“An Indio is shy and reserved. He does not show his way of thinking and feelings, which frequently confuses us and we end up with wrong judgement. Although he frequently notices this, he keeps it to himself and does not correct our thinking. This makes us confident in our wrong judgement” —- P. Fr. Mariano Martínez Cuadrado, Práctica de confesar indios rudos Filipinos,1892
Crime In Malamanic
Originally written in Spanish by Francisco Vila Published in 1882
Short story from: Escenas filipinas. Narraciones originales de costumbres de dichas islas
Translated by: Maria Remedios Layug Zachary
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It was my first stay in those regions. Shortly after my arrival as the public prosecutor in Balanga, capital or the seat of Bataan Court of Justice, I went to the clerk of the court’s house one afternoon. Our conversation lasted for quarter an hour talking about various but non-specific issues. I wanted to hear accounts of events, which perhaps on another occasion could have given me ideas with which to work to satisfy my love for writing. Unsuccessful as it has been, my desire for literary works does not leave me. Whatever the situation was, I expressed my wishes and begged him to tell me. He said that he didn’t know of any event that I would find interesting, but I insisted. I told him that perhaps the court had something notable, interesting.
I am going to tell you what he told me and see,my dear readers, the origin of my knowledge of the story. This story is unfortunately, rare, simple, sad, and painful because there are two dead bodies in this story: a victim and his executioner, who died later in a scaffold. Or should I say, two victims. The first one is the story of the murderer and the other is about human passions
It’s a story that in its simplicity, paints a perfect picture of the race and people of the country discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. This nation, sad to say, like it or not and no matter whose fault it is, has always been in the same situation as when Magellan and his valiant companions came here. The natives are ignorant people with no culture. Poor as a race with childish behavior and incomprehensible
Having said that, let’s start our story, which we have already said is entirely historical.
Those who came from Europe, through the Cape of Good Hope or through the new route, Suez Canal, to the so called Pearl of the Orient or Manila, know the famous mountains of Mariveles that rise up at its entrance near the famous Island of Corregidor. This is the origin of the phrase "you enter the Philippines through Mariveles and leave it through Cagayan," alluding to the extreme opposition of their locations in the Island of Luzon. At the foot of the said mountain, on the other side of the coast, that is on the land side, there is a small town named after the mountain, the town of Mariveles.
A short distance is a barrio, a visita1 in the district.
This barrio, a visita, composed of twenty or thirty houses of cane and nipa scattered throughout the mountain, is poor, sad, miserable and in poor condition. In case you do not know, I will tell you what a house in this barrio looked like. Imagine a hut supported by six or eight tree trunks or thick canes, raised from the ground same as the height of a man. It’s made of canes and covered with a large nipa roof, similar to our belfry, and you will have an idea of the poor dwellings of the Indios of the ancient Spice Islands, later baptized with the name Islas Filipinas in honor of Felipe II (at that time the Prince of Asturias) by the distinguished Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, chief of the fourth expedition with the mission to discover and conquer the Philippines.
In one of these houses, a woman was in a squatting position next to the wash tub that served as the hearth in the corner. She was shaking (stirring?) with a cane what appeared to be cooking inside a wide-mouth big pot with spherical shape. She’s cooking rice. Rice is the main food of the Indio. Take away his rice and you have taken everything away from him.
This India looked like 40 years of age. She was very dark, almost black, thin, with black eyebrows and hair, she had dark slanted eyes with small forehead and her nose was flat and rolled up. She was wearing a cotton blouse called camisa. It looked like it was made of muslin, wide sleeves folded and gathered towards her shoulder. Her blouse was dirty and torn. Her skirt was also made of cotton. Like all the Indios inside their houses (even those who wore slippers outside) she was barefoot showing her black, ordinary feet. An old and dirty scapulary was hanging from her back. A scapulary, specially in some provinces, is indispensable for every Indio.
The house had only one room, a space of 8 to 9 square meters. All the wind was welcomed by the big windows that were closed the same way you close a trapdoor and opened by swinging it outward and upward then remained opened with the support of a cane. The only furniture in the house was a big wooden chest and a shelf made of canes located next to what we can call the hearth. The only decoration was the picture of the Virgin, the size of a palm, pasted on the wall of the entrance to the house.
In a corner, placed together, was a dozen bayones full of palays. Containers made of palm or similar materials are called bayones. Palay is rice still inside the husk . On top of these bayongs was a bow for the arrows and two arrows that were somewhat shorter than the bow
Even though it seems unlikely that in a Spanish territory and in the last third of 19th century, bows and arrows of the savages are still in use in the Philippines. This is so true that in the province of Bataan, the bow and arrow are often used as weapons by the agents of authorities, some of them with admirable skills.
Near the bayones and arrows, there was a door, smaller than the door at the entrance of the house. This little door led to the batalan. A batalan is like a balcon or terrace, smaller or larger. Every house has one and is extremely useful. The one being described in here was very small and was of the same level as the canes that made up the floor of the hut.
A small ladder made of canes and poles served as steps to go up to the hut from outside. An Indio showed up from the small ladder. The woman, without standing up, turned her head towards where the man was, looked then continued what she was doing. The man was an Indio, eight or ten years older than the woman, medium built, thin and of the type similar to the woman. He was wearing a shirt made from sinamay, a fabric that is light and thin, with red stripes, opened at the neck and chest, worn over his old dark blue cotton pants that were rolled above his knees. The Indios always wear their shirts untucked. A handkerchief of green and yellow plaid was wrapped around his head. He was barefoot, Without saying a word, the man went to where the arrows were and put with them a spear, rough, but strong and sharp, which he carried in his hand. The woman exclaimed in Tagalog, the language in that province:
“What is that? a spear!”
“You’re looking at it,” answered the man while approaching the woman after he put the spear with the bow and arrows
“Is it yours?,” Asked the woman
“Exactly,” the man answered
And after a moment of silence he added:
“I exchanged it for a bolo… I had two …one is enough for me.”
The bolo is a type of a big knife, no Indio is without it. It comes in all sizes, small ones, medium ones, large ones. With a bolo they cut wood, prune the trees, gather grass, polish wood, sharpen sticks, everything is done with it. To an Indio, the bolo is the universal instrument. Some do admirable works using a bolo instead of an ax, hammer, hole maker, saw, chisel, file, hoe, pickax, razor, knife, sickle.
The man squatted, instead of sitting down, near the woman. Squatting is also another special habit of the Indios. An Indio likes to squat, not sit down. He is so natural at squatting that he can stay in this position for hours on end without feeling tired. This he does even if there is a bench or chair on which he could sit. Nothing is more common in the Philippines than the sight of one or more Indios on top of a bench (not seated which is the most comfortable and natural) squatting for no other reason than they like it; even the women squat habitually instead of sitting down. It’s a peculiarity but maybe natural inclinations of the people in this country. Actually the differences between an Indio and a European are many and visible; physically, intellectually and morally.
Let’s continue
“Well, it has been a pleasure,” the woman replied without looking at the man and continuing with her task.
And she added, “What for would you like the spear?”
“What for?,” asked the man sarcastically.
“I don’t know,” replied the woman sounding halfway between innocently and maliciously, which made it suspicious that everything was not what it looked like.
“Well, I do know,” answered the man, adding after a short moment of silence, “someone you know will get careless and he’ll see how I will hurt him so badly.”
She did not respond. She made a gesture of displeasure, stood up and in a sour and dry tone, she exclaimed while turning towards the man but without looking at him:
“If you want, let’s have our lunch. It’s ready.”
“Alright,” answered the man.
The woman went to the batalan and immediately came back with a small table that looked more like a small bench. She put the little table, less than a foot tall, in front of the man, who did not move from where he was. She took out from a shelf a kind of wooden dish they call batea, she poured on it the food from the pot and then placed the batea on the little table. Facing each other, the man and the woman, ate with their not so clean hands the rice that was smoking in the batea.
As you might have already known, these two persons were husband and wife. They had been married for fifteen years, never had a child and would remain childless. Their only relative was the husband’s brother who lived in another similar hut, about 15 minutes of walk away from their house. It was easy to see that their marital relationship was not as intimate and cordial as expected of a married couple. As you have read earlier, the exchanges of words between them clearly manifested that.
“Someday, someone you know will get careless and he will see how badly I will hurt him” This husband’s threat was shrouded in mystery. Let’s explain.
Five or six months earlier than the start of the narration of this story, a rumor started going around that Guillerma and Raimundo were lovers. Guillerma was the wife already introduced in this story. Raimundo was an Indio from the same town. The rumor spread wide that it reached the ears of Diego, Guillerma’s husband. What happened next is what happens in cases of a man who loves his wife. Diego prepared to hurt the man who dared to have an affair with his wife. Diego prepared the bow and arrow that are located in the corner of the house. He took advantage of the chance to acquire a spear in exchange for one of the bolos he had. As we know, he brought the spear home and put it together with the arrows, ready, to hurt so badly, the man who was trying to rob his love and honor. Indios may be savages, but they feel love and value honor.
Husband and wife were done having lunch. Guillerma cleaned with her hand the batea that they used to eat the cooked rice and she put it back on the shelf. She put the little table back to the batalan. “Do we have buyo,?” asked Diego as he was standing up. Guillerma didn’t answer him. But she went to the shelf where a little while ago she put the batea, took a green thing the size of a chestnut, stretched out her hand with the green thing on it towards her husband…It was buyo, the one that her husband had asked for. The buyo, so loved by the Indios as much as they love rice. Rice is their food. Buyo is their candy; it consists of:
- Bonga, fruit of the tree with the same name, same shape and color as that of an almond
- A small quantity of lime, made from sea shells
- Buyo leaf, from the tree naturally grown in the Philippines. It has a very hot taste, the lime and the bonga are wrapped inside this leaf before taken into the mouth.
Certainly it is a “candy” that may not be harmful; but surely at least for this writer, it is dirty and disgusting. Buyo makes one salivate heavily and it makes the saliva dark red. It looks as if the one chewing it is eating liver. According to a friend of mine, buyo gives its chewers (almost every native man or woman and unfortunately even quite a number of Spaniards) a very disagreeable odor. Nothing is more common when walking the streets of Manila, than the sight of red marks on the pavements or walls of the houses. They look like blood. These red marks are traces of buyo.
Guillerma also put buyo in her mouth after she gave one to her husband. Diego headed to the top of the stair, chewing the buyo his wife gave him, squatted and looked out. As much as Diego, Guillerma kept spitting out red saliva. The red spit was the product of chewing buyo.
After quarter of an hour of silence, Diego stood up and turned a little bit towards inside the house, where his wife was, he said: “Until then.” “Goodbye,” anwered Guillerma without looking at him. Diego headed down and disappeared
Hardly ten minutes had passed, another Indio appeared at the stair of the house. He entered the house. Guillerma saw him, and putting down the skirt that she had laid out to sew, she stood up and went towards the one who came in; he was no other than Raimundo.
Raimundo was a man of 27 years old, regular height, dark although not as dark as Guillerma and her husband. Raimundo was well-built, his eyebrows and hair were black, his eyes were bright and like an indio his nose was flat. He was wearing a shirt made of sinamay and of course it was not tucked inside his pants just like the way every Indio and mestizo wear their shirts. He was wearing dark blue pants and a white hat made of buri. Buri is a species of bulrush plant with which bayones, hats, sacks, wallets and many other objects are made. He too was barefoot.
“Goodbye Guillerma,” he said as he entered.
“Go on, go away,” she answered in an alarmed voice, “my husband might come.”
“Don’t be scared,” replied Raimundo,”I just saw him going towards the mountain.”
“Did he see you?”
“No.”
“It doesn’t matter… go,” insisted Guillerma,”he might have seen you, and …”
“I’m telling you he didn’t see me… I’m sure of that.”
“It doesn’t matter … “ Guillerma insisted, “he’s very suspicious . . . he told me that you watch out, because he will hurt you … and badly.”
“I already know he says that but we will see…
he too must watch out… because I am good at hurting people myself.”
“Look at the spear that he brought home today,” Guillerma said while holding and showing it to Raimundo
Raimundo looked at the spear but did not say anything. Guillerma returned the spear to where it was, with the bow and arrows. She went by the door of the hut and asked Raimundo to leave. She held onto the cane that served as the doorframe. She leaned forward to look outside. She looked left and right.
“Hey, come,” exclaimed Raimundo after a few minutes.
“What do you want,?” Guillerma asked while still looking out from the door.
“Come,” Raimundo said again. Guillerma silently went towards Raimundo.
“Do you want me to kill him?” He firmly asked Guillerma.
“Who?, Diego?” Guillerma exclaimed quickly but without flinching. She did not show any emotion nor did she look surprised
“Yes,” Raimundo answered firmly. Guillerma looked down and did not say anything.
Raimundo continued. “He’s already suspicious of us and he’s watching us all the time. The way to get out of this swamp . . . it’s the way I have been telling you If you want, that can be done soon. We haven’t talked for a week. I cannot continue like that.”
Guillerma kept silent with her eyes fixed on the floor; her eyes were not moving, she was not even batting her eyelashes. There was something tremendous, tragic and terrible about her looks. That woman, who was being proposed the death of her husband, listened in silence, unsurprised, without showing any opposition or disagreement. She kept still with her eyes fixed on the floor, she was a vision that could inspire terror.
After moments of silence. Raimundo said, “I can’t continue like this.”
He took off his hat and with his handkerchief he dried the sweat soaking his forehead and dripping down his dark cheeks. Then he asked:
“Are you not thinking the same?” Guillerma did not answer.
“Come on talk,” Raimundo said while putting on his hat.
Guillerma kept on being quiet
“What do you say?” asked Raimundo while making a gesture for Guillerma to take his hand.
“What is there to say!,” finally exclaimed Guillerma as she was lifting her head and looking at the Indio. “Tu cuidado.”
Tú cuidado is a phrase used a lot in the Philippines.
Tú cuidado can mean:
you’ll see
as you like it
what it seems like to you
you are in charge of that
you take care of that
ok, good
I am not going to take care of that
and many other meanings that are too many to enumerate.
What Guillerma said to Raimundo, “tú cuidado”, was the same as saying to him: see what you have to do, I will not have anything to do with that or do whatever you want. Raimundo hardly heard the terrible phrase Guillerma said. He exclaimed:
“Ok then . . . . I’ll take care.” That was the same as saying: “Then, I’ll take care of that”
Raimundo believed that Diego stood in the way of his love for Guillerma and seeing that she was not opposing the realization of such an atrocious thought, the phrase “yo cuidado” by Raimundo could very well have meant the death sentence of the unfortunate Diego.
“Well then, goodbye”, exclaimed Raimundo, taking one of Guillerma’s hands.
“Goodbye,” she replied with much indifference.
The Indio left the hut. She followed him to the door, where she remained for some time. She went back to where she left the saya that she was sewing when Raimundo arrived. She sat on the floor, took the saya, looked for the needle that she stuck in it. Then she calmly went back to sewing her skirt. She was cold and serene as though nothing was going to happen.
This calmness, this indifference was not the effect of a wicked and corrupt heart. In the middle of a forming horrible storm or grave events being prepared, this calmness or indifference is peculiar to this race. Probably due to the climate, their way of living, their needs being few, a native of the Philippines is lazy, weak without energy, for whatever cause, good or bad.
He does many things without knowing what he is doing. He does things because it is the custom, just to imitate, because he is indolent or he is lazy. As I have said before, the Indio has many childish traits. In many ways, he’s like a child
This explains why Guillerma was not a monster, evil and treacherous. She heard the plot to murder her husband but she remained calm and then went on as if she knew nothing about it.
Then her husband came back and they ate.
Diego took the folded mat from the side of the room. He rolled it out on the floor then he lay down on it. The mat is made of buri and generally serves as the bed in the Philippines, even for the rich or people of means. A mattress is not practical due to the almost year-round hot weather in the country. The writer found this custom very annoying during his stay in the Philippines.
Guillerma lay down besides Diego.
Many hours passed. The sun was already nearing west. Guillerma and Diego began their merienda or as they would call it, their meal. It was the same batea, the same small table and the eternal rice.
Husband and wife hardly exchanged words since that morning. Diego appeared cold and indifferent; Guillerma was serious, reserved, petty and distracted.
While the husband and wife were eating, Raimundo appeared, accompanied by another Indio. Both men entered the hut. Raimundo was described earlier in this story. The only thing noticeable about him, which was not seen on him during the morning, was a bolo. It wasn’t so big. He was wearing it in its wooden sheath and was hanging from his left side underneath his shirt.
Raimundo was with another Indio who was thin, unpleasant to look at, shorter and younger than Raimundo. His forehead, small and depressed, did not indicate great intelligence. Some scabs, commonly called ringworms, appeared on his neck, hands and arms. Like a native, his nose was flat, excessively flat. He was wearing a very old, very dirty, white cotton shirt and pants that were also white. His pants were as old and dirty as his shirt. The right leg of his pants was rolled up to near his knees. A bolo, bigger than Raimundo’s, was hanging from his waist. It was peeking out from underneath his shirt. He was not wearing anything on his head.
As I have said earlier, Guillerma and Diego were eating on the small table squatting, facing each other and the same dress as before except this time, Diego was wearing his shirt but not his pants. Underneath his shirt, between his legs, he was wearing a g-string supported by a cord or a rope around his waist.
In the countryside, outside of towns, men and women go about almost naked; sometimes even in towns. This is usual and normal that it does not catch attention nor cause a scandal. There are many things to say about this; but we will move on.
“Good afternoon,” Raimundo greeted in his native language upon entering the house followed by his companion. Diego returned the greeting with “Good afternoon” as he turned his head towards the arriving people. He added: “Would you like?” “Thank you,” both men responded in unison. Raimundo’s companion said: “We came from the mountain to look for the black-skinned Cajabel so that he can show us the canes we plan to cut tomorrow. . . but we haven’t found him . . . and since we are in your neighborhood . . . we came here.” Diego did not respond. Raimundo’s companion, came nearer the little table where Diego and Guillerma were eating. He bent down until he was in squatting position as Diego and Guillerma.
Raimundo went towards the bayones, which we already know is where the bow, arrows and spear were. He took a stone, weighing about two pounds and quite hidden among the bayones, from the floor. It was a stone used for sharpening knives and bolos. “Good stone,” exclaimed Raimundo as he looked at and turned it over with his hand. “It’s not bad,” replied Diego in a medium tone. Raimundo took out his bolo that was hanging from his waist and he sharpened his bolo with the stone.
Diego and Raimundo’s companion talked. Guillerma and Raimundo exchanged looks while Raimundo was sharpening his bolo. Husband and wife were done eating. “Give me water,” Diego asked. Guillerma went to the jar placed by the door that led to the batalan, she took the tabo that also served as the jar’s cover then filled the tabo with water then handed it out to her husband. Tabo is a kind of vessel or bowl made from cut coconut shell.
Diego stood up, took the tabo from Guillerma’s stretched out hand then started drinking. Raimundo took advantage of the situation in which Diego was raising his head to drink the water. He shoved the bolo down Diego’s throat.
Everything written in here really happened and is according to the original record we had in our possession for a few days.
Diego fell to the floor without screaming, he didn’t even say any word. Raimundo threw himself on top of Diego and made several lunges to his head until Diego was dead. Killing done, Raimundo and Guillerma threatened Raimundo’s companion with the same fate as that of Diego’s, if he divulged what he just witnessed. In addition, Guillerma offered him 10 cabans of palay, in exchange for his silence. A caban is equivalent to a Spanish bushel. Its price varies but can be calculated to about six or eight pesetas. Raimundo’s companion promised to keep his mouth shut.
It was starting to get dark. Raimundo told his companion to help him take out of the house the still warm body of Diego. They took the dead body to the mountain, about 500 fathoms from the house. They covered Diego’s dead body with branches and left. Guillerma did not leave her hut.
Soon after the two men left taking with them the dead body of Diego, Guillerma cleaned her husband’s blood that was staining the floor with the water she put in the batea, then she lay down on the mat.
Hours later, about six o’clock in the morning, Guillerma went to the house of the first lieutenant of Cabcaben. It was the local authority for the place where Guillerma and Diego lived.
She presented herself to the lieutenant and told him: In her home, in the sitio of Malamanic, under the lieutenant’s jurisdiction, her husband woke and asked her to cook a little bit of rice because he was a little bit hungry. So she stood up and went to the batalan to get the pot where the rice was. She saw five men, went back to her husband to tell him about the men. Her husband told her to leave the house in case they were tulisanes (thieves, bad men). She did as told and she was already about 40 fathoms from house, in the middle of gasac (Gasak, a mountain cultivated and ploughed), dazed, scared and somewhat feverish, she stumbled and fell, she was too weak and did not have the courage to get up. She remained there for an hour and heard the noise from the weapons and people in her house. At last she was able to stand up and went to town to inform of what happened, but could not say anything about the whereabouts or fate of her husband. She narrated all of this, as you already suppose, between tears, sobs and cry of pain.
With this report, a thorough investigation was launched to discover the reported crime. The statements of Guillerma were recorded as a preliminary process. Then, The lieutenant with two attending witnesses, both agents of authority, cuadrilleros as they are called and the doctor, or as doctors are called, the mediquillo, went to the scene of the crime. Blood scattered all over near the house, revealed the crime that happened.
Inside the house they found:
The opened chest
A rope laying on the floor
A rolled out mat, with two pillows, looking like two people slept on it.
Two bayongs, the arrows, the bow and the spear which we have known about (from reading earlier).
They looked for Diego. They did not find him. Where was Diego? Diego’s dead body, however, was not far away.
They collected the arrows, the bow and the spear. The lieutenant delegated the cuadrilleros the duty of looking all over to find Diego and capture the criminals. Accompanied by the cuadrilleros and the doctor, the lieutenant returned to the town.
Immediately, because it was his duty, he reported the crime to the Gobernadorcillo of Mariveles, his superior officer. In the Philippines, almost every town’s public office is given a title with a diminutive suffix. The gobernadorcillo, the mediquillo, the vacunadorcillo, the directorcillo, the abogadillo. The gobernadorcillo then reported the event to the district judge, or as he is called in the Philippines, the alcalde mayor
The alcalde mayor, upon receiving report, decided on the relevant decree so that the gobernadorcillo could proceed with the preliminary investigation in accordance with the Royal Order dated August 31, 1860. The gobernadorcillo would then report back to the Alcalde Mayor in the term prescribed in that Royal Order. The gobernadorcillo ordered the appearance of Guillerma at his tribunal.
Guillerma confirmed what she already said before the first lieutenant of Cabcaben. The only addition was that (to give more details of the events) the tulisans or thieves also took five gantas of rice and her husband’s two shirt, one made of muslin and the other of sinamay. Twenty-five gantas equals one caban, and a caban has been described in here earlier.
Diego’s brother was also asked to appear before the court. As we have already known, he also lived in the mountain, quarter of an hour away from Diego’s house.
The cuadrilleros made a statement that they looked around the house of Diego as ordered by the lieutenant. They stated that saw nor observed nothing.
Within four days as indicated in the Royal Order of August 31 (in which the gobernadorcillos are the auxiliary of judges or alcaldes, and the gobernadorcillos were given the rules for the preliminary proceedings) the gobernardorcillo of Mariveles reported to the alcalde mayor the manner in which the proceedings was carried out. Nothing could be found. Nothing could shed light on who were the culprits nor could give indications on the location of the kidnapped man.
The report assumed that the tulisans took Diego to the mountain, and there he was murdered. This too was Guillerma’s opinion. But no one could say for sure that that was how exactly it happened. It was just a supposition and could not be verified. The results of the investigations were sent to the alcaldia. The judge saw them and said, “There is no other recourse but dismiss the proceeding.” And he was going to decide that the proceedings be dismissed. Then came another notice from the gobernadorcillo of Mariveles.
The notice said that the first lieutenant of Cabcaben had just informed the gobernadorcillo that the murderers of Diego were now in the lieutenant’s custody, and were being incarcerated in the tribunal of Cabcaben. In the Philippines, the ayuntamiento is called the tribunal. (The writer also referred to it as casa de la villa, the only reason I can think of on why he called it casa de la villa is because the old town hall in Madrid was and is still named as such).
The crime was committed at dusk on February 1. The Lieutenant’s account of the capture of two murderers happened on the 8th, 7 o’clock in the evening. The Alcalde mayor, who could not personally see the crime site because of his many duties, ordered the gobernadorcillo of Mariveles go to Cabcaben and take statements from prisoners, carry out the investigations the gobernadorcillo deemed necessary to solve the crime, and send him a report on the suspects to Balanga within three days. The gobernadorcillo took declarations at the tribunal of Cabcaben
Who revealed the killers of Diego?
How was a crime, covered in profound mystery, discovered?
Who divulged that secret?
What was the motive, the reason behind it?
Let’s find out.
Tiburcio cried out loud under the terrible power of the people he owed money from. This happens a lot in this world. You may have already imagined that Tiburcio was the man who helped Raimundo carry the dead body of Diego to the mountain. Tiburcio owed Urbano Calimbas two cabans of palay. Many times Urbano had come to Tiburcio for the palay or money. Urbano’s brother, to ease the payment, offered Tiburcio a job in his caña dulzal as payment for the palay Tiburcio owed Urbano. Caña - dulzal (caña de azúcar) is a sugar cane farm. Tiburcio was not rich, nor did he like working, and he did not go to work in the sugar cane farm that would have enabled him to pay his debt to Urbano. Urbano then threatened to sue him.
The lieutenant would have been the authority Urbano filed his complaint with. Tiburcio, facing the lieutenant, spoke with adorable candidness, a trait unique to these Indios or those who, instead of a cabeza has a calabaza. Tiburcio told the lieutenant that the he was going to pay Urbano after Guillerma had paid him the ten cabans of palay she promised in exchange for his participation in the death of her husband. Naturally, the lieutenant heard and arrested him.
“I did not kill him,” exclaimed Tiburcio. “All I did was help Raimundo take Diego’s dead body to the mountain. The lieutenant himself and a sheriff took Tiburcio to the jail of the tribunal, located on the floor below the building. It was made of wood and nipa, stronger and more spacious.
Declarations were taken from him and everything was revealed. Raimundo, with his bolo, wounding the throat of Diego while the latter was drinking water from the tabo; the hiding of Diego’s cadaver in the mountain; the site where they left Diego’’s dead body, everything.
The authorities went to look for Raimundo. They couldn’t find him anywhere but Guillerma’s house. He was taken away as a prisoner. Declaration was taken from Raimundo. He stated he was an Indio, bachelor, laborer, and 27 years old. He stated that he was at Guillerma’s house when the sheriff arrested him and took him to jail. Lastly (word-for-word from his declaration) so that justice can be swift and being tired of his remorse, he will tell the truth. What he said next were already known to us; Tiburcio had already told them to us earlier.
Guillerma was summoned. She, like Raimundo, expressed that her remorse was compelling her to tell the truth. She made a new but similar statement on the murder of her husband.
Having been informed by Raimundo and Tiburcio where the body was hidden, the authorities went to the mountain in search of Diego’s dead body. Authorities found his body already putrified and partly devoured by dogs and crows, but exactly where they said the body would be.
The mystery was solved. Everything was discovered.
The gobernadorcillo of Mariveles informed the judge on how the proceedings were carried out and the names of the guilty. The judge immediately decreed the imprisonment of the accused persons, further questioning of the accused and the proceedings for these cases.
Before the judge, to answer the same questions that she already had answered before the tribunal of Cabcaben, two scapularies and a rosary were on her neck falling to her chest and back, as the Indias wore them. Guillerma was the woman who had no qualms in first being an adulteress and later in being complicit in her husband’s death.
Let’s skip the comments
Guillerma, as much as Raimundo and Tiburcio, changed almost every statement she had previously deposed. Guillerma said that Raimundo and Tiburcio murdered her husband, but she took no part in the crime. Raimundo confessed to having wounded Diego while Diego was drinking water, but Raimundo added that the one who killed Diego by slashing him after he fell on the floor was Tiburcio. Tiburcio denied having hurt Diego. The only thing Tiburcio confessed to was helping Raimundo move the dead body to the mountain. This he did because he was threatened by Raimundo. The same threat compelled him to not report the crime to the authority.
As you can see, everyone to save himself or at least minimize his guilt, tried, as the saying goes, throw the dead body at another person. A phrase that unfortunately in this story fits in here, in every sense of the word, literally and figuratively. It did not matter much to any of them that a false statement meant the worse fate for the other. What mattered was saving one’s own skin. A disgusting and sad spectacle but very common in legal proceedings, specially in cases of very serious crimes which in all probability will result, as it happened here, in a death sentence
Guillerma had forgotten the love she showed Raimundo not long ago. She did not hide and did not attempt to minimize the extent of Raimundo’s involvement in the crime. On the contrary, with every opportunity she had during the proceedings, she always stated that while her husband was drinking, Raimundo struck her husband with the first blow to his throat. After Diego fell to the floor, Raimundo and Tiburcio finished him off. Raimundo must have felt growing sadness and bitter disappointments upon learning of Guillerma’s statements. The disappointments perhaps increased the remorse that devastated his soul caused by the crime committed for the woman he loved. And the woman had no concern about his fate. Such is the way of the world!
Because the Indios, like all mortals, are also subjects to the defects and weaknesses of human nature. And here, even if it is to distract us for a few moments from the story, something not entirely out of the topic occurred to me.
Some believe that lights, progress, and civilization pervert the human heart, demoralize, corrupt, and make men worse. The innocence, honesty and all kinds of virtues are found, according to them, in places where people are ignorant, primitive, where civilization has not spilled its poison. Big and gross error! Go to the Philippines and you’ll see that such is not the case. Casually, everything you’ll see in there is the opposite.
All the base instincts, all the weaknesses, and defects that unfortunately are found in civilized populations, are found on a bigger scale and worse among the ignorant and primitive people. This can be explained. The education, decorum, the requirement of society, culture of ideas, treatment, customs, all of these are reasons for improvement and betterment, even in appearance, of all the passions and defects that afflict humanity. Does this happen in savage places? No, and thousand times no. All the weaknesses, all the vices and bad instincts, come in a low, rude, uneducated, wild and vulgar form. Envy, slander, revenge, ostentation, greed, vanity, they have them all, and even worse, even bigger and more disgusting. I can add more; but for now what has been said is more than enough of justifiable defense of civilized societies that are very much mocked by some.
Let’s continue our story.
We can presume that as much as Guillerma, Raimundo was greatly irritated with Tiburcio, the cause of discovery of the crime and what was going to happen to them. Indeed his clumsiness was almost unbelievable. It seems unlikely that Tiburcio would say that he would pay his debtor after receiving from Guillerma the ten cabans of palay she offered him for his participation in the death of her husband. It was the same as revealing his own complicity in the crime. It was natural that Guillerma and Raimundo hated and cursed him.
Guillerma was imprisoned separate from the men. She had few occasions to see or talk to Tiburcio. Guillerma and Tiburcio only saw each other during the court proceedings for which both had to be taken out of their jails to face the judge. It wasn’t the same between Raimundo and Tiburcio.
Raimundo and Tiburcio were imprisoned in the same department. Many times Raimundo, after harshly insulting Tiburcio, had come closer to Tiburcio to do an act of violence towards Tiburcio. Their companions had to intervene and separate them. They had to be assigned separate departments.
Soon the trial reached the sentencing phase. The crime committed by Raimundo was so obvious, backed up by such circumstances that it was very difficult, if not impossible, according to law, to think that the sentence would be other than death. As expected, the judge, as was his duty, handed down the death sentence. Such was not the case with Guillerma, and most of all Tiburcio. Guillerma did not physically take part in the crime.
Tiburcio maintained that he did not do more than help Raimundo take the dead body of Diego to the mountain. Raimundo was not in the same situation. Guillerma, like Tiburcio, was pointing the finger at Raimundo as the killer of Diego. Raimundo himself confessed to the murder, even though he added that Tiburcio helped in the actual killing of Diego, which as we know, Tiburcio vehemently denied. Nothing could have saved Raimundo from his situation.
The writer of this story, however, finding death sentence horrible, could have probably found reasons why Raimundo should not have been given the death sentence. That wretched man, committed the crime on impulse, blinded by love, through a passion that makes a person blind and crazy. One of the circumstances that lessens the responsibility of the criminal, according to our code and the codes in every part of the world, old and modern, because that is how it should be, because it dictates the reason and justice, is the act of response to a stimulus so powerful that causes rage and blind stubborness. What can be more powerful than love?
The crime, however, can be seen from a different point of view. That’s what happened. Raimundo and Guillerma were sentenced to death. According to the sentence handed down, Tiburcio was sentenced to ten years in prison (according to the nomenclature of our old law, which was enforced and is still enforced in most of cases). Guillerma and Raimundo were sentenced to the garrote, to be put in a container made from vines then dragged to the scaffold. Guillerma and Raimundo were ordered to jointly pay indemnity to the brother of the dead man. It was determined that the execution of Raimundo and Guillerma would take place in the plaza of Cabcaben.
As our readers will remember, Cabacaben was a visita to which the sitio of Malamanic (where the crime happened) belonged. This made the sentence unenforceable. The sentence had to be approved by the Audencia of Manila.
Five months later, the Real Audienca (how it was called and is still being called as such) issued its ruling, condemning Raimundo to death by garrote in Balanga, capital of the province. The ruling did not include the dragging of Raimundo in a large basket as stated in the first instance. Guillerma was handed down a sentence of ten years in prison; Tiburcio’s was eight years. All three were ordered to jointly pay an indeminity of 200 escudos to the nearest relative of Diego and will also be monetarily responsible for the cost of the court proceeding.
At ths time, with regards to Raimundo, the sentence could not be carried out yet. He still had a recourse; it is called appealing his sentence. He appealed his sentence. The sentencing hearing was affirmed along with the costs. The sentence could now be carried out. Raimundo’s life was nearing its end.
From the jail, Raimundo was taken to a room on the ground floor of the Alcalde Mayor’s office, and because that mayor was also the political and governmental head of the province, it was called in the Philippines the Royal House. There, the chapel had been prepared.
The condemned man stayed for almost three days in the chapel. He was assisted by the Revered parish priest of the town; a dominican friar, his coadjutor, local priests and priests from nearby towns, Philippine-born Spaniards whose parents were both born in Spain, the judge or the Alcalde Mayor, the clerk, the Gobernadorcillo and the so called important persons in the locality. There, he said goodbye to his mother. Blind in her seventies, she travelled from Cabcaben, where she was living, to say farewell to her son for the last time.
According to the person to whom I owe these details, who because of his employment had to be involved in this sad story, Raimundo showed great serenity up to the morning on the day he was to be executed. From that morning his demeanor changed completely. His joviality and vivacity disappeared; it was replaced with great sadness and the most profound discouragement.
It was the first hours of the morning, September 12, nineteen months and 12 days after the murder of the unfortunate Diego. At the town exit, on a promenade previosly planted with sugar cane to make sugar, the executioner had raised the fateful platform. He arrived from Manila the day before escorted by military. Minutes after the church clock struck 11, the convict left the chapel and the people who were to accompany him began their march. All around the scaffold and the street he had to walk on were full of people, indios and mestizos, the majority of the population. Among them, you could also see dozens of Chinese, sellers and servers who were called cargadores, from Balanga, Abucay, Orion, Orani and other nearby towns. Though it is generally hot in the Philippines (except for two or three months from November to February, in which the northern air could be felt) the sky was cloudy. The heat was surely not felt by those who had been waiting for three or four hours to look at the condemned man. Those who are amazed by the crowd gathering for the similar ocassion in Madrid can say what they want. Same thing happens anywhere when a public execution is taking place, be it Madrid, Sevilla, Spain, France, Europe, Asia or America. The troop who accompanied the executioner (seems that even the word verdugo is repugnant) surrounded the gallows. Some cuadrilleros and sheriffs cleared the way and led the march.
The condemned man was surrounded by five priests, three of them dominicans (religious order in charge of the parochial and the spiritual directions of its inhabitants), the clerk, the legal staff, the gobernadorcillo, the lieutenants, (comprising the municipal corporation called Ayuntamiento in Spain), the soldiers who were then called division of police (nowadays replaced by the guardia civil), and a great mass of curious people at the rear of the march. Dressed in white cotton tunic, which covered almost all his legs, and a cap of the same cloth, on foot, extremely distressed, dejected and faint, the condemned man, the unfortunate Raimundo, had to be helped in his painful pilgrimage.
Many of his neighbors, old friends and acquaintances were there. As it usually happens in similar cases, compassion is a sentiment that is inspired by the sight of someone who is full of life and living the best years of his life who in a few moments would cease to exist, and whose crime even though serious and atrocious was not the effect of base instincts. The alcalde mayor, riding his horse, also showed up not far from the gallows. It took them 10 or 12 minutes to reach the scaffold.
When they reached the gallows, the condemned man, supported and helped by the priests accompanying him, went up the stairs with considerable difficulty. The gobernadorcillo, the clerk, the members of the principalia and everyone else who were in the march, remained at the foot of the scaffold, facing the condemned man. The condemned man sat down, almost lifeless, on the fatal bench. The iron collar was put around his neck. The executioner never thought of putting a cloth over the condemned man’s face (to hide from the onlookers the agony the condemned man was going through) and the executioner did his sad job. One of the clergies, next to the one who had ceased to exist, adressed the crowd in Tagalog. After the speech, the priests went down from the platform, the executioner followed them. They joined those who had formed the accompaniment to the gallows, then each went his way. Some soldiers stayed to guard the executed man’s body.
Shortly before five in the afternoon, the clerk, the gobernadorcillo, the members of the principalia and other people, followed by servants (four of them carrying a stretcher where you could see an uncovered coffin, lined with black percaline with white cotton ribbons) were going towards the execution site where the soldiers were still guarding Raimundo’s dead body and quite a few onlookers were hanging around. They took off the garrote from Raimundo. He was taken down from the platform and put in coffin which was put on the stretcher. The same men who carried the coffin on their shoulders on the way to the gallows, once again carried the coffin, with Raimundo in it, to the cemetery. The same people accompanied them to the cemetery, which was quite near the town. When they reached the cemetery, they covered the coffin then nailed the cover to ensure that the coffin would remain closed. In a hole already dug previously near the entrance, they buried the remains of Raimundo.
At dawn the following day, Guillermo and Tiburcio were taken from their jails and embarked in a boat destined for incarceration in Manila. The placed where they were to be incarcerated was called Bilibid, according to the disposition of His Excellency Lord Captain General Superior Governor of the Islands, as the highest judge, according to the law of Indies.
Diego’s brother, his only living relative, waived the indemnization ordered as part of the sentence. The reason, according to decrees, was the confirmed poverty of the convicts.
Ten or twelve hours from their exit from their jail in Balanga, Tiburcio and Guillerma, escorted by some soldiers and sheriffs, arrived in Manila. They got off the boat then they were led to the Bilibid jail, located outside of the walls of Manila. They were taken to their respective cells to begin serving their sentences.
This is the conclusion of the bloody drama that began nineteen months ago at dusk in February in a poor hut on the mountain of Malamanic.
Visita: dependent of a town for its civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. See Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico de las Islas Filipinas, dedicado a S.M. el Rey / Por Fr. Manuel Buzeta ... y Fr. Felipe Bravo ... Published 1850-1851. Although the book just mentioned has no definition for a visita, for every visita it mentioned, it always mentioned under whose jurisdiction a visita was during the Spanish time.
