Marinduque heroes remembered but forgotten once more in modern day historical amnesia?

What remains of the Cemeterio de Tampus gate

According to oral history, Cemeterio de Tampus was the final resting place of Martin Lardizabal, Marinduque’s first military governor during the first phase of the Philippine revolution in this island-province. 

When the Philippine-American War started Lardizabal was still the governor but due to a lingering illness he appointed Col. Maximo Abad, Chief of the Marinduque Revolutionary Force to replace him.

If the local Church’s death records of that period are still intact today, Lardizabal’s burial place has remained undocumented, however. Surviving descendants may still have memories of one of Marinduque’s noble heroes.

The Church of Boac

Ten years ago in 2008, however, the Philippine Senate in a move to honor the courage and self-sacrifice of Filipino heroes whose deeds remain lost in history books and in memories of the people, adopted a Resolution. 

Resolution No. 54 was adopted for the establishment of a separate grave site or a memorial in Libingan ng mga Bayani to honor the heroism of all Filipino soldiers during the Philippine-American War.

In this significant Resolution lesser known names were cited and included the names of Marinduque’s Martin Lardizabal and Ciriaco Vida (known in those days as “Alapaap”).

Curiously, the name of Marinduque’s foremost hero, Col. Maximo Abad, of the ‘Battle of Pulang Lupa’ in 1900 was not included. Ciriano Vida was one of Abad’s trusted officers.

Libingan ng mga Bayani

This was established by the Philippine Government in 1947, then known as the Republic Memorial Cemetery, to commemorate the lives of fallen Filipino soldiers who fought in World War II.

Established in 1947, Libingan ng mga Bayani was first known as the Republic Memorial Cemetery. It was established by the Philippine government to commemorate the lives of the fallen Filipino soldiers who fought in World War II. 

Based on the Allocation of Cemetery Plots at the Libingan, veterans of the Philippine Revolution of 1890, World War I, World War II and recognized guerillas could be interred there alongside Filipino military personnel, other heroes and patriots.

A Memorial for the Philippine-American War heroes should suffice if remains could not be interred. But has such a memorial for the heroes of what was once called by the Americans as “Philippine Insurrection” been built in our time? Ten years after the Senate’s Resolution?

Teatro Balangaw Ensemble in a Battle of Pulang Lupa commemoration (2007)

Republic of the Philippines

Congress of the Philippines

SENATE

Pasay City

14^th Congress

First Regular Session

Resolution No. 54

RESOLUTION URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENSE TO ESTABLISH A SEPARATE GRAVE SITE OR A MEMORIAL IN THE LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI TO HONOR THE HEROISM OF ALL THE FILIPINO SOLDIERS WHO COURAGEOUSLY FOUGHT IN THE PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN WAR

WHEREAS, ON February 4, 1899, or one hundred and six (106) years ago, American Sentry Private William W. Grayson haplessly fired at two Filipinos (one of whom was identified as Anastacio Felix), who were innocently passing along Calle Sosiego;

WHEREAS, that day marks the beginning of the Philippine-American War, a fourteen-year bloody struggle between the Filipinos and Americans;

WHEREAS, FOR ALMOST A CENTURY, THE Philippine-American War has been dismissed by the Westerners as the “Philippine Insurrection”, in an effort to paint a false picture of a second-class people, barely unable to stand up against their white colonizers;

WHEREAS, IT WAS ONLY IN 1979 THAT THE INACCURATE TERM :Philippine Insurrection” was officially designated as the “Philippine-American War” by the United States Library of Congress;

"WHEREAS, during the Philippine-American War, Filipino soldiers, though limited in rifles and ammunition and armed mostly with bolos and bamboo spears, bravely risked their lives to achieve independence;

WHEREAS, General Emilio Aguinaldo, Macario Salcay and General Mariano Lukban are among the familiar names, which come to mind as Filipino heroes during the Pliilippine-American War;

WHEREAS, less popular characters such as Juan Cailles, Martin Lardizabal and Ciriaco Vida, as well as almost 16,000 names of Filipino soldiers who selflessly laid down their lives during the Philippine-American War remain lost in Philippine history books and, sadly, in the memories of the Filipino people;

WHEREAS, the heroism and patriotism of the Filipino men and women, who refused to succumb to American rule, but fought for freedom to the point of death, should not be lost in historical amnesia;

WHEREAS, the heroes and heroines of the Philippine-American War, especially those not identified in the scrolls of history, should be honored for their courage and self-sacrifice, and remembered as a testament of the Filipino people’s love for their country, especially in these times of national crisis;

WHEREAS, it is important that the heroic deeds and patriotism of the Filipino heroes and heroines during the Philippine-American War be honored and immortalized in the hearts and minds of the Filipino people, especially the youth, who can draw inspiration from the ideals and the patriotism, and even learn from the mistakes, of the Filipino men and women who fought for Philippine independence;

WHEREAS, the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a public memorial cemetery for the gallant Filipino men and women who brought honor to the country and who fought for the sake of freedom;

WHEREAS, the Libingan ng mga Bayani does not have a separate grave site designated, nor a memorial structure established in honor of the valiant Filipino soldiers who fought in the Philippine-American War;

WHEREAS, pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 107 issued on January 26, 1977, the Department of National Defense is the agency tasked with the “administration, maintenance and development” of the Libingan ng mga Bayani: Now, therefore be it

Resolved, further. That the Senate of the Philippines calls on the Department of Education and the National Historical Institute to conduct, using the Filipino’s own perspective, studies and research on the personalities involved and the events which transpired during the Philippine-War, and to popularize and inculcate among Filipinos, especially the students, the heroism of the Filipinos during such important period of Philippine history.

Adopted,

MANNY VILLAR

President of the Senate

This Resolution was adopted by the Senate on February 4, 2008.

Pagdalaw sa nalimot nang Cemeterio de Tampus, Boac 2018

Dati-rati noong panahon ng mga lolo ng mga lolo natin, tanaw ng deretsong tingin, may kalayuan mula sa pintuan ng Simbahan ng Boac,ang lumang Campo Santo ng Tampus. Iyon ang naging huling himlayan sa matagal na panahon ng ating mga ninunong Kristiyano.

Ang pinto ng Simbahan ay nakaharap sa entrada ng Campo Santo

Itinuring nila na napaka-sagrado ng lugar dahil sinadya ng mga naunang prayle na doon talaga itayo ang sementeryo. Para mula sa pinto raw ng simbahan na nakaharap sa Silangan ay diretso ang lalakaran ng mga mananampalataya patungo sa Campo Santo. Mula naman doon ay pinaniwalaang direktang aangat papuntang langit kasama ng mga anghel ang kaluluwa ng mga nangamatay. 

Iyon ang kanilang konsepto at paniniwala kung bakit naroon ang Cemeterio de Tampus.

Paglipas ng matagal panahon, nagkaroon ng unti-unting mga pagbabago. Kinailangang gumawa ng daan sa bahaging malapit sa sementeryo para makarating ng mas mabilis sa kabayanan ng Boac. Nahati ang bundok, lumalim ang daanan hanggang maging patag na sa bahaging iyon ng Tampus papuntang kabayanan. Hanggang naging may kahirapan nang akyatin ang sementeryo.

Bahagi ng Tampus paakyat sa Mataas-na-Bayan. Malapit sa Libingan

Ang buong sementeryo ay nakukulungan ng mga malalaki, mabibigat na adobe na kung saang malalayong lugar pa ang pinanggalingan. Ang entrada nito ay gawa naman sa mataas at makakapal na bakal na may disenyo. Sa kaliwang bahagi nito ay nakatayo ang isang balete na tila permanenteng bantay sa libingan.

Kinain na ng punong-balete ang bahagi ng pintuangdaan na gawa sa bakal at posteng adobe.
Ayon sa kasaysayan ng Boac, dito inilibing ang mga rebolusyonaryong minasaker noong 10 de Octubre at 1 de Noviembre 1897.

Sa may gitnang bahagi ng sementeryo ay dating nakatayo naman ang isang malaking tila-musuleo o marahil ay lugar ng huling paalaman at ritwal na mayroon ding ilang mga silid.

Sa ngayon, tila nabura na sa isipan ng mga taga-Boac at lalo na sa taga iba pang bayan ng Marinduque ang libingang ito.

“Walang sementeryo dun!”, giit ng isang tricycle driver ng minabuti kong dalawin kasama ang dalawang kabataan. 'Sementeryo' kasi ang sagot ng kasama ko ng tinanong kung pasaan kami.

Nakisagot na lamang ako na doon kami bababa sa may daan sa Tampus paakyat ng Mataas-na-Bayan. Tulad ng inaasahan, magubat ang maiksing daanan papunta sa lumang libingan. 

Pintuangdaan. May mga malalalim na hukay na sa paligid

Nandun pa rin ang puno ng balete na naging mas malaki na ang katawan ngayon at kinain na ang natitira pang bahagi ng napakataas na poste ng adobe sa kaliwang bahagi ng naglaho nang gate.

Noong bata pa ako ay isinama ako ng nanay ko sa libingang ito para magtirik ng kandila man lamang sa mga nakalibing dito. Kasama raw kasi sa mga nakalibing dito ang ama ng aking lolo at natatandaan pa niya kung saan bagamat wala ng natitirang dating mas maliwanag na palatandaan.

Karamihan sa mga libingan ay nabuksan na at wala nang laman

Naglaho na ang lahat ng mga adobe na dating nagsisilbing protektor sa buong sementeryo. Hindi naging hadlang marahil ang matinding kahirapan ng pagkuha, paghukay, at paghakot sa mga ito ng mga looters. 

Sa mahabang panahon. Malaki raw kasi ang halaga nito sa mercado at napakadaling ibenta sa mga maykaya.

Tombstone. Matatagpuan ito sa ibabaw ng isang puntod.
Sinong ilustrado o bayani kaya ang inilibing dito?

Ang iba raw naman ay pinahakot na lamang sa Simbahan ng Boac para magamit na lamang diumano sa mga karagdagang gusaling itinayo doon noong mga nakalipas na panahon. Di pa gaanong katagal.

Ano na lamang kaya ang makikita sa Cemeterio de Tampus ngayon? Na ayon sa pagkakaalam ng matatanda ay itinayo kasabay ng pagpapatayo sa Simbahan noong ika-18 siglo? Sacred ground ito ha.

Taong 2009 ko huli itong nabisita. Para magtirik din ng kandila sa Araw ng mga Patay. Noon ay may mga nakatayong bahay mismo sa loob ng sementeryo na mga hindi taga-rito. Ang buong libingan ay tinaniman nila ng mais at nakunan ko pa noon ng larawan.

Sa malayong silangang bahagi ng sementeryo ay marami pang chambers na tulad nito.
Tatlong bahagdan.

Bumalik nga ako kahapon para tingnan kung ano ang mga pagbabago kung mayroon man.

Wala nang nakatira dito ngayon. Napansin kong may mangilan-ngilang nakatirik na mga munting bahay sa di kalayuan, sa gilid ng burol na kinatatayuan ng libingan. May mga bagong punong niyog na may kataasan na ngayon sa bandang gitna nito. Masukal ang lugar lalo na sa tagiliran pero may mga bahaging mahawan, kung saan nakaguwardiya ang isang baka na nanginginain.

Isang baka ang nag-iisang buhay na nakabantay.

Di tulad ng dati, mas may laya na ako na tingnan ng malapitan ang iba pang bahagi ng libingan, habang kinukunan namin ng larawan ang paligid, at may labis na pagsasaalang-alang at paggalang sa mga alaala ng ating mga ninunong tila napaglimutan na. Nasa pahinang ito ang ilang mga larawan.

Bahagi ng aking naisulat noong 2009, ng ginawa itong taniman ng mais, The Forgotten Graveyard:

Here lies the remains of some of Boac’s most noble gentry who helped found the great town, celebrate it, shed blood, sweat, tears to build a God-empowered people therein, and defended it in the name of freedom in the days of old. The sacred ancient graveyard and all associated with it have all been sadly forgotten. 

Perhaps the quest for the good life for some, the focus on things considered more important than memorials and remembrances of things past, has led to its complete deletion from our collective memory.

Cemeterio de Tampus, as it was called then, has been converted into a cornfield with informal settlers from elsewhere now calling it their home. No candles burn on All Saints Day. One who lived there offered to light a taper we took out.

A few stones and empty chambers built above ground still stand here, eaten up by the elements and balete vines twining around wherever they could, to remind us what happens when mortals forget. 

An old film, "Siberiade", tells of a Russian village whose history throughout most of the 1900s mirrors that of the greater country. The first generation focused itself with building a road so they could travel to the rest of the world; the second generation worked on perfecting its own political principles; and the third became obsessed with newfound oil on the land. The quest for oil led to the destruction of an ancient cemetery, symbolizing the loss of old Russian culture and tradition for the sake of financial gain and temporal power.

Could this type of forgetfulness be symbolic of a town’s continuing loss of culture and tradition creeping through its soul without relent?

Boac, 1 de Noviembre 1897; Cemeterio de Tampus

(From a cemetery treated sacred for at least two hundred years - to a plain cornfield peopled by informal settlers from elsewhere)

“1 de Noviembre 1897” was the name of a street at the back of the original “Casa Real” building in Boac running in the north-south direction. It was so named to mark a local episode during the Filipino-Spanish war that followed the “10 de Octubre 1897” gruesome raid on the Casa staged by the local revolutionists from Mogpog led by Fabian Medenilla that resulted in the death of Medenilla and his comrades that they had attempted to set free from the Casa – Remigio Medina and the top leader of the revolutionary forces in Marinduque at that time, the poet Hermenegildo Flores. The tragedy in Boac occured after a long procession in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. (Santo Rosario).

(Icon of Our Lady of the Rosary)

Flores wrote “Hibik ng Pilipinas sa Inang Espana” that stirred similar poetic responses from Marcelo del Pilar and Andres Bonifacio. Flores caused the ire of the “prayles” who must have thought of excommunicating the poet in the same manner that our President Noynoy Aquino was similarly threatened with excommunication by the CBCP for the president’s seemingly firm stand on reproductive health.

Flores complained that the Church had become more interested not in salvation but “to blind the people’s minds, to silence their mouths… as the prayles only thought of nothing but to enrich themselves with mere Holy Water and priestly blessings as puhunan, investment…”

Excerpts:

“Sa bawat nasa mong kagaling-galingan,
ayaw ng prayleng ako’y makinabang,
sa mga anak ko’y ang ibig lamang
isip ay bulagin, ang bibig ay takpan.

“Nang di maisigaw ang santong matuwid
na laban sa madla nilang ninanais
palibhasa'y wala silang iniisip
kundi ang yumaman at magdaya ng dibdib.

“Sa pagpapalago ng kanilang yaman
bendita't bendisyon lamang ang puhunan,
induluhensiya't iba't ibang bahay
ng mga sagrado naman ang kalakal.

“Sapagkat anumang bilhin sa kanila,
kaya namamahal, dahil sa bendita,
kahit anong gawin pag may halong kanta
ay higit sa pagod ang hininging upa.”


Before midnight of November 1, 1897, remnants of the Mogpog ‘insurrectos’ led by Basilio Mendez entered Boac in a renewed attempt to free their comrades probably haunted by the killing of Medenilla, Medina, Flores only three weeks earlier. But what could a group only armed with bolos do?

The Spanish casadores were ready with their pistols and rifles. It was almost a repeat of the October encounter with heavy firing by the casadores followed by deathly cries, then deep, creepy silence. Some prisoners were found dead the next morning. One that layed motionless on the floor of the Casa showed no signs of being wounded and was found to be merely unconscious. He was lifted by a guardia and was given water laced with ether to drink. Regaining consciousness, the said prisoner, named Juan Manuba, was set free.

(A tenant offered to light the candles we brought during a visit to the old, forgotten cemetery of Tampus)

Today no candles burn anymore at Cemeterio de Tampus, a cemetery on a hill east of Mataas na Bayan, and as old as the Boac Cathedral itself. There the dead prisoners were laid to rest, to join the town’s founders and noble gentry. Some informal settlers from elsewhere call it their home now, and as if bent on leaving no tombstone unturned, turned the entire space into a cornfield.

The adobe stones that surrounded the cemetery and the huge iron fence that faced the direction of the church are no more. Bushes cover a few empty chambers built above ground that the elements and balete vines have consumed as a monument to a people’s forgetfulness.

THE FORGOTTEN GRAVEYARD

CEMETERIO DE TAMPUS

Down on the eastern part of barangay Mataas-na-Bayan lies an old cemetery as old as the Boac Church itself. It used to be protected by a wall of adobe stones and an iron gate that have all but disappeared now.

Here lies the remains of some of Boac’s most noble gentry who helped found the great town, celebrate it, shed blood, sweat, tears to build a God-empowered people therein, and defended it in the name of freedom in the days of old. The sacred ancient graveyard and all associated with it have all been sadly forgotten.

Perhaps the quest for the good life for some, the focus on things considered more important than memorials and remembrances of things past, has led to its complete deletion from our collective memory.
Cemeterio de Tampus, as it was called then, has been converted into a cornfield with informal settlers from elsewhere now calling it their home. No candles burn on All Saints Day. One who lived there offered to light a taper we took out.

A few stones and empty chambers built above ground still stand here, eaten up by the elements and balete vines twining around wherever they could, to remind us what happens when mortals forget.

An old film, "Siberiade", tells of a Russian village whose history throughout most of the 1900s mirrors that of the greater country. The first generation focused itself with building a road so they could travel to the rest of the world; the second generation worked on perfecting its own political principles; and the third became obsessed with newfound oil on the land. The quest for oil led to the destruction of an ancient cemetery, symbolizing the loss of old Russian culture and tradition for the sake of financial gain and temporal power.(us.imdb.com; encarta)

Could this type of forgetfulness be symbolic of a town’s continuing loss of culture and tradition creeping through its soul without relent?