Cabletow 4th issue - GM Ebdane - Grand Lodge of the Philippines

The Cabletow
One would think that after his faithful stewardship of the Grand Lodge, MW
Fajardo would stop his romance with our Masonic history. But the best was yet to
come from his profile pen. He wrote two volumes of our history which, to my mind,
will always be considered as the bible of our Masonic history. The first volume
entitled The Brethren presents the Filipino people’s epic struggle for independence
and the heroic role played by Masons in winning the independence of our people.
The second volume entitled The Brethren in the Days of Empire chronicled the
history of Philippine Masonry from the US Colonial Era to the Commonwealth Years.
MW Fajardo gave me the rare privilege to write the Foreword of the two books and
I wish to quote it as part of my tribute to him:
The history of Masonry in the Philippines is xxx written in scarlet. In the Brethren,
Bro. Fajardo plumbs the past of Philippine Masonry with a facile pen and
commendable scholarship. Such a seminal work on Philippine Masonry comes as a
labor of love from Bro. Fajardo. xxx Due to his eminent Masonic background. Bro,
Fajardo is able to give the public new information about the Masonic affiliation and
connection of some of the key players in the 1896 Revolution hitherto unknown to
the uninitiated. More important, Bro. Fajardo has explained in a remarkable way
how Masonic ideas directed the flow of the 1896 Revolution. He was at his intellectual
best interpreting our history through the Masonic prism.
This book is not a mere compilation of inert information about the birth and
growth of Philippine Masonry. With careful scholarship, Bro. Fajardo provided the
reader with a credible interpretation of some of the controversial chapters of our
history. He attempted to give us a rational understanding of the roots of antagonism
between the more dominant Church and early Filipino Masons. Many have searched
for the reason for this hostility without any success.
Bro. Fajardo’s explanation is that Masonry only acquired the character of a
subversive society due to its constant harassment by the Church and State. He
noted the transformation of Spanish Masonry as an “active champion of modernism,
secularism and democracy, in opposition to all forces seeking a renewal of medieval
theocracy,” including the Church. In time, he observed that “the clash of Masonic
and clerical ideals in Spain expressed itself in the field of politics.” It was Bro.
Fajardo’s conclusion that “the Masonry introduced in the Philippines was the military
Masonry of Spain that had a hostile relationship with the Church.”
In addition, Bro. Fajardo chronicled the disintegration of the Spanish empire
which he attributed to the revolutionary work of Masons. With unassailable facts
and figures, he showed that the revolutions in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,
Panama, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa
Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador were all engineered by Masons. Spain, ultimately,
also lost the Philippines due to the revolution led by Masons.
15 Cabletow