Some biographical notes of Don Pedro A. Paterno, with most of which he furnished me himself, may be interesting at this stage.
His Excellency Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno belongs to the class of Filipinos—the Chinese half-caste—remarkable in this Colony for that comparative intellectual activity of which Don Pedro himself is one of the brightest living examples. In the early decades of last century a Chinaman, called Molo, carried on a prosperous trade in the Calle del Rosario, in the Manila district of Binondo. His Philippine wife, whose family name was Yamson, carried in her veins the “blue blood,” as we should say in Europe, of Luzonia. She was the direct descendant of the Great Maguinoó, or Prince of Luzon, a title hereditary, according to tradition. Three sons were the issue of this marriage, one of whom, Maximino Molo, was the father of Pedro. Averse to indolent pleasure during his fatherʼs lifetime, Maximino, with his own scant but independent resources, started active life with a canoe and a barge, conveying goods out as far as Corregidor Island to secure the first dealings with the ships entering the port. In this traffic he made money so fast that he opened an office, and subsequently a store of his own, in the Escolta. His transactions attained large proportions, and by the time this kind of trade in the bay became obsolete, he was already one of the most respected middlemen operating between the foreign houses and provincial producers. His Christian name was abbreviated to Máximo; and so proverbial were his placidity and solicitude for others that his friends affectionately nicknamed him Paterno (paternal), which henceforth became the adopted cognomen of the family. His unbounded generosity won for him the admiration of all his race, who graciously recognized him as their Maguinoó. Sympathetic in the ambitions and in the distress of his own people, he was, nevertheless, always loyal to Spanish authority; but whether his fortune awakened Spanish cupidity, or his influence with the masses excited the friarsʼ jealousy, the fact is that in 1872 he was banished to the Ladrone Islands, accused of having taken part in the rising of Cavite. Ten years afterwards he was again in Manila, where I had the pleasure of his acquaintance, and on his decease, which took place July 26, 1900, he left considerable wealth.
Born in 1857, Pedro A. Paterno, at the early age of 14 years, was sent for his education to Spain, where he resided 11 years. The preparatory period over, he entered the University of Salamanca, and later on that of Madrid, where, under the protection and tutelage of the Marquis de Heredia, he was introduced into aristocratic circles, in which he became a great favourite. Amongst his college companions was the Marquis de Mina. At one time it was proposed that he should wed the daughter of the Marchioness de Montolibar, a suggestion which he disregarded because his heart already inclined towards the Filipina who is now his wife.
His assistance to the Home Government was of no mean importance. In 1882 he supported the abolition of the Government Tobacco Monopoly. In 1893 he again rendered valuable service to the State, in consideration of which he was awarded the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic, with the distinction of “Excellency.” In 1895 the oft-discussed question of the title of nobility he was to receive was revived. After the Peace of Biac-na-bató he fully expected that the usual Spanish custom would have been followed of conceding a title to the Peacemaker. The precedents for such an act, in modern times, are the titles given to Manuel Godoy (1795) and to General Espartero[16] (1840), who became respectively Prince of Peace and Prince of Vergara for similar services rendered to the Crown. A dukedom, Paterno believes, would have been his reward if the revolution had definitely terminated with the retirement of Emilio Aguinaldo from the Islands in 1897.
A man of versatile gifts, Pedro A. Paterno has made his mark in literature with works too numerous to mention; he is a fluent orator, a talented musician, and the composer of the argument of an opera, Sangdugong Panaguinip (“The Dreamed Alliance”). As a brilliant conversationalist and well-versed political economist he has few rivals in his country. A lover of the picturesque and of a nature inclined to revel in scenes of aesthetic splendour, his dream of one day wearing a coronet was nurtured by no vulgar veneration for aristocracy, but by a desire for a recognized social position enabling him, by his prestige, to draw his fellow-men from the sordid pleasure of mere wealth-accumulation towards the sentimental, imaginative ideals of true nobility. In 1904 Pedro A. Paterno was the editor and proprietor of the newspaper La Patria, the mission of which was (1) to support the American dominion as a fait accompli, (2) to urge the fulfilment of the promise of eventual Philippine home rule, (3) to sustain a feeling of gratitude towards Spain, whence the Filipinos derived their civilization, and (4) to support Roman Catholic unity, on the ground that unity is strength.
In the second week of April, 1898, General Primo de Rivera left Manila for Spain, on the arrival of his successor in the Captain-Generalcy, General Basilio Augusti, in the s.s. Isla de Mindanao.[17] Some days before General Primo de Riveraʼs departure the American Consul at Manila had received despatches from his Government to prepare to quit the Islands, as war was imminent between Spain and the United States. He was further instructed to hand over his consulate archives to the British Consul, who would take charge of American interests. But without the concurrence of the Spanish authorities no official transfer could be made from one consulate to the other, and the General professed ignorance of the existing relations between his country and America. He cabled to Madrid for information, but managed to delay matters until his successor assumed office, when the transfer was duly made. Consul Oscar F. Williams was in no way molested. He passed to and fro in the city without the least insult being offered him by any Spaniard. The Gov.-General courteously proposed to send a large bodyguard to his consulate, but it was not necessary. Yet, as soon as Consul Williams closed his office and went on board the s.s. Esmeralda, the American Consulate escutcheon was painted out, and the notice boards outside the doors were kicked about the streets.
General Primo de Rivera was so well aware of the strained relations between Spain and America, that the s.s. Leon XIII., in which he travelled from Manila to Barcelona, was armed as a cruiser, with two 4-inch Hontoria guns mounted aft of the funnel and two Nordenfeldts in the bows. This steamer, crowded with refugee Spanish families, some of whom slept on the saloon floors, made its first stoppage at Singapore on April 17. At the next port of call General Primo de Rivera learnt that the United States of America had presented an ultimatum to his Government. Before he reached Barcelona, in the third week of May, war between the two countries had already broken out (April 23, 1898). There were riots in Madrid; martial law was proclaimed; the Parliamentary Session was suspended; a strict censorship of the press was established; the great disaster to Spanish arms in Philippine waters had taken place; the Prime Minister Sagasta had intimated his willingness to resign, and Primo de Rivera entered Madrid when it was too late to save the Philippine Islands for Spain, even had the rebel version of the implied reforms under the alleged Treaty of Biac-na-bató been fulfilled to the letter.
The leaders of the principal political parties were hastily summoned to the palace to consult separately with the Queen-Regent on the situation, and they were unanimously of opinion that the Prime Minister who had accepted war should carry them through the crisis. Spain was apparently more concerned about the salvation of the Antilles than of her Far Eastern Colony.
The friars, fully alive to their moral responsibility towards the nation for the loss of the Philippines, were, nevertheless, desirous of finding a champion of their cause in the political arena, and Deputy Uria was willing to accept this onerous task. The Bishop-elect of Porto Rico (an Austin friar) was a fellow-passenger with General Primo de Rivera. According to El Liberal of June 3, 1898, when he arrived in Madrid he went with the Procurator of his Order to interview the Colonial Minister, Señor Romero Girón, on the prospects of Deputy Uriaʼs proposed debate when Congress should meet again. The Minister pointed out to them the attendant difficulties, and referred them to the Prime Minister. They immediately went to Señor Sagastaʼs residence, where they were promptly given to understand that if any one could be found to defend them, there might well be others who would oppose them, so their champion withdrew.
When, months later, Parliament was re-opened, the Minister of War denied in Congress that the Treaty of Biac-na-bató had ever existed,[18] and in support of his contention he cited a cablegram which the Gov.-General Primo de Rivera is alleged to have sent to the Prime Minister Sagasta. It was published in the Gaceta de Madrid of December 16, 1897, and reads as follows:—