(Originally posted in Saysay Bikol’s FB page, February 1, 2022. Founded in January 2021, Saysay Bikol is an active civic organization of historians, educators, and cultural heritage advocates based in Naga City.)

Vigorous, intelligent, and eloquent, José María Panganiban y Enverga was born in the gold-mining and coastal town of Mambulao, Camarines Norte on February 1, 1863. Fondly known to his family and fellow reformists as Pepe, he was the eldest of the three children of Don Vicente Panganiban, a clerk of court in Daet, and Juana Enverga, a native of Mauban, Tayabas.

Pepe Panganiban left his hometown at age 12 to pursue his segunda enseñanza leading to a bachiler en artes at the Seminario Concillar de Nueva Caceres (now Holy Rosary Minor Seminary). During his years in the seminary, he excelled and topped his class, having obtained sobresaliente in his four years of studying Latin and three years of Philosophy between 1875 and 1882. His prodigious intelligence earned him praise and admiration from the Vincentian Fathers, especially Fr. Antonio Santonja, who was not only Panganiban’s mentor but was also rector of the Seminary. Having seen Panganiban’s potential in the medical field, Santonja sent Panganiban to Manila to complete his segunda enseñanza at the Dominican-run Colegio de Santo Tomas.

After receiving his bachiller en artes (Bachelor of Arts) in 1883, Panganiban was admitted to the Faculty of Medicine. He enrolled for the Ampliación, the preparatory courses leading to a licentiate in medicine, for which he obtained sobresaliente (outstanding) in all three courses (Real y Pontificia UST 1871–1889). The Dominicans likewise recognized Panganiban’s scholastic merit, allowing him to proceed to medicine proper both as an interino (a boarding student) and a capista—who did not have to pay tuition and miscellaneous fees but rendered services in the university chapel, study halls, and library. Although his family, meager as it was, could not afford to support his education in Manila, he was able to pursue his studies because his excellent performance in the Ampliación merited him a scholarship in the Faculty of Medicine.

Dominican historian and archivist Fr. Fidel Villaroel notes that there was no student in Panganiban’s class who equaled him. He received sobresaliente in all his classes save for the courses he took under Dr. Rafael Ginard, then dean of the faculty. His annus mirabilis or mircale year came in 1887, on his third year in medicine proper, after having written and published three essays on General Pathology, Therapeutics, and Surgical Anatomy. He received the premio that year, besting his classmate Bartolome Alas in a three-day examination (Panganiban 1887; Real y Pontificia UST 1871–1889, 1887a). The panel members, Drs. Casto Lopez Brea, Luis Oms, and Antonio Trelles recommended to then-rector Fr. Gregorio Echeverria that Panganiban’s papers be compiled and published by the university. The essays came out as a book with a lengthy title, but in the interest of brevity we will simply call the book, Memorias. According to Mariano Ponce (1996, 443), this book was exhibited at the 1887 Philippine Exposition of Madrid. Villaroel (2020, 223) notes that this was an unprecedented feat because “never before had essays written by students (let alone a native) been printed by and on behalf of the University.” These instances put in question the argument forwarded by Agoncillo (1998), Abella (1958), and Zaide (1970)—that Panganiban was treated unfairly or racially discriminated by the Dominicans.

Despite these accolades, Panganiban left Santo Tomas (Real y Pontificia UST 1871–1889). He sailed for Spain to continue his studies, arriving in Barcelona in May 1888. Through his first few months in the city, at a time when the scene of the Filipino reform movement had shifted from Madrid to Barcelona, he developed a profound interest in politics and journalism and dedicated himself to the cause. For one, he was among the founding members Asociación La Solidaridad, inaugurated on 31 December 1888, and was elected as its auditor. Panganiban was also one of the founding members and high-ranking officials of the first predominantly Filipino masonic lodge in Spain called Revolucion. Jesuit historian John Schumacher notes (1966, 335) that by September 1889, at the time when the propagandist was already ill, Panganiban became one of the high-ranking officials as he was proposed to the thirtieth degree.

In early 1889, Panganiban also became a regular contributor to the fortnightly paper, La Solidaridad. His first article, published in the Arts and Letters section of the 15 March 1889 issue, was a think piece titled “Los Pensamientos” or “Thoughts” (Panganiban 1996a). Writing under the pseudonym Jomapa, Panganiban argued for a free press and advocated for the abolition of censorship in the Philippines. In 1890, he also wrote “Los Nuevos Ayuntamientos” which not only criticized the new ayuntamientos in Albay, Batangas, etc. but also the administration of Governor-General Valeriano Weyler. But his most important contribution to the newspaper was the “La Universidad de Manila” columns, which appeared in March and April of 1889. These forwarded an elaborate and incisive critique of the state of higher education at Santo Tomás (see Rugeria 2021).

In the spring of 1889, the harmony among the Filipino colony in Barcelona remained unperturbed and the publication of the periodical grew more successful with the increase of its contributors and its pages. But just as the periodical had been gaining success and the La Universidad de Manila columns had been receiving attention, Panganiban fell ill. In May, having recently moved residence with Galicano Apacible, his worsening health condition compelled his to stop writing for the periodical, interrupting the publication of the “La Universidad de Manila.”

By 1890, notwithstanding his illness, Panganiban had been distracted by his dalliances. In June, an apprehensive Ponce wrote to Rizal (2011, 476) about the trouble Panganiban had gotten himself into: he had an affair with a married Spanish woman and had been caught. “He committed a very serious error of giving to the woman papers pertaining to his studies and of writing her an indiscreet letter.” Panganiban then went into hiding at Fernando Canon’s house at San Gervacio. But unfortunately, his luck ran out. One Saturday evening, he got caught strolling at the Plaza de Cataluña by the husband and another man, who gave Panganiban a beating. Despite his languor and frail constitution, he defended himself until “a blow to the head sent him bloodied to the ground” (Rizal 2011, 476). Merely a few weeks after the incident, on 19 August 1890, Panganiban died, succumbing to pulmonary tuberculosis at the young age of 27 (La Solidaridad 1996d, 401; Ponce 1996, 443). To honor his memory, the editorial staff of La Solidaridad dedicated a special issue to Panganiban, where an obituary and the eulogies penned by Rizal, Graciano López Jaena, Antonio Luna, and the other reformists were published.

Author’s Note: This biographical sketch is based on my MA thesis Jose Ma. Panganiban’s La Universidad de Manila: The University of Santo Tomas, The Propaganda Movement, and the Liberal Campaign for Reforms in Philippine Higher Education, 1882-1891 and on my article “Jose Ma. Panganiban’s La Universidad de Manila and the Liberal Campaign for Reforms in Philippine Higher Education” (PSHEV, 2021).

Editors’ note about the header work of art: Entitled “La Solidaridad,” it was painted by the artist, Juanito Torres, in honor of the Philippine heroes in time for the celebration of National Heroes Day in 2023. Depicted in the magnificent 67″ x 91″ painting are Dr. Jose Rizal, Marcelo. H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Jose Maria Panganiban, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Juan Luna, and Antonio Luna. The artist is a master in the grand genres of historical and allegorical paintings, considered to be the highest forms of the visual arts in classical academic art. He honed his art early at the prestigious Philippine High School for the Arts, and later, the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines, Diliman. (credits: Galerie Joaquin, Sept. 20, 2022; Manila Standard, Lifestyle Section, Sept. 5, 2023)

References:

• Abella, Domingo. 1958. Jose Maria Panganiban y Enverga, an Indio intellectual and his times. Journal of History 6(1): 4–26.
• Agoncillo, Teodoro A. 1998. Bahaghari’t bulalakaw. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.
• Dela Goza, Rolando S. and Jesus Ma. Cavanna. 1985. Vincentians in the Philippines, 1862–1982. Manila: Congregación de la Misión en Filipinas.
• Panganiban, José María. 1883. Diligencias de grados. AUST, Manila.
• ———. 1887. Memorias escritas por el aventajado alumno de tercer año de la Facultad de Medicina Don José Ma. Panganiban y Enverga en los ejercicios de oposición previos para obtener los premios ordinarios de fin de curso en las asignaturas de Patología General, Terapéutica y Operaciones en que obtuvo la nota de sobresaliente en los exámenes ordinarios. Manila: Tipografía del Colegio de Santo Tomás.
• ——— (Jomapa). 1996a. El pensamiento/Reason. In La Solidaridad, vol. 1: 1889, trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 56–61. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• ——— (J.M.P.). 1996b. Desde España, a Quioquiap: Los nuevos ayuntamientos/From Spain, to Quioquiap: The new ayuntamientos of the Philippines. In La Solidaridad, vol. 2: 1890, trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 348–52. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• Ponce, Mariano (Naning). 1996. José Ma. Panganiban y Enverga. In La Solidaridad, vol. 2: 1890, trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 441–46. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomás (Real y Pontificia UST). 1871–1889. Libro de matrículas de facultad. AUST, Manila.
• ———. 1887a. Solemne distribución de premios del curso académico de 1886 a 1887. In Discurso leído en la apertura anual de sus estudios el día 2 de Julio de 1887, Raimundo Velázquez. Manila: Tipografía del Real Colegio de Santo Tomas.
• Rizal, José. 2011. Dr. Jose Rizal’s correspondence with fellow reformists. Manila: National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
• Rugeria, Javier Leonardo V. 2021. “Jose Maria Panganiban’s La Universidad de Manila and the Liberal Campaign for Reform in Philippine Higher Education,” Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints 69 (2): 221-57.
• Schumacher, John N., S.J. 1966. “Philippine Masonry to 1890,” Asian Studies Journal 4 (2): 328-341.
• ———. 1997. The Propaganda Movement, 1880–1895: The creation of a Filipino consciousness, the making of a revolution. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
• La Solidaridad. 1996a. La universidad de Manila: Su plan estudios/The university of Manila: Its plan of study. In La Solidaridad, vol. 1: 1889, trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 96–101. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• ———. 1996b. La universidad de Manila: Su plan estudios, continuación/The University of Manila: Its plan of study, continuation. In La Solidaridad, vol. 1: 1889. trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 122–25. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• ———. 1996c. La universidad de Manila: Su plan de enseñanza/The university of Manila: Its method of teaching. In La Solidaridad, vol. 1: 1889, trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 178–81. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• ———. 1996d. Jose Panganiban, vol. 2: 1890, trans. Guadalupe Fores-Ganzon, 398, 401. Pasig: Fundación Santiago.
• Villaroel, Fidel. 2020. Jose Rizal and the University of Santo Tomas. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House.
• Zaide, Gregorio. 1970. Great Filipinos in Philippine history: An epic of Filipino greatness in war and peace. Manila: Verde Bookstore.

About the author: JAVIER LEONARDO V. RUGERIA is an Assistant professor at the Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman. He specializes in Philippine intellectual history, and the history of the Bicol Region in the Philippines. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy cum laude from Ateneo de Naga University and his master’s degree in history from Ateneo de Manila University. He is a co-founder of Saysay Bikol and serves as its research director.