Torture and abuse in war

EVERYONE was so distracted by the elections last Monday, few people remembered that it was the 107th anniversary of Andres Bonifacio's death in Maragondon town in the province of Cavite, outside Manila. Why remember the execution in the Maragondon mountain range when it is a part of our history we would rather forget? It is easier to accept the execution of Jose Rizal following the sentence rendered by a Spanish Military Court, than to deal with that of Bonifacio's following a decision handed down by a Filipino military court; and executed by soldiers of the Katipunan, of which he was the Supremo. While I would not want to reopen long festering wounds, those distressing photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners of war being abused by American forces made me look back into the side story connected with the execution of the brothers Bonifacio in Maragondon.

Torture and abuse of prisoners are detestable courses of actions at any time and in any place. Thus, one of the problematic primary sources we have is a contemporary account of the Revolution in Cavite, written by Telesforo Canseco, caretaker of the Dominican hacienda in Naic town. While his sympathy for friar prisoners is suspect, the "bad guys" in his narrative were not ordinary foot soldiers but the Bonifacio brothers. A translation of Canseco's original and lengthy Spanish narrative was published by the Jesuits Pedro de Achutegui and Miguel Bernad in 1972. An excerpt reads:

"When in the month of October [1896] I was brought a prisoner to San Francisco and from there to Buenavista, I spoke to the Fathers who were kept prisoners there, confined in the same shed where he also was kept prisoner and I saw that they were not treated with the proper consideration. Afterwards, although I do not know the exact day or month, it became public knowledge in this town, and they assured me of it in San Francisco when I was a prisoner there that a brother of Andres Bonifacio had beaten up the Fathers in Buenavista, and that on one occasion he had whipped them with thorns [aromas] and with reeds in the soles of their feet, in such a manner that the Fathers would have preferred to be shot to death. Learning of this from the Minister of Finance, Diego Mojica was very angry against the brothers of A. Bonifacio and he forbade them to torture the Fathers again."

We do not know which of the two Bonifacio brothers -- Ciriaco or Procopio -- was the alleged torturer, but it has become almost folk belief that their deaths in 1897 was divine retribution for their ill-treatment of Father Agapito Echegoyen (Recollect), Domingo Candenas (Augustinian) a certain Father Piernavieja (Augustinian) and an anonymous Augustinian lay brother who were executed on Feb. 28, 1897.

Canseco wrote: "But because Andres Bonifacio was an intimate friend of President M[ariano] Alvarez and since both of them were bad men in the matter of religion -- especially Bonifacio, since he was a furious Mason -- they determined to take the priests from Buenavista before they could be rescued by the Spaniards who had already taken Silang, and to bring them to Maragondon to be executed... According to rumor, the reason why they were condemned to death was that a woman had been captured who was carrying a letter from the priests addressed to the chief of the Spanish forces in Silang, informing him that they were prisoners in Buenavista and that they were awaiting to be rescued from there. For this reason the Supremo Andres Bonifacio and M. Alvarez took them from there and sentenced them to death in a hurry, but without notifying them of the verdict..."

The prisoners were to be executed in Maragondon but the townspeople refused to comply with the order, stating that they did not want the blood of the religious on their conscience and their town. So the prisoners were brought to Naic where the Bonifacio order of execution was implemented without hesitation. Thus, comparing the people of Maragondon with Naic, Canseco described the latter as "tontos" [idiots], adding:

"During the stay of the Fathers in this town, nobody was allowed to talk to them, nor were they given food. The same was done to the Spanish laymen. They were given no other food except rice and sugar, and when the cook on one occasion tried to bring them some boiled eggs, the leaders learned about it and threatened the cook with imprisonment if he should try to do so again."

Canseco said that when Andres Bonifacio arrived in Naic, he ordered a firing squad organized and a "careton" [pushcart] to bring the fathers to the place of execution. What is interesting here is that Emilio Aguinaldo was upset when he heard of the execution because he tried, as much as possible, to treat Spanish prisoners humanely. Besides, the death sentence was not sent to him for confirmation. Canseco even alleged that Aguinaldo wanted to remove Bonifacio and Alvarez from office but the latter was a relative:

"Nevertheless Aguinaldo publicly rebuked their conduct calling them barbarians ("crueles") and affirming that they had treated the Spanish prisoners badly, not even giving them enough food. Since Aguinaldo treated all the Spanish and native prisoners with great consideration, he easily won the goodwill of all, being elected president shortly afterwards..."

Torture and abuse may be isolated and rare but they do happen in times of war and stress. How we deal with them is the bigger problem.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu