By Eufemio O. Agbayani III
Historic Sites Development Officer II
Just three days before Independence Day, we remember Feliciano Jocson on his birth anniversary. A licensed pharmacist, his short life was enmeshed in the internal politics of the Revolution, having to lay his life down in unpleasant circumstances.
Photograph of Feliciano Jocson
Published in El Renacimiento, 3 May 1907.
EAST VIEW INFORMATION SERVICES
Pharmacist Turned Patriot
Born on 9 June 1868 in Quiapo, Manila, Jocson studied pharmacy at the University of Santo Tomas and received his licentiate in 1893. In that year, he joined Masonry. After working in a pharmacy in Nueva Ecija, he established his own in Santa Cruz, Manila in 1895. By then, he was already a member of the Katipunan which was planning to overthrow Spanish rule through an armed revolution.
When the revolution erupted in August 1896, he operated in the provinces of Pangasinan, Zambales, Cavite, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, and Manila. He even planned to rescue Rizal from execution but was prevented by an injury after falling from his horse in Cavite. By January 1897, he and Jose Alejandrino were selected to purchase arms in Hongkong.
Unfortunately, he failed to bring home firearms twice. The first time in February 1897, he was able to load weapons onto a steam launch which encountered a storm. This forced him and his associates to throw the cargo overboard. He made another attempt but was sabotaged by his English pilot.
Jocson returned to Manila in May 1897 when he learned of Andres Bonifacio’s death in Maragondon, Cavite. According to Artemio Ricarte, Jocson went there and gave an extemporaneous speech to announce that additional weapons were coming from Hong Kong. It was also around this time, according again to Ricarte, that Jocson showed him a drawing for the National Flag that we have today.
Jocson was given the task of establishing a short-lived departmental government in Central Luzon in which he served as Minister of War. As the Spaniards were retaking Cavite, he then went to Biak-na-Bato in San Miguel, Bulacan. He bitterly opposed the truce that was being negotiated with the Spaniards even after it was signed in December 1897. Instead of joining Aguinaldo in Hong Kong or keeping quiet, he began organizing his own army to plan the resumption of the Revolution.
Portrait of Feliciano Jocson
From the cover of Renacimiento Filipino, 7 August 1912
FILIPINAS HERITAGE LIBRARY
The House Arrest
On 25 March 1898[1], Jocson attempted to restart the Revolution from a house in Camba Street in Binondo. Unfortunately, according to Santiago Alvarez, copies of the announcement for this resumption reached both the allies of Aguinaldo and the Spaniards. The latter fired on to the gathered men and shot them. Unfortunately, non-combatants in the vicinity were also hurt, stabbed, or shot.
Jocson retreated to Laguna to recoup his forces. When he arrived in Santa Cruz, he was arrested by forces under Venancio Cueto who held him and a companion under house arrest. Cueto had been acting under orders from Pio del Pilar who was designated by a group of relapsed revolutionary leaders during a meeting in the house of Pedro Paterno. The group accused Jocson of being an agent of the friars to cause commotion, giving the colonial government the impression that the Filipinos had violated their commitment during the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.
This was most ironic. In January that year, Jocson reacted violently when a friar delivered his homily during the Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo. The friar was insulting Masons and revolutionaries. Incensed, Jocson ran towards the friar, shouted at him, and even pointed his revolver at him. He was ejected by the guardia civil but was not arrested.
While not knowing what to do with Jocson, Cueto eventually allowed him freedom of movement within his house. At that time, Apolinario Mabini was also staying with him. Later, del Pilar went to Cueto’s house, and he was welcomed not just by Cueto, but also Jocson, Mabini, and Paciano Rizal.
Mabini and Rizal did not want to release Jocson to del Pilar, arguing that he could not have been an agent of the friars. Del Pilar gave an impression that he was convinced, yet still wanted to take Jocson. After del Pilar gave assurances that Jocson would be safe, the latter voluntarily joined.
The Tragic Death
If we are to read the memoirs of Ricarte and Alvarez, it would seem that they were unaware about what happened afterwards. However, a biography published in Renacimiento Filipino on 7 August 1912 could fill the gap.
Written in both Spanish and Tagalog, this biography does not mention the house arrest and the conversation between del Pilar, Mabini, and Rizal. Rather, it mentions that Jocson was arrested by the Spaniards in April 1898 and was brought to Mandaluyong. His wife Severina Arcangel was extorted by the guards. Even if she had become destitute because the Spaniards confiscated Jocson’s pharmacy and their savings had been spent on his revolutionary activities, she was determined to see her husband alive. She sold her few remaining jewels and asked for alms to gather the amount of a thousand pesos to have him released.
Instead of releasing Jocson, he was shot by the guardia civil at around 2:00 AM in a far corner of the Mandaluyong Cemetery. The parish priest refused to have him buried inside the cemetery, so he was interred just outside.
Arcangel, too, was arrested and jailed in the Old Bilibid prison for more than twenty days. It was only after two years when she was able to have him exhumed and reburied in the Quiapo Church–the same church where he attempted to avenge the honor of his fellow revolutionaries.
However, he was not completely forgotten. In July 1898, a troop bearing his name participated in the capture of Dagupan by Filipino forces. In 1907, his death anniversary was marked by breaking the ground for a monument in his honor featuring a bronze bust by Isabelo Tampingco. Unfortunately, this was apparently not completed. Roads were named after him in Sampaloc, Manila and in Mandaluyong but the latter has since been renamed A.T. Reyes.
Bust of Feliciano Jocson by Isabelo Tampingco
From the cover of Renacimiento Filipino, 7 August 1912
FILIPINAS HERITAGE LIBRARY
A Controversial Legacy
Could del Pilar have turned Jocson in? Or perhaps another fellow Filipino? We cannot say for sure. However, Arcangel alleges in her letter to Hilaria del Rosario, wife of Aguinaldo, on 4 August 1898 that whoever gave Jocson to the Spaniards received a reward from them, an amount the Renacimiento Filipino biography pegged at five thousand pesos.
Jose Alejandrino, another revolutionary, confirms the existence of this allegation, saying further that it was by people “who had an interest in complying with the agreement with the Spanish Government to hand over all the weapons in our possession.”
If Jocson had indeed been betrayed, it would be a tremendous tragedy. He was executed three days after the Spanish defeat in Manila Bay and just fifteen days before Aguinaldo returned from Hong Kong to resume the revolution. The men who just weeks before denounced him volunteered themselves to Aguinaldo and occupied prominent positions in his revolutionary government and the Republic inaugurated the following January. We can only imagine how much passion and energy Jocson could have contributed to the revived revolution had he remained alive.
Perhaps partly due to feeling guilt over what had happened, Ricarte vehemently insisted that Jocson had designed the National Flag. Julio Nakpil joined him in this with fiery words: “Feliciano Jocson is the author of the design of the Philippine flag and those who say the contrary are liars and usurpers.”
Those who believe Ricarte and Nakpil are encouraged by Aguinaldo’s seeming unwillingness to categorically attribute the design of the flag to himself. When asked by Emmanuel A. Baja, he replied: “Many of the older generations have attributed to me that authorship of the design and symbolism of the country’s emblem because I ordered the making of the first National Flag at Hongkong and brought it myself with me on my return to Cavite. I do not consider, however, that for these reasons my authorship could be called exclusive or original; for I am well satisfied that the design I ordered was made according to what already existed in the public mind…” What we are sure of is that it was Aguinaldo who personally transmitted the design to Marcela Mariño de Agoncillo and it was he who brought the flag made by her, her daughter Lorenza, and Delfina Herbosa de Natividad.
Yet whether Ricarte and Nakpil’s claim is proven or not, we can still thank Jocson and countless other revolutionaries who fought to allow a flag they never saw to fly over the country they so loved. We are reminded of Jose Rizal’s words through the character Elias in Noli Me Tangere: “I shall die without seeing the dawn break upon my homeland. You, who shall see it, salute it! Do not forget those who have fallen during the night.”
References:
Aguinaldo, Emilio. Memoirs of the Revolution. Manila: Cristina Aguinaldo-Suntay, 1967.
Alejandrino, Jose. La Senda del Sacrificio. Manila: self-published, 1933.
Alzona, Encarnacion, ed. Julio Nákpil and the Philippine Revolution. Manila: Heirs of Julio Nakpil, 1964.
Baja, Emmanuel. Our Country’s Flag and Anthem. Manila: Juan Fajardo Press, 1928.
Bowe, John. With the 13th Minnesota in the Philippines. Minneapolis: A.B. Farnham Printing & Stationery Company, 1905.
Dery, Luis Camara. Bantayog ni Inang Bayan: Panibagong Sulyap sa mga Bayan ng 1896 Himagsikan. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 2012.
El Renacimiento, 3 May 1907. Digital copy accessed through the East View Information Services.
El Renacimiento, 6 May 1907. Digital copy accessed through the East View Information Services.
LeRoy, James Alfred. The Americans in the Philippines: A History of the Conquest and First Years of Occupation, with an Introductory Account of the Spanish Rule, vol. 1. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914.
Malay, Paula Carolina S., trans. Alvarez, Santiago. Katipunan and the Revolution: Memoirs of a General. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992.
Medina, Isagani R., ed. Ronquillo, Carlos. Ilang Talata tungkol sa Paghihimagsik (Revolucion) nang 1896-1897. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996.
Ochosa, Orlino A. Pio del Pilar & Other Heroes. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1997.
Orpilla, Melchor, trans. Quintos, Felipe. Tala ng Kasaysayan ng Pag-aalsa sa Pilipinas: Revolucion Filipina. Manila: National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2020.
Renacimiento Filipino, 7 August 1912. Digital copy accessed through the Filipinas Heritage Library.
Ricarte, Artemio. Himagsikan Nang Manga Pilipino Laban sa Kastila. Yokohama: self-published, 1927. Digital copy accessed through the Digital Collections of the University of Michigan.
Sawyer, Frederic H. The Inhabitants of the Philippines. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company, 1900.
[1] Alvarez mistakenly dated this to 20 November 1897. This event was dubbed the Massacre of Calle de Camba and it was believed that the arrest and execution of Visayan sailors who had gathered in a house on that street served as the catalyst for the revolt of the Cebuanos against Spanish rule the following month.