7. It is not necessary for all the members of a Council to be present to render decisions valid. It shall be sufficient if one-half the members are present and one of the authorities.
8. In critical moments, each Council shall be considered as the safeguard of the Liga Filipina, and if for any cause or other the other Councils are dissolved or disappear, each Council, each Chief, each member, shall take upon himself the mission of reorganizing and reëstablishing them.[1]
[1] This constitution was partly printed at London, at the London Printing Press, No. 25 Khulug St., in both Spanish and Tagálog. Those parts printed (the ends, duties of the members, and the general rules) contain some changes from Rizal’s MS. Preceding the constitution proper is the membership pledge to the Liga. It is as follows: “Number … To … of … I … of … years of age, of … state, profession …, as a chosen son of Filipinas, declare under formal oath that I know and entirely understand the ends aimed at by the Liga Filipina, whose text appears on the back of the present. Therefore, I submit myself, and of my own accord petition the chief … of this province, to admit me as a member and coworker in the same, and for that purpose I am ready to unconditionally lend the necessary proofs that may be demanded of me, in testimony of my sincere adhesion!” The ends of this printed text are the same as those of the MS. The motto is the same, and there is also a place for a countersign. The duties of the members are somewhat changed, the changes being as follows: “1. He shall pay two pesos for one single time, as an entrance fee, and fifty centimos as monthly fee, from the month of his entrance. 2. With the consciousness of what he owes to his fatherland, for whose prosperity and through the welfare that he ought to covet for his parents, children, brothers and sisters, and the beloved beings who surround him, he must sacrifice every personal interest, and blindly and promptly obey every command, every order, verbal or written, which emanates from his Council or from the Provincial Chief. 3. He shall immediately inform, and without the loss of a moment, the authorities of his Council of whatever he sees, notes, or hears that constitutes danger for the tranquillity of the Liga Filipina or anything touching it. He shall earnestly endeavor to be sincere, truthful, and minute in all that he shall have to communicate. 4. He shall observe the utmost secrecy in regard to the deeds, acts, and decisions of his Council and of the Liga Filipina in general from the profane, even though they be his parents, brothers and sisters, children, etc., at the cost of his own life, for this is the means by which the member will obtain what he most desires in life.” Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are the same. The general rules of the printed version are as follows: “In order that the candidate may be admitted as a member to the Liga Filipina, he must possess morality, good habits, not have been proceeded against justifiably as a robber, shall not be a gambler, drunkard, or libertine. The candidate must solicit and petition his entrance from a member; and the latter shall communicate it to his Fiscal, for the investigations that must be made in regard to his conduct.” On Dec. 30, 1903, a monument was erected to Rizal, to his companions, and to other founders of the Liga Filipina by the village of Tondo, on a site given by Timoteo Paez, one of the members of the Liga. On the monument is the following inscription: “Remember [this word in English, the rest in Spanish]. Facing this site and at house No. 176 Ilaya St., Dr. Rizal founded and inaugurated on the night of July 3, 1892, the Liga Filipina, a national secret society, with the assistance and approval of the following gentlemen: Founder, Dr. Rizal; shot. Board of directors—president, Ambrosio Salvador; arrested. Fiscal, Agustin de la Rosa; arrested. Treasurer, Bonifacio Arevalo; arrested. Secretary, Deodato Arellano; first president of the national war Katipunan society; arrested. Members—Andres Bonifacio; supreme head of the Katipunan, who uttered the first warcry against tyranny, August 24, 1896. Mamerto Natividad; seconded, in Nueva Écija, the movement of Andres Bonifacio, August 28, 1896; shot. Domingo Franco; supreme head of the Liga Filipina; shot. Moises Salvador; venerable master of the respected lodge, Balagtas; shot. Numeriano Adriano; first guard of the respected lodge, Balagtas; shot. José A. Dizon; venerable master of the respected lodge, Taliba; shot. Apolinario Mabini; legislator; arrested. Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista; first patriot of ’68; arrested. Timoteo Lanuza; initiator of the manifestation for the expulsion of the friars in 1888; arrested. Marcelino de Santos; arbitrator and protector of La Solidaridad, the Filipino organ in Madrid; arrested. Paulino Zamora; venerable master of the respected lodge, Lusong; deported. Juan Zulueta; member of the respected lodge, Lusong; died. Doroteo Ongjunco; member of the respected lodge, Lusong; owner of the house. Arcadio del Rosario; orator of the respected lodge, Balagtas; arrested. Timoteo Paez; arrested.”—Epifanio de Los Santos.
See Retana’s account of the Liga in Nuestro Tiempo for Aug. 10, 1905, pp. 202–211. He says mistakenly that the constitution was printed in Hong-Kong. [↑]
THE FRIAR MEMORIAL OF 1898
His Excellency, the Minister of the colonies:
We, the superiors of the corporations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, established in Filipinas, in fulfilment of the statement of the telegram presented to his Excellency, the governor-general and viceroyal patron,[1] on the first instant, to be transmitted officially to your Excellency, and which has been done by the said superior authority, as he has condescended to inform us, have the honor of presenting this exposition to his Majesty, King Don Alfonso XIII (whom may God preserve), and in his royal name, to her Majesty, the queen regent, Doña María Cristina, to the president and members [vocales] of the Council of Ministers of the Crown [Ministros de la Corona],[2] and most especially to your Excellency, as minister of the colonies. We send it directly to your Excellency, in accordance with law and custom, so that, in due time, you may condescend to lay it before the lofty personages above mentioned, and even, if you deem it advisable, before the entire nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of the kingdom.
In writing this exposition, to us, the religious of the corporations existing in the country from ancient times, united in one soul and one heart, as faithful brethren, is reserved the honor in the very beginning of fulfilling respectfully the most acceptable duty of reiterating our traditional adhesion to the king, to his government, and to all the authorities of the fatherland, to whom we have always considered it an honor to keep ourselves subject and obedient, by the law of conscience, which is the strongest human bond, endeavoring continually and in all earthly things, from our respective sphere of action, to coöperate with every class of endeavor for the maintenance of public order in Filipinas, for its legitimate and holy progress, for the development of its intellectual and even material interests; and, in a very special manner, for the propagation and conservation of the divine teachings of Catholicism, for the encouragement of good morals, and for the security of the moral prestige, the only force which has been until now the great bond of union between these beautiful lands and their dear mother the mother-country [metrópoli].