El Filibusterismo

Background:
El filibusterismo (transl. The filibusterism; The Subversive or The Subversion, as in
the Locsín English translation, are also possible translations), also known by its
alternative English title The Reign of Greed, is the second novel written
by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel to Noli Me Tángere and, like the
first book, was written in Spanish. It was first published in 1891 in Ghent.
The novel centers on the Noli-El Fili duology's main character Crisóstomo Ibarra, now
returning for vengeance as "Simoun". The novel's dark theme departs dramatically from
the previous novel's hopeful and romantic atmosphere, signifying Ibarra's resort to solving
his country's issues through violent means, after his previous attempt in reforming the
country's system made no effect and seemed impossible with the corrupt attitude of the
Spaniards toward the Filipinos.
The novel, along with its predecessor, was banned in some parts of the Philippines as
a result of their portrayals of the Spanish government's abuses and corruption. These
novels, along with Rizal's involvement in organizations that aimed to address and reform
the Spanish system and its issues, led to Rizal's exile to Dapitan and eventual execution.
Both the novel and its predecessor, along with Rizal's last poem, are now considered
Rizal's literary masterpieces.
Both of Rizal's novels had a profound effect on Philippine society in terms of views
about national identity, the Catholic faith and its influence on the Filipino's choice, and the
government's issues in corruption, abuse of power, and discrimination, and on a larger
scale, the issues related to the effect of colonization on people's lives and the cause for
independence. These novels later on indirectly became the inspiration to start
the Philippine Revolution.
Throughout the Philippines, the reading of both the novel and its predecessor is
now mandatory for high school students throughout the archipelago, although it is now
read using English, Filipino, and the Philippines' regional languages.

Synopsis:
In the events of the previous novel, Crisóstomo Ibarra, a reform-minded mestizo who
tried to establish a modern school in his hometown of San Diego and marry his
childhood sweetheart, was falsely accused of rebellion and presumed dead after a
shootout following his escape from prison. Elías, his friend who was also a reformer,
sacrificed his life to give Crisóstomo a chance to regain his treasure and flee the country,
and hopefully continue their crusade for reforms from abroad. After a thirteen-year
absence from the country, a more revolutionary Crisóstomo has returned, having taken
the identity of Simoun, a corrupt jeweler whose objective is to drive the government to
commit as much abuse as possible in order to drive people into revolution.
 Simoun goes from town to town presumably to sell his jewels. In San Diego, he goes
to the Ibarra mausoleum to retrieve more of his treasure but accidentally runs into Basilio,
who was then also in the mausoleum visiting his mother's grave. In the years since the
death of his mother, Basilio had been serving as Kapitán Tiago's servant in exchange for
being allowed to study. He is now an aspiring doctor on his last year at university as well
as heir to Kapitán Tiago's wealth. When Basilio recognizes Simoun as Crisóstomo Ibarra,
Simoun reveals his motives to Basilio and offers him a place in his plans. Too secure of
his place in the world, Basilio declines.
At Barrio Sagpang in the town of Tiani, Simoun stays at the house of the
village's cabeza de barangay, Tales. Having suffered misfortune after misfortune in
recent years, Kabesang Tales is unable to resist the temptation to steal Simoun's
revolver and join the bandits.
In Los Baños, Simoun joins his friend, the Captain-General, who is then taking a
break from a hunting excursion. In a friendly game of cards with him and his cronies,
Simoun raises the stakes higher and higher and half-jokingly secures blank orders for
deportation, imprisonment, and summary execution from the Captain-General.
At the Quiapo Fair in Manila, a talking heads exhibit ostensibly organized by a
certain Mr. Leeds but secretly commissioned by Simoun is drawing popular acclaim.
Padre Bernardo Salví, now chaplain of the Convent of the Poor Clares, attends one of
the performances. The exhibit is set in Ptolemaic Egypt but features a tale that closely
resembled that of Crisóstomo Ibarra, María Clara, their fate under Salví, and ends with
an ominous vow of revenge. Deeply overcome with fear and guilt, Salví has the show
banned, but not before Mr. Leeds has already sailed for Hong Kong.
Simoun meets with Quiroga, a wealthy Chinese businessman and aspiring consul-
general for the Chinese empire. Quiroga is heavily in Simoun's debt, but Simoun offers
him a steep discount if Quiroga does him a favor—to store Simoun's massive arsenal of
rifles in Quiroga's warehouses, to be used presumably for extortion activities with
Manila's elite. Quiroga, who hated guns, reluctantly obliges.
Months have passed and the night of Simoun's revolution arrives. Simoun visits
Basilio in Tiago's house and gives him one last offer to join his revolution. Simoun's plan
is for a cannon volley to be fired, at which point Kabesang Tales, now a bandit who calls
himself Matanglawin, and Simoun who managed to deceive and recruit a sizable rogue
force among the government troops, will lead their forces into the city. The leaders of
the Church, the University, scores of bureaucrats, the Captain-General himself, as well
as the bulk of government troops guarding them are conveniently in one location, the
theater where a controversial and much-hyped performance of Les Cloches de
Corneville is taking place. While Simoun and Matanglawin direct their forces, Basilio
and several others are to force open the door of the Convent of the Poor Clares and
rescue María Clara.
However, Basilio reports to Simoun that María Clara died just that afternoon, killed
by the travails of monastic life under Salví, who always lusted after her. Simoun, driven
by grief, is distracted and crestfallen throughout the night. It will be reported later on that
he suffered an "accident" that night, leaving him confined to his bed. His revolution is
aborted.
 The following day posters threatening violence to the leaders of the university and
the government are found at the university doors. A reform-oriented student group to
which Basilio belonged is named the primary suspects; the members are arrested. They
are eventually freed through the intercession of relatives, except for Basilio who is an
orphan and has no means to pay for his freedom. During his imprisonment, he learns
that Capitan Tiago has died, leaving him nothing (but Tiago's last will was actually
altered by Padre Írene, Tiago's spiritual advisor who also supplies him with opium); his
childhood sweetheart has committed suicide to avoid getting raped by the parish priest
when she tried to approach him on Basilio's behalf; and that he has missed his
graduation and will be required to study for another year, but now with no funds to go
by. Released through the intercession of Simoun, a darkened, disillusioned Basilio joins
Simoun's cause wholeheartedly.
Simoun, meanwhile, has been organizing a new revolution, and he reveals his plans
to a now committed Basilio. He will use the wedding of Juanito Peláez and Paulita
Gomez to coordinate the attack upon the city. As the Peláez and Gomez families are
prominent members of the Manila elite, leaders of the church and civil government are
invited to the reception. The Captain-General, who declined to extend his tenure despite
Simoun's urging, is leaving in two days and is the guest of honor.
Simoun will personally deliver a pomegranate-shaped crystal lamp as a wedding gift.
The lamp is to be placed on a plinth at the reception venue and will be bright enough to
illuminate the entire hall, which was also walled with mirrors. After some time the light
will flicker as if to go out. When someone attempts to raise the wick, a mechanism
hidden within the lamp containing fulminated mercury will detonate, igniting the lamp
which is actually filled with nitroglycerin, killing everyone in an enormous blast.
At the sound of the explosion, Simoun's mercenaries will attack, reinforced by
Matanglawin and his bandits who will descend upon the city from the surrounding hills.
Simoun postulates that at the chaos, the masses, already worked to a panic by the
government's heavy-handed response to the poster incident, as well as rumors that
German ships are at the bay to finish what the revolution fails to destroy, will step out in
desperation to kill or be killed. Basilio and a few others are to put themselves at their
head and lead them to Quiroga's warehouses, where Simoun's guns are still being kept.
The plan thus finalized, Simoun gives Basilio a loaded revolver and sends him away to
await further instructions.
Basilio walks the streets for hours and passes by his old home, Kapitán Tiago's
riverside house on Anloague Street. He discovers that this was to be the reception
venue – Juanito Peláez's father bought Tiago's house as a gift for the newlywed couple.
Sometime later, he sees Simoun enter the house with the lamp, then hastily exit the
house and board his carriage. Basilio begins to move away but sees Isagani, his friend
and Paulita Gomez's former lover, sadly looking at Paulita through the window. Noting
how close they were to the condemned house, Basilio tries to head Isagani off, but the
young man was too dazed with grief to listen to him. In desperation, Basilio reveals to
Isagani how the house is set to explode at any time then, but when Isagani still refuses
to heed him, Basilio flees, leaving Isagani to his fate.
 Isagani is temporarily, rather belatedly unnerved by Basilio's revelation. Isagani runs
into the house, seizes the lamp leaving the hall in darkness, and throws it into the river.
With the house not exploding and the church and government authorities having been
spared, Simoun's second revolution is aborted as well.
In the following days, as the trappings at the reception venue are torn down, sacks
containing gunpowder are discovered hidden under the boards all over the house.
Simoun, who had directed the renovations, is exposed. His friend, the Captain-General,
having left for Spain, Simoun, without his protector, is forced to flee. A manhunt ensues
and Simoun is chased as far away as the shores of the Pacific. He then spends the rest
of his days hiding in the ancestral mansion of Padre Florentino, Isagani's uncle.
One day, the lieutenant of the local Guardia Civil informs Florentino that he received
an order to arrest Simoun that night. In response, Simoun drinks the slow-acting poison
which he always kept in a compartment in his treasure chest. Before dying, Simoun
makes his final confession to Florentino. Simoun reveals his true name, to Florentino's
shock. He then goes on to narrate how thirteen years before, as Crisóstomo Ibarra, he
lost everything in the Philippines despite his good intentions. Crisóstomo swore
vengeance. Retrieving the treasure buried beneath the Ibarra mausoleum in the forest,
Crisóstomo fled to foreign lands and engaged in trade. He took part in the war in Cuba,
aiding first one side and then another, but always profiting. There Crisóstomo met the
Captain-General, who was then a major, whose goodwill he won first by loans of
money, and afterwards by covering for his criminal activity. Crisóstomo bribed his way
to secure the major's promotion to Captain-General and his assignment to the
Philippines. Once in the country, Crisóstomo then used him as a blind tool and incited
him to all kinds of injustice, availing himself of the Captain-General's insatiable lust for
gold.
The confession is long and arduous, and night has fallen before Crisóstomo has
finished. In the end, Florentino assures Crisóstomo of God's mercy, but explains that his
revolution failed because he has chosen means that God cannot sanction. Crisóstomo
bitterly accepts the explanation. After a while, he dies in silence.
Realizing that the arresting officers will confiscate Crisóstomo's possessions,
Florentino divests him of his jewels and casts them into the Pacific, proclaiming that if
they should be needed for some righteous cause, God will provide the means to draw
them out. For the time being, hidden under the sea, they will not be used to distort
justice or to incite greed.

Major Characters:
• Simoun – Crisóstomo Ibarra in disguise, presumed dead at the end of Noli Me
Tángere. Ibarra has returned as the wealthy jeweler Simoun. His appearance is
described as being tanned, having a sparse beard, long white hair, and large blue-
tinted glasses. He was sometimes crude and confrontational. He was derisively
described by Custodio and Ben-Zayb as an American mulatto or a British Indian.
While presenting as the arrogant elitist on the outside, he secretly plans a violent
revolution in order to avenge himself for his misfortunes as Crisóstomo Ibarra, as
well as hasten Elias' reformist goals.
• Basilio – son of Sisa and another character from Noli Me Tángere. In the events
of El Fili, he is an aspiring and so far successful physician on his last year at
university and was waiting for his license to be released upon his graduation. After
his mother's death in the Noli, he applied as a servant in Kapitán Tiago's household
in exchange for food, lodging, and being allowed to study. Eventually he took up
medicine, and with Tiago having retired from society, he also became the manager
of Tiago's vast estate. He is a quiet, contemplative man who is more aware of his
immediate duties as a servant, doctor, and member of the student association than
he is of politics or patriotic endeavors. His sweetheart is Juli, the daughter of
Kabesang Tales whose family took him in when he was a young boy fleeing the
Guardia Civil and his deranged mother.
• Isagani – Basilio's friend. He is described as a poet, taller and more robust than
Basilio although younger. He is the nephew of Padre Florentino, but is also rumored
to be Florentino's son with his old sweetheart before he was ordained as a priest.
During the events of the novel, Isagani is finishing his studies at the Ateneo
Municipal and is planning to take medicine. A member of the student association,
Isagani is proud and naive, and tends to put himself on the spot when his ideals are
affronted. His unrestrained idealism and poeticism clash with the more practical and
mundane concerns of his girlfriend, Paulita Gomez. When Isagani allows himself to
be arrested after their association is outlawed, Paulita leaves him for Juanito Peláez.
In his final mention in the novel, he was bidding goodbye to his landlords, the
Orenda family, to stay with Florentino permanently.
• Father Florentino – Isagani's uncle and a retired priest. Florentino was the son of a
wealthy and influential Manila family. He entered the priesthood at the insistence of
his mother. As a result he had to break an affair with a woman he loved, and in
despair devoted himself instead to his parish. When the 1872 Cavite mutiny broke
out, he promptly resigned from the priesthood, fearful of drawing unwanted
attention. He was an indio and a secular, or a priest that was unaffiliated with the
orders, and yet his parish drew in a huge income. He retired to his family's large
estate along the shores of the Pacific. He is described as white-haired, with a quiet,
serene personality and a strong build. He did not smoke or drink. He was well
respected by his peers, even by Spanish friars and officials.
• Father Fernández – a Dominican who was a friend of Isagani. Following the
incident with the posters, he invited Isagani to a dialogue, not so much as a teacher
with his student but as a friar with a Filipino. Although they failed to resolve their
differences, they each promised to approach their colleagues with the opposing
views from the other party – although both feared that given the animosity that
existed between their sides, their own compatriots may not believe in the other
party's existence.
• Kapitán Tiago – Don Santiago de los Santos. María Clara's stepfather. Having
several landholdings in Pampanga, Binondo, and Laguna, as well as taking
ownership of the Ibarras' vast estate, Tiago still fell into depression following María's
entry into the convent. He alleviated this by smoking opium, which quickly became
an uncontrolled vice, exacerbated by his association with Padre Írene who regularly
supplied him with the substance. Tiago hired Basilio as a capista, a servant who
given the opportunity to study as part of his wages; Basilio eventually pursued
 medicine and became his caregiver and the manager of his estate. Tiago died of
shock upon hearing of Basilio's arrest and Padre Írene's embellished stories of
violent revolt.
• Captain-General – the highest-ranking official in the Philippines during the Spanish
colonial period. The Captain-General in El Fili is Simoun's friend and confidant, and
is described as having an insatiable lust for gold. Simoun met him when he was still
a major during the Ten Years' War in Cuba. He secured the major's friendship and
promotion to Captain-General through bribes. When he was posted in the
Philippines, Simoun used him as a pawn in his own power plays to drive the country
into revolution. The Captain-General was shamed into not extending his tenure after
being rebuked by a high official in the aftermath of Basilio's imprisonment. This
decision to retire would later on prove to be a crucial element to Simoun's schemes.
• Father Bernardo Salví – the former parish priest of San Diego in Noli Me Tángere,
and now the director and chaplain of the Santa Clara convent. The epilogue of
the Noli implies that Salví regularly rapes María Clara when he is present at the
convent. In El Fili, he is described as her confessor. In spite of reports of Ibarra's
death, Salví believes that he is still alive and lives in constant fear of his revenge.
• Father Millon – a Dominican who serves as a physics professor in the University of
Santo Tomas.
• Quiroga – a Chinese businessman who aspired to be a consul for China in the
Philippines. Simoun coerced Quiroga into hiding weapons inside the latter's
warehouses in preparation for the revolution.
• Don Custodio – Custodio de Salazar y Sánchez de Monteredondo, a famous
"contractor" who was tasked by the Captain-General to develop the students
association's proposal for an academy for the teaching of Spanish, but was then
also under pressure from the priests not to compromise their prerogatives as
monopolizers of instruction. Some of the novel's most scathing criticism is reserved
for Custodio, who is portrayed as an opportunist who married his way into high
society, who regularly criticized favored ideas that did not come from him, but was
ultimately, laughably incompetent in spite of his scruples.
• Ben-Zayb – A columnist for the Manila Spanish newspaper El Grito de la Integridad.
Ben-Zayb is his pen name and is an anagram of Ybanez, an alternate spelling of his
last name Ibañez. His first name is not mentioned. Ben-Zayb is said to have the looks
of a friar, who believes that in Manila they think because he thinks. He is deeply
patriotic, sometimes to the point of jingoism. As a journalist he has no qualms
embellishing a story, conflating and butchering details, turning phrases over and over,
making a mundane story sound better than it actually is. Father Camorra derisively
calls him an ink-slinger.
• Father Camorra – the parish priest of Tiani. Ben-Zayb's regular foil, he is said to
look like an artilleryman in counterpoint to Ben-Zayb's friar looks. He stops at
nothing to mock and humiliate Ben-Zayb's liberal pretensions. In his own parish,
Camorra has a reputation for unrestrained lustfulness. He drives Juli into suicide
after attempting to rape her inside the convent. For his misbehavior he was
"detained" in a luxurious riverside villa just outside Manila.
• Father Írene – Kapitán Tiago's spiritual adviser. Along with Custodio, Írene is
severely criticized as a representative of priests who allied themselves with temporal
 authority for the sake of power and monetary gain. Known to many as the final
authority who Don Custodio consults, the student association sought his support
and gifted him with two chestnut-colored horses, yet he betrayed the students by
counseling Custodio into making them fee collectors in their own school, which was
then to be administered by the Dominicans instead of being a secular and privately
managed institution as the students envisioned. Írene secretly but regularly supplies
Kapitán Tiago with opium while exhorting Basilio to do his duty. Írene embellished
stories of panic following the outlawing of the student association Basilio was part of,
hastening Kapitán Tiago's death. With Basilio in prison, he then struck Basilio out of
Tiago's last will and testament, ensuring he inherited nothing.
• Placido Penitente – a student of the University of Santo Tomas who had a distaste
for study and would have left school if it were not for his mother's pleas for him to
stay. He clashes with his physics professor, who then accuses him of being a
member of the student association, whom the friars despise. Following the
confrontation, he meets Simoun at the Quiapo Fair. Seeing potential in Placido,
Simoun takes him along to survey his preparations for the upcoming revolution. The
following morning Placido has become one of Simoun's committed followers. He is
later seen with the former schoolmaster of San Diego, who was now Simoun's
bomb-maker.
• Paulita Gómez – the girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Doña Victorina, the
old Indio who passes herself off as a Peninsular, who is the wife of the quack doctor
Tiburcio de Espadaña. In the end, she and Isagani part ways, Paulita believing she
will have no future if she marries him. She eventually marries Juanito Peláez.

Characters from Barrio Sagpang:

• Kabesang Tales – Telesforo Juan de Dios, a former kabesa of Barrio Sagpang in
Tiani. He was a sugarcane planter who cleared lands he thought belonged to no one,
losing his wife and eldest daughter in the endeavor. When the Dominicans took over
his farm, he fought to his last money to have it retained in his possession. While his
suit against the Dominicans was ongoing, he was kidnapped by bandits while he was
out patrolling his fields. Having no money to pay his captors, his daughter Juli was
forced to become a maid in exchange for her mistress paying his ransom. When his
son Tano was conscripted into the Guardia Civil, again Tales had no money to pay
for Tano's exclusion from the draft. When in spite of all Tales lost the case, he not
only lost his farm but was also dealt with a heavy fine. He later joined the bandits and
became one of their fiercest commanders. Tandang Selo, his father, would later on
join his band after the death of Juli.
• Tandang Selo – father of Kabesang Tales and grandfather of Tano and Juli. A deer
hunter and later on a broom-maker, he and Tales took in the young, sick Basilio who
was then fleeing from the Guardia Civil. On Christmas Day, when Juli left to be with
her mistress, Selo suffered some form of stroke that impaired his ability to speak. After
Juli's suicide, Selo left town permanently, taking with him his hunting spear. He was
later seen with the bandits and was killed in an encounter with the Guardia Civil –
ironically by the gun of the troops' sharpshooter Tano, his grandson.
• Juli – Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend of Basilio, and the youngest daughter of
Kabesang Tales. When Tales was captured by bandits, Juli petitioned Hermana
Penchang to pay for his ransom. In exchange, she had to work as Penchang's maid.
Basilio ransomed her and bought a house for her family. When Basilio was sent to
prison, Juli approached Tiani's curate, Padre Camorra, for help. When Camorra tried
to rape her instead, Juli jumped to her death from the church's tower.
• Tano – Kabesang Tales's son, second to Lucia who died in childhood. He was
nicknamed "Carolino" after returning from Guardia Civil training in the Carolines. His
squad was escorting prisoners through a road that skirted a mountain when they were
ambushed by bandits. In the ensuing battle, Tano, the squad's sharpshooter, killed a
surrendering bandit from a distance, not knowing it was his own grandfather Selo.
• Hermana Penchang – the one among the "rich folks" of Tiani who lent Juli money to
ransom Kabesang Tales from the bandits. In return, Juli will serve as her maid until
the money was paid off. Penchang is described as a pious woman who speaks
Spanish; however, her piety was clouded over by the virtues taught by the friars. While
Juli was in her service, she made her work constantly, refusing to give her time off so
she can take care of her grandfather Selo. Nevertheless, when the rich folks of Tiani
shunned Juli because to support her family in any way might earn some form of
retribution from the friars, Penchang was the only one who took pity upon her.
• Hermana Báli – Juli's mother-figure and counselor. She accompanied Juli in her
efforts to secure Kabesang Tales' ransom and later on Basilio's release. Báli was a
panguinguera – a gambler – who once performed religious services in a Manila
convent. When Tales was captured by bandits, it was Báli who suggested to Juli the
idea to borrow money from Tiani's wealthy citizens, payable when Tales' legal dispute
over his farm was won.
Student association for the teaching of Spanish:

• Macaraig – the leader. He is described as wealthy, with his own coach, driver, and
set of horses. He is said to own several houses, and that he is lending one to serve
as the schoolhouse for their planned Spanish language academy. After the outlawing
of the group, he was the first to post bail. He then left the country after his release.
• Sandoval – a Peninsular who had come to Manila as a government employee and
was finishing his studies, and who had completely identified himself with the cause of
the Filipino students. After the outlawing of the group, he still managed to pass his
courses through sheer oratorical skill.
• Pecson – described as chubby, pessimistic, and having an annoying grin. He is
Sandoval's regular foil when Sandoval launches into any kind of patriotic, optimistic
speech. After they receive disappointing news about their Spanish language academy
project, it was Pecson who suggested a torch-lit dinner at the Panciteria Macanista
de Buen Gusto, just a block away from the Binondo Church and Convent, served by
naked Chinese waiters. From there Sandoval and Pecson became more gracious to
each other.
• Tadeo – a truant and charlatan who regularly dreamed of an eternal "holiday" from
school, but was all the same beloved by professors and passed courses. A longtime
Manila resident, he is seen having fun by telling outrageous stories about himself to a
 newcomer student from his home province. After the outlawing of the group, he alone
seemed to welcome imprisonment as it meant not going to school. His holiday realized
at last, he "celebrated" by setting up a bonfire using his books upon his release.

• Juanito Peláez – Isagani's rival for Paulita Gomez's affection. He was the son of a
Timoteo Peláez, a metalworks trader. He was a favorite of his professors. A regular
prankster, he was said to have developed a hump by playing some trick and then
hunching behind his classmates. He paid his dues to the student association, but
broke away just as easily when the association was outlawed. Following Isagani's
arrest, Paulita breaks off from Isagani to marry Juanito.