SILVESTRE LEGASPI (1861-1933)
THE SECOND child of a middle class couple, Eleuterio Legaspi and Gabina Gandia, of Binakayan, Kawit, Silvestre Legaspi was born in 1861. He was one of the 26 Filipinos who joined General Emilio Aguinaldo in his exile to Hongkong in late December 1897 after the conclusion of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato. He had an elder brother, Facundo, and two sisters, Juana and Filomena. Juana later became the mother-in-law of former Representative Fidel Ibañez.
Silvestre Legaspi was the general treasurer of the Revolutionary Government under Aguinaldo before the establishment of the First Philippine Republic in Malolos. His immediate superior was Secretary of the Treasury Baldomero Aguinaldo, whose sister, Pantaleona, became Legaspi’s first wife. Legaspi and Pantaleona had one son, Anastacio, and two daughters, Epifania and Donata. The latter, now 86 years old, is the widow of Dr. Antonio Villarama, secretary of health during the Quezon administration.
After the death of Pantaleona, Legaspi remarried, his second wife being Barbara Mata. The couple had an only child, Jaime.
Silvestre Legaspi had two prominent relatives also in the Philippine Revolution, namely, Mariano Legaspi, one of the 98 signers of the Declaration of Philippine Independence in Kawit, June 12, 1898, and Teodoro Legaspi, one of the 43 signers of an affidavit dated April 23, 1898, attesting to the fact that the P400, 000.00 Spanish indemnity received by General Emilio Aguinaldo remained intact, being “reserved for the country”. A substantial part of this amount was later used to buy arms and ammunition for the resumption of the Revolution against Spain, and later in the war against the new American colonizers.
Legaspi was banished to Guam along with Mabini, Ricarte, and other revolutionists during the American military regime. He died in Binakayan on April 17, 1933, at the age of 72.
[Source: Biodata supplied by Legaspi’s grandson, Manuel Icaza, residing at 927 Lt. V. Marquez Street, Binakayan. Icaza’s mother was Epifania, one of the two daughters of Legaspi by his first wife, Pantaleona Aguinaldo.]