diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

Philippines: the people, symboliied in the old man Pablo, Sisa's husband andfather of Crispin and Basilio, sated with vexations and indignities, decides totake the law into his hands; Lucas, helped by the brothers Tarsilo and Brunowho seek to avenge their father's death from beating by the Guardia civil andwhom he tells he is in close contact with Crisostomo Ibarra (alleged source ofmoney and arms) to attack with the others the barracks of the Guardia oiviland the parish house of San Diego; Fray Salvi, denouncing the plot alleging ithad been revealed to him in confession, suspicion immediately falling onIbarra; the discovery of the supposed conspiracy followed by the death ofsome of those' implicated, and the arrest of Ibarra and others totallyunconnected with the incident. After the traditional investigation withtorture, Ibarra is sent to exile on charges of having "trusted in certain personswith whom he was corresponding," although the one who says this adds inthe next line, "if our fiscals were incapable of too subtle an interpretation ofthe document, that young man would certainly have been acquitted."Furthermore, the first statements of the witness were later on denied and thedocuments attributed to him were forged. The strongest argument forconviction was "certain ambiguous lines which this young man wrote to awoman before leaving for Europe, lines in which the fiscal read the plot andthreat against the Government." With Elias' help, Ibarra succeeds in avoidingjail and escapes from the law.Rizal's doubts about the legality of the Cavite trials — concretely the onethat determined the fate of the three native priests, Burgos, Gomez, andZamora—and its silent denial of their guilt by the ecclesiastical hierarchy arequite clear when the Philippine national hero dedicated the second part of hisNoll, the El Filibusterismo, to these priests: /The Church, by refusing to defrock you, has put in doubt the crime chargedagainst you; the Government by enshrouding the trial in mystery and pardoningyour co-accused has implied that some mistake was committed when your fatewas decided; and the whole of the Philippines in paying homage to your memoryand calling you martyrs totally rejects your guilt.How did Rizal come to know these important details of such a tragicexecution of three priests as would deeply affect all the Filipinos, but in aspecial manner the boy Jose? Through the letter, we believe, of GovernorIzquierdo to Archbishop Menton Martinez of Manila which ended in Labra'shands, or (in the supposition that the latter could already have gotten rid ofthese documents when Rizal arrived in Madrid in 1882) through direct66