For this year’s National Heroes Day, District Deputy Grandmaster Bro. Alan Purisima has encouraged Lodges under the jurisdiction of Masonic District RIII-D to spruce up the monuments of heroes who are brother masons.
Model Lodge No. 373 for its part opted to conduct this activity at the Gen. Mariano Noriel Memorial Park at the Baloc Junction although it is not sure if he is a brother Mason as most of his contemporaries in the Katipunan were. What is important is General Noriel fought for independence against the Spanish colonial government and has distinguished himself as the leader of Katipuneros who successfully defended Pintong Bato in his hometown of Bacoor, Cavite against repeated attacks from Spanish forces. It is also a convenient choice for Model Lodge as the park is just a short walk away from its temporary Masonic temple.
The activity was conducted in coordination with the Baloc barangay government and in partnership with a local women’s organization. Sto. Domingo mayor Bro. Baby Boy De Guzman who is the incumbent Junior Warden of Nueva Ecija Lodge No. 73 also dropped by to meet the brethren.
After cleaning the park, the brethren continued their labors at Model Lodge’s temporary Masonic temple which was given a thorough cleaning and which have another air conditioning unit installed through the kindness of Bro. Fitzgerald Hierco. Birthday celebrant Bro. Lino Carandang, Jr. and his gracious wife Sister Baby served lunch during which the conversation shifted back to the life and times of Gen. Mariano Noriel.
Gen. Mariano Noriel: Hero or Heel?
His brilliant victory at the Battle of Pintong Bato and his being a Caviteno ushered General Noriel into the inner circle of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’s Magdalo faction of the Katipunan where he would be half of a tandem with Katipunan “bad boy” Gen. Pio Del Pilar. But both Generals Noriel and Del Pilar switched allegiance to Andres Bonifacio’s Magdiwang faction after the tumultuous Tejeros Convention and were 2 of the 5 signatories of the Naic Military Agreement that declared the establishment a government and army separate from that of General Aguinaldo.
Generals Noriel and Del Pilar after being confronted by General Aguinaldo again switched side to the Magdalo group and abandoned Bonifacio who was later treacherously arrested by General Aguinaldo’s men. As it was, General Noriel presided over the court martial of his former boss who was accused of sedition and treason, and whom he sentenced to die despite the inadequacy of material evidence. General Aguinaldo commuted the death sentence to deportation but was persuaded by Generals Noriel and Del Pilar to stick to the court martial decision. On 10 May 1897, the Great Plebian and his brother were executed in the mountains of Margondon, Cavite.
Not much is written about General Noriel after those events. What is known is he was one of the 5 generals who were with General Aguinaldo as he retreated to the North. He would resurface later when at 6:30 am on 27 January 1915, he and 2 others were hanged after being convicted of murdering a man in a cockpit in Bacoor six years earlier. The Supreme Court of the United States had on appeal reversed the conviction but its verdict came too late for General Noriel.
Postscript
Over lunch, one of the brethren spoke of a scholarly brother who told him that General Noriel is indeed a Mason. There is however no hard evidence to support this. A senior brother also narrated that General Noriel eventually settled in what is now Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija and that one of his descendants eventually married into what would become an influential political clan. But this needs more research and validation.
But whatever has General Noriel done, it cannot be denied that he took the side of independence. He is therefore a patriot. But is he a hero? Perhaps this is best answered by an excerpt from William Wayne’s “A Book of Heroes”: “We must conclude that heroes do not have to be good, or brave, or polite, or industrious, or noble. If they are any of these things, they are them by accident… A hero has some quality that makes him what he is… It is in the memories of his friends, memories of what he did and what he was like, that his heroism resides”.
FOOTNOTE: The main reference materials used for this article are the following blogs/websites/forums/book: Arnaldo Dumindin’s “Philippine-American War, 1899-1902”, Cavite Forum, Joel C. Paredes’ “Lighting the Dark Side of Revolution in Cavite: A Rigged Election, a Salvaging”, Wikipilipinas, All Philippines: All About the Philippines, and Orlino A. Ochosa’s “Pio Del Pilar and Other Heroes”. Any fallacies in the interpretation of their work are unintended and the author’s fault alone.
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