Francisco Rojas

Francisco Reyes Roxas was a musician and businessman; but his life was cut short when he was implicated in the Katipunan revolt. He is part of the Thirteen Martyrs of Bagumbayan. More here: http://bit.ly/ggTCAa.

13 Martyrs of Bagumbayan

“The Arrest of Francisco Roxas” by Felix M. Roxas

“”Being an employee in the office of the Executive Secretary during the administration of Governor General Ramon Blanco y Erenas, I was very much worried about the conditions prevailing in the suburbs of Manila, in San Juan del Monte and in Balintawak as a result of the increased activities of the Katipunan.”

“During the evenings I always supped in the house of my cousin, Francisco Roxas, who lived on Calle Marques [ now Marques de Comillas ] which was very near the place where I resided. I loved to spend my evenings in this household because I was greatly entertained by my cousin’s two sons who were graduating at the Ateneo Municipal and by his three girls who studied at the Assumption Convent, specially when they took up lessons in French and English under Mlle. Toulouse, their old and lame — but talkative and astute — tutor. Besides, Don Francisco, being an Adviser of the Administration, used to give me up-to-date information on the salient political events taking place.”

“Convinced that there was nothing to worry about in Don Francisco’s household insofar as the revolution was concerned, I took my supper one night in the house of my other cousin, Don Perico [ Pedro P. Roxas ] at General Solano street in the San Miguel district.”

“We did not discuss the events of the day during supper; we proceeded to the hall after the meal. Already present in the hall when we came in was Mr. Luelmo, a highway engineer, who was then courting my cousin’s second daughter, Consuelo.”

“I bade goodby [ sic ] to everyone very soon thereafter because I sensed that something worried everyone, something which I could not explain either. I continued my way to Calle Ayala [ now P. Casal or Tanduay ] and thence to Calle Marques. As I passed Don Francisco’s house on this street and finding it well illuminated I came in and was surprised to find three caps of the Guardia Civil Veterana on a table near the stairs. I backed out and in so doing met seventeen year-old Maria Vicenta, my cousin’s eldest daughter, who informed me that her father was being arrested.”

“After seeing Don Francisco leading Major Diez and two policemen for a further search of his home, I left immediately and hurried to return to Don Perico’s house to inform him of our cousin’s predicament.”

“In a rather weak voice, I called for my cousin Perico. Hearing me, he went down by the back stairs. When he learned what had happened, he asked his driver Claro to take me to wherever I wanted and asked me to report further developments to him.”

“As I passed Don Francisco’s house once more, I saw him being taken away in his carriage in the company of the pianist Pepe Estrella who had dined with him. So I asked the driver Claro to take me to my cousin’s office on Plaza de Binondo to see if I could help in any way. But the place was also guarded by the police, so I asked the driver to go back to Don Pedro’s house. His wife [ Carmen Ayala de Roxas ] then ordered the carriage inside, the lights put out, and the doors and windows closed, and that absolute stillness be maintained in the house.”

“Before leaving, my cousin Perico told me: “See if they don’t meddle with poor Jacobo [ Zobel Zangroniz ].” He lived a few doors further up the street and was so seriously ill that he died [ from a heart attack ] a few weeks later in his residence.”

“While Francisco Roxas was being detained in his house, the telephone rang, asking for Major Diez to answer a call from Governor General Blanco. General Blanco asked Diez who had ordered the detention of Roxas, and Diez answered that it was the King’s representative, Fiscal Castanos. General Blanco said that no Adviser of his administration could be detained at Fort Santiago without his permission, and he gave orders that he be detained only at police headquarters. This was as far as General Blanco’s power could go insofar as Roxas was concerned. He was powerless to intervene. And it was found later on that the King’s representative, Fiscal Castanos, to see to it that this [ sic ] orders were complied with, had secretly gone near the residence of Roxas that night.”

“That was the last night in which Francisco Roxas could stay with his family. At 9:20 p.m. the police knocked on his door, as he was eating an “atis” for dessert. He got up to receive them and accompanied them in their search. He was placed under arrest afterward, causing the family much surprise and anguish.””

After Francisco’s execution, his widow Maria Elio viuda de Roxas and their six children sailed off to France. Their business affairs were left in the hands of the lawyer Gregorio Araneta y Soriano Dy Ching [ originally of Molo, Iloilo ], who married Francisco’s niece Carmen Zaragoza y Roxas [ daughter of his first cousin Rosa Roxas y Arce married to Jose Zaragoza y Aranquizna ]. The legal representations on behalf of the Roxas-Elio family were the first big cases and legal wins of Gregorio Araneta and became the bedrock of his eventually large fortune.

The patrician raconteur Felix Roxas y Fernandez [ o 1864 – + 1936 ; Mayor of Manila from 1905 – 1917 ] related in his memoirs that after the 08 January 1897 execution of Francisco, everyone who was surnamed Roxas was subjected to all sorts of insults and indignities by the Spanish authorities. At that time, many of Manila’s richest businessmen like Pedro Pablo Roxas, Gonzalo Tuason, and Telesforo Chuidian left the islands.

[ Gonzalo Tuason ended up in Paris, with Pedro Pablo “Perico” Roxas following some time later. Pedro visited Gonzalo and was distressed to see his close friend and multimillionaire business partner’s humble living conditions in the Ville Lumiere. Pedro immediately wrote to the affluent Tuasons in Manila and requested them urgently to send funds to their exiled patriarch Gonzalo in Paris. Gonzalo Tuason, as with Pedro Pablo Roxas, never returned to Manila. Gonzalo Tuason passed away in Paris; he is interred at the beautiful Pere Lachaise cemetery along with his eldest daughter Elvira Tuason-Vidal. — AVR-H through RLA-T ]

Roxas Boulevard

The rich Vicenta Reyes viuda de Juan Roxas owned a seaside property in the suburb of Malate. It was inherited by her son Francisco Roxas and it became famous because no less than the wife and son of Governor-General Valeriano Weyler took their sea baths there regularly.

After Francisco’s 1897 execution, it was sold by the family’s attorney Gregorio Araneta to their relatives, the Zobel-Roxas family. The property was cut off from the sea when the Americans constructed Dewey Boulevard. In the 1930s, Jacobo Zobel Roxas and his wife Angela Olgado, the parents of tycoon Enrique “Enzo” Zobel Olgado, built their beautiful Spanish style villa there along Dewey Boulevard facing Manila Bay. After the Zobel-Olgado family, the villa served for some years as the British Embassy. - Felix Roxas

Baptismal certificate

Partida de bautismo