EUGENIO CABEZAS (1855-1896)
THE SECOND of the thirteen martyrs of Cavite (alphabetical order) was Eugenio Cabezas, a native of Sta. Cruz, Manila, who had transferred to Cavite and established a goldsmith and watch repair shop on Calle Real, now called Trece Martirez street. He was both a freemason and a member of the Katipunan secret revolutionary society.
Cabezas had four assistants in his prosperous shop. A novel clock made of bamboo which he exhibited in the Exposicion Regional de Cavite held in 1892 won a diploma of honor. Ironically, although a mason, then considered an archenemy of the Catholic Church, Cabezas made the decorative platework of church carros (carts) used in church processions.
It was Cabezas who had enlisted the support of Severino Lapidario for a planned uprising, according to a top official of the Katipunan in Cavite. But Cabezas was not in favor of starting the revolt on August 31,1896, as suggested by Emilio Aguinaldo who, on the morning of that day, learned that Cavite was one of the eight provinces placed under martial law by Governor General Ramon Blanco.
Born in 1855, Cabezas was 41 when
arrested by the Spanish authorities in an attempt to suppress the revolt that
had already started in three towns of Cavite, namely, San Francisco de
Malabon (now General Trias), Noveleta, and Cavite el Viejo (now Kawit). He was
married to Luisa Antonio of Cavite by whom he had seven children. His remains
were exhumed from a common grave and interred in monument erected in memory of
the thirteen martyrs of Cavite.
Sources:
(1) Gregorio F. Zaide, Great Filipino in History, 1970; (2) Prominent Caviteņos
in Philippine History, Copyright by Esteban A. De Ocampo, 1941; (3) Cavite
Independent, September 1, 1956; (4) A. E. Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine
Biography; and (5) National Historical Commission, Eminent Filipinos, 1965.]