Founding of Nilad Lodge Centenary

#2177, 15 Aug 1992

Marcelo del Pilar was one of the leading propagandists of the Philippine Revolution. Del Pilar was one of the co-publishers and founders of La Solidaridad.

MARCELO DEL PILAR

Del Pilar seized every occasion to attack the Spanish friars and educate his countrymen by arousing the consciousness of the masses to the need for unity and sustained resistance against the Spanish tyrants. He was imprisoned in 1870 after a fight with a parish priest. His imprisonment convinced him to dedicate his whole life to campaign for reforms. He made speeches against the friars. The church wielded their influence to secure an order of banishment against him. But del Pilar fled to Spain in October 1888.

In Spain, del Pilar, with Graciano Jaena, Mariano Ponce, and Jose Rizal, became known as the leading lights of the Reform Movement. In January 1889, del Pilar became the president of La Asociacion Hispano-Filipino, a political group consisting of Filipino Ilustrados and European intellectuals which aimed for union and reforms. In December 1889, he succeeded Graciano Jaena as editor of the Filipino reformist periodical La Solidaridad in Madrid and continued this work until around 1895.

Whilst in Spain, he went hungry for days and during winter, he kept himself warm by smoking cigarette butts he picked up in the streets. He soon fell ill and died of tuberculosis at the age of 46. A few months after his death, the Philippine Revolution broke out.

30 August 1850

to 4 July 1896