A Piece of
History
courtesy of Wikepedia
The continuing high-handedness of the civil government
bureaucrats compounded by the abuses of the church frailes became the sources
of widespread unrest, which eventually reached Malolos in 1880. The enlightened
and educated young ilustrados of Manila, having been exposed to European
education, thoughts and political views, began to question the Philippines
situation. These reformists, José Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Graciano Lopez
Jaena among them, began to expose the weaknesses of the status and to give
voice to the need for reform.
In Malolos, Marcelo H. del Plar, whose wife
Marciana was from Malolos, made the town a principal reformist and propaganda
target. Due mainly to his efforts, Malolos by 1882 became known as a center of
anti-Spanish propaganda. Things came to a head in 1884, when a liberal, Manuel
Crisostomo, was elected a gobernadorcillo. Led by him, a group of town leaders,
including past, present a future town alcaldes, collided head-on with the
town's friar curate on the list of taxpayers. The curate wanted to bloat the
list, a move meant for the parish's financial gain. In 1888, during a deadly
cholera epidemic, the group again clashed with the friars. To limit the spread
of the epidemic, the civil government had issued a ban against church wakes for
cholera victims. The church defied the ban, purportedly because of the fees
which the church earned from these wakes. The town leaders took the side of the
civil authorities. The situation was further inflamed with the visit of José
Rizal in 1888 to the house of Tomas Tanchangco, a former alcalde and member of
the reformist group. Among the alcaldes in the group were Jose A. Bautista,
Jose and Antonio Tiongson, Mateo Buizon, Anastacio de Leon, Vicente Gatmaitan,
Francisco Bernardo, Antonio Chiong and Jose R. Tiongson.
