Philippines1 Ponce

Mariano Ponce was born in Baliuag, Bulacan on 23 March 1863. He joined the Propaganda Movement in Spain together with Jose Rizal , Marcelo H, del Pilar and other propagandist, He also helped in the campaign for reforms ,and one of the writers of La Solidaridad and Asociacion Hispano- Filipino.
Among his significant works was Efemerides Filipinas a column on historical events in the Philippines which appeared in La Oceania Espanola (1892-1893) and El Ideal (1911-1912 ) He also wrote Ang Wika ng Lahi (1917) discussing the importance of a national language.
He served as Bulacan’s representative to the National Assembly. He studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and took up medicine at the University of Santo Tomas. He travelled to Spain in 1881 to continue his medical studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid.
There they form an Anti-Spaniard Movement along side Marcelo del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Jose Rizal and other Propagandists. This expoused Filipino representation in the Spanish Cortes and reforms in the Spanish colonial authorities of the Philippines. His also one of the co-founder of La Solidaridad with fellow co-founder Graciano Lopez Jaena.His most common names are Naning,his nicknames Kalipulako named after Lapu-Lapu, and Tigbalang, a supernatural being in Filipino folklore.
His also head of the Literary Section of the Associacion Hispano-Filipina, where he served as secretary of the Propaganda Movement. His works included daily editorials on history, politics, sociology and travel in the La Solidaridad.
In August 1896 Mariano Ponce was imprisoned for forty eight hours before being released. Fearing for another arrest , fled to France and later went to Hong-Kong where he joined a group of Filipino and Filipino-Chinese, who serve as the international front of the Philippine revolution.
In 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo selected him as a representative of the First Republic to Japan. He traveled to Japan to seek aid and purchased weapons. During his stay he met the founder and First President of the Chinese Republic, Sun Yat-Sen. Through discussions and negotiations, Dr. Sun and Ponce became close friend. Dr. Sun introduces Ponce to a Filipino-Japanese named Jose Ramos Ishikawa, who assists Ponce in purchasing weapons and ammunitions for the revolution. But the shipment did not, reach the Philippines due to a typhoon off the coast of Formosa. Mariano returned to Manila with his wife, a Japanese girl named Okiyo Undawara. In 1909, he was made director of “El Renacimiento” (The Renaissance).
He also joined the “Nacionalista Partido” (National Party) and established “El Ideal” (The Perfect), the party’s official organization. Ponce later ran for the seat in the Philippine Assembly and was elected assemblyman for the second district of Bulacan. Ponce wrote his memoirs, “Cartas Sobre La Revolucion” (Letters on the Revolution), he died in the Government Civil Hospital in Hongkong on May 23, 1918. His remains are now interred in the Cementerion del Norte, Manila.
Source: Philippines Post
published November 14th, 2013.