Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán[2] 

(Spanish: [maɾˈθelojˈlaɾjo ðel piˈlaɾ]; Tagalog: [maɾˈselo ɪˈlaɾjo

del pɪˈlaɾ]; August 30, 1850 – July 4, 1896), commonly known as Marcelo H. del Pilar and also
known by his nom de plume Pláridel,[3][4] was a Filipino writer, lawyer, journalist, and freemason. Del
Pilar, along with José Rizal and Graciano López Jaena, became known as the leaders of the Reform
Movement in Spain.[5]
Del Pilar was born and brought up in Bulakan, Bulacan. He was suspended at the Universidad de
Santo Tomás and imprisoned in 1869 after he and the parish priest quarreled over exorbitant
baptismal fees. In the mid-1880s, he expanded his anti-friar movement from Malolos to Manila.[6] He
went to Spain in 1888 after an order of banishment was issued against him. Twelve months after his
arrival in Barcelona, he succeeded López Jaena as editor of the La Solidaridad (Solidarity).
[7]
 Publication of the newspaper stopped in 1895 due to lack of funds. Losing hope in reforms, he
grew favorable of a revolution against Spain. He was on his way home in 1896 when he
contracted tuberculosis in Barcelona. He later died in a public hospital and was buried in a
pauper's grave.[8]
On November 15, 1995, the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee, created
through Executive Order No. 5 by former President Fidel V. Ramos, recommended del Pilar along
with the eight Filipino historical figures to be National Heroes.[9] The recommendations were
submitted to Department of Education Secretary Ricardo T. Gloria on November 22, 1995. No action
has been taken for these recommended historical figures.[9] In 2009, this issue was revisited in one of
the proceedings of the 14th Congress.[10]

Biography[edit]
Early life (1850–1880)[edit]

Marcelo H. del Pilar's baptismal register (Book No. 15, Folio

355) A replica of Marcelo H. del Pilar's ancestral house and

birthplace in Bulacán, Bulacan. [a][12]

Marcelo H. del Pilar was born at his family's ancestral home in sitio Cupang, barrio San
Nicolás, Bulacán, Bulacan, on August 30, 1850.[13][14] He was baptized as "Marcelo Hilario" on
September 4, 1850, at the Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion in Bulacán. Fr. D.
Tomas Yson, a Filipino secular priest, performed the baptism, and Lorenzo Alvir, a distant relative,
acted as the godfather.[2][15] "Hilario" was the original paternal surname of the family. The surname of
Marcelo's paternal grandmother, "del Pilar", was added to comply with the naming
reforms of Governor-General Narciso Clavería in 1849.[16]
Marcelo's parents belonged to the principalía. Both owned vast tracks of rice and sugarcane
farms, fish ponds, and an animal-powered mill.[13][17] Marcelo's father, Julián Hilario del Pilar (1812-
1906), was the son of José Hilario del Pilar and María Roqueza. Don Julián was a
famous Tagalog grammarian, writer, and speaker.[18] In the municipality of Bulacán, he served as a
"three-time" gobernadorcillo of the town's pueblo (1831, 1854, 1864-1865) and later held the position
of oficial de mesa of the alcalde mayor.[19] In the early 1830s, Julián met and married Blasa
Gatmaitán (1814-1872?), a descendant of an ancient Tagalog nobility. Known as "Doña Blasica",
she was the daughter of Nicolas Gatmaitan and Cerapia De Torres.[15] Don Julián and Doña Blasica
had ten children: Toribio (priest, deported to the Mariana Islands in 1872),[20] Fernando (father
of Gregorio del Pilar),[21] Andrea, Dorotea, Estanislao, Juan, Hilaria (married to Deodato Arellano),
[22]
 Valentín, Marcelo, and María.[b]
From an early age, del Pilar learned the violin, the piano, and the flute.[23][24][c] He also mastered
the palasan or rattan cane. In the mid-1850s, del Pilar received early education from his paternal
uncle Alejo del Pilar.[25] He pursued his segunda enseñanza at the Colegio de San Juan de
Letran under the tutelage of Sr. Mamerto Natividad.[26][d] The subjects he took there
were: Poetry, Doctrina Christiana, Spanish grammar, Latin grammar, Elements of Rhetoric, and
Principles of Urbanidad. From July 8, 1865 to January 12, 1866, del Pilar studied under Sr. José
Flores in Binondo.[27] Afterward, he enrolled at the Universidad de Santo Tomás to study Philosophy.
[28]
 There, del Pilar earned: (1867-1868) Psychology, Fair; Logic, Fair; Moral Philosophy, Fair; Natural
History, Good; Arithmetic, Notablemente; Algebra, Very Good; (1868-1869) Metaphysics 1, Very
Good; (1869-1870) Metaphysics 2, Very Good; (1870-1871) Physics, Good.[29]
In 1869, del Pilar quarreled with the parish priest of San Miguel over exorbitant baptismal fees.[13][20]
[30]
 Shortly after the incident, the judge, Sr. Félix García Gavieres, sent del Pilar to Carcel y Presidio
Correccional.[31] He was released after thirty days. Afterward, he resumed his studies at the
Universidad de Santo Tomás. He obtained his Bachiller en Filosofía on February 16, 1871.[32][33] Four
and a half months later, on July 2, 1871, del Pilar pursued law.[34]
In late 1871, del Pilar joined a group of intellectuals[e] in Manila. They gathered at Sr. Enrique
Genato's almacén, where they frequently talked about the friars, affairs of the Philippines, liberty of
nations, fall of the Carlists, insurrections, and wars.

"Ang Pag-aaklas sa Kabite ng 1872" historical marker for the Cavite

Mutiny at Fort San Felipe in Cavite City, 1872.
On the night of January 20, 1872, the Cavite Mutiny broke out at the arsenal of Fort San Felipe. Del
Pilar was living with Fr. Mariano V. Sevilla, a Filipino priest who supported the secularization
movement in the 1860s and early 1870s.[23][20] Del Pilar knew that Fr. Sevilla was associated with
the Gomburza. To protect Fr. Sevilla from possible arrest and deportation, del Pilar burned all the
letters of the former in his quarters. However, some of Fr. Sevilla and Fr. Toribio's letters were found
in the quarters of Fr. José Burgos. This resulted in the arrest of both priests on February 21, 1872.[36]
[37]
 As a punishment, Fr. Toribio was tortured and dragged from Malolos to Bulacán. Del Pilar begged
the authorities to allow his brother to see their sick mother. As expected, they ignored del Pilar and
continued with their barbaric actions. On March 14, 1872, Fr. Toribio and Fr. Sevilla were deported
to the Mariana Islands along with other Filipino patriots.[38]
Out of school, del Pilar worked as oficial de mesa in Pampanga (1874–1875) and Quiapo (1878–
1879).[23][39] In 1876, he resumed his law studies at the Universidad de Santo Tomás.[40][41] He obtained
his licenciado en jurisprudencia, equivalent to a Bachelor of Laws, on March 4, 1881.[42][43] In law
school, del Pilar earned: (1871-1872) Canon Law 1, Fair; Roman Law 1, Very Good; (1873-1874)
Canon Law 2, Fair; Roman Law 2, Excellent; (1876-1877) Civil and Mercantile Law, Very Good;
(1877-1878) Extension of Civil Law and Spanish Civil Codes, Very Good; Penal Law, Very Good;
(1878-1879) Public Law, Fair; Administrative Law, Fair; Colonial Legislation, Fair; Economics, Fair;
Political and Statistics, Fair; (1879-1880) Judicial Procedures, Excellent; Practice and Oratory
Forensics 1, Excellent; Elements of General Literature and Spanish Literature, Excellent. No grades
were recorded for the years 1880-1881 as del Pilar took six months leave.[42][33]
From 1882 to 1887, del Pilar worked as a defense counselor for the Real Audiencia de Manila.
[44]
 During this time he became active in exposing the existing conditions of the Philippines. Del Pilar
attended many events such as funeral wakes, baptismal parties, weddings, town fiestas, and
cockfights in the cockpits.[45][46][47] Using the Tagalog language, he would talk to different kinds of
people like laborers, farmers, fishermen, professionals, and businessmen. In his house in
Trozo, Tondo, del Pilar preached nationalistic and patriotic ideas to the young students of
Manila. Mariano Ponce, a high school student at the time, was one of his active listeners. Other
listeners who would later become his disciples were Briccio Pantas, Numeriano Adriano,
and Apolinario Mabini.[48][49][50]

Anti-friar activities in the Philippines (1880–1888)[edit]

Del Pilar was one of the leading figures of the Philippine anti-friar movement in the late 19th century.
After the deportation of his brother in 1872, he worked to destroy the friars' authority and influence
on the country's affairs. In La Soberanía Monacal en Filipinas (Monastic Supremacy in the
Philippines), del Pilar explained how the friars dominated the economic and political life of the
colony:
"The friars control all the fundamental forces of society in the Philippines. They control the
educational system, for they own the Universidad de Santo Tomás, and are the local inspectors of
every primary school. They control the minds of the people because, in a dominantly Catholic
country, the parish rectors can utilize the pulpit and confessionals to publicly or secretly influence
the people; they control all the municipal and local authorities and the medium of communication;
and they execute all the orders of the central government." [51]

The pre-1863 lithograph photo of Malolos Cathedral before

the earthquake that tore down its clock tower in 1863. This was one of the sites of del Pilar's
anti-friar activities.
Del Pilar, together with Basilio Teodoro Morán and Pascual H. Poblete, founded the short-
lived Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper) on June 1, 1882.[45][20][52][f] Diariong Tagalog was the first
bilingual newspaper in the Philippines and was financed by the wealthy Spanish liberal Francisco
Calvo y Múñoz.[54] Del Pilar became the editor of the Tagalog section.[55] José Rizal's essay, El Amor
Patrio, was featured in the Diariong Tagalog on August 20, 1882. Del Pilar translated it into Tagalog
language, Ang Pagibig sa Tinubúang Lupà (Love for the Native Land).[56][57][58] Diariong Tagalog later
experienced financial difficulties and on October 31, 1882, the newspaper ceased publication.[59]
In early 1884, an election for the gobernadorcillo position was held in the city of Malolos. With the
support of the liberal Spanish officials of the town, del Pilar and his group managed to elect their
candidate, Mariano Crisóstomo, against the candidates supported by the friar-curate. On March 6 of
the same year, a Royal Decree which called for the abolition of the tributo was issued. The people
who collected the tributes, the cabezas de barangay, were the ones who suffered from this unjust
taxation system. They were forced to follow the inaccurate and bloated parochial lists of the friars.
They were also obliged to pay for the excess individuals in the mentioned lists.[g] As a result, most of
the cabezas became penniless.[61][62] On June 30 of the same year, another tax reform was introduced
in the Philippines. Sr. Chinchilla, the intendant of finance, proposed a set of regulations (Articles 52
and 53) which prohibited the friars from altering the tax lists of the cabezas de barangay. Despite the
massive support it received, its implementation did not last long. Sr. Chinchilla, after leaving his
office, was immediately replaced by Sr. Luna, a pro-friar. The citizens of Malolos, particularly del
Pilar, denounced Sr. Luna's measures, and shortly after the latter canceled Sr. Chinchilla's
regulations, the whole townsfolk protested.[23] Not much later, del Pilar and the cabezas de
barangay of Bulacan confronted a parish priest on the list of taxpayers.[63][64] The cabezas interpreted
the term asesorar / confrontar as cotejar - that is, to correct any inaccuracies by "comparing" their
tax lists with the parish priest's parochial list.[65] Fr. Felipe García, another friar, did not agree with
their interpretation; he declared asesorar / confrontar as copiar (to copy).[66] Refusing "to copy" the
parochial lists, the cabezas appealed to Vicente Pardo y Bonanza, the alcalde mayor. Sr. Pardo
rejected their plea, and like Sr. Luna, took the side of the friars. Despite these setbacks, del Pilar and
his group managed to expand their anti-friar activities to Manila and nearby provinces.

Benigno Quiroga, the Director General of Civil Administration in Manila.

Photographed in 1894.
In 1887, during the upcoming fiesta of Our Lady of the Rosary in Binondo, a conflict arose between
the gremio de naturales (Native guild), the gremio de chinos (Chinese guild), and the gremio de
mestizos de sangley (Chinese mestizo guild). The gobernadorcillo de naturales (native governor) of
Binondo, Timoteo Lanuza, wanted the friar-curate of Binondo, Fr. José Hevía de Campomanes, to
prioritize the natives over the Chinese in the fiesta.[67][68][69] Fr. Hevía, who sided with the Chinese, did
not allow Lanuza's request. According to Fr. Hevía, the Chinese and the mestizos should lead the
fiesta, because of their past contributions to the construction of the Binondo Church. On September
30, 1887, Lanuza, with the secret assistance of del Pilar and José Centeno García (the civil
governor of Manila), wrote a petition to Governor-General Emilio Terrero, demanding the natives'
right to manage the fiesta. Terrero, a liberal and anti-clerical, approved the petition. He decreed that
the gobernadorcillos de naturales should lead all public functions in the country. Embittered by
Terrero's decision, Fr. Hevía did not attend the celebration. Most of the attendees of the fiesta were
the natives and the gobernadorcillos de naturales of Manila. Insulted by Fr. Hevía's action, Terrero
removed him as friar-curate of Binondo. All the gobernadorcillos of the Chinese and the mestizos
were also removed. The organizer of the fiesta, Juan Zulueta, relied on the instructions of del Pilar.[70]
[23][71][72]

In October 1887, during a deadly cholera epidemic, another tension arose between del Pilar's group
and the friars. To limit the spread of the epidemic, Benigno Quiroga y López Ballesteros had issued
a ban against the entry of cadavers into the churches.[23] The ban took effect on October 18, 1887.[73]
  In Malolos, gobernadorcillo Manuel Crisóstomo announced Quiroga's decree by means of
[74]

a bellman. Fr. Felipe García, the friar-curate of Malolos, violated the ban, purportedly because of the
fees which the church earned from the funeral wakes. In protest, he paraded through the streets of
Malolos the corpse of a cholera victim.[75] The authorities and citizens of Malolos were displeased by
Fr. García's action; shortly after the parade, a riot almost broke out. To control the situation,
Crisóstomo sought advice from del Pilar. Afterward, Crisóstomo reported to the office of Manuel
Gómez Florio, the Spanish governor of Bulacan.[76] Gómez Florio, an ally of del Pilar and the Malolos
reformists, ordered the arrest of Fr. García.[75][77] Other friars who violated the ban were reprimanded
by the authorities.