7 March 1892

Manila

Petition to the Governor General signed by the wives of the heads of barangay — Telegram of Procurator Manzaneque urging the remittance of funds — Great difficulties of the interested party and pawning of jewels — Attorney Gutierrez defends faithfully the people of Calamba — They complain against attorney Felipe Buencamino.

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Manila, 7 March 1892

MR. JOSE RIZAL

Hong Kong

DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW

Without having letters of yours to answer I write you to accompany a copy of a petition which will be presented to the General, signed by the views of Casio, Cabesang Siso, Cabesang Pascual, and Cabesang Victor, by Capitana Teria, Juana Valerio, Binay, wife of Valentin, and others. You will know the result.

Day before yesterday Teong Elejorde and Binay, wife of Valentin Elejorde, came to see me, bringing [a] telegram of Mr. Manzaneque, procurator of the Supreme Court, to Attorney Jose Maria Gutierrez, in which he says that he has not received funds from the clients in Calamba and he urges that they be sent by telegraph, tomorrow being the last day of payment. The draft of 56 pounds sterling that I sent you in December was intended for this procurator or for Mr. Gumersindo de Azcárate, who is his lawyer. Such was the urgency that Binay, accompanied her landlord, Mr. Aniceto Camoseng, spent the whole day looking for money, giving for security diamonds and pearls and some jewels of other women of Calamba. Thanks to the kindness of Mrs. Agustina Medel,[1] who accompanied them, they succeeded though with great difficulty, to get ₱250 by ten o’clock at night and an equal sum at nine o’clock the following morning, on condition that they be paid without interest within two weeks and upon failure to do so, a moderate rate of interest will be charged until paid. They say that the sum was sent by telegraph yesterday. Camoseng and the lawyer sent the money, or arranged for its remittance. This case of the citizens of Calamba is not about deportation, but about the last dispossession of a considerable number of houses whose papers are already in the Supreme Court for review.

There is not the least doubt that Mr. Gutierrez is the lawyer who has defended and is defending the citizens of Calamba with uprightness and probity. In conversations and in the Civil Government he has defended them warmly to the extent that some Spaniard became disgusted with the citizens of Calamba for the facts that they cited against the Dominican friars. This is what is being said and it has been seen at the trial before the justice of the peace and the Audiencia. He is the reverse of Buencamino who, instead of defending our fellow countrymen, attacked them through the purse, obtaining about ₱2,000, and was at the point of selling them to the enemy and until now continues with his tactics. From Capitana Teria, through the mediation of Petrona Quintero, he got P30 and some more sums from some of the wives of the exiles, telling them that he would negotiate with the governor general and work in Spain for the lifting up of the order of deportation, and now it is well known that the transfer or the attempt to transfer Paciano and companions to Joló was due to Buencamino’s denunciation to the Dominicans that [in] Mindoro they communicated with those in Calamba, inducing them to take their case to court.

I sent you a letter through Don Juan[2] in its penultimate trip.

Love and order what you wish. Regards to brother-in-law Paciano, to my sisters-in-law, Silvestre, and we kiss the hand of our parents. We are well; the boys are studying.

Your brother-in-law who cherishes you very greatly.

MANUEL

01-708 [Family]