LIKE Luis Parang, the antecedents of Eduardo Camerino are in the main, unknown. It is probable that Camerino was born in Imus, Cavite, the same town where a century later another Camerino – Dominador M. Camerino – saw his first light of day. There is even doubt as to his first name. Biographer Sol H. Gwekoh says it was Casimiro, not Eduardo Camerino.
Viewed from the perspective of history, Camerino (whether Eduardo or Casimiro does not matter) contained the tradition of rebelliousness of the Caviteños against Spanish oppression. Evidently, it was this long tradition of defiance against alien authority that may have paved way for the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution with Cavite as the mother ground.
As a consequence of the fall of Queen Isabela II of Spain, Carlos Maria de la Torre, a liberal and true democrat, became governor general of the Philippines, 1869-1871. During his brief term he abolished press censorship and encouraged free discussion of political issues. He suppressed flogging as a form of punishment for native deserters from the colonial army. To put an end to the long-smoldering agrarian unrest in Cavite, de la Torre went to Imus, and there at the Recollect estate house conferred with Camerino, the leader of the revolt, and his followers. He not only pardoned the outlaws on the spot but also appointed them members of a new police force called Guias de la Torre with Camerio as captain.
“Peace was thus restored,” observed one historian, but after a while fresh outbreaks of violence cropped up, forcing de le Torre to issue a decree declaring a state of emergency in provinces surrounding Manila and instituting court martial proceedings in Cavite. Caviteños, so seems, would not rest or remain content under foreign domination.
(Sources: (1) Antonio M. Molina, The Philippines Thought the Centuries, 2 vols. Manila, 1960; (2) Gregorio F. Zayde, Philippine Political and Cultural History. 2 vols. Manila, 1965; and (3) Sol H. Gwekoh, “Mariano Gones de los Angeles,” Burgos-Gomes-Zamora: Secular Martyrs of Filipinism. First Centennial Biography. Manila, 1973.)