By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

It was a morning where I tried to fix my books and came by one of my favorite history books – William Henry Scott’s collected writings on the History of the Cordillera. Immediately, I opened and browsed through the Cordillera chronology.
“On December 2, 1899, Gen. (Gregorio) del Pilar dies in the Battle of Tirad Pass delaying American forces and allowing (Emilio) Aguinaldo to escape through Bontoc and Ifugao to the Cagayan Valley.”,  it read.

The chronology stated earlier that on November 20, 1899, news of President Emilio Aguinaldo’s approach before American invading forces reaches Cervantes (Ilocos Sur) On November 30, Aguinaldo and his party reached Cervantes. General del Pilar returns to defend Tirad Pass the next day. On December 2, at age 22, he died as the youngest general of the Philippine troops in the hands of American colonizers.

Of course, the next was the escape of Aguinaldo who on April of 1900 was arrested in Palanan, Isabela where a historian described his stay in that area as time for wining and dining with the elite most of the night. Aguinaldo then afterwards took his oath to support the Americans in the Philippines. If I remember it right, the oath was on April Fools Day in 1900.

Joining the Katipunan at the age of 19 and rising from the rank as lieutenant to lieutenant colonel to general, del Pilar died fighting. I don’t question the patriotism and nationalism, in fact I salute him: he joined the noble cause of the Katipunan and died for it. He is in fact one of my most admired Filipino revolutionaries.

Interesting to reflect on the youth, on how del Pilar started in the Katipunan as a revolutionary.

A nephew of Marchelo H. del Pilar, Gregorio became aware of the involvement of his uncle in the propaganda and the revolutionary movement. From Malolos, he went to Manila and continued his studies in Ateneo. He was able to finance his studies by doing odd jobs.

In Tondo where he lived, he became close to Deodato Arellano, a friend of his uncle Marcelo. It was through him that he was exposed to the political activities of the Filipino propagandist, including attending their meetings.

He served as a courier of the nationalist movement. When the Spaniards prohibited Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere published in a pamphlet form then, he smuggled numbers of the pamphlet out of the church by substituting its cover with the “Caiigat Cayo”of his uncle Marcelo. In that way, it was read by many people.

After the Katipunan was founded by Andres Bonifacio in 1896, del Pilar trained as a fighter on the month of December. He engaged in a battle and was injured on his forehead which led to his promotion to lieutenant. He led Katipuneros repulse Spanish troops in Bulacan and areas of Central Luzon where he became popular. He was appointed by Aguinaldo as Lt. Colonel after the Biak-na-Bato agreement where, afterwards, he joined Aguinaldo in his Hongkong exile.

Of course del Pilar came back to the Philippines with Aguinaldo after the Americans talked with the latter. He led elite troops even when the Americans were after Aguinaldo. When Aguinaldo ran to the north, del Pilar had been on the forefront against the Americans until his death in Tirad Pass. From this revolutionary experience, del Pilar at a young age earned the admiration of patriotic Filipinos, like me.

However, I can’t just stop entertaining questions like, what if del Pilar was a vacillating opportunist, could he have supported Aguinaldo?

I raise this question as historians had in fact chronicled the “political opportunism” by Aguinaldo. Remember the division of the Katipunan, the death of the Bonifacio brothers, his acceptance of the money from the Spaniards and his and group’s exile to Hongkong in the so-called Biak-na-Bato agreement, his agreement with the Americans to return to the country, and his surrender and oath to support the Americans, who killed his young general – Gregorio del Pilar.
Of course I need to clarify that I have nothing against Aguinaldo. I am trying to understand the situation with the political standpoint of the various classes in our society during that period.

But I can’t stop to relating that period to the present system. I believe that even at present, I can actually identify personalities with the same nature or role of past personalities – an Aguinaldo, a del Pilar, other revolutionaries, and the Katipunan.

But one thing is definite: del Pilar is a great model for the youth. # nordis.net