Can the government buy historical documents?
P16.2 MILLION. This was the collective cost of five Andres Bonifacio items that was sold in an auction last March 12, 2018.
On June 9, 2018, Leon Gallery will auction other important historical documents which include:
In one lot, twelve items from the papers left by Teodora Alonso—the mother of our National Hero, José Rizal—which came to the possession of Ramon N. Villegas, Jorge de los Santos and eventually, Emmanuel Encarnacion. Ten letters she received from family members and friends; a handwritten recipe for bologna sausage dated March 1893 written by Rizal’s mother in English with what appears to be the letters “JR” at the bottom right which is believed to be an indication that this could have been her famous son’s favorite dish; and pages of court documents
Domingo Vasquez, an officer of the against Teodora Alonso and her half-brother José Alberto. This person charged them in conspiracy to poison the wife of José Alberto. The claim was that Teodora served her sister-in-law with food that when subsequently fed to her dog, caused the latter to die. Because of this trumped-up charge, Teodora was made to walk from Biñan (some sources say Calamba) to Sta. Cruz (an incident that would be repeated again in her later old age) to attend trial, following which she was imprisoned for two years. Described in the document as a “close friend” of the sister-in-law, could it be that Juan Domingo Vasquez had a relationship with the accuser of Rizal’s mother? God only knows. But what is sure is this—this is one of the turning points for Teodora’s youngest son, José, aged 11 at the time, to have his opened to the injustices of colonialism which he would soon write about, challenge and destroy with a new idea—the idea of nationhood.
In another lot is the most important letter of the great propagandist Marcelo H. del Pilar written to his wife Marciana, or “Tsanay,” dated
just to publish the “
And the most heartbreaking experience that del Pilar related himself is in this letter, “
Another important document for auction is the undated letter of Gregoria de Jesus to Emilio Jacinto writ-
to the events which led to the death of her husband, the Father of the Revolution Andres Bonifacio, which was probably written by a secretary. In 16 pages, she tells of the alleged fraud that happened at the Tejeros Convention, but more importantly,
date of the death of the Bonifacio brothers, “ Corroborating sources suggest that the Spaniards reached Maragondon
with the revolutionaries.
This letter is the only version she gave of those tragic events. Adrian Cristobal wrote in
(which also reproduced the last page of the letter with the signature “Gregoria de Bonifacio Lakanbini”): “Asked to recall those days… she would say nothing more than refer to her letter to Emilio Jacinto which, according to General Cipriano Pacheco, is now in the hands of José P. Santos.” The letter indeed came from the ones that Epifanio de los Santos got around 1904. Oriang herself vouched for its authenticity, according to historian Jim Richardson who wrote about its provenance in his Katipunan website.
Since these documents are private property, owners have all the right to sell them, but ideally government should be able to acquire such important documents. People thought the National Historical Commission of the Philippines should do this but in reality the mandate to keep these important documents is with the National Library. There should be a system in place for government agencies to be coordinated
- ments, from government-owned and -controlled corporations which can provide the money as part of their corporate social responsibility.
As of this writing, we still don’t know who bought those precious Bonifacio documents. Keeping them from scholars and the public is like depriving us of the very sources