JOSE CORONEL (1868-1939)
BORN in
Indang, Cavite, in 1868, Jose Coronel was appointed delegate to the
Revolutionary Congress in Tarlac, representing the province of Amburayan (Benguet?),
now an obsolete name. Tarlac was the last revolutionary capital of the First
Philippine Republic, where General Emilio Aguinaldo decided to disband the
Philippine Army and launched an all-out guerilla war against the Americans.
Coronel’s
name does not appear in the list of delegates to the Malolos Congress when
Pedro A. Paterno, president of the Congress, signed the Malolos Constitution on
January 20, 1898, in the Barasoain Church, Bulacan. But in the list of
delegates to the Revolutionary Congress in Tarlac, he appears as an appointed
delegate representing Amburayan. Since the Congress was both a constituent and
legislative body, Coronel must have participated in the discussion and approval
of many laws by that body.
No
information is available about Coronel’s family and educational background. He
joined the Revolutionary Army and attained the rank of colonel.
[Sources: (1)
Esteban A. de Ocampo, “Some Celebrated Caviteños,” a page torn from a lost
pamphlet; (2) Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Malolos: Crisis of the Republic. Quezon
City, University of the Philippines Press, 1960; and (3) Sulpicio Guevara, The
Laws of the First Philippine Republic. Manila, National Historical
Commission, 1972.]