January 31, 1861 – May 21, 1934
Born in Nueva Caceres (now Naga City)
Ludovico and younger brother Tomas took their
secondary education at the Seminario Conciliar (now the Holy Rosary Minor
Seminary in Naga City) then finished their Bachelor of Arts degrees in San Juan
de Letran, Manila. Ludovico finished law but illness forced him to return to
Nueva Caceres while Tomas left for Madrid, Spain in August 1888 to continue his
law studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid.
In 1896 Ludovico was arrested together with his father,
Antonio, and at least 77 other Bicolanos in the mass arrests following the
discovery of the Katipunan in Manila in August. Tortured and incarcerated, father and son were deported
with others to Fernando Poo Island, a Spanish penal colony off the west coast
of Africa. Amnestied and released, he and his father made their way back to the
Philippines, where Ludovico lost no time in visiting Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.
Initially assigned by Aguinaldo to solicit contributions for the revolution, he
was eventually appointed as Coronel de la Milicia Territorial in Ambos
Camarines and Catanduanes, tasked to organize the milicianos in the territory.
In January 1900, the Americans landed in Legazpi, south of
Nueva Caceres, not so much to end resistance in Bicol, but to open the hemp
ports from which flowed the abaca fibers very much in demand in the American
market. General Arejola organized
a large guerilla army and fought the Americans at Agdangan, Baao town. When
additional American troops disembarked in Calabanga on February 19, 1900 as
part of their invasion of Bicol, Ludovico was left by General Antonino Guevara,
the Magdalo military chief in Camarines, to defend Nueva Caceres while Guevara
decamped for Albay.
Outnumbered,
outgunned and untrained, Ludovico and his milicianos retreated to the mountains
of Minalabac where he brought together the scattered and disbanded troops. The
resistance also included an eight-woman
group called the Damas Benemeritas de la Patria that tended to the injured and
the sick and brought clothes and provisions to the Bicolano guerillas.
On March10, still holding the rank of colonel, he was
acclaimed commander-in-chief of the reorganized army by 10,000 Bicolano
partisans in Taban, Minalabac, with Elias Angeles, who had his own troops that
had fought in Agdangan, Baao, and Bernabe Dimalibot as his lieutenant colonels
with the functions of military chief and chief of staff, respectively.
He set up his general headquarters in Mata, Minalabac.
Thereafter, he directed all-out guerrilla warfare all over Camarines Sur
against the superior American army. His aged father and other members of the
Arejola family (including women, and Tomas who was abroad) joined in the
resistance efforts. Despite deprivation, a dearth in arms, illnesses, and an
enemy that waged what amounted to a scorched earth policy in the province,
Arejola continued to rally his men and refused early offers of peace by the
Americans.
On the third offer, on March 25, 1901, accompanied by Ludovico’s
brother Fr. Leoncio Arejola, American officers 1Lt. George Curry (11th
Cavalry USV) and 2Lt. George Mosely (9th Cavalry USV) convinced
Ludovico to sign the peace agreement in Taban, Minalabac. On March 31, under
the Philippine national flag and with 1 colonel, 3 lieutenant colonels, 5
majors, 21 junior officers, and about 800 men, Brig. Gen. Arejola marched to Nueva Caceres where
they were received by the Americans with military honors. They turned over 43 rifles, 12 revolvers and
hundreds of bolos.
Civil government was finally established in Ambos Camarines
in April 1901.
He declined an offer of governorship of Ambos Camarines by
Philippine Commission President William Howard Taft. Later he accepted the post
of Clerk of Court of the First Instance in Nueva Caceres. He devoted himself to
the welfare of the Bicolano war veterans through the Asociacion de Veteranos de
la Revolucion which he headed in Camarines Sur, and continued to advocate for
total independence of the Philippines almost to the day of his death.
He had eight children (one son and seven daughters) by his
first wife, Teodora Imperial; and a son and a daughter in his second marriage.
He died on May 21, 1934 and was interred in the Peñafrancia cemetery in Nueva
Caceres.
Bibliography:
Barrameda, Jose Jr. V. “The Bicol Martyrs of 1896
Revisited.” Bicol Mail, January 15 & 22, 2008.
Curry, George. George Curry 1861-1947. An Autobiography. H.
B. Hening (ed). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1995. (1st ed.,
1958)
Gomez, Marcos, OFM. A Friar’s Account of the Philippine
Revolution in Bicol. Apolinar Pastrana Riol, OFM (trnsl). Manila: Regal
Printing Co. 1980.
Schumacher, John N., S.J. “Filipino Masonry in Madrid,
1889-1896.” Manila: Philippine Historical Review. Vol. 1, No. 2. 1966.
Soriano, Evelyn Caldera. Bicolano Revolutionaries. Manila:
National Commission for Culture and the Arts. 1999.
Ursua, Jacinto and Ignacio Meliton. “Martires Bicolanos: Un
Episodio de la Revolucion del ’96.” 1943. Typescript.
No comments:
Post a Comment