[Naga Rivers]

Bicol Mail Editorial

Footnote to the April 8, 1905 decree

THE PAGSALINGOY made last issue with the reprint of the decree on the transfer of the Festivity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Peñafrancia from the first Sunday of July to the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary not only explains why the Peñafrancia fiesta is celebrated in September but it also brings about a question on the history of Naga’s Liberation from Spain.

The rescript is dated April 8, 1905 and makes mention of Rev. Fr. George Barlin, who was the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Caceres when he wrote the petition for the transfer of the festivity from May to September.

In other words, before April 8, 1905, the festivity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Peñafrancia was celebrated on the first Sunday of July. It was only in 1905 that the Peñafrancia festivity was celebrated on September.

In 1898, the Peñafrancia festivity was not in September and Fr. George Barlin was not yet the administrator of the Diocese of Caceres since he was still in Sorsogon. He was raised to the rank of Bishop to rule the See of Caceres only on December 14, 1905. In the words of historian Domingo Abella: “If Sorsogon did not suffer a bloody September in 1898 such as that witnessed by Nueva Caceres on the 17th and 18th of that month, and other unsavory incidents in large scale which ordinarily accompany a change of regime brought about by the force of arms, it was due to Padre Barlin who commanded the respect and esteem of the people, and his pacification campaign.”

According to the more popular rendition of local history, the Liberation of Naga from Spain in 1898 came after the city had a fiesta in honor of the Virgin of Peñafrancia. A few minutes before the stroke of midnight, the Guardia Civil led by Elias Angeles and Felix Plaza fired the first shot of the uprising that resulted in the surrender of the Spaniards in the city two days later. To be doubly underscored here is that in 1898 the Peñafrancia fiesta was still celebrated in the first Sunday of July, not in September. What Marian festivity then was held on September 17 and 18, 1898 that preceded the Angeles-Plazo uprising?

Obviously the Marian festivity held on September 17 and 18, 1898 --- a Saturday and a Sunday ---- could not be the Peñafrancia festivity referred to in the April 8, 1905 decree as earlier petitioned for by Padre Jorge Barlin since this was seven years and two months early. To all indications, the transfer of the festivity to the month of September might not have even occurred in Padre Barlin’s mind.

The document of surrender of Nueva Caceres to the Insurgents by the Spaniards --- as they are published in Leonor R. Dy-Liacco’s book, “Sarung Dolot sa Satuyang Ina” is an unassailable piece of history, making firm the date of the surrender on the 18-19th of September 1898. But with the publication of the 1905 decree which approved to transfer the Peñafrancia festivity from the first Sunday in July to the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, what remains still in the dark in local history was that Marian festivity in Caceres in September whose celebration brought fatigue to the Spaniards who were literally caught with their pants and guns down by the insurgents.