Name: Cortez, Faith Ann BSMT 1
The Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia of the Retraction Source: Michael
Charleston Chua, “Retraction ni Jose Rizal: Mga Bagong Dokumento at
Pananaw,” GMA news online published 29 December, 2016
The Cuerpo de Vigilancia de Manila (Security Corps of Manila) was the
intelligence service that the Spanish colonial government created in 1895. It was
organized primarily to gather information on the activities of Katipunan members
and supporters. Cuerpo agents were tasked to monitor the activities of suspected
Katipunan members. They were supposed to report all sorts of rumors, collect
news reports, identify the financiers of the Katipunan, compile revolutionary
papers, gather photographs, and intercept mail. The agents were also instructed
to monitor foreigners who were sympathetic to the Katipuneros. In a span of
three years, they were able to collect almost 3,000 documents containing
eyewitness accounts of the activities of individuals fighting for Philippine
independence.
There is a partial unreleased documents from Cuerpo De Vigilancia that was
discovered and examined, from there, it stated that one of the spy group agents,
Federico Moreno, who happened to be the guard of the cell where Rizal was kept,
documented what was happening in the last 24 hours prior before the execution.
Additional independent eyewitness account.” According to the statement,
Rizal wrote a paper he heard of the retraction. Also mentioned were two Jesuit
priests who entered Rizal's prison — Father Jose Vilaclara and Father Estanislao
March, and two others, Juan del Fresno and Eloy Moure. It mentions that when
Fr. March returned at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Rizal handed him a document.
Then it says that Rizal, together with Juan del Fresno and Se or Maure, signed
the document. In the retraction document that Fr. Gracia found in 1935, one sees
that the three persons Moreno identified were signatories of the document.
Moreno did not provide details on the contents of the document, probably
because he was witnessing the event from a distance. But that did not prevent
him from presupposing that the document was Rizal’s retraction letter. He simply
wrote, “It seems this was the retraction [parece que el escrito era la retractacion.
Jose Rizal, Phil. Revolution, Cuerpo de Vigilancia 377, been fetched by
Lazaro Segovia in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, and later taken to Manila. He had stayed
in the Hotel Quatro Naciones in Intramuros and been employed by the friars for
10 days. He was given the equivalent of his salary for two months in the
government. For several days he studied Rizal’s handwriting. According to him, he
made about five copies of the retraction letter based on a draft prepared by the
friars. He thought of keeping one for himself, but when he was searched upon
departure, his copy was taken from him (Runes and Buenafe 1962, 107–128).
Most Illustrious Sir, the agent of the Cuerpo de Vigilancia stationed in Fort
Santiago to report on the events during the [illegible] day in prison of the accuse
Jose Rizal, informs me on this date of the following:
At 7:50 yesterday morning, Jose Rizal entered death row accompanied by
his counsel, Señor Taviel de Andrade, and the Jesuit priest Vilaclara. At the urgings
of the former and moments after entering, he was served a light breakfast. At
approximately 9, the Assistant of the Plaza, Señor Maure, asked Rizal if he wanted
anything. He replied that at the moment he only wanted a prayer book which was
brought to him shortly by Father March.
Señor Andrade left death row at 10 and Rizal spoke for a long while with
the Jesuit fathers, March and Vilaclara, regarding religious matters, it seems. It
appears that these two presented him with a prepared retraction on his life and
deeds that he refused to sign. They argued about the matter until 12:30 when
Rizal ate some poached egg and a little chicken. Afterwards he asked to leave to
write and wrote for a long time by himself.
At 3 in the afternoon, Father March entered the chapel and Rizal handed
him what he had written. Immediately the chief of the firing squad, Señor del
Fresno and the Assistant of the Plaza, Señor Maure, were informed. They entered
death row and together with Rizal signed the document that the accused had
written. It seems this was the retraction.
ANALYSIS:
On 4 August 2016, Commissioner Rene R. Escalante, the OIC of the National
Historical Commission of the Philippines, read a “Professorial Chair Lecture
on Rizal Studies” entitled “Re-examining the Last 24 Hours of Rizal Using
Spy Reports” De La Salle University.
In the documents of the Spanish spy called Cuerpo de Vigilancia, a report
written on the day of Rizal's death canbe found by Federico Moreno,
recounting a statement made to him by an agent of Cuerpo de Vigilancia, a
guard in the Rizal cell, therefore, an “additional independent eyewitness
account.
According to the statement, Rizal wrote a paper he heard of the retraction.
Also mentioned were two Jesuit priests who entered Rizal's prison— Father
Jose Vilaclara and Father Estanislao March, and two others, Juan delFresno
and Eloy Moure.
