Aguinaldo’s shopping list, 1897-1898

Nineteen days to Christmas Eve, “noche buena.” I must find the energy to battle traffic and crowds for some last-minute Christmas shopping. I envy the organized who, like Santa in the Christmas song, draw up a list way in advance. This is checked twice to adjust or deny presents depending on who has been naughty or nice over the past year. Then the Secretary of Trade and Industry tells us that a noche buena spread for four not-so-demanding family members, with small appetites, can be had for P500. I went through my files looking for Christmas budgets and couldn’t find any. I must hit the libraries ahead for next year’s December columns.

What I did find were notes on the Day Book of Emilio Aguinaldo, preserved in the “Philippine Insurgent Records” at the National Library of the Philippines. This hefty file lists expenses in Aguinaldo’s Biak-na-Bato camp from May 25, 1897, to the time they were in self-exile in Hong Kong in February 1898. Expenses in the first pages of the Day Book covered: alms for the poor, alms for the dead, alms for widows, alms for the sick and wounded. What is not clear to me are the “gratificaciones,” tips or rewards to various people with no justification given. Some tips went to people with special skills like a herbalist, J. Putec ”albolario”; a cook, “Ninoy cocinero”; a sous chef, “Pedro Segundo cocinero ng Presidente”; a laundrywoman and a woman only known as “bibinquera ng presidente,” the President’s personal bibingka maker.

Food items are listed by type: palay, bigas, gatas, and isda, while what appears to be cooked food or meals are differentiated. For example, foot soldier meals are different from those served to the president. Breakfast (almusal) and dinner (hapunan) are listed, while lunch, merienda, or snacks are not. For example, breakfast for the president’s escorts, even “putong inalmusal ng mga caual (puto taken for breakfast by the soldiers)”, as well as “tinapay (bread)”, appear in the accounts, while others are missing or filed somewhere else. Cigarettes for the soldiers were not treats like “achara, caramelo at azucar” but a recurring or regular expense like food.

That Aguinaldo’s army was short on arms and ammunition is reflected by a P10-gratificacion or reward given to two prisoners who presented two Mausers. In the budget were payments to those who turned over empty cartridges and spent bullets “ybinayad sa namulot ng 500 capsula at nag-intriga ng bala.” I read in one source that after every encounter, people, usually women and children, would return to the battle site and collect spent cartridges, caps, bullets, and lead. These were turned over to munitions factories (actually rented houses) and repurposed and refilled using a formula with “salitre” that I know today as an essential ingredient in pork tocino or beef tapa. There was an entry for oil used for cleaning guns: “ybinili ng Langis panlines ng baril.”

Their medical cabinet was stocked with the following: cremor alleman, sulfato desosa, Tintura de arnica, Laudano, eter sulforico, sulfato de quenina, unguente de belladonna, gotas amargas (bitter drops) flores de manzanilla. Bicarbonate de dusa, karina de linaza, aceite de castor (Castor oil) aceite olivo (Olive oil) aceite de moro (a brand of virgin olive oil), asido tartarico, Espiritu de limon, algudon hidrofilo, etc. I should refer the list to a pharmacologist or someone at a drugstore to see how many of these are still in use today.

What were the expenses for December 1897? There was no clear indication of a noche buena or Christmas Day feast, because everyone was busy with the departure of Aguinaldo and his men from Sual, Pangasinan, on Dec. 27, 1897, for Hong Kong. On Dec. 20, the amount of $12,815 was sent ahead to Hong Kong, while $145 was listed on Dec. 23 as “Dinala ng president papunta Hong Kong ang lahat ng cuartang Guinto (The President brought to Hong Kong all the gold coins.)” $150 “binaon ng pagalis ng Presidente.” Aguinaldo’s wife received $200.

Unusual expenses this month were: $8 requested by Gen. Ricarte for clothes and tailoring paid to L. Novenario; $6 paid to “cargador ng mga pinamili sa Maynila na quinacailangan nitong Presidencia”; cash gifts to Manuel Tinio, $8; Wenceslao Viniegra, $3.40; Carlos Ronquillo, $2; Tomas Mascardo, $1; Agapito Bonzon, $5; Teodoro Legaspi, $1.40; Pedro Castila, $1; and $6 for Lorenzo Gutierrez, caual at taga alaga ng cabayo. The only Christmas-related expenses I found were for the purchase of “suca at tinapay” (vinegar and bread), bigas (rice), asen (salt), manoc (chicken), itlog (eggs from San Miguel de Mayumo, Bulacan), and ulam (viand). The master trumpeter was given a tip.

Many historians ignore these kinds of documents, classifying them as unimportant or even trivial. My engagement in them has branded me an “antiquarian.” Little wonder their grand narratives are so boring because they forget that history is about storytelling, and these provide details that make history relevant to us in our time.

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