ESTEBAN RAMIRES INFANTE (1847 – 1923)
ONE OF the bravest revolutionary officers who did not surrender to the Americans even after the defeat of the Filipino forces, Col. Esteban Ramires Infante chose to continue the struggle, along with his men, in the mountains of Maragondon, Cavite. And even after he was captured in 1903 he refused to take his oath of allegiance to the America regime, as a co sequence of which he was exiled to Parague in the Calamianes group of islands.
Infante was born in Nasugbu, Batangas on September 2, 1847, but he grew up in Maragondon, the hometown of his parents, Julian Infante and Estefa Ramires. He became a gobernadorcillo of Maragondon in 18800-1890, three years before the enactment of the Maura Law, which changed the title of gobernadorcillo to capitan municipal. He joined the Revolution when it broke out in August 1896, and because of his bravery and leadership he steadily rose to the rank of colonel. He had fought side by side with Generals Emiliano and Mariano Riego de Dios in May a battle.
On May 5, 1897 Infante was appointed to the Council of War that tried Andres Bonifacio and his brother Procopio of sedition and treason. But like General Mariano Riego de Dios and Crisostomo Riel, his colleagues in the Council, Infante did not sign the death sentence meted out to the Bonifacio brothers. Riego de Dios did not agree with the majority decision imposing the death penalty on the two brothers. He believed that they should be merely banished to an isolated place for the duration of the Revolution. Infante agreed with Riego de Dios’s stand.
After his release from exile, Infante returned to Maragondon where he spent the rest of his life peacefully together with his wife, the former Josefa Angeles, and four children. Infante died of heart attack in 1923 at the age of 76. In recognition of his contribution to the Revolution a street in Maragondon was named Colonel Esteban Ramires Infante.
[Sources: brief biography written by Manuel M. Angeles of the Maragondon Historical Society, and published in the souvenir magazine commemorating the 250th anniversary of Maragondon, Cavite, September 1977.]