Request for Assistance to openh doors for this Family Research in Manilah
December 24, 2003
Dear Readers:
My name is Juan Carlos S. Arevalo of Washington,D.C. and New Jersey,and my ancestors are from the Philippines.
I was born in San Francisco, California at UC San Francisco Medical Center in 1979.My parents are Reyes Africa Arevalo of Masbate (the Arevalos) and Lipa, Batangas (Africa)andCaroll Salas-Arevalo, who went to study in Maryknoll College, relocated in the U.S. last 1978.
My mother retired from Gannett Corporation (mother company of USA Today and the former Journal Newspapers).My dad previously worked for the Embassy of the Kingdom of Jordon under the late King Hussein.
We have established a research management company calledRoyal Archives& Associates and my sister, Cara Maria Margarita are the president and executive vice president, respectively.Our mission is to expand our research resources on the life of our great great grandfather
who came originally from Cadiz, Spain.
His name was Don Juan Martin de Arevalo.He was only a Captain in the Infantry but was assigned as Governor (Political and Military) in TayTay, Palawan from 1857-1864.
He was a multi awarded soldier with three distinguished military recognition awards called the San Hermenegildo, given by the Royal Government of Spain due to someone's unquestionable contribution to the Spanish Crown and its government.
As Governor he was called His Excellency and was given a supreme authority by Queen Isabel II.The San Hermenegildo given to him was to honor the births of her two children - Crown Princess Isabel and Alfonso XII, who became King, and he was also the great great grandfather of King Juan Carlos I, the current King.
The births of these children were questioned by the people of Spain because of the multi-affairs of the Queen, whose marriage to her crown consort, Francisco de Asis she despised. See book of John Bergamini published in 1970 in the U.S.
It was due to the births of these children and various military favoritism that Queen Isabel was deposed to France where she died in exile since 1904.The children's paternity were never established up to this time.
Eventually the royalty was never allowed back to Spain until the death of Gen. Francisco Franco. In 1975, he installed Crown Prince Juan Carlos as King.
In June, the royal wedding of Crown Prince Felipe will be the first after more than a century. Since most of the spanish royals lived in exile and their royal queens were never pure spanish.The engaged future queen of Spain, a divorcee, is a pure blooded spaniard
We are currently contacting a few writers to help us document "A lost destiny, in the name of my father..."
Don Juan Martin de Arevalo was all of a sudden transferred to Manila with full authority in 1857, just about the same time, the queen became pregnant of her son, Alfonso X11.
In the Philippines, in 1861, Don Juan Martin met an impoverished woman, my great great grandmother, a widow,spanish, her name was Dona Atanacia Dominguez.She was baptized in the Manila Cathedral (We have a copy of her birth certificate).Her first husband's name was Joaquin Vicente Bayot, he was also a member of the Infantry for the Royal Army.
Unfortunately, based on several documents sent and authenticated by the military archives, we see her having a hard time getting the military benefit on behalf of her deceased husband. She had four children from that first marriage.
In her good graces, she met my great great grandfather.The requirements at the time for senior military officers to request for a royal license to marry.The queen refused to give approval for a long time.We are in receipt of several documents stating the length of the request and that it was only in his sick bed that they were married in Taytay by Father Mariano Bernad.The articles of marriage was called "Articulo Mortis" - marriage after death.
How this was recognized by the strict Catholic
Church at the time was beyond me.But it allowed Dona Atanacia in 1864 to renegotiate with the Spanish government the various requirements to qualify for a spouse's military benefits. We have a copy of the Spanish "Delegada de Pagos",
signed three times by a Consul at the Embajada de Espana.
Today we are in receipt of our great great grandfather's last will and testament which specified clearly how his estate was to be divided.Then the requirements was too complicated for Dona Atanacia.So to terminate her unsuccessful claim to fame, she wrote a power of attorney (Falta de Competente) assigning her oldest son, named Francisco Maria Bayot, to be the sole executor of our great great grandfather's estate.Unfortunately, Senor Bayot was a much much older half maternal brother of our great grandfather, Don Julio, one of the sons ( another son,Don Juan died at a very early age).He became a lawyer and learned the important regulations relevant to the release of the (A) military benefits and (2) pension (3) the properties in Spain.
Out of spite for the hard life she had, Dona Atanacia, never used her Arevalo surname.The Bayot clan built a luxurious home for themselves in 1880, after they received a lump sum payment from the Spanish Embassy (Manila) from our great great grandfather's estate and named it Villa Bayot (in Masbate).They all presumed complete ownership, curtailing the rights of our great grandfather, Don Julio.
Don Francisco has about 8 children and Don Julio had eight,too.
When Don Julio's wife, mygreat grandmother died due to childbirth of my grandfather, Jesus Arevalo, (my father's dad) his oldest and only daughter(Dona Gloria A. Alindogan),took care of Papa Jesus and left Masbate proper and went to a more remote place called San Fernando (in Masbate). Dona Gloria eventually adopted him. The Bayots became the most powerful and wealthiest families in Masbate.The internets have issued several copies of supreme court decisions showing that when Francisco Maria Bayot died he was only an "Engargado" of the estate he represents.A relative of his wife, talked about it in town and Don Francisco's sister, Patrocinio (it's a woman's name) who took over the care of the estate sued her brother's wife's relative, surnamed Surbito, unfortunately the latter died and the real truth was withheld up to this time.
During the reign of former president, Ferdinand Marcos, he issued a Land Reform program and disallowed people (not close to him) not to own a lot of properties.But the rule of thumb in the Philippines are negotiable among those who are politically connected.So the engineers and land surveyors in Masbate closed their eyes and pretended the "encargado" arrangement was spelled out as "real owner".
A true manipulation and violation of trustees' rights.
Last October, we were part of a US delegation initiative, through the asssistance of Secretary Richard Gordon, as welcoming members during the visit of His Excellency, President George W. Bush.We also hosted a delegate High Tea and no less than Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone attended our reception at the intercontinental Hotel in Makati City. There we launched our family history.
We still believe that there are persons who are trustworthy in the Philippines and we are looking for people who can give us some input on how we can legally proceed to get status of how these real lands were taken without having to render titles of real ownership.
We hope that a reader of thismemo can help as direct our call for citizenry with sense of urgency to the right person(s) in Manila.
We plan to have an anniversary celebration in October to mark the 148 or so years of burial of our great great grandfather, who was buried in Taytay in Santa Monica Church where a luxurious resort was built called Club Noah Isabelle, which was dedicated in honor of Queen Isabel 11.Only a few people(?!) where privy to the story of our great great grandfather and Queen Isabel.
If you know anyone who can add more information to our quest for justice and special need to rewrite our heritage, we beg these individuals to write us through our emailaddress and will be given a confidential response.Our email is [email protected].
Thank you very much and God bless the New Year.