Tomas Arejola was a Filipino propagandist
during the Spanish colonial period, lawyer, legislator, diplomat and a
political writer. A mason and a liberal, he openly campaigned for political
reforms in the Philippines. During the Commonwealth period, Arejola joined the
Nacionalista Party becoming its first vice-president. He was twice elected as
Representative of Ambos Camarines [Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte] in the
elections of 1907 and 1911.
Early life and
education
Arejola
was born in Nueva Caceres (now Naga City) in Ambos Camarines, Philippines. His
parents were Antonio Arejola and Emeteria Padilla and he had five siblings: Ludovico,
who became a General in the Filipino-American War, Leoncio, who became a priest,
Fabiana, Encarnacion and Dolores. Prominent and wealthy, his family possessed
large tracts of farmland in the province and raised cattle.
Arejola
studied Humanities at the Colegio Seminario de Nueva Caceres (1878–1884) and
took his Bachelor of Arts at San Juan de Letran. By 1886, he earned a
Surveyor's degree at the University of Santo Tomas while also starting a Law
course in the same school. He convinced his father to allow him to finish his
law in Madrid. He was disgusted with his professors who were favoring the
Spanish mestizos in his school. So on August 1886 he sailed for Spain. At the
age of 22, year 1888 he finished his course in Law at the Central Universidad
de Madrid.
Life in Madrid
A
prolific writer and a brilliant orator, he found common cause with the Filipino
propagandists residing in Madrid. José Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, Lopez Jaena,
Juan Luna and many others became his close friends and they all were one in
crying out for reforms in the colonial administration of the country. Arejola
was bold particularly in writing articles in the more liberal newspapers in
Madrid spelling out three demands upon the Spanish colonial authorities: 1)
institute political reforms in the administration of the colony, 2)
representation of the Philippines to the Spanish Cortes, and 3) conversion of
the Philippine as an integral province of Spain.
He
became a very active member of the Asociacion Hispano Filipino whose president
was Prof. Miguel Morayta of Central Universidad de Madrid. He also joined
Colonia Organizada de Madrid whose first president was Jose Rizal. When the
Asociacion Hispano-Filipino folded up, he organized the Circulo
Hispano-Filipino where he became the first president and the secretary was
Mariano Ponce.
His articles saw print in España en Filipinas, El Pais, El
Progreso, La Vanguardia Filipina, La Correspondencia de España, La Solidaridad—the newspaper put up by the Filipino ilustrados in Spain, Heraldo de Madrid, La
Publicidad, La Voz de Ultramar, El Filipino, and Isabelo de los Reyes’
Filipinas Ante Europa, a periodical so unremittingly Filipino that American
authorities arrested and jailed Filipinos found in possession of it. In one
dispatch to “Filipinas” worthy of the propagandizing genius of a de los Reyes,
Tomas wrote about Ludovico and the exploits of the Bicolano soldiers in the
Filipino-American War in Camarines.
In 1896,
at the time he was president of Circulo Hispano-Filipino, the revolution in the
colony broke out and he was hauled to prison on suspicion he was connected with
the rebellion at home. According to Evelyn Caldera Soriano in her book Bicolano
Revolutionaries, Arejola was detained for four days in Carcel Modelo in Madrid
together with Jose Oriola and Francisco Colon as reported in La Correspondencia
which wrote of the existence of a club of Filipino separatists sympathetic to
the Cuban rebels. He was released after no solid evidence was found against
him. To cool things off, he went to Lisbon, Portugal. But shortly after, he
returned to Madrid where he became the president of the newly organized
Filipino Republican Committee which was more militant than the previous organizations
he joined.
His
father Antonio and brother Ludovico were included in the mass arrests after the
discovery of the Katipunan in Manila in August 1896. Tortured and incarcerated,
they were exiled to Fernando Poo Island, a Spanish penal colony off the west
coast of Africa, together with some 77 other Bicolanos, many from Albay
province. Due to his connections with influential Masons such as Dr. Miguel
Morayta, Emilio Castelar and Francisco Pi y Margall, he obtained the release of
his father and one Albayano named Macario Samson. Later, in February 1898 he
obtained the freedom of Ludovico and ten other Filipinos.
Amidst
this turmoil, Spain was already about to conclude the Treaty of Paris with the
United States of America in the last month of 1898. Taking advantage of the
period, Aguinaldo and his men formed the Malolos Congress on January 1, 1898
and after approving a Constitution, declared the independence of the
Philippines on June 12, 1898. Arejola returned home previously by way of Hong
Kong where he participated in organizing the Central Revolutionary Committee headed
by Galicano Apacible. Arejola was one of the four delegates representing Ambos
Camarines in the historic Congress. His three other co-delegates were Justo
Lucban, Valeriano Velarde and Mariano Quien.
The American
Dispensation
By
December 1898, Spain formally turned over the Philippines together with other
colonies to the United States of America thru the Treaty of Paris for the
amount of 20 million dollars. This was an exceptional period, Spanish power was
on the wane, American power was rising and the Filipino aspiration for
self-governance was emerging but this was to be nipped in the bud. The Filipino
forces under Emilio Aguinaldo battled the American army but the superiority in
arms of the latter proved too much. Arejola's brother Ludovico was the general
who met the oncoming American forces in Ambos Camarines but his brother's army
was puny and ill- equipped and by March 31, 1901, Ludovico's ragtag army entered
Naga to surrender and was received by the Americans with honors.
Meanwhile,
Tomas Arejola, between 1902 and 1906 was in Japan together with Mariano Ponce
and other educated Filipinos who were already planning to carry the fight thru
parliamentary means. By 1907, they organized the Partido Nacionalista. Tomas Arejola
became its first vice-president and in the subsequent elections he ran twice
for two terms as Representative of Ambos Camarines and won (1907–1915).
In
Congress, he became the Chairman of the Committee on Public Works, Forests and
Mines and member of the Committee on Railways, Schools and Franchises. Thru his
efforts, roads in Polangui were built, roads connecting Daet, San Vicente,
Talisay and Indan were constructed while a road linking Tigaon to Goa became a
reality. The bridge in Tabuco, Naga City and the Pawili bridge in Bula were his
pet projects. He was the creator of the town of Canaman. Markets, and many
schools he also legislated into existence among which was the Nueva Caceres
High School (now Camarines Sur National High School) and other schools in Ambos
Camarines but now within the province of Camarines Norte. He was also the major proponent of the law establishing
the National Library of the Philippines.
In the
election of 1916, Bicol was an entire senatorial district (6th District) and
Arejola won the office as Senator of said district. The election for the
district, however, was nullified by the Commission on Elections due to
irregularities. Still up for a fight, Arejola ran as a candidate in the
election of 1919 for provincial governors.[1] But it was Julian
Ocampo who won the election. After this, Arejola quit politics for good.
At the
late age of 44, in December 4, 1909 he married a 16-year-old Spanish lass, Mercedes
Caldera, daughter of Spanish surgeon Bibiano Caldera. They enjoyed a blissful
marriage for sixteen years but bore no children. Arejola died in 1926 at the
age of 60 due to tuberculosis. – Wikipedia, Bicol Biographies
Wikipedia’s
Bibliography
1. ^ G.R. No. 16332
(http://www.ustcivillaw.com/Jurisprudence/1920/gr_16332_1920.php)
Malanyaon, Jaime. Istorya kan Kabikolan (Kabikolan: A History),
AMS Press. 1991.
Soriano, Evelyn Caldera. Bicolano Revolutionaries. Manila:
National Commission for Culture and the Arts. 1999.
Reyes, Jose Calleja. Bikol Maharlika. Goodwill Trading. Makati
City. 1992.
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