AN original document extant in the Dr. Domingo Abella collection of the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University bears manifestation that the Katipunan movement, under dark shadows then, had its followers or sympathizers in Bicol. The document, according to the book “Bikol Maharlika” by Jose Calleja Reyes is a dossier of an investigation conducted by the Spanish civil government of Manila of a Bicolano detainee in the wake of arrests following the discovery of the Katipunan in 1896.

        That detainee was Vicente Lukban of then Ambos Camarines who would later become one of the bravest Bicol generals of the revolution.

        The interrogation revealed that Lukban was the head of the Masonic Lodge of Camarines named “Triangulo Bicol.” He further declared that during one of those meetings, “Domingo Abella was the most vocal of the anti-Spanish subjects; that this man was the one appointed to lead the rebellion in Ambos Camarines; that those who always talked on anti-Spanish matters were Mariano Abella, Domingo Abella, both sons of Manuel Abella, Camilo Jacob, Tomas Prieto, Severo Patrocinio, the parish priest of the Cathedral of Camarines (now the Metropolitan Naga Cathedral) Sr. (Fr. Severino) Diaz and the coadjutor of the same cathedral, Innocensio Herrera.”

        The dossier of the investigation revealed other incriminating matters like the plan to establish in Nueva Caceres in 1895 a commercial firm that would serve as a front for the revolutionary activities. The firm was to be established by Lukban with Manuel Abella to run it to conceal Lukban’s trip to Manila and other points while gathering news about the rebellion. The person supplying funds for Lukban’s trips was Manuel Abella while Tomas Prieto, then alcalde mayor of Nueva Caceres (today’s Naga) was assigned to receive arms that Domingo Abella would procure.

        Author Calleja wrote that the verity of the information declared in the dossier may be tested by the fact that Faustino Villaruel who owned the house where Lukban and members of the masonic lodge used to secretly meet was also executed as a revolutionist on Jan. 11, 1897.

        While there is no known proof that the ‘Lukban Dossier’ was used as evidence in the arrest and military trial of prisoners from Bicol, the fact has come to light that some of the Bicol prisoners identified in that dossier were indubitably active sympathizers of the revolution.

        On Sept. 19, 1897, Fr. Severino Diaz, the parish priest, Fr. Herrera, choirmaster Fr. Manuel Suburbano (who was later released) were arrested. Also arrested were the 12 laymen, Manuel Abella, Domingo Abella, Camilo Jacob, Tomas Prieto, Florencio Lerma, Macario Melgarejo, Leon Hernandez, Ramon Abella, Mariano Arana, Mariano Ordenanza, Macario Valentin, and Cornelio Mercado.

        In Albay, Fr. Gabriel Prieto, parish priest of Malinao town, was arrested together with many prominent residents of the province. Fr. Prieto, together with political prisoners from Albay, were shipped to Manila on the mail ship “Aeolus”. Earlier, the priests and laymen from Nueva Caceres were transferred to Manila on board the “Isarog”. One of the prisoners, Leon Hernandez, who was a well-to-do and influential resident of Libmanan, Camarines died in prison in Nueva Caceres after undergoing severe torture.

        The priest prisoners from Nueva Caceres were detained in the convent of San Agustin. According to an account, the priests were subjected to ill-treatment and beatings: “In the convent of San Agustin, in the City of Manila, which served as a prison for priests, the friars received them with insults and injuries, calling them riff-raff, beasts, pigs, monkeys, etc. Locked up in filthy cells, they were taken from these places every morning, not for breath of fresh air, but to sweep the floor of the spacious convent, with whippings, insults and buffetings. For meals they were given fermenting rice not more than twice a day – a fare which even the dogs would not eat.”

        The laymen, on the other hand, were committed to Bilibid. An eyewitness account that befell the prisoners, more particularly Florencio Lerma, was made by his daughter who gave the following account to Malolos Press: “After sixteen days of solitary confinement, my father was taken from the Presidio and brought to Bilibid and after a few days was transferred with his companions to the precinct of Veterana in Tondo. The lieutenant of the Veterana of the District, Judge D—and his military clerk occupied an office on the upper floor of this hole of crime. My father and his companions were on the lower floor, and before they were called to confirm the declarations which appeared in the record of the case as sworn to by them before the governor of Nueva Caceres, a corporal of the Veterana ordered my father to be tied hand and foot to a bench, after which he violently whipped him a countless number of times over the wounds and bruises that he already had, and which now oozed with blood and matter. Exhausted of his strength, the corporal told my father that he had received orders to whip him to death if he did not ratify and affirm the contents of his previous sworn statement and if he did not declare in addition that the rifles received had been thrown into the river of Nueva Caceres. Under the circumstances, there was no other choice than to accede to the wishes of the tyrants and to affirm, as if they were absolute truths, the falsehoods that appeared in the record. The same fate befell his companions.”