The Katipunan; or, The Rise and Fall of the Filipino Commune

by Francis St. Clair

Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarism succumbed to the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andrés Bonifacio to an untimely grave.

Note 11. Doroteo Cortés was banished by Governor Despujol in the year 1893, to the province of La Union where he founded in San Fernando, the Capital, aided by Arturo Dancel, the lodge “Rousseau” and two others in the pueblos of San Juan and Agoó. He was a lawyer and became the president of the committee of Propaganda which was formed with the idea of gathering pecuniary resources for covering the expense of the distribution of all classes of pamphlets and anti-Religious proclamations. He was at one time the president of the Superior Supreme Council of the Katipunan[12], and received the funds collected for the payment of the expenses of the political commission sent to Japan to seek the aid and protection of that power. Cortés was a co-worker with Andrés Bonifacio and whilst the former devoted his efforts to the enlistment of people for the general rising throughout the country, the latter continued his negotiations with Japan to the end of forcing some international struggle between Spain and that Power[13]. By order of the Superior Council Cortés went to Japan to join Ramos and aid in the purchase of arms. Shortly after his arrival he communicated by letter with Ambrosio Bautista informing him that he had seen and spoken on the subject with the Japanese ministers of State and of Foreign Affairs[14], and that the said ministers “demanded guarantees” of the probable success of the undertaking before entering into the scheme. According to a statement of Isabelo de los Reyes, Cortés was “the first person of means and position who came to the decision of attacking, in the Philippines, the Religious Corporations. He was the soul of the manifestation of ’88.” (See appendix B.) At the time of the American occupation of the Archipelago the Cortés family showed themselves friendly to the new sovereignty and aided in many ways the establishment of good feeling between the two peoples.

Note 12. Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday-Pira, was a 24th degree mason. He was a school-master of the municipal school of Quiapo. After having done considerable work of propaganda in masonry he abjured it. He was the cause of the entry into the lodges of hundreds of indian and half-caste clerks, laborers, employees, petty merchants and others of all classes and employments. He was accused by his fellow masons of exploiting the society[15] and of treason, of frequenting the Palace of the Archbishop and the College of San Juan de Letran, and of many things unbecoming a mason. In a document dated the 31st of March 1894, dispatched by the G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ of Filipino masonry to the lodge Modestia, Serrano was denounced, and all masons were urged to flee from him. In the said document, a translation of which will be found in Appendix C, is poured forth the complaint of the president of the Gr∴ Cons∴ (h∴ Muza) of a leakage somewhere in the treasury in which were stored up the secrets of the treasonable labors being carried out in the Filipino lodges. By way of specific charges the president denounces Panday-Pira because he had the courage to give vent to his opinions concerning the doings of the Filipino lodges, to a foreign mason; because he was known to have, for some reason or other, visited the Archbishop’s palace and Dominican College; that he had demanded the possession of certain documents, threatening the possessors if they did not give them up, etc. etc. On this account he was denounced as a traitor and dubbed “reptile”, the pot calling the kettle black.

Note 13. Morayta, the famous Don Miguel, the “papa” of the rebellious Filipinos! It is an almost world-wide belief that the number 13 is an unlucky number. If this be so, then Miguel Morayta well deserves his name, for in it there are thirteen letters; the first letter of each word commences with the thirteenth letter of the alphabet and it happens also that this miserable individual falls to note 13. I will therefore complete the coincidence by saying all I have to say of this person in thirteen lines.

Morayta was at one time Gr∴ Master of the Gr∴ Or∴ de España, but was later on expelled therefrom, according to a masonic publication. In 1888 he founded the Gr∴ Or∴ Español, the mother of the Katipunan. In 1890 he took over the proprietorship of La Solidaridad then published by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of the Filipino students who sought education in the Peninsula. Using him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.

Note 14. Tagalog: The Tagalogs are a branch of the Malay family which, in former times, dominated from Madagascar to the ends of the Pacific. They form part of what we might call the Malay-Chinee race, i. e. the cross between the female on the Malay side and the Chinee on the side of the male. This cross has been taking place from time immemorial, commencing long before the islands were discovered by the Spanish explorers. The present Tagalog indian enjoys more of the characteristics of the Chinee than of the Malay on account of the potency of the Chinee blood over the Malay.

Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants proper of the archipelago—the Negritos—marks of which mixture are still discernible in many of the Tagalogs.

A second modification came through the mixture between the Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesian with the Chinee, the Chinee being marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.

During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from which the Tagalog of to-day is derived are, although still present in a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological and historical circumstances.

At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.