The young man as a revolutionary

Abstract

LATE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, when the Philippines was filled with the heady libertarian ideals and principles of the propaganda movement generated by the ilustrados in the homeland and in the Peninsula, a young man from Bulacan - Gregorio del Pilar, nephew of the exiled propagandist, Marcelo H. del Pilar, prepared himself for a valiant role in the revolution that would sweep the country only a few years afterward.

Del Pilar had started early in his boyhood to participate in the struggle for freedom. In his hometown in Bulacan, the old capital of Bulacan province, the parish priest, Father Felipe Garcia, as was his wont after mass on Sundays, would distribute pamphlets to his parishioners. After the mass was over one Sunday, and the priest was one, a boy in his teens, together with some young men surreptitiously substituted their pamphlets for those of the priest. On the following Sunday, rather Garcia, took the package o f pamphlets from the sacristy and distributed them with this injunction: "read these pamphlets, my brothers, and afterwards le t others read them. In this way you shall gain indulgence and you shall be good before the eyes of religion .”These pamphlets he unfittingly propagated were the works of the Filipino propagandists - words filled with abuses of the Spaniards and crying for reforms.

In later years, the young Del Pilar was to prove his courage and devotion dying to defend his commander-in - chief on a northern pass.