Mass arrest of priests (2)

A. Paulita Roa .

(FOR 15 months, the people of Misamis Province experienced total freedom from colonial rule under the First Philippine Republic with Emilio Aguinaldo as the revolutionary President. Another historic first was the election of provincial and town officials and the creation of a local police and military group. However, upon Aguinaldo’s orders, all the Spanish priests and brothers were arrested, brought to Cagayan de Misamis and stayed under armed guard at the convento of the San Agustin Church, now the St. Agustine Metropolitan Cathedral. The mass arrest of the Spanish priests and brothers was big news at that time but is hardly known today because it is not mentioned in local history books.)

Let me continue the narrative of this arrest and subsequently the long confinement of the clergy from the letters written by Fr. Raimundo Peruga, Fr.Juan Heras and Fr. Miguel Guardiet to their Jesuit Superior This is taken from Vol. 4 of Jesuit Missionary Letters from Mindanao, edited, translated and annontated by Fr. Jose Arcilla, S.J..

Not long after Provincial President Jose Roa y Casas granted the Spanish Jesuits permission to go back to their respective areas of assignment to attend to any unfinished work they left behind, Don Simon Gonzalez who was known as the general of Mindanao and whom Fr. Peruga wrote was a former nipa wine distiller of Tago and Gigaquit in Surigao, arrived in Tagoloan and visited the convento. He told the priest and Bro. Beaumonte that they were war prisoners and they should surrender the church funds to him. Gonzalez had the police gather all the priests from different parishes and brought them back to the capital town. The same scenario was repeated where tearful townspeople accompanied their parish priests to the wharf in what Peruga described as an “explosion of love and affection.”

The local government was not able to confiscate the church funds and on Feb. 27, 1899. All the priests were imprisoned again in Cagayan. Gonzalez visited them with the assurance that they will be liberated soon. But shortly afterwards, Gen. Simon Gonzalez and his brother  were killed at the beach of Cortes near Punta Kawit in Surigao. So, the priests were left with nothing to hope for their release.

On May 26, 1899, the general of the district whom the priests considered as their jailer, was deposed from his position. In his place was a new War Board with eight members and their president was Don Pio Roa. The new head allowed the imprisoned clergy to go on walks around the town until 7 o’clock in the evening and increased their allowance to 30 centavos a day. Even with this more humane treatment that they received, still, they were forbidden to do ministry work.

Peruga wrote on how they tried to occupy themselves in the convento  when “the door to our ministries is closed.” Their superior organized what they called “moral conferences” every Thursday and took turns in holding a community exhortation each Friday. Some had Bible studies, others studied dogma and theology, church history and ascetism. They cooked their own food and did the laundry. There were individuals who were able to send them food and other farm produce even if at that time there was a bad harvest that affected the local economy. In return, the priest requested his superior to send them a box of scapulars, rosaries, crucifixes and medals of different sizes, brief lessons, cathechisms, Mount Calvary and Treasury of the Sacred Heart all written in Visayan. These were to be given to the people who generously provided for them while imprisoned in the convento.

  In a letter from Fr. Juan Heras to the Mission Superior dated Aug. 26, 1899, he reported that there where three ships sent to rescue them. The first was able to rescue some of his companions; the second and third ships were unsuccessful. But just the same, it gave them consolation that there were those who were very concerned for them. He compared their imprisonment to a lighthouse for the people who hoped that they will return to their respective missions. These were the ones who sent them gifts while some came to make confessions, sought their advice, had their children baptized and requested that Mass be celebrated for them. Heras informed his superior that they had an excess of mass wine and flour for the hosts since they do not regularly say Mass.

The third letter came From Fr. Miguel Guardiet to the Jesuit provincial superior and this was written from Manresa, Barcelona, Spain on Dec. 28, 1900. He gave a full account of their release from imprisonment and some events that took place afterwards. He called it “a happy ending of the imprisonment of ours in Cagayan.”

On Feb. 26, 1900 after exactly 13 months of confinement, Fr. Juan Heras went to the district authorities asking for the release from prison for himself and his fellow clergymen. The meeting took long on closed doors but it ended up with the promise that they be allowed to visit some villages during Lent. So, Heras informed the parishioners about it and a banca was sent to pick him up since Ash Wednesday was near. However, the local military chief had a change of mind.  A few days later, at around 11:30 in the morning, Fr. Heras received a note from Don Pio Roa, president of the Board of War, informing him and all the priests that they were all free.

Guardiet suspected that this sudden decision stemmed from the fact that the American forces were threateningly close to Cagayan. In the event that they would come, the priests will be released or the faithful parishioners would come and take them along in case they will flee from the invading forces. So, the War Board deemed it wise to release the priests so the honor will not go to the Americans. It was reported that in Luzon, majority of the priests were liberated because of the advancing American forces. For this reason, the government council of Cagayan district decided on their own initiative to free them.

Some towns sent boats to bring back their parish priests and the entire town met them with music and pealing of the bells. But to their consternation, their 13 months absence also resulted in many illicit unions which were legalized through civil marriages that they thought were not godly at all plus there were committed scandals from abusive officials.

The euphoria of the people in seeing the priests back to the parishes was short lived. On March 30, 1900, the Americans came and fully occupied the capital town, Cagayan de Misamis and later, the rest of the Misamis Province. The priests were then told to leave the missions when the war erupted between the local resistance army and the Americans.

The Philippine-American War in Misamis Province ended on April 7, 1901 with the surrender of the local forces to the Americans in Sumilao, Bukidnon. Fr. Raimundo Peruga then returned to Mindanao and was assigned in Caraga — Talacogon, Butuan, and Baguio, then to the Culion leper colony. Fr. Juan Heras was the Jesuit superior in whose term the Jesuits expanded their missions in Mindanao. Fr. Miguel Guardiet spent his entire  missionary career in northern and northeastern Mindanao.