Note 71. The similarity of character between the Liga and the Katipunan
has always been a matter of discussion. Some writers would draw a hard
and fast line between the two, considering them as oil and water, two
bodies enemies one of the other; others looking upon them as two oils,
the one vegetable and the other mineral which, although differing in
nature, mix together thoroughly.
Reyes, in his oft-quoted "Memoria" to the then Gov. General, Primo
de Rivera, in a mad attempt to prove that the insurrection was owing
to the "friars" and that they attempted to invent the Katipunan plot
to cover up their treason, says:
"Above all, the friars committed the criminal and suicidal infamy
of calumniously including in the Katipunan the millionaire and
aristocratic element, and the middle classes, the fact being that
they had nothing in common with the plebeian association which they
not only despised for its low condition, but which the few who knew of
its existence must have hated, if not for egotism, for the socialistic
tendencies of the said group."
Such assertions scarcely deserve comment, for from beginning to end,
the proceedings against the separatists were in the hands of the civil
authorities, the members of the Religious Orders having no influence
whatever in the matter, although it was they who, by their watchfulness
over the interests of the country had detected symptoms which they,
as true patriots, made known to the civil authorities. True it is also
that a friar, Padre Mariano Gil, made known, at a critical moment,
the plot of the diabolical society, in time to prevent the bloodthirsty
fiends rising in a night and cutting the throats of those who had been
their benefactors; but the "friar" was never a secret service agent of
the Government. What he did was what every patriotic Spaniard would
have done under the circumstances. It was the civil authorities who,
upon the discovery of the plot, caused the arrest of those complicated,
and who tried and passed judgement upon the guilty. If millionaires
and others were counted among the members of the Katipunan it was
because they were guilty of the same treason as the katipuneros and
not because they were "included" by the "friar".
"... Association which they not only despised for its low
condition, but which the few who knew of its existence must have
hated, if not for egotism, for the socialistic tendencies of the
said group."
So says Isabelo de los Reyes, the founder of the late Filipino
Democratic Party, and the Workman's Democratic Union, the most
socialist movement in the history of the Philippines. So much for
the Liberty, Equality and Fraternity which they all professed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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