diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

predecessor in the office, sent from Madrid 10 copies of the liberal (later,conservative) paper, Las Provincias de Ultramar, founded to defend theinterests of the Antilles and the Philippines, which Almonacid seemed not tohave known. When the latter received them in Manila on 4 December 1872,he reacted strongly in surprise:... I inform Your Reverence that the venerable Definitorio has charged me to tellYour Reverence never again to make the same expenditure for similar purposes.In imposing this task, they base themselves on the fact that in the Philippines theentry of such periodicals is not fozbidden, and no matter how bad that paper is, nomatter how badly it speaks of the [religious] orders, it will only be El Universal,La Discusidn, La Armonk:. and many more containing articles against the ordersin the Philippines and their properties that are received from the peninsula.mThe Provincial's letter crossed the ocean as many more issues were beingsent to him: Las Provincias de Ultramar, El Correa de las Antillas, and ElArgos. Almonacid rejects them again, warning the Commissar in Madridthat, if things continued that way, their publishers "are going to involve us innewspapers and other Califomias will be needed to pay for so manypublications. "101All these details, apparently in themselves not important, I havementioned to emphasize the non-interference of the Franciscan Provincial inthe clearly political issues in the administration of Spain's colony in the FarEast. Hence, when the Cavite mutiny broke out, it is not strange that heshould be the first to be surprised. This appears from both the news he himselfsent to Fray Gregorio Aguirre and the tone in which he wrote:There is no other news here except the Cavite uprising last 19 and 20 Januarywhich was immediately crushed. I was in those days on the way to the missionsof Pungcan and Caraballo. There we received the fateful news of that uprisingwhich disturbed us very much since I did not know the fate of those I had left inManila and its suburbs.They have shot several rebels from the ranks and executed by garrote vil manyplotters of the revolt. Among them, on the 17th, two priests from the Cathedral,the pastor of Bacoor and another indio, their confidant. Many people are jailedand they continue imprisoning more. They expect it will reach some of theprovinces. But despite all, everything seems peacefull'nObviously Almonacid seemed unaware of, or at least not interested in,the details of the mutiny. The information he forwarded to Aguirre was whatany man of the streets could have heard from rumors or read in the Manilapress.158