars in the country. He was the editor and co-publisher of La Solidaridad (The Solidarity).[2][3]

Biography

Marcelo H. del Pilar was born on August 30, 1850 in Cupang, Bulacán, Bulacan. His parents were Don Julián H. del Pilar, an excellent Tagalog grammarian, speaker, and poet, and Doña Blasa Gatmaitán.[4] Don Julian was three times gobernadorcillo of the pueblo of Bulacan and afterwards oficial de mesa of the alcalde mayor of the province. Marcelo's oldest brother, Toribio H. del Pilar, was exiled to Guam for his involvement in the Cavite Mutiny.[5] The name of the family was Hilario; but pursuant to a decree of Claveria's, in 1849, the name of the grandmother, Del Pilar, had to be added.[6]

Because the family was highly cultured, it was not long before he played the guitar, piano, violin and flute. He began his studies in the school of José Flores; he then passed to the Colegio de San José, and thence to the Universidad de Santo Tomás.[7] A disagreement with the parish priest of San Miguel, Manila, concerning baptismal fees, in 1870, caused a regrettable break of eight years in the fourth year in the study of his profession, jurisprudence.[8] He finally succeeded in graduating in 1880.[9]

Del Pilar worked with his uncle Alejo del Pilar, clerk of the court of Quiapo, about 1860; then he was oficial de mesa in Pampanga province, from 1874 to 1875, and subsequently in Quiapo, about 1878 or 1879. He married Marciana del Pilar in Tondo in the month of February, 1878. The couple had seven children (of which five died in infancy).

When the uprising in Cavite took place, del Pilar was living with Father Mariano Sevilla, a Filipino secular priest.[8] In Manila, he used to meet regularly in a goods store with liberal Spanish créoles and Filipino intellectuals by whom he was politically indoctrinated about the affairs of the country. Fortunately, suspicion was not turned on him and he escaped persecution in 1872.[8]

Del Pilar was the first to publicize his criticisms against colonial misrule. His duplos and essays which satirized local conditions were widely circulated in the Tagalog provinces. These writings educated the Filipinos and provided recreation and amusement instead of the novenas and pasiones in their houses. Assisted by Basilio Teodoro, he founded the Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper) on August 1, 1882. The first daily published in the Tagalog text, he publicly denounced Spanish maladministration of the Philippines. One of the notable articles in this sense was the El amor patrio (The Love of Country) of José Rizal, translated into eloquent Tagalog by del Pilar.[8] Diariong Tagalog ceased publication on October 31, 1882.[10]

Del Pilar believed that the unmitigated power of the Spanish friars was the root of oppression and corruption in colonial Philippines. He exposed their abuses in Dasalan at Tocsohan (Prayerbook and Teasing Game),[11] Pasióng Dapat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Tauong Babasa (Passion That Should Inflame the Heart of the Reader),[12] Cadaquilaan ng Dios (God's Goodness), Sagót ng España sa Hibíc ng Filipinas (Spain's Reply to the Complains of Filipinos), Dudas (Doubts), La Frailocracia Filipina (Frailocracy in the Philippines),[13][14] and Caiigat Cayó (Be Like the Eel).[15][16] His primary work, La Soberanía Monacal en Filipinas (Monastic Sovereignty in the Philippines), traces the evolution of the monastic rule in the Philippines. Published in 1888 under his pseudonym, Plaridel, he took note of the government's failure in delivering prosperity in the archipelago that was first promised by the blood compact between Miguel López de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna of Bohol.[17]

In 1885, he urged the cabezas de barangay of Malolos to resist the government order giving the friars blanket authority to decide whose names were to be deleted from the list of taxpayers.[18] He instigated the gobernadorcillo of Malolos, Manuel Crisóstomo, to denounce in 1887 the town curate who violated government prohibition against the exposure of bodies in the churches.[19] In the same year, he denounced the parish priest of Binondo church for consigning indios to poor seats while assigning the good ones to Spanish mestizos. The years 1887 and 1888 were decisive for the friar rule, and also for del Pilar, who, with surprising activity, was everywhere and prepared nearly all the demonstrations against the enemy.

Del Pilar's most spectacular plan occurred on March 1, 1888. Assisted by Doroteo Cortés and José A. Ramos, the demonstrators presented to the civil governor of Manila a manifesto entitled ¡Viva España! ¡Viva la Reina! ¡Viva el Ejército! ¡Fuera los Frailes! (Long Live Spain! Long Live the King! Long Live the Army! Away with the Friars!). This document, which had been signed by most of the native officials of Manila and neighboring towns, was written by del Pilar. It accussed the archbishop of Manila and the friars of disobedience and treason and demanded the friar’s expulsion from the Philippines.[20]

Not much later, Emilio Terrero was succeeded by the more decisive Valeriano Wéyler as governor general of the Philippines.[21] Warned, del Pilar left Manila for Spain on October 28, 1888, stopping in Hong Kong, where he spent some time in the company of a group of Filipinos led by José María Basa.[12] Before his departure, he organized Caja de Jesús, María y José intended to provide scholarship grants to poor but intelligent children and the Comité de Propaganda, which functioned to collect funds to support the propaganda work and constitute liaison between the propagandists in Spain and those in the Philippines.

Del Pilar arrived in Spain on January 1, 1889, leaving his family behind. He headed the political section of the Asociación Hispano-Filipina de Madrid (Hispanic Filipino Association of Madrid) founded by Filipino ilustrados[22] and Spanish sympathizers, the purpose of which was to agitate for reforms from Spain.

He succeeded Graciano López Jaena as editor of La Solidaridad on December 15, 1889.[2] Under his editorship, the aims of the newspaper were expanded to include removal of the friars and the secularization of the parishes; active Filipino participation in the affairs of the government; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; wider social and political freedoms; equality before the law; assimilation; and representation in the Spanish Parliament.[23][24]

Marcelo H. Del Pilar
The National Shrine of Marcelo H. del Pilar in San Nicolas, Bulacan, Bulacan

After years of publication from 1889 to 1895, La Solidaridad had begun to run out of funds. Its last issue appeared on November 15, 1895.[25] Months before the revolution, del Pilar circulated in Manila and neighboring provinces his political works entitled La Patria (The Homeland) and Ministerio de la Republica Filipina (Ministry of the Philippine Republic) in preparation for his return to personally lead a revolution. In Barcelona he was overtaken by the increasing bad health of the past year or more, and after several months of illness, he died on July 4, 1896, just one year and eleven months before the declaration of independence from Spain by Emilio Aguinaldo.[26] His remains were brought back to the Philippines in 1920.

Father of Philippine Masonry

Considered the Father of Philippine Masonry, del Pilar spearheaded the secret organization of masonic lodges in the Philippines as a means of strengthening the Propaganda Movement.[27] He became a freemason in 1889 and became a close friend of Miguel Morayta Sagrario, a professor at the Universidad Central de Madrid and Grand Master of Masons of the Grande Oriente Español.[28]

Del Pilar was responsible for the official authority granted by Morayta to establish Filipino lodges in the country.[29][30] In 1891, the first lodge was constituted, affiliated by the Grande Oriente Español as Logia Nilad No. 144 in 1892. From here came other Filipino lodges.

In 1893, it was del Pilar who obtained for the Filipino Masons, the approval for the establishment of the Gran Consejo Regional de Filipinas (Grand Regional Council), the first national organization of Masons in the Philippines.

Marcelo H. del Pilar's monument (Bulacan's provincial heroes' park, Bulacan State University).

Legacy

Organized in his memory, the Samahang Plaridel is a fellowship of journalists and other communicators that aims to propagate Marcelo H. del Pilar’s ideals. This fellowship fosters within its capacity, mutual help, cooperation, and assistance among its members; dedicated to the journalistic standards of accuracy and truth, and in promoting these standards in the practice of journalism.

Plaridel is the chosen patron saint of today’s journalists, as his life and works prized freedom of thought and opinion most highly, loving independence above any material gain. Plaridel’s ideology of truth, fairness and impartiality is anchored on democratic principles, as these are the bastions of a society acceptable to all Filipinos.

The building that houses the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Graduate School is named after him.

See also

References

  1. ^ Zaide 1984.
  2. ^ a b "La Solidaridad and La Liga Filipina". Philippine-History.org. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
  3. ^ Keat 2004, p. 755
  4. ^ International Genealogical Index Individual Record - Julian H. del Pilar and Blasa Gatmaitan
  5. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 105.
  6. ^ "Historical Events in the Philippines". Geotayo.com. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  7. ^ "Marcelo H. Del Pilar Biography". Encyclopedia of World Biography. BookRags. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
  8. ^ a b c d Schumacher 1997, p. 106.
  9. ^ Nepomuceno-Van Heugten, Maria Lina. "Edukasyon ng Bayani: Mga Impluwensya ng Edukasyong Natamo sa Kaisipang Rebolusyonaryo" (PDF). University of the Philippines Diliman Journals Online. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
  10. ^ Schumacher 1997, pp. 106–107.
  11. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 125.
  12. ^ a b Schumacher 1997, p. 126.
  13. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 119.
  14. ^ As the word frailocracia cannot be found in most Spanish dictionaries nor the word “frailocracy” in the English, the term must have been coined by succeeding Filipino writers to refer to this 'unique' system of government
  15. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 121.
  16. ^ Caiñgat Cayo! original image scans of the pamphlet written in 1889
  17. ^ Antonio de Morga. "History of the Philippine Islands". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  18. ^ Schumacher 1997, pp. 107–108.
  19. ^ Schumacher 1997, pp. 111–112.
  20. ^ Schumacher 1997, pp. 114–115.
  21. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 122.
  22. ^ Karnow 1990, p. 15.
  23. ^ del Pilar, Marcelo H. (April 25, 1889). "The aspirations of the Filipinos". Barcelona, Spain: La Solidaridad. Archived from the original on July 13, 2010. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
  24. ^ "Liberalism in the Philippines - The Revolution of 1898 : The Main Facts". sspxasia.com. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  25. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 292.
  26. ^ Schumacher 1997, p. 293.
  27. ^ "Famous Filipino Mason - Marcelo H. Del Pilar". Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Philippines. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  28. ^ 1863-1923 "Brief History of the Spanish Masonry". Retrieved October 23, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  29. ^ Schumacher 1991, p. 170.
  30. ^ Alvarez Lazaro 1996, p. 187.

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