Telesforo Antonio Chuaquico Chuidian

Telesforo was a businessman and nationalist who along with Mariano Limjap financed the Katipunan and the Revolutionary Government of Emilio Aguinaldo.

Telesforo was born on January 5, 1855. His parents were Jose Chuy Dian and Silveria Chuaquico. He had three sisters: Roberta, Raymunda, and Candelaria. His father was a Chinese immigrant who arrived in Manila at the turn of the 18th century. His father hispanized the family name from Chuy Dian to Chuidian, when his business in Escolta "La Puerta del Sol" took off. Young Telesforo studied at the Ateneo Municipal in Intramuros. He belonged to what would be an illustrious class; his classmates were Benito Legarda and Leon Maria Guerrero. He never finished his schooling, preferring to concentrate on growing his family's business. He formed a partnership with Mariano Buenaventura--Chuidian Buenaventura y Cia--which concentrated on crop loans for the coffee and sugar industries. He became a landowner, acquiring haciendas in Batangas. He diversified by investing in San Miguel Brewery. He was known to be sympathetic to the reform movement. He was accused of being a filibustero, and was imprisoned in Fort Santiago together with fellow businessman Francisco Roxas, Antonio and Juan Luna, and many others. Being a wealthy entrepreneur, his family used his wealth to have him released. Family legend claims that his wife Juana Urbano used a bayong full of jewels to bribe his jailers and secure his release.

In 1898 President Emilio Aguinaldo appointed him to represent Cotobato province at the Malolos Congress. Together with Mariano Limjap, he continued to secretly finance the revolution. Telesforo was a signatory to the1899 Malolos Constitution. Such was his prestige that he was authorized to sign paper money issued by the First Philippine Republic. He was appointed on July 4, 1899 as jefe de adminstración de primera clase, which allowed him to use the insignia of a brigadier-general. He was imprisoned by the American miitary government and in 1901 he sailed away to England with his children.

When he became ill, he returned to Manila in 1902. He was the founder and became the first president of the Club Filipino. He died on April 11, 1903.

Telesforo was the inspiration for the character of Santiago de los Santos, "Kapitan Tiago", the father of Maria Clara in the novel Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal. In the first chapter, the house of Kapitan Tiago was based on Telesforo's own home which was located in Manila by the Pasig river.

Telesforo financed the La Solidaridad and the Kaitpunan. His house became the basis for Kapitan Tiago’s house in Noli Me Tangere.

Baptismal corrections

Second death anniversary