MAGAT SALAMAT
(1550 - 1589)
Magat Salamat, son of Rajah
Matanda, the Chief of Tondo when the Spaniards arrived, endeavored to recover
his heritage by participating in the Tondo Conspiracy (1587-1588), aimed to
overthrow the Spanish sovereignty in the
This
movement was planned by Magat Salamat in
cooperation with two other Tondo principals, and his cousins, Don Agustin de
Legazpi and Martin Panga, a gobernadorcillo.
Affiliated with them were other chieftains in their environs who willed to
give up their landed property for that purpose.
In
1587, they enlisted the help of the Japanese adventurer, Juan Gayo, through an
interpreter named Dionisio Fernandez. In the house of Legazpi in Tondo, the
plotters composed of Magat Salamat, Agustin Manuguit, Felipe Salalila and
Geronimo Bassi agreed with Gayo that he would come again with arms and
recruited soldiers from japan. They also agreed that "the chiefs of the
neighborhood would help them to kill the Spaniards." The Japanese would be
rewarded with half of the tributes to be collected from the natives after they
had conquered the Spaniards. "They swore solemnly," according to
licentiate Ayala in a letter to Philip II, "according to their custom to
keep and fulfill the agreement," choosing after the sandugo, "a King, captains, and officers of war." They
also agreed to make weapons secretly.
Before
his departure, Gayo gave Legazpi several weapons to be distributed to his men.
Later,
a secret meeting that lasted for three days was called in Tambobong, by Magat Salamat and his co-plotters. Those who
attended were chiefts of Pandakan, Tondo, Candaba, Polo, Catangalan, Navotas with "other Indian timaguas, servant and
allies." They were all briefed as to the sad political condition of the
country and themselves. With heavy hearts, they all swore an oath to throw off
the Spanish yoke.
By
1588, no word was yet received from Japanese Gayo. But when the Filipinos heard
the news of capture of the galleon
A
few days later, the chiefts of Bulacan, Esteban Taes, and Martin Panga agreed
to call another meeting. Taes was to call all the chiefs from Tondo to Bulacan
while Panga would summon the chiefs of
At
the meeting held in Tondo, the conspirators agreed to send Magat Salamat to the
Calamianes to invite the Bornean Sultan to send a fleet that would join the
Sulus and to launch an attack against
"The
plan was that when the fleet of Burney reached the
By
November 1588, Magat Salamat was in the Calamianes in company with Don Agustin
Manuguit and Juan Banal. He rallied some principals of the
However, Antonio Suribao. Chief of the encomienda of the
Spanish Captain Pedro Sarmiento, disclosed to the latter the plot of Magat
Salamat and his companions, after he was persuaded to join it. They were
arrested immediately. Sarmiento informed personally the governor-general of his
fantastic discovery and soon the Spanish government became busy hanging or
sending to exile the conspirators.
"Magat
Salamat was condemned to death. His goods were to be employed for erection of
the new fortress of this city (
And
so the first of the rebels from Tondo died, his martrydom to be duplicated
several centuries later by two of his disctrictmates, Andres Bonifacio and
Macario Sakay.
The
significance of his Tondo Conspiracy, aside from its purely political
motivation, lay in the fact that it was
not just the conspiracy of Tondo, but of practically all of the datus in the Tagalog region from
Batangas and
In
the words of Austin Craig, the plot was a proof that the early Filipinos were
capable of united action.