SEVERINO LAPIDARIO (1847-1896)
OF THE 13 persons who were to become the Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite, Emilio Aguinaldo, capitan municipal of Cavite el Viejo, had placed much hope on Severino Lapidario as the leader of the revolt in the town of Cavite on August 31, 1896. He was banking on Lapidario’s strategic position as provincial warden and his great influence among the prisoners in the provincial jail.
Several times Aguinaldo told Eugenio Cabezas, the tailor Katipuneros and Freemason whose shop was located on Real Street, to impress upon Lapidario the need to start the uprising immediately. He could capture the lone marine infantry left in the Cavite provincial capital, as all other Spanish forces had been dispatched to Manila to quail the Katipunan revolt.
Aguinaldo met Cabezas in the morning of August 31. He returned to Cavite el Viejo about 2 0’clock in the afternoon, but upon learning the revolutionists had already captured San Francisco de Malabon and Noveleta, Aguinaldo with the aid of his compadre, Candido Tria Tirona and Santiago Dano, then and there launched the assault on the town’s tribunal. Thus, San Francisco de Malabon (now General Trias), Noveleta and Cavite el Viejo (now Kawit) became the first three liberated towns of Cavite and also of the Philippines.
About the projected uprising in the cabecera of Cavite, Lapidario and his comrades-in –arms hesitated and temporized, and in the next few days they were rounded up. Given a summary trial, they were shot to death at 12:45 past noon of September 12, at Plaza de Armas, the same place where stands today the monument to the Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite.
Born in Imus, Cavite, on January 8, 1847, Lapidario had been a corporal in the Spanish marine infantry. Implicated in the Cavite Mutiny of 1872, he was required to report every month to the military authorities of Cavite. He became the alcalde (warden) of the Cavite provincial jail in 1890. Because of his human treatment of the prisoners under his custody, allowing them to visit their families every now and then, he came to be loved and and respected by them. There were times when he sent them out on secret propaganda missions to Noveleta, Kawit and Bacoor. According to plan, Lapidario was to play the leading role in the Cavite uprising, aiming his prisoners with bolces and other weapons in the attack on Spanish authorities in the town.
Acting on a tip from an Imus dressmaker named Victoriana Sayat, coursed through his wife, Victorina Carpio, Governor Pargas immediately ordered the arrest of Lapidario, his assistant, Alfonso de Ocampo and Luis Aguado, the maestro de vivires (chief of supplies) in the arsenal. The three were held incommunicado in the boat Ulloa and subjected to torture by their investigators. Later their companions in the aborted uprising were picked up one by one. Their execution followed immediately after the summary trial. It was martyrdom, a kind of death patriots would welcome open arms.
[Sources:(1) Emilio Aguinaldo, Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan), Copyright by Cristina Aguinaldo untay, 1964; (2) Gregorio F. Zaide, Great Filipinos in History, Manila, 1970; (3) Cavite Independent, September 1, 1956; (4) A.E. Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine Biography, Manila, 1973; and (5) Leo0n S. del Rosario, “Cavite’s 13 Martyrs”, This Week, September 11, 1949.]