Massacre in Manila

PEOPLE today are complaining about a new strain of flu and colds that take longer than usual to heal. Worse, these bugs render their victims nearly useless at the height of the infection. There are many diseases going around these days, like AIDS or cancer or tuberculosis, but there have not been enough cases recorded or any outbreak of epidemic proportions to make people panic.

In Gregorio Zaide's 15-volume compilation, "Documentary Sources of Philippine History," are three eyewitness accounts of the cholera epidemic that hit Manila in 1820. One is by a French doctor, Paul de la Gironiere, another by Pierre Dobell, an American trader who served as the first Imperial Russian Consul in Manila, and the third by British Naval Commander Campbell who was in Manila at the time.

Cholera hit the Philippines quite often in the 19th and early 20th centuries. We have much enough documentary material on the subject to fill a doctoral dissertation. In Jose Rizal's correspondence, we read about an epidemic that really cut down Calamba town. From the letters of Rizal's sisters, we know how their relatives, neighbors and friends were dying left and right. Descriptions of the symptoms of both cholera and beriberi were sent to Rizal who was then abroad studying medicine. One interesting note to all this was the appearance of a comet (perhaps Halley's comet) that was seen in the Philippines a number of nights, and which people believed was the omen of death and disaster.

The cholera epidemic of 1820 was the same as any other epidemic in Philippine history, except for the panic that led to the massacre by Filipinos of all foreigners, meaning Caucasians who were not Spanish or Portuguese. There were some French scientists in the country at the time who were collecting water samples from the Pasig River, and when the cholera epidemic exploded in October 1820, the rumor spread that the Frenchmen were actually saboteurs who put poison in the Pasig and all the wells and water sources as far as Laguna de Bay. Hardest hit by the disease were the Filipinos who started to wonder why the Spaniards and other Europeans were not affected. This fueled the rumor about poison in the water. As a matter of fact, the French offered medical assistance, which was later rejected when the rumor spread that they were administering poison to the sick in a bid to rid the country of all Tagalogs.

Dobell wrote: "On October 9, 1820 around 10 or 11 in the morning, a mob of about 3,000 men all armed with pikes, knives and bludgeons, proceeded coolly and deliberately to plunder and massacre all the strangers [that is, foreigners] on whom they could lay their hands ... The authorities were vainly implored for assistance. They came, it is true, with the troops, but it was only to behold with sangfroid the horrid spectacle. Not a musket was fired to save the lives of those unfortunate and defenseless [foreigners], who to the number of 39 were plundered and cruelly massacred; so many of them were so cut up and mangled that it was impossible to recognize them. As most of them were Roman Catholics, they were all collected and thrown into a hole together without the shadow of a ceremony or a stone to mark their graves! What is worse, the last acts from there down to the 9th of November mention that not a Spanish life was lost, nor has a single native as yet suffered punishment for this atrocious and horrible deed. "What makes this story quite intriguing was that the attack was basically on foreigners living in the city, most of them businessmen and their families. Chinese were also killed, their shops and homes looted.

Looking at all this today makes me wonder why this came about. What were the socio-economic conditions at the time that encouraged such behavior? If the intent was to get even or even stop the foreigners from allegedly spreading the disease, why was there a lot of looting? How come the Spaniards were spared? How come the police and the army did not lift a finger to stop this wanton murder?

There is something else in this story lying beneath the surface of the cholera epidemic and the massacre. Was this a ploy to keep foreign business out of the Spanish colony? Were specific people actually the target of this attack and the rest, as we would say today, just "collateral damage" or innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire? Perhaps it would be useful to dig up more than these foreigners' accounts and try to find a Spanish or even Filipino eyewitness and get a different version of the story. Surely, there must be documents on this event lying around in archives here and abroad. They would make an engaging read.

For those interested in one detailed, but rather self-serving, account of the events of October 1820, there is the book by Paul de la Gironiere, "Twenty Years in the Philippines," translated from the original French and first published in London in 1854, which has been reprinted in Manila twice or thrice and is readily available in libraries with a good Filipiniana collection. Gironiere mentions how he saved someone by hitting a man with his cane, and how he was saved by a Filipino whose wife he had treated for free. Utang ng loob in action here, but that is another story.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu.