Marcelo H. del Pilar

Marcelo H. del Pilar (middle) between Jose Rizal (left) and Mariano Ponce (right)

Philippine postage stamp from the 1950s

Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan ( August 30, 1850 - July 4, 1896 ) was a satirist and a celebrated personality during the Philippine Revolution , who, as a leading propagandist, called for reforms in the Philippines . Known to the general public as Plaridel , he was the author and co-editor of La Solidaridad newspaper . His endeavor was to create a national sentiment among the enlightened Filipino Ilustrados (the educated natives) and the bourgeoisie against Spanish imperialism .

Early stage of life

Marcelo Hilario was born on August 30, 1850 in the village of Cupang in the province of Bulacan as the son of Julián del Pilar and Blasa Gatmaytan into a well-cultivated family. One of his brothers was the priest Fr. Toribio del Pilar, who was exiled to the Mariana Islands in 1872 . His nephew, Gregorio del Pilar , was also an important figure who fought and died in the Filipino-American War .

He began his academic career at the college of Mr. Jose Flores. He then moved to the Colegio de San José and later studied at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where he completed his law degree in 1880. Marcelo H. del Pilar was multi-talented. He played the violin, piano and flute. He was a good fencer and used to sing serenades and play pieces on his violin during the Flores de Mayo, a Catholic festival. In 1878 he married his cousin Marciana del Pilar, with whom he had a total of seven children.

Publications in the Philippines

Driven by his sense of justice and his own bad experiences with the clergy , del Pilar denounced in his publications the violations of the clergy, narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy. He defended the dispossessed victims of radical discrimination several times in court.

He preached the gospel of work, self-respect, and human dignity. The language he knew best was Tagalog , his native language. It enabled him to awaken the consciousness of the masses and to convince them of the need for unity and continued resistance to Spanish tyranny.

In 1882 del Pilar founded the newspaper "Diariong Tagalog" under the pseudonym Plaridel , with which he disseminated his democratic liberalist ideas among farmers and farm workers, as well as criticizing the workings of the Spanish government in the Philippines. In 1888 he defended Jose Rizal's polemical writings against an attack by a priest by publishing a pamphlet in simple Tagalog . In doing so he struggled with his deadly mind and a pronounced rhetoric with which he exposed his relentless mockery of spiritual follies. An action that was not without consequences.

Life path in Spain

That same year, while fleeing persecution by the clergy, del Pilar went to Spain , leaving his family in the Philippines. In December 1889, he succeeded in winning Graciano López Jaena in Madrid as editor of the Philippine reform magazine La Solidaridad . The newspaper dealt with the moderate goals of the representatives of the Philippines in the Spanish parliament. She campaigned for legal equality between Spaniards and Filipinos and the abolition of polo (labor service) and vandala (the forced sale of local products to the government). The newspaper also called for a guarantee of the basic rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association, as well as equal conditions for Filipinos and Spaniards who want to enter the civil service.

Del Pilar managed to further the paper's goals by contacting liberal Spaniards who were on the side of the Filipino cause. Under him, the demands of the newspaper expanded and now included the elimination of monasticism and the secularization of church communities, active participation by Filipinos in government affairs, freedom of speech, press and assembly, broad social and political independence, equality before the court, admission a representation in the Spanish Cortes or Parliament.

Del Pilar soon ran into trouble, however, and these culminated when the funds to support his newspaper ran out. At the same time, there was no sign of an immediate reaction that would offer support from the Spanish ruling class. Before his death, favored by hunger and great hardship, del Pilar gave up his alignment and began planning an armed revolt.

He confirmed this conviction with the following lines:

"Insurrection is the last resort, especially when people have come to believe that non-violent means to be a safe means for demonstrably futile efforts of love."

This idea was an inspiration for Andrés Bonifacios Katipunan , a secret revolutionary organization in the Philippines.

Marcelo Hilario died completely impoverished of tuberculosis on July 4, 1896 in Barcelona, ​​Spain .

Meaning of his personality

Plaridel was the pseudonym of Marcelo H. del Pilar, one of the most important figures in the Philippine propaganda movement, whose writings inspired the Philippine Revolution . He wrote “Dasalan at Toksohan”, a satirical representation of the “Ten Commandments”, as well as a parody of “Our Father”, where he replaced “Father” with a monk who, in a sense, abused the Filipinos retrospectively.

His parodies of the Our Father, the Virgin Mary, the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the catechism he expended in pamphlets in the form and format the novenas adjusted and became a successful and effective propaganda. In contrast to Rizal, who wrote his writings in Spanish, Plaridel wrote in Tagalog, which was far better understood by most Filipinos.

Plaridel was chosen by the current journalists as "patron saint" ("national patron") because he devoted his life and work to freedom of thought and freedom of expression and put his independence over materialistic gain.

Del Pilar's ideology of truth, fairness and impartiality was based on democratic principles that formed a basis for the social acceptance of all Filipinos.

Web links

Commons : Marcelo H. del Pilar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information on Marcelo H. del Pilar
• Biography of Marcelo H. del Pilar
• Biography of Marcelo H. del Pilar

credentials

• Zaido, Gregorio F .: Philippine History and Government . National Bookstore Printing Press, 1984.