Domingo Roxas y Ureta (1782-1843) was the patriarch of the Roxas Family which would give rise

to the Ayala-Zobel-Soriano clans. He was also the founder of Casa Roxas, which after various
incarnations would be the progenitor of today's leading Philippine business conglomerate Ayala
Corporation.
Early Life
Don Domingo was born in 1782. His parents were Mariano Roxas and Ana Maria de Ureta. He
had five siblings, among which were Antonio Roxas y Ubaldo and two friars Raymundo Roxas y
Ubaldo and Fray Buenaventura Joseph de Ubaldo. It is said that the Roxas family can trace its
roots to Antonio Fernandez de Roxas of Acapulco, pilot of the galleon San Jose, who decided to
stay in the Philippines.
He married Maria Saturnina Ubaldo and they had 3 children:
Margarita Roxas de Ayala, considered the first Filipino philanthropist and from whose line
would rise the Ayala-Zobel-Soriano families;
Jose Bonifacio Roxas, who would venture on his own and acquire Hacienda de San Pedro
de Macati. He was the father of Don Pedro Pablo Roxas, who would eventually
establish Central Azucarera Don Pedro; and
Mariano Roxas y Ubaldo, who would co-found the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura
In 1834 Don Domingo established Casa Roxas, together with a partner Antonio de Ayala to
engage in sugar, coffee, cotton, and indigo cultivation, as well as to manufacture liquors,
castings, and gun power. It was a propitious time as the Philippines had just been opend up to
foreign trade. Ayala had arrived earlier in the Philippines together with his uncle the Archbishop
of Manila Jose Segui.
Don Domingo showed extreme foresight when he went into the sugar industry. The Real
Compaia de Filipinas had liberalized investment in agriculture. To this end, Don Domingo had
purchased tracts of land in Calatagan, Batangas in 1829 to start a hacienda. He was a believer
in the latest industrial technology and had sent for a young Frenchman by the name of Yves
Leopold Germain Gaston to move to Batangas in 1837 to set up his business. Although not
initially successful the young Frenchman would marry a local Prudencia Fernandez and they
would move to Silay, Negros where they pioneered sugar production there.
Don Domingo belonged to a cadre of young creoles or criollos who were among the leading
businessmen and exponents of social change in the early 1800s, among them Jose Damaso
Gorricho, who acquired Escolta and was progenitor of Pardo de Tavera fortune), Antonio
Rocha, builder of Malacaang Palace, Basque trader Eugenio de Otadui, and Jose Maria Jugo,
exponent of the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais. As such he was among the prime
movers for social and political change in the Philippines.
Libetarian Tendencies
Don Domingo was incarcerated three times. The Spanish colonial authorities suspected that he
was a sympathizer of the Filipino cause and had not only published anti-Spanish tracts, but
supported rebellions. This was because Don Domingo was one of the earliest industrialists of the
Philippines and had opposed the sugar and alcohol monopoly. He was also an advocate for
liberal reforms, and was especially influenced by Sociedad de los Amigos del Pais's call for a
more liberal economy.
After the promulgation of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, many criollos or locally born Spanish
residents supported the charter's call for equal rights for both colonized and colonizer. There was
a growing call for change, as manifested by many hojas volantes or anonymous tracts such as El
Filantropo (1816) or El Indio Agraviado published in 1821.
Thus began a series of his association with several major mutinies.
He was implicated in several uprisings, the first was the Andres Novales revolt of 1823, the second
was the uprising of Apolinario de la Cruz or Hermano Pule in 1841 and the last was the Tayabas
regiment mutiny in 1843.
The Andres Novales Revolt and Domingo Roxas

After Mexico promoted its independence from Spain, Spanish officials in the Philippines began to
be very concerned about the loyalty of creoles in the administration. They very much feared
that the winds of change in the Hispanic world would infect the Philipines.
Historian Jolita C. Atienza wrote: "This prompted the monarchial government to ship military and
administrative personnel to the Philippine Islands to discourage any libertarian movement. The
arrival in Manila of Governor-General Martinez, accompanied by a large contingent of Spanish
sergeants, was intended to replace and block the promotion of Filipino army officials,
irrespective of seniority and capability. This event only exacerbated the rivalry between the
creole's (local-born Spaniards) and peninsulares (Spanish born in Spain), the former, regarded as
second class citizens by the latter."
Historian Carlos Quirino wrote: "...in February 1823, a dozen of the leading suspects among the
creoles who called themselves 'hijos del pais' were deported to Spain. Among them
were Domingo Roxas, leading businessman..., Jose Ortega, general manager of the Royal
Company, the barrister Jose Maria Jugo, Captain Jose Bayot and his two brothers, Luis
Rodriguez Varela, former mayor of Tondo and self-styled count of the Philippines, Regino Mijares,
sergeant-major of the king's regiment, and a dozen other suspects. Ordered to leave
for Misamis Province, Andres Novales instead convinced the brother officers and noncommissioned officers of the king's regiment to join him in a coup d'etat in June (second) of that
year. These 'americanos,', composed mostly of Mexicans with a sprinkling of creoles and
mestizos from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica and other former
colonies of Spain in South America, supported Novales. With about 800 native soldiers they
seized early in the morning the royal palace, the city's cabildo and important government
buildings in Intramuros, killed the lieutenant governor, Mariano Fernandez de Folgueras, but
failed to seize Fort Santiagobecause his brother who commanded the citadel at the last minute
refused to open its gates.
Andres Novales revolted, because his commanders had ordered him to surrender arms. Fearing
that this was a ruse to replace them with newly-arrived troopps from Spain, the soldiers mutinied.
The government commanded Pampango troops to counterattack. Novales was captured,
court martialed and executed, but the seeds of dissension had been laid earlier by Luis
Rodriguez Varela who had written a tract called Proclama Historial in which he referred to
himself as "el conde Filipino," one of the earliest uses of the term as "a form of political and
national determination" Gemma Guerrero Cruz
Hermano Pule and Domingo Roxas's Role
It was not only a turbulent time for creoles to assert their rights, but also for native-born religious
leaders to battle for their religious freedom. Apolinario de la Cruz or Hermano Pule was a lay
brother who sought the freedom to organize his own religious confraternity which he
called Cofradia de San Jose in 1832. His movement based in Lucban, Tayabas quickly grew by
attracting thousands of adherents in Batangas, Laguna as well as in Tondo, Manila. By 1841 it
was estimated that there were over 4,000 adherents. The local priests who controlled the
parishes were quickly alarmed by the rapid rise of the movement, which was conducted in the
local language and involved no Spaniards. They labeled it as heresy.
Many letters of complaint were directed to Governor-General Marcelino Oraa and
Archbishop Jose Segui of Manila. Hermano Pule however wanted to legalize the existence of
the brotherhood. To this end, he interceded with Don Domingo to present his case to the Real
Audiencia in Manila. Don Domingo prepared the papers, and involved several lawyers Don Jose
Florentino, Don Felipe Vidal de Marifosque, and Don Toribio Pantoja but the Audiencia refused
to table the petition. Perhaps Hermano Pule was counting on Don Domingo's connection to
Archbishop Jose Segui, who was the uncle of his business partner Antonio de Ayala.
On January 29, 1841, Hermano Pule once again sent a letter to the bishop of Nueva Caceres,
reiterating his position that the cofradia was not against the Catholic faith. He again followed
up, by asking Don Domingo to file one more an appeal with the Audiencia in Manila.

On September 18, 1841 Spanish troops were ordered to break up a huge meeting of its members
and ordered the arrest of its leader, but forced to fight, Pule rallied 4,000 followers on October
23, 1841 and vanquished the forces of Alcalde-Mayor Joaquin Ortega and his 300 men. A
counterattack was launched on November 1, 1841 and Hermano Pule was captured, executed
and decapitated and hundreds of his followers were massacred on November 4.
Don Domingo was arrested for his involvement with the Hermano Pule revolt.
The Tayabas Regiment Mutiny
Hermano Pule's followers were ordered to surrender arms in exchange for an amnesty, but in
Manila, a Tagalog regiment stationed in Malate led by Sgt. Iriarte Samaniego rose up in arms on
January 20, 1843. They killed their officers and seized the barracks. They captured Fort
Santiago and after a bloody battle, they defeated by Spanish troops. Sgt. Samaniego was
captured and shot at Bagumbayan on January 22.
The Final Years
On Don Domingo's third incarceration in 1842 his daughter Margarita Roxas de Ayala took on a
dangerous voyage to Spain to personally seek his pardon from Queen Isabela II. After six months
of patiently waiting outside the Spanish royal court, Isabella II was so impressed with young
Margarita's determination that she granted her father's release.
After sailing in 1843 for several months back to the Philippines (the Suez Canal had still not been
opened), she arrived too late to see her father's liberation, for he had died in from an illness while
jailed in Fort Santiago.
Legacy
After his death, his daughter Margarita assumed control of Casa Roxas togehter with the two
sons. The business was renamed Roxas Hijos. The following year, Margarita married Antonio de
Ayala, her father's business partner, consolidating her control of the business. She would begin a
series of companies that would lay the basis of the Philippines' biggest conglomerate Ayala
Corporation.
Don Domingo's other son Jose Bonifacio would buy the Jesuit estate of Hacienda de San Pedro
de Macati, a landholding that would become the basis of the Zobel de Ayala fortune.
Mariano would go on to help found the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, the country's first art
school. It would spawn the creative genius of Damian Domingo, the country's first Filipino painter
of note.

The town is the site of the historically and archeologically famous Calatagan Excavation whose
antique pottery and other utensils contributed important facts about the culture and activities of the
Filipinas before the coming of the Spaniards. Archeologists find mostly pottery of Chinese Origin,
dug from six large cemeteries and unearthed by archeologists, Prof. Olov; T.R Jones and Prof.
Robert B. Fox, as well as the conclusion made by Prof. K. Otley Bayer which points out the
existence of a sizeable pre-Spanish population in the town. The same studies suggest that there
was direct Chinese trade by water in Calatagan and this trade could have centered at a place called
Balong-Bato, where an entrance through the reef, which surrounds Calatagan, is still presently used
by vessels coming from Mindoro and Manila.
The land occupied by the municipality of Calatagan was acquired by Don Domingo Roxas from the
Spanish Crown in 1829 and was called Hacienda De Calatagan. The successors Don Pedro P.
Roxas and Don Antonio R. Roxas continued to develop it and by the first decade of the century, it
has progressed sufficiently.

In 1912, by virtue of Executive Order No. 78 by then Governor General Cameron Forbes, Calatagan
became a municipality independent from its mother municipality, Balayan.
In 1931, Doa Carmen Roxas, the last heir of the Roxas Clan transferred ownership of the Hacienda
to the Zobel brothers, Don Jacobo and Don Alfonso. During the time of the Zobels, the hacienda
came to be known as Central Azucarera de Calatagan or simply Central Carmen when referring
to the sugar milling complex.
In 1934, the barangays of Baha and Talibayog which were parts of the Municipality of Balayan were
annexed to Calatagan since surveys showed that they are part of the land titled to the original owner
of Hacienda Calatagan. This added a big area for the municipality.
In 1957, a decade after the Philippines gained independence from the Americans, the Land Tenure
Administration, upon petition of the people of Calatagan bought the Hacienda Lands from the
Zobels. These were apportioned to the inhabitants and sold to them at PhP5.00 per hectare payable
in installment within a period of 25 year

Calatagan is a municipality in the Province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2010 census,
it has a population of 51,997 people.[3]
The town comprises the Calatagan Peninsula between the West Philippine Sea and Balayan Bay.
The peninsula's near white sand beaches are popular vacation and leisure sites for Manila's rich and
famous. There are several beach resorts including the art-filled guesthouse called Banak House
Calatagan, others like the Ronco Beach Resort in Brgy. Bagong Silang, Playa Calatagan in Brgy.
Sta. Ana, the Golden Sunset Resort in Brgy Uno, and Lago de Oro Resort where one can go
wakeboarding, Villa Agustina, Nacua. These are well-known local places for relaxation and respite
from all the week's work. Calatagan was formerly titled as the Forbes Park of the South, because of
the rich families who owns their estates here not minding the bad road condition before, anyway they
have their helipads for their helicopters to land on.
An extremely rare example of pre-Spanish Philippine script was found in Calatagan. The script is
called Baybayin in Tagalog, and was derived from Javanese writing, which in turn is derived
from Brahmi. This writing survives on an earthenware burial jar dated 13th century or 14th century. A
Spanish lighthouse can also be found atCape Santiago at the peninsula's southern tip dating back to
the 1890s and is also one of the municipality's main tourist attractions.

In this generation, the term 'Paasa' is widely used. Paasa are those people who will let you feel special
at first. Their sweet morning messages will wake you up with a smile on your face. Spending time with
each other as if you are the last two people in the world. And even in the last minutes of the night,
their never ending messages that will make you smile is what will put you to sleep.
But once you have already fallen for that someone, Once you have already felt that you are special to
him, They will start to disappear. Just like a smoke in the air, they will slowly fade away. The things
that you have spent with each other is not the same anymore. Until you reached that certain point
that you will no longer feel his presence in you life.
As someone who have been used to having a person that could understand them and make them feel
special, it will really hurt you now that they are not they way they are before. It is really unfortunate
because when you have already reached to the point that you knew that you love him, he just
disappeared.
And what is more painful is the fact that you thought he was different from the rest. That he is
someone that will catch you if you fall. You have convinced yourself that he is the one that you wanted
to be with until the end of time. Someone who will never leave you no matter what. But all those
hopes are wrong.
He is not the mr. right that you are looking for. What is sad here is that you let your guards down
because you knew that he was the one. But you are wrong and the reason why you are hurting right
now is because you fooled yourself knowing that he will be there.

Life does not end here. It really feels bad that you are going through the pain of being left out. But
you can stand tall be strong enough. The world does not end because someone wasted the time and
love that you can give them. Someday you will find that someone who will love you more than you'll
ever imagine. Someone who will be there no matter what and you will just find your self smiling at
those people that did not appreciate your presence before.