Reprinted from the Naga Times, 29 December 1963. Featured subsequently in Readings on Bikol Culture (1st Edition in 1972 and 2nd Edition in 2024). Editors: Luis Ruben M. General, Jesus Federico C. Hernandez, Victor Dennis T. Nierva, Paz Verdades M. Santos. Published by University of Nueva Caceres Press.
IN THE MORNING of 4 January 1897, eleven Bicolanos fell before a volley of a Spanish firing squad. The place was Bagong-bayan field in Manila, the same spot where only five days before Rizal met the same fate, after being charged and found guilty of similar indictments—sedition and rebellion against Spain.
On 30 November 1923, the people of Camarines Sur dedicated a monument to the memory of the eleven and of four others who were indicted and suffered similar tortures with them but met death elsewhere. Together, they are now known as the Fifteen Bikol Martyrs.
Since then, however, the circumstances and memory of their death have lapsed from history to legend, from emulation to apathy—even denial. The site of the monument, Naga City, has misled many, some of whom have even written and helped perpetuate the error that the execution took place in Naga. Malacanang is a leading example of indifference. A petition by the city council of Naga requesting that January 4 be declared a special holiday for the city and Camarines Sur has remained unacted upon for nearly two years (Note: finally declared a special public holiday for Naga City, 4 January 1972). There are also a few who contend that the Bikol martyrs were not truly deserving of the monument and a special holiday. It is argued that they were not true martyrs, but mere “victims” of the heavy hand of tyranny which, at the first rumble of revolt, panicked and ran amuck with its courts martial and execution squads, murdering revolutionaries and fence-sitters indiscriminately.
But what have their contemporaries and more dependable historians have to say about their death?
Ponce’s Testimony
Don Mariano Ponce, writing in 1912 on the events he personally witnessed in 1896-1897, said: “Those were hectic days when courts martial, operating voraciously and imposing death sentences with impatient urgency, kept everyone terrified. On 29 December 1896, the eve of Rizal’s execution, one of those courts was trying the case of rebellion against the Filipino priests Severino Diaz, parish priest of the Cathedral of Nueva Caceres; Inocencio Herrera, maestro de capilla (chapel master in charge of liturgical music) of the cathedral; and Gabriel Prieto, parish priest of Malinao, Albay (uncle of the retired public service commissioner of the same name). Accused with them were the laymen Manuel Abella, father of ex-Governor Mariano Abella of Ambos Camarines (also grandfather of Dr. Domingo Abella; eminent historian, and Dr. Manuel I. Abella, delegate from Camarines Sur to the 1934 constitutional convention); Domingo Abella, son of the first-named; Camilo Jacob, photographer; Macario Valentin, head of night-watchmen; Cornelio Mercado, Mariano Ordenanza, Florencio Lerma, Tomas Prieto, and Mariano Melgareja, a public works employee. All came from Camarines, except Father Prieto who came from Albay (note: although a parish priest of Malinao, Albay, he was actually a native of Magarao, Camarines Sur). All of them were charged with conspiracy against the Spanish government.”
The laymen above-named, including Mariano Abella, had arrived in Manila the previous September 22, after a sea voyage aboard the ship Isarog under most cruel conditions, and were promptly locked up in the old Bilibid prison.
The three priests, kept under guard in the San Agustin convent, had arrived the following October 3, together with others who had been arrested in the Bikol provinces on similar charges.
Of them, a Spanish historian, Emilio Reverter Delmas, wrote in Barcelona in 1899 (reference: Emilio Reverter Demas. La Insurreccion de Filipinas en 1896 y 1897, 2 vols., Barcelona: Centro editorial de A. Mariin, 1899:
“Arrests were being made in Manila and some provinces, particularly Nueva Caceres where there was a planned conspiracy headed by the rich Abella brothers to massacre at a given signal all the Spaniards residing there. But the plot was discovered on time and those who had enlisted themselves to carry out the bloody enterprise were being apprehended. Among the 32 individuals who had been jailed for complicity in the revolt which had been discovered in Nueva Caceres (now Naga City), capital of the province of Camarines Sur, were three native clergymen whose family names were Diaz, Herrera, and Estrada (Father Severo Estrada was later acquitted, although he did not escape untold tortures and indignities; Delmas missed the name of Father Gabriel Prieto), and one Spanish-Filipino, white and bearded, named Cabezudo (Ramon Cabezudo who was likewise acquitted and lived in Iriga, Camarines Sur, until his death in the early 20s.) One of these clerics was a person enjoying the confidence of the Bishop of Nueva Caceres, Fray Arsenio del Campo, but possessed a number of firearms hidden in the pipes of the organ of the Cathedral.”
The Trial
Another Spanish historian who lived contemporaneously with these events in the Philippines, Manuel Sastron (reference: Manuel Sastron. La Insurreccion en Filipinas (Madrid: Imp. de la viuda de M. Minuesa de ios Rios, 1897) described the trial as follows:
“Lt. Col. Moreno Esteller presided over the trial which was held at the artillery headquarters. Infantry 1st Lt. Ramon Despujol acted as the courts secretary and judge advocate. From Lt. Despujols reading of the charge against the defendants, it was known that the zealous governor of that province, Don Ricardo Lacosta, had received confidential reports on how Tomas Prieto had acquired a shipment of firearms, and had therefore ordered the latter’s arrest. Upon investigation, Prieto spontaneously bared the vast plan of conspiracy in Camarines which had been evolved in conjunction with those of Manila and Cavite. The conspiracy as revealed by Prieto, planned to begin with the massacre of the Spaniards residing in that province, to be carried out on 21 September.
“A certain Victoriano Luciano, one of the most conspicuous conspirators of Cavite, was the one who took care of sending to his colleagues in Camarines a banca loaded with firearms to be distributed to the other defendants in the trial. Florencio Lerma was designated as the leader of the movement, with Abella (Domingo) and Camilo Jacob as his lieutenants.
“The guilt of the 12 defendants was fully proven, thanks to the brilliant work of the prosecution handled by the judge advocate Senor Despujol. Disclosed as the party with the most guilt was the cura of Malinao, Gabriel Prieto, who seduced his brother Tomas, the pharmacist and ex-mayor, to join the uprising…
“In all phases of his oration, the prosecuting attorney was convincing. But it was in his indictment of the clergymen Herrera, Diaz and Prieto that he obtained rousing approval from the audience there gathered however, as the law does not tolerate such manifestations, the presiding oflBcer of the court silenced them.
“Some of the defendants who were proven innocent having been excluded, the prosecution concluded that:
“1. The crime of rebellion was committed according to Article 230, in relation to Articles 229 and 232 of the Penal Code; and
“2. The defendants were guilty of the crime of rebellion as provided in Article 230, and therefore they should be condemned to the extreme penalty— death, except Mariano Ordenanza for whom the fiscal recommended 20 years imprisonment.”
The Defense
Sastron continued:
“On the other hand, the defense counsels for the priest Prieto, Captain of Engineers Sr. Diaz, and for the others, namely. Lieutenant of Artillery Sr. Sauza, Lieutenant of Infantry Sr. Taviel de Andrade (who also defended Rizal), Lieutenants of Cavalry Sr. Salgado, Sr. Rivadulla and Sr. Lopez Blanco, did their work honorably. Some remarks of the defendants expressing their españolismo could be considered sarcastic and hypocritical, because no value could be given to the protestations of men who, during their whole life, had only been pretending respect and esteem for Spaniards when they were among the latter. A prototype of these was that rich notary, Abella (Manuel), who was one of the defendants. He had referred to the Peninsular Spaniards as ‘white carabaos’ whenever he was with his fellow islanders.”
Ponce further recounted:
“The sentence which followed the recommendation of the prosecution was carried out on the morning of 4 January 1897, in historic field of Bagong-bayan in Manila where five days before our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, fell before a firing squad.
“Fourteen on that fateful day shed their blood to give life to our Tree of Liberty. Eleven of them came from the Bikol provinces, namely. Fathers Inocencio Herrera, Severino Diaz and Gabriel Prieto; the laymen Manuel and Domingo Abella, Camilo Jacob, Macario Valentin, Cornelio Mercado, Mariano Melgarejo, Florentino Lerma and Tomas Prieto.”
News-photo of Execution
In the photograph by correspondent of the publication La Ilustracion Española y Americana published in its issue of 22 February I897, only 13 figures are shown before the executioners. This number tallies with the list appearing in a Bikol poem composed in September 1898 by the late Don Mariano Perfecto, former governor of Ambos Camarines and father of the Supreme Court Justice Gregorio Perfecto. In addition to the 11 Bicolanos, Don Mariano mentioned Rafael Gutierrez and Francisco Vaiera who were not from Bicol.
There are 15 names inscribed in the monument to the Bikol Martyrs. In addition to the 11 Bikolnons who faced the firing squad, four others, were included who likewise suffered death in the hands of the Spanish oppressors: Leon Hernandez (father of UNC President Jaime Hernandez Sr.) who was the first to die (on 16 October 1896) after undergoing the most cruel tortures since his arrest in his hometown of Libmanan, Camarines Sur, and in the provincial jail of Nueva Caceres (Naga); Mariano Ordenanza who, although spared from the firing squad, died in jail after being sentenced to 20 years imprisonment; Ramon Abella, another son of Manuel, and Mariano Arana, both of whom died in exile in Fernando Poo Island, off the western coast of Africa.
Ponce, quoting a newspaper of his time and making the words as his, wrote in 1912 in memory of our Bikol patriots:
“They died firm in their stand, they died the death of those who are nurtured by a sacred ideal.”
ANNOTATIONS | Judge Soliman M. Santos, Jr. (retd.)
THE PRECEDING Naga Times newspaper article of Luis General, Jr. in 1963 was largely written to defend the martyrdom of the Quince Martires of 1896-97, considering certain views at the time of its writing that they were not true martyrs, but mere “victims” of the Spanish colonial reign of terror in reaction to the earlier 1896 discovery of the Katipunan revolutionary movement. To defend their martyrdom. General focused on what their contemporaries and “more dependable” historians had to say about their deaths. He makes notable reference to the 1912 written testimony of Don Mariano Ponce on the events he witnessed in 1896-97. In particular. Ponce recounted the 4 January 1897 execution of 11 of the Quince Martires who “shed their blood to give life to our Tree of Liberty— They died firm in their stand; they died the death of those who are nurtured by a sacred ideal.”
General was reacting mainly to the 1957 University of Nueva Caceres M.A. Education thesis of Merito B. Espinas titled “Bikolandia’s Quince Martires of the Philippine Revolution of 1896: Martyrs or Not? After consulting several dictionaries and encyclopedias, Espinas formulated definitions of martyr, hero, and victim. He further detailed these out in relation to the context of the common charge of rebellion against the Quince Martires, such as whether they were truly guilty or innocent thereof as Katipunan members or supporters, and whether they accepted or denied the charge. After going over much-related literature and pertinent Filipiniana documents as was obtainable to him then and some returned questionnaires answered by a few known surviving relatives of the martyrs, he concluded that “there is a high preponderance of probability that [they]… were, after all, not martyrs” as they “had nothing to do with [the Revolution] in the first place.” In effect, they were “victims merely of a miscarriage of justice.” Espinas however said that his conclusions “may not be the last word. The most that can be said of this study is that it had, at least, raised the questions of the propriety of bestowing the highly revered title of martyr… I leave it to future researchers to go deeper into the question.”
The 1980 article “A Question of Martyrs: A Past Thesis Revisited” by Soliman M. Santos Jr., published in the maiden issue of the UNC graduate school journal Nueva Caceres Review, attempted to reconcile the 1957 Espinas thesis and the 1963 contrary essay of General. Santos deconstructed Espinas definition of martyr by arguing that what is decisive in martyrdom is not guilt and acceptance of the charge (that leads to persecution or death) but the reason for suffering persecution or death—adherence to a political or civic belief, as can be best gleaned from their lives and ideals, not just the circumstances and attitudes surrounding their death. The Quince Martires had liberal ideas and were all anti-Spaniard. In particular, the priests Severino Diaz and Gabriel Prieto were adherents of secularization/ Filipinization of the clergy in charge of the parishes of the Catholic Church in Las Islas Filipinas, just like “Gomburza.” That they were persecuted and put to death really for these beliefs, rather than the false and fabricated charge of rebellion, is what essentially made them martyrs. Furthermore, they have been viewed and accepted by the people as martyrs. While disagreeing with Espinas on this conclusion, Santos considered the greatest contribution of the Espinas thesis to be its critical historical spirit, “that it had, at least, raised the question of the propriety of bestowing the highly revered title of martyr.”
The next further research that may be said to have gone deepest so far into the question of the 15 Bikol Martyrs came in General’s Balalong weekly newspaper “Yesterday in Today” column series of 16 pieces from January to May 1982. Only the first eight column pieces, or half of the series, deal with the Quince Martires of Camarines Sur. The last eight column pieces, or the second half of the series, deal with the defeated Daet revolt and its martyrs, the victorious Naga revolt and its leaders Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo, and the short but sweet freedom from Spain tasted by the people of Naga and Camarines Sur before the take-over by the new American colonizer. These interrelated key events from 1896 to 1901 are perhaps the most significant five-year period in this history of Naga, Daet, and the two Camarines provinces, then combined as Ambos Camarines. In one column piece. General revisited the question of “Martyrs or victims?” Like Santos, he compared the Quince Martires to Rizal and Gomburza as “authentic martyrs in the sense that they suffered and died because of the patriotic causes they upheld… their nationalism which was deemed inimical to Spanish sovereignty… there is also no evidence to justify their being denied the benefit of the doubt and the honor of martyrdom already vested in them after they fell before the tyrant’s firing squad on the Luneta 85 years ago (now 131 in 2026).” He also pursued the angle raised by Espinas and by Santos regarding the 15 Bikol Martyrs as prominent citizens or more precisely influyentes or ilustrados, and what bearing this had on their being regarded as martyrs deservedly or otherwise. In the process. General provided good enough accounts of their character and how they lived their lives. Still, General admitted “We know very little of the life of seven of them, and more research is needed to determine even the maternal family name of nine of them,” especially so that “at least four of the Bikol Martyrs (who) were Tagalogs. At least two more were sons of a Tagalog.”
General answered, among others, the understandable questions of why Tagalogs were included in a group identified as “Bikol Martyrs” and why they became known as “of Bikol” despite their being only residents of Camarines Sur, regardless of their places of birth. He also dealt with “Some Puzzlers on Martyrs.” Like why were certain more prominent intellectuals and nationalist personalities of the time and place like Mariano Perfecto not charged along with the Quince Martires? If the last Spanish Bishop of Nueva Caceres Arsenio Campo was able to protect Perfecto, why not his own three priests among the Quince Martires? Why were some of those charged with them instead acquitted? Was bribery the reason for some of them? General highlighted certain references in the course of his column series, such as the following:
— Martires Bicolanos (Mga Sinakit na Bikolnon) (1944) by Ignacio Meliton and Jacinto Ursua in a typewritten manuscript kept by the UNC Museum, of which General wrote “the publication of this work, so that it can be easily available to the public, could be a project that would contribute immensely to the promotion of Bikol culture”
— Bikol Annals: A Collection of Vignettes of Philippine History, Volume I (1954) by Domingo Abella
— Revolutionary Clergy: The Filipino Clergy and the Nationalist Movement, 1850-1903 (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1981) by John N. Schumacher, S.J.
— The Philippine Revolution in the Bicol Region: Volume 1, From August 1896to January 1899) by Elias M. Ataviado, translated into English by Juan T. Ataviado from the Spanish original entitled Lucha y Libertad (1953), and republished by New Day Publishers in 1999.
— A Friars Account of the Philippine Revolution in Bicol by Fr, Marcos Gomez, OFM, manuscript (1898- 1900) edited by Fr. Apolinar Pastrana Riol, OFM, and published in 1980
Notwithstanding these serious and in-depth historical works. General’s set of 16 Balalong column pieces on the 15 Bikol Martyrs up to the Angeles and Plazo post-Spanish regime in Naga and Camarines Sur remains to date still the best concise historical work thereon for the purposes of teaching and popular education, and of serving as a re-starting point for further deeper research, as indicated therein. The General series, and more so the Meliton and Ursua manuscript An Martires Bicolanos, provide only relatively brief life stories and profiles of the 15 Bikol Martyrs and also a number of others persecuted by the Spaniards in Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, and Albay. There has been at least one substantial feature article on one of the Quince Martires, “Leon A. Hernandez, the Fret of the Friars” by Jose Fernando P. Obias in the Bikol news magazine, the PAPER, issue of 30 June 2000. Obias has also featured in the PAPER several of those who were similarly persecuted, if not also killed, by the Spanish reign of terror in 1896-98, but are not heralded as among the 15 Bikol Martyrs. This included Fr. Severo Estrada as the subject of the Obias article “The 16th Bikol Martyr?” in the 31 July-6 August 2001 issue.
The above-said General series was republished as one manuscript in mimeographed form by the Rotary Club of Naga for 1983-84. By 1995, General had hoped to publish the series as a book. He however passed away in 1997. It was only much later, in his birth centennial year of 2021 that his 16-part series “From the Bikol Martyrs to Angeles and Plazo” was published posthumously as one section of the book Luis General, Jr. (1921-2021): A Centennial Memorial, compiled and edited by Santos and published as the inaugural book of the University of Nueva Caceres Press. This should be readily available to UNC students at the UNC Main Library as well as for acquisition from UNC by interested persons and institutions.
January 4, 1972—the 75th anniversary of “the 15 martyrs of Bicol”—was declared a Special Public Holiday in the Bicol Region (not just Naga City and Camarines Sur) by Proclamation No. 941 issued by then Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor, by order of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. The stated rationale was that “the people of the Bicol Region should be given the opportunity to render homage to the heroism and love of country of the martyrs” This was the only such proclamation in the past 50 years. Ironically this was in the same year when martial law would later be declared in September 1972, a particularly tragic month in Naga City because of the Colgante Bridge collapse during the Penafrancia fiesta fluvial procession, resulting in the death of around 138 victims. The January 4 anniversary of the Quince Martires has however for the most part been commemorated yearly with appropriate ceremonies in Naga City.
In one of those commemorations in January of 1970 (or 1971), Rotarian Manoling Abella (a descendant of one of the Quince Martires) wrote a stirring critical thought piece “Bicolandia Heroica” in the Naga Times which read in part:
It is in this context that many Bicolanos in the night of our libertarian struggles by the end of the last (19th) century, have rendered service of the heroic (kind) yet remain unknown and unsung, not necessarily because of an ungrateful people of their own, but due to the fact we neglected chronicling the part they played in the formative period of our country’s history, with particular reference to the Bicol region.
Fifteen Bicolanos followed the path of Rizal’s martyrdom, eleven having been shot at Bagumbayan field on the very spot where the Calambeño was riddled with bullets on December 30, 1896. We have erected them a monument. It would be preposterous to say, however, that they were the only ones who worked heroically for the cause. There were thousands who died in the fields of battle for the same motive; thousands who have accomplished deeds of valor even if the halo of heroic death for country’s sake was missing. They were no less worthy of public recognition; their deeds no less meriting an evaluation of heroical— Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo are two such specimens.
Due public recognition for those who are worthy in the Bicol region who remain unknown and unsung is one challenge to those who love the region and its history, who would further research and write on it. This further research would be aided by—and should itself aid—better clarity on the concepts of martyr, hero, and victim such as already discussed by Espinas, General, and Santos in the case of the Quince Martires of 1896. The concepts are necessarily applied to that certain historical context. Just as they would or should be applied in the context of another crucial historical period, such as the Japanese invasion and occupation of 1941 to 1945 or the Marcos martial law dictatorship of September 1972 to February 1986. For example, the Espinas-General-Santos discussion of the question of the martyrdom of the Quince Martires actually contributed to the development of the criteria for martyr and hero of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani to honor those who fought the Marcos dictatorship, and especially those who were killed by it. Unfortunately, such discussion did not inform the surprise 2016 Duterte presidency decision on the final burial of the dictator Marcos, who earlier died in exile in 1989, in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, over 30 years after his ouster by the EDSA People Power Revolution restoring democracy. It seems that we keep forgetting the lessons of history. As George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The header features the painting “Quince Martires Monument” by Naga City artist Inchong Perez.
About the authors
Luis General Jr. (b. August 15, 1921 – d. October 18, 1997) was a Bikolano lawyer, educator, journalist, poet, and human rights defender whose life was marked by a deep commitment to justice and democracy. During World War II, he joined the resistance against the Japanese occupation, serving with anti-Japanese underground efforts and writing propaganda pieces. After the war, he earned his law degree and became one of Naga City’s first homegrown lawyers. He also taught at the University of Nueva Caceres for nearly three decades, helping shape generations of students in law, history, and political science. Alongside his legal and academic work, he built a distinguished career as a columnist, editor, and essayist, gaining recognition for his sharp political commentary and contributions to Bikol culture and history.
General emerged as one of the Bicol region’s most courageous voices against Marcos’ authoritarian rule. Arrested shortly after the declaration of Martial Law, he continued to criticize repression, defend civil liberties, and champion human rights through his writings and legal work. As a member and regional leader of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), he provided legal support to victims of political persecution and helped expose abuses committed during the dictatorship. Despite censorship, threats, and even an assassination attempt, he remained steadfast in speaking truth to power, earning a reputation as “the conscience of the community.” His legacy endures through his writings, his contributions to the struggle for democracy, and the generations of lawyers and activists he inspired. (Reference: Bantayog ng mga Bayani)
Soliman M. Santos, Jr. is a retired Judge of the RTC of Naga City, Camarines Sur. He is a long-time human rights and international humanitarian lawyer; legislative consultant and legal scholar; peace advocate, researcher and writer; and author of a number of books, including on the local communist armed conflict and peace process, and on his court work and practice. He was the main drafter of Republic Act No. 9851, the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.”