PHILIPPINES
Face
value 50 sentimo
Metal
copper-nickel
Mintage 400 mln. pieces
In
circulation since 1985 to 1990
Marcelo Hilario Del Pilar
Marcelo H. Del Pilar (1850-1896) was a Philippine revolutionary propagandist and
satirist. He tried to marshal the nationalist sentiment of the enlightened
Filipino ilustrados, or bourgeoisie, against Spanish imperialism.
Marcelo Del Pilar was born in Kupang, Bulacan, on Aug. 30, 1850, to cultured
parents. He studied at the Colegio de San Jose and later at the University of
Santo Tomas, where he finished his law course in 1880. Fired by a sense of
justice against the abuses of the clergy, Del Pilar attacked bigotry and
hypocrisy and defended in court the impoverished victims of racial
discrimination. He preached the gospel of work, self-respect, and human dignity.
His mastery of Tagalog, his native language, enabled him to arouse the
consciousness of the masses to the need for unity and sustained resistance
against the Spanish tyrants.
In
1882 Del Pilar founded the newspaper Diariong Tagalog to propagate democratic
liberal ideas among the farmers and peasants. In 1888 he defended Jose Rizal's
polemical writings by issuing a pamphlet against a priest's attack, exhibiting
his deadly wit and savage ridicule of clerical follies.
Under
Del Pilar, the aims of the newspaper were expanded to include removal of the
friars and the secularization of the parishes; active Filipino participation in
the affairs of the government; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly;
wider social and political freedoms; equality before the law; assimilation; and
representation in the Spanish Cortes, or Parliament.
Del
Pilar's difficulties increased when the money to support the paper was exhausted
and there still appeared no sign of any immediate response from the Spanish
ruling class. Before he died of tuberculosis caused by hunger and enormous
privation, Del Pilar rejected the assimilationist stand and began planning an
armed revolt. He vigorously affirmed this conviction: "Insurrection is the last
remedy, especially when the people have acquired the belief that peaceful means
to secure the remedies for evils prove futile." This idea inspired Andres
Bonifacio's Katipunan, a secret revolutionary organization. Del Pilar died in
Barcelona on July 4, 1896.
Del
Pilar's militant and progressive outlook derived from the classic Enlightenment
tradition of the French philosophies and the scientific empiricism of the
European bourgeoisie. Part of this outlook was transmitted by Freemasonry, to
which Del Pilar subscribed.