ALFONSO DE
OCAMPO (1860-1896)
LIKE Antonio Luna, the ilustrado general, Alfonso de Ocampo, assistant warden of the Cavite provincial jail, could no longer endure the tortures afflicted on him by his Spanish investigators. He had reached his breaking point so he revealed the names of his companions in the projected uprising in Cavite. Stricken with remorse while under detention, de Ocampo attempted suicide by slashing his stomach with a piece of broken glass.
Parenthetically, Antonio Luna and his elder brother, Juan the famous painter, were arrested on September 16, 1896 for alleged complicity in the Katipunan uprising of August 23. Subjected to tortures, Antonio Luna broke down and squealed on the names of “some of his friends affiliated with the Katipunan society.” This act of Luna, according to his friend Gen. Jose Alejandro was “the greatest error of his life”.
Born in the old town of Cavite in 1860, Alfonso de Ocampo, a Spanish mestizo, had been a sergeant in the Spanish colonial army before his appointment as assistant warden of the provincial jail. He was both a Freemason and a Katipunan member, and a close friend of Lapidario.
According to Alfonso’s revelation to the Spanish authorities, Maximo Inocencio, Francisco Osorio, Luis Aguado and Lapidario were to head the Cavite uprising scheduled for September 1. If this failed to materialize, they would then launch the attack about midnight of September 3, taking advantage of the absence of Spanish troops who would be sent to Noveleta to quell the uprising there that started on August 31. Both plans were aborted, and the plotters were subsequently executed. That’s the story of the 13 Martyrs of Cavite.
De Ocampo was married to Ana Espiritu, a cigar- maker, by whom he had two children. Dumped into a common grave, his remains were later exhumed and interred in a crypt at the foot of the monument to the thirteen Martyrs of Cavite.
[Sources: (1) “The Thirteen Martyrs: Liquidation, Spanish Style,” Cavite Independent, September 1, 1956; (2) E. Arsenio Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine Biography. Manila, 1973; (3) Gregorio F. Zaide, Great Filipinos in History. Manila, 1970; (4) Eminent Filipinos. Manila, National Historical Commission, 1965; (5) Emilio Aguinaldo, Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan. Copyright by Cristina Aguinaldo Suntay, 1964; and (6) Leon S. del Rosario, “Cavite’s 13 Martyrs,” This Week, September 11, 1949.]