Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán (; ; August 30, 1850July 4, 1896), commonly known as Marcelo H. del Pilar and also known by his nom de plume Pláridel,.Filipinos in History: Volume II, National Historical Institute, 1990, p. 101 was a Filipino writer, lawyer, journalist, and freemason. Del Pilar, along with José Rizal and Graciano López Jaena, became known as the leaders of the Reform Movement in Spain.
Del Pilar was born and brought up in Bulakan, Bulacan. He was suspended at the Universidad de Santo Tomás and imprisoned in 1869 after he and the parish priest quarreled over exorbitant baptismal fees. In the mid-1880s, he expanded his anti-friar movement from Malolos to Manila.. He went to Spain in 1888 after an order of banishment was issued against him. Twelve months after his arrival in Barcelona, he succeeded López Jaena as editor of the La Solidaridad (The Solidarity). Publication of the newspaper stopped in 1895 due to lack of funds. Losing hope in reforms, he grew favorable of a revolution against Spain. He was on his way home in 1896 when he contracted tuberculosis in Barcelona. He later died in a public hospital and was buried in a pauper's grave.
On November 15, 1995, the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee, created through Executive Order No. 5 by former President Fidel V. Ramos, recommended del Pilar along with the eight Filipino historical figures to be National Heroes. The recommendations were submitted to Department of Education Secretary Ricardo T. Gloria on November 22, 1995. No action has been taken for these recommended historical figures. In 2009, this issue was revisited in one of the proceedings of the 14th Congress.
Biography
Early life (1850–1880)
Marcelo H. del Pilar was born at his family's ancestral home in sitio Cupang, barrio San Nicolás, Bulacán, Bulacan, on August 30, 1850... He was baptized as "Marcelo Hilario" on September 4, 1850, at the Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion in Bulacán. Fr. D. Tomas Yson, a Filipino secular priest, performed the baptism, and Lorenzo Alvir, a distant relative, acted as the godfather.. "Hilario" was the original paternal surname of the family. The surname of Marcelo's paternal grandmother, "del Pilar", was added to comply with the naming reforms of Governor-General Narciso Clavería in 1849.
Marcelo's parents belonged to the principalía. Both owned vast tracks of rice and sugarcane farms, fish ponds, and an animal-powered mill.. Marcelo's father, Julián Hilario del Pilar (1812-1906), was the son of José Hilario del Pilar and María Roqueza. Don Julián was a famous Tagalog grammarian, writer, and speaker.. In the municipality of Bulacán, he served as a "three-time" gobernadorcillo of the town's pueblo (1831, 1854, 1864-1865) and later held the position of oficial de mesa of the alcalde mayor.. In the early 1830s, Julián met and married Blasa Gatmaitán (1814-1872?), a descendant of an ancient Tagalog nobility. Known as "Doña Blasica", she was the daughter of Nicolas Gatmaitan and Cerapia De Torres. Don Julián and Doña Blasica had ten children: Toribio (priest, deported to the Mariana Islands in 1872),. Fernando (father of Gregorio del Pilar),. Andrea, Dorotea, Estanislao, Juan, Hilaria (married to Deodato Arellano),. Valentín, Marcelo, and María.
From an early age, del Pilar learned the violin, the piano, and the flute... He also mastered the palasan or rattan cane. In the mid-1850s, del Pilar received early education from his paternal uncle Alejo del Pilar.. He pursued his segunda enseñanza at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran under the tutelage of Sr. Mamerto Natividad.. The subjects he took there were: Poetry, Doctrina Christiana, Spanish grammar, Latin grammar, Elements of Rhetoric, and Principles of Urbanidad. From July 8, 1865 to January 12, 1866, del Pilar studied under Sr. José Flores in Binondo.. Afterward, he enrolled at the Universidad de Santo Tomás to study Philosophy.. There, del Pilar earned: (1867-1868) Psychology, Fair; Logic, Fair; Moral Philosophy, Fair; Natural History, Good; Arithmetic, Notablemente; Algebra, Very Good; (1868-1869) Metaphysics 1, Very Good; (1869-1870) Metaphysics 2, Very Good; (1870-1871) Physics, Good..
In 1869, del Pilar quarreled with the parish priest of San Miguel over exorbitant baptismal fees.. Shortly after the incident, the judge, Sr. Félix García Gavieres, sent del Pilar to Carcel y Presidio Correccional.. He was released after thirty days. Afterward, he resumed his studies at the Universidad de Santo Tomás. He obtained his Bachiller en Filosofía on February 16, 1871.. Four and a half months later, on July 2, 1871, del Pilar pursued law..
In late 1871, del Pilar joined a group of intellectuals in Manila. They gathered at Sr. Enrique Genato's almacén, where they frequently talked about the friars, affairs of the Philippines, liberty of nations, fall of the Carlists, insurrections, and wars.
On the night of January 20, 1872, the Cavite Mutiny broke out at the arsenal of Fort San Felipe. Del Pilar was living with Fr. Mariano V. Sevilla, a Filipino priest who supported the secularization movement in the 1860s and early 1870s. Del Pilar knew that Fr. Sevilla was associated with the Gomburza. To protect Fr. Sevilla from possible arrest and deportation, del Pilar burned all the letters of the former in his quarters. However, some of Fr. Sevilla and Fr. Toribio's letters were found in the quarters of Fr. José Burgos. This resulted in the arrest of both priests on February 21, 1872.. As punishment, Fr. Toribio was tortured and dragged from Malolos to Bulacán. Del Pilar begged the authorities to allow his brother to see their sick mother. As expected, they ignored del Pilar and continued with their barbaric actions. On March 14, 1872, Fr. Toribio and Fr. Sevilla were deported to the Mariana Islands along with other Filipino patriots.
Out of school, del Pilar worked as oficial de mesa in Pampanga (1874–1875) and Quiapo (1878–1879).. In 1876, he resumed his law studies at the Universidad de Santo Tomás.. He obtained his licenciado en jurisprudencia, equivalent to a Bachelor of Laws, on March 4, 1881..Nepomuceno-Van Heugten, Maria Lina. "Edukasyon ng Bayani: Mga Impluwensya ng Edukasyong Natamo sa Kaisipang Rebolusyonaryo" (PDF). University of the Philippines Diliman Journals Online. Retrieved June 9, 2011. In law school, del Pilar earned: (1871-1872) Canon Law 1, Fair; Roman Law 1, Very Good; (1873-1874) Canon Law 2, Fair; Roman Law 2, Excellent; (1876-1877) Civil and Mercantile Law, Very Good; (1877-1878) Extension of Civil Law and Spanish Civil Codes, Very Good; Penal Law, Very Good; (1878-1879) Public Law, Fair; Administrative Law, Fair; Colonial Legislation, Fair; Economics, Fair; Political and Statistics, Fair; (1879-1880) Judicial Procedures, Excellent; Practice and Oratory Forensics 1, Excellent; Elements of General Literature and Spanish Literature, Excellent. No grades were recorded for the years 1880-1881 as del Pilar took six months leave.
From 1882 to 1887, del Pilar worked as a defense counselor for the Real Audiencia de Manila.. During this time he became active in exposing the existing conditions of the Philippines. Del Pilar attended many events such as funeral wakes, baptismal parties, weddings, town fiestas, and cockfights in the cockpits... Using the Tagalog language, he would talk to different kinds of people like laborers, farmers, fishermen, professionals, and businessmen. In his house in Trozo, Tondo, del Pilar preached nationalistic and patriotic ideas to the young students of Manila. Mariano Ponce, a high school student at the time, was one of his active listeners. Other listeners who would later become his disciples were Briccio Pantas, Numeriano Adriano, and Apolinario Mabini..Mariano Ponce, El Renacimiento, July 3, 1903.
Anti-friar activities in the Philippines (1880–1888) Del Pilar was one of the leading figures of the Philippine anti-friar movement in the late 19th century. After the deportation of his brother in 1872, he worked to destroy the friars' authority and influence on the country's affairs. In La Soberanía Monacal en Filipinas (Monastic Supremacy in the Philippines), del Pilar explained how the friars dominated the economic and political life of the colony:
Del Pilar, together with Basilio Teodoro Morán and Pascual H. Poblete, founded the short-lived Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper) on June 1, 1882. Diariong Tagalog was the first bilingual newspaper in the Philippines and was financed by the wealthy Spanish liberal Francisco Calvo y Múñoz.. Del Pilar became the editor of the Tagalog section.. José Rizal's essay, El Amor Patrio, was featured in the Diariong Tagalog on August 20, 1882. Del Pilar translated it into Tagalog language, Ang Pagibig sa Tinubúang Lupà (Love for the Native Land)...José Rizal to Paciano Rizal (October 12, 1886; 40-11 Albertstrasse, Leipzig). I lacked many words, for example, for the word Freiheit or liberty. The Tagalog word kaligtasan cannot be used, because this means that formerly he was in some prison, slavery, etc. I found in the translation of Amor Patrio the noun malayá, kalayahan that Marcelo H. del Pilar uses. In the only Tagalog book I have – Florante – I don't find an equivalent noun. Diariong Tagalog later experienced financial difficulties and on October 31, 1882, the newspaper ceased publication..
In early 1884, an election for the gobernadorcillo position was held in the city of Malolos. With the support of the liberal Spanish officials of the town, del Pilar and his group managed to elect their candidate, Mariano Crisóstomo, against the candidates supported by the friar-curate. On March 6 of the same year, a Royal Decree which called for the abolition of the tributo was issued. The people who collected the tributes, the cabezas de barangay, were the ones who suffered from this unjust taxation system. They were forced to follow the inaccurate and bloated parochial lists of the friars. They were also obliged to pay for the excess individuals in the mentioned lists. As a result, most of the cabezas became penniless... On June 30 of the same year, another tax reform was introduced in the Philippines. Sr. Chinchilla, the intendant of finance, proposed a set of regulations (Articles 52 and 53) which prohibited the friars from altering the tax lists of the cabezas de barangay. Despite the massive support it received, its implementation did not last long. Sr. Chinchilla, after leaving his office, was immediately replaced by Sr. Luna, a pro-friar. The citizens of Malolos, particularly del Pilar, denounced Sr. Luna's measures, and shortly after the latter canceled Sr. Chinchilla's regulations, the whole townsfolk protested. Not much later, the cabezas de barangay of Malolos confronted the parish priest on the list of taxpayers.. The cabezas and the priest argued about the legal terminology of asesorar (to advise), but the latter, Fr. Felipe García, resolved the matter by declaring asesorar (to advise) as confrontar (to confront). On July 16, 1885, the cabezas and the parish priest clashed again. The cabezas interpreted confrontar as cotejar (to compare). while Fr. García declared confrontar as copiar (to copy).. Refusing to copy the parochial lists, the cabezas appealed to Vicente Pardo y Bonanza, the alcalde mayor. Sr. Pardo rejected their plea, and like Sr. Luna, took the side of the friars. Despite these setbacks, del Pilar and his group managed to expand their anti-friar activities to Manila and nearby provinces.