Today in the Past

Today, February 7, 1891, Felipe Buencamino, Sr. informs Dr. Jose Rizal of the status of the dispute with the Dominican over the Calamba state.

A notorious invisible government existed in Spanish Philippines. This government was called "frailocracy" meaning rule of the friars.

During the last decades of the 19th century the Spanish friars were so influential and powerful that they practically ruled the Philippines.

During this period the Filipinos were agonizing beneath the yoke of Spanish misrule. Dr. Rizal, an eyewitness of their sufferings, realized that if their grievances would not be heeded by Spain, they would, in despair, rise in arms and fight for freedom's sake.

Early in 1890, while Rizal was in Brussels, capital of Belgium, he received letters from home, which worried him.

The Calamba agrarian trouble was getting worse. The management of the Dominican Hacienda continually raised the land rents until such time that Rizal's father refused to pay his rent. Other tenants inspired by Don Francisco's courage, also refused to pay their rents.

The Dominican Order filed a suit in court to dispossess the Rizal family of their lands in Calamba.

Meanwhile, the tenants, including the Rizal family, were persecuted and ejected from their lands.

Paciano and the brothers-in-law Antonio Lopez (husband of Narcisa) and Silvestre Ubaldo (husband of Olympia) were deported to Mindoro. Another brother-in-law, Manuel T. Hidalgo (husband of Saturnina) was banished for a second time to Bohol.