Publications assailing the Spanish friars

Driven by his sense of justice and his own bad experiences with the clergy, del Pilar denounced in his publications on the violations of the clergy, the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy. He preached the gospel of work, self-respect, and human dignity. His mastery of Tagalog, his native language, enabled him to arouse the consciousness of the masses to the need for unity and sustained resistance against the Spanish tyrants. On August 1, 1882, he put out Diariong Tagalog, a nationalist newspaper. Here he publicly denounced Spanish mal-administration of the Philippines. His attacks were mostly directed against the friars whom he considered to be mainly responsible for the oppression of the Filipinos. La Soberan�a Monacal en Filipinas (Monastic Sovereignty in the Philippines) was among the first pamphlets he wrote in Spain.[8] The others included Dasalan at Tocsohan (Prayerbook and Teasing Game), Pasi�ng Dapat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Tauong Babasa (Passion That Should Inflame the Heart of the Reader), Cadacilaan ng Dios (God's Goodness), Sagot ng Espa�a sa Hibic ng Pilipinas (Spain's Reply to the Complains of Filipinos), Dudas (Doubts), La Frailocracia Filipina (Frailocracy in the Philippines),[9] and Caiigat Cay� (Be Like the Eel) - del Pilar�s defense of Rizal against a friar pamphlet entitled Caii�gat Cay� denouncing Rizal's polemical writings. A copy of Diariong Tagalog, the first Tagalog-Spanish newspaper in the Philippines. Escape from clerical persecution Del Pilar began his campaign in 1869 writing petitions to the colonial authorities, exposing abusive local civil and religious officials. In 1885, he urged the cabeza de barangay of Malolosto resist the government order giving the friars blanket authority to revise the tax lists. He wrote the September 30, 1887, petition of the natives of Binondo, Manila, to the governor general. He also wrote the November 20 and 21, 1887, complaints of the Navotas folk against their friar-curate. On March 1, 1888, the populace of Manila staged a public demonstration against the friars. Led by the lawyer Doroteo Cort�s, this document was signed by most of the native officials of Manila and neighboring towns, accusing the archbishop of Manila, the Dominican Pedro Payo y Pi�eiro, and the friars of disobedience and treason and demanded the friar�s expulsion from the Philippines.[11] The same year del Pilar founded a secret society called El Cinco. Its aim was to separate the Philippines from Spain. Sought by the religious and civil authorities, he escaped to Spain. Before his departure, he organized Caja de Jes�s, Mar�a y Jos� intended to provide scholarship grants to poor but intelligent children and the Junta de Programa, which functioned to collect funds to support the propaganda work and constitute liaison between the propagandists in Spain and those in the Philippines. After he left Manila, he spent his time with the Filipinos in Hong Kong led by Jos� Mar�a Basa, a propagandist and businessman. Basa - whom Rizal had already established contact on his way back to Europe - became the agent for smuggling Rizal's novels into the Philippines. Leaders of the reform movement in Spain: L-R: Rizal, del Pilar, and Ponce (ca. 1890) Reform movement in Spain Del Pilar arrived in Spain on January 1, 1889, leaving his family behind. He headed the political section of theAsociaci�n Hispano-Filipina founded in Madrid by Filipinos and Spanish sympathizers, the purpose of which was to agitate for reforms from Spain. He succeeded Graciano L�pez Jaena as the editor of the periodical La Solidaridad on December 15, 1889.[11][12][13] Even before he had chief burden of the editorship, and when he assumed the post, he transferred the editorial office from Barcelona to Madrid. Under del Pilar, the aims of the newspaper were expanded to include removal of the friars and thesecularization of the parishes; active Filipino participation in the affairs of the government; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; wider social and political freedoms; equality before the law; assimilation; and representation in the Spanish Parliament.[14] Less than a year after he arrived in Spain, del Pilar realized the futility of the Filipino campaign for reforms. Thus he conceived the Katipunan. He tried to establish it in 1890 but succeeded only in July, 1892 with the help of his brother-in-law Deodato Arellano. Later years and death After years of publication from 1889 to 1895, La Solidaridad had begun to run out of funds. Its last issue appeared on November 15, 1895.[13] He himself was by then a much emaciated man, suffering from malnutrition and overwork. Having very little money to spend in a faraway country, he often missed his meals and smoked discarded cigarette butts to keep himself warm and to forget his hunger. Months before the revolution, del Pilar circulated in Manila and neighboring provinces his political works entitled La Patria and Ministerio de la Republica Filipina in preparation for his return to personally lead a revolution, but on July 4, 1896, he died of tuberculosis in Barcelona. The following day, he was buried in unmarked grave at the Cementerio del Sud-Oeste. L�pez Jaena had died six months earlier in Barcelona in a similar hospital run by the Sisters of Charity, and is said to have retracted masonry and received the sacraments as del Pilar did. His remains were brought back on December 3, 1920 to his final resting place, now known asDambana ni Plaridel under the National Historical Institute located in San Nicolas, Bulacan, Bulacan. Father of Philippine Masonry Considered the Father of Philippine Masonry, del Pilar spearheaded the secret organization of Masonic lodges in the Philippines as a means of strengthening the Propaganda Movement. He was made a freemason in 1889, one of the first Filipinos initiated into the mysteries of freemasonry in Europe. He co-founded Lodge Revoluccion in Barcelona and revived Lodge Solidaridad when it floundered into stormy seas where he became its Worshipful Master and with Rizal as the orator.