La Liga Filipina

La Liga Filipina

 ( The Philippine League) 1892

 

La Liga Filipina (English: The Philippine League) was a progressive organization created by Dr.Jose Rizal in the Philippines in the house of Doroteo Ongjunco at Ilaya Street, Tondo, Manila in 1892.

The organization derived from La Solidaridad and thePropaganda Movement. The purpose of La Liga Filipina is to build a new group sought to involve the people directly in the reform movement.

The league was to be a sort of mutual aid and self-help society dispensing scholarship funds and legal aid, loaning capital and setting up cooperatives, the league became at threat to Spanish authorities that they arrested Rizal on July 6, 1892 on Dapitan.

The Regulations of La Liga Filipina by Rizal's hand

The night of his arrival in Manila, Rizal met over thirty distinguished leaders, including Apolinario Mabini and Anderes Bonifacio, (05) and outlined his plan for La Liga Filipina.

 

During the exile of Rizal, The organization became inactive, through the efforts of Domingo Franco and Andres Bonifacio, it was reorganized. The organization decided to declare its support for La Solidaridad and the reforms it advocated, raise funds for the paper, and defray the expenses of deputies advocating reforms for the country before the Spanish Cortes. Eventually after some disarray in the leadership of the group, the Supreme Council of the League dissolved the society.

The Liga membership split into two groups: the conservatives formed the Cuerpo de Compromisarios which pledged to continue supporting the La Solidaridad while the radicals led by Bonifacio devoted themselves to a new and secret society, the Katipunan.

 n 1892, Jose Rizal (full name: Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonzo) returned to the Philippines and proposed the establishment of a civic organization called “La Liga Filipina.” On July 3, 1892, the following were elected as its officers: Ambrosio Salvador, president: Agustin dela Rosa, fiscal; Bonifacio Arevalo, treasurer; and Deodato Arellano, secretary. Rizal functioned as its adviser.

La Liga Filipina aimed to:

▪ Unite the whole country
▪ Protect and assist all members
▪ Fight violence and injustice
▪ Support education
▪ Study and implement reforms

La Liga Filipina had no intention of rising up in arms against the government; but the Spanish Officialsstill felt threatened. On July 6, 1892 only three days after La Liga Filipina’s establishment, Jose Rizal was secretly arrested. The next day, Governor General Eulogio Despujol ordered Rizal’s deportation to Dapitan, a small, secluded town in Zamboanga.

La Liga Filipina's membership was active in the beginning; but later, they began to drift apart. The rich members wanted to continue supporting the Propaganda Movement; but the others seemed to have lost all hope that reforms could still be granted.Andres Bonifacio was one of those who believed that the only way to achieve meaningful change was through a bloody revolution.

 Sources:

  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Liga_Filipina

 http://joserizal.info/Biography/man_and_martyr/chapter13.htm

 http://www.philippine-history.org/la-solidaridad.htm