First of two parts
THERE is a dearth of detail on the life of the Brains of the Katipunan Emilio Jacinto after his leader, friend and mentor Andres Bonifacio’s death on May 10, 1897. But he left papers that give us an idea of the life he led of continued service to the people while apparently pursuing personal happiness.
From his personal papers we found the he was eventually stationed in Santa Cruz, Laguna, where he produced two sets of rules in his own handwriting that may appear odd. One establishes a government in the “Hukuman ng Silangan” (Eastern Area) which places itself under the leadership of the Provisional Constitution of the Philippine Republic attested to at Biak-na-Bato on Nov. 1, 1897. Now this government was of course led by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, or Emiliong Matanda (Older Emilio, as opposed to Jacinto, Emiliong Bata or Younger Emilio), the one who approved the sentence of death on Bonifacio. How does this paper tell us that Jacinto submitted himself to Aguinaldo and formed a branch of the latter’s government?
The other set of rules talked about establishing a People’s Association for Commerce in Santa Cruz, Laguna, where they could put forward agricultural, industrial and commercial interests that could sustain the needs of the people. In the early biographies, details and testimonies are scant about these two movements Jacinto was trying to build, but we may have some clues.
It can be said that he continued to have some fighting men under his command, but whether or not he was under the direct command of or in contact with Aguinaldo is something that cannot be proven in the present. What can be ascertained was that in mid-1897, not Feb. 27, 1898 as some secondary sources say, he was traveling on horseback at night with 20 of his men traversing the fields and the woods when members of the elite light infantry unit of the Spanish colonial army called Cazadores saw them. They clashed and because of the sound of gunfire the horses panicked. Jacinto fell from his horse, was hit by a bullet which shattered the bones of his foot.
He hid in the mud until the morning when he decided to let himself be carried away by the river, and by the afternoon, tired, hungry and suffering pain because of his wounds, he began crying for help. An old man saw him and went to the town center to tell a Spanish lieutenant, who then went out to get him and took him to the convent of Magdalena. They preserved a corner near the stairs of the convent where he was supposedly placed when they arrived.
To avoid detection as he was being interrogated, he produced a cedula or a tax certificate of an undercover he previously killed, Florentino Reyes. He made up a story that he was an escaped captive of the “insurrectionists” as he called them. Because of this, a doctor was sent to him to check him. Fortunately, the initial plan to sever his foot was averted.
While recovering, according to the historian Jim Richardson, Jacinto was in prison in Santa Cruz, Laguna, in a Dec. 21, 1897 report by agent Tito David found in the spy documents of the Cuerpo de Vigilancia, “our forces treated him very well.” He was given a desk job and even lived at the prison. Despite this, he wrote two poems in Spanish “A la Patria,” where he wrote that his “soul’s vehement desire” was to see the land “without the Spanish yoke” (el yugo español). “To relieve, o Patria, your suffering, your sorrows,” he proclaims, “I would gladly give all the blood in my veins....” He signed it with one his pen names, Dimas Ilaw (he who cannot be blinded) followed by his real initials “E.J., 3 October 1897. Sta. Cruz – Laguna – (C.P.),” the C.P. meaning Cárcel Publica or Public Jail. In another poem, “A mi querida madre,” he wrote, “for in my chest a volcano blazed when I saw my Motherland wounded and enslaved, and when I saw her sorrow, I took up arms.” Talk about being careless.
After some time, Jacinto left the jail house. And when he did, the Spaniards found out right away that they had been duped. He went into hiding in Manila but returned to Laguna after some time. As for the economic society, apparently he became a successful businessman in Laguna, a meat merchant and found time to marry someone. More on this next week. As we can see, Jacinto was an idealist, but when needed, we can also see some sense of practicality and pragmatism in his actions.
