History is replete with stories wovenaround the cruelty of tyrants.  It is rich with tales of horror, persecution, and torture executed during the reign of the Caesars, the Louises, and the Kaisers.  But history has never consented to have its glowing pages blotted with the brutal acts and cruel deeds of a common citizen.

 Our own Philippine history has vividly pictured to us the inhuman treatments received by our forefathers from some unscrupulous sons of Spain during the centuries when the colors of imperial Castille were still waving majestically on our shores. But nowhere on the pages of our history can we read this authentic tragedy which now is about to be unfolded.
 More than sixty years ago way up there on the North in the heart of Ilocandia, at the then progressive town of Vigan, there lived a “ tyrant” who belonged to one of the richest,  if not the richest family of the whole Ilocos region.  Just to show you how rich was this man his descendants, even if the dictum of the law of inheritance had played trick on his family’s fortune, are still among the wealthiest families of Ilocos Sur today.  This tyrant whose name, for the sake of delicacy, I must not mention was regarded as a lord and master devoid of any sense of pity.  He was merciless in treating his servants whom he counted worse than slaves.

 It is the common belief of the Vigan old folks that the home of this autocrat was veritable torture house.  It is said that the Inquisition had been imported to this lord’s mansion.  His room, according to an old woman who had entered it once by chance, was a treasury of all kinds of deadly weapons and torturing instruments.

 From several information gathered by the writer it was disclosed that during the “reign” of this tyrant, many of his servants had disappeared without any sure knowledge if the cause.  It was also recounted that whenever any of his tenants who had offended his master was called to this lord’s torture house, possibly to answer charges, the poor man was never known to have returned to his farm-neither dead nor alive.  It is the belief that those “slaves” who had wronged their master were never permitted to see once more the light of the next day.  They were murdered and were buried either under the house or in the yard.
 These crimes, however, were never taken to the attention of the law.  Nobody in the aggrieved party ever dared to report them because he feared the murdering instinct of his lord and master more than anything else.  It is because self-preservation told him to value his life more than his kin’s.  So that the authorities remained for a long time ignorant of the savage doings of the autocrat.

 But his end came unexpectedly sooner than he had ever dreamt of.  And that was a bloody death indeed when justice had triumphed over the wicked.  The law found this tyrant guilty of murdering one of his slaves.  As payment for his crimes, the autocrat was condemned to die at the guillotine.  It all happened like this:

 One afternoon news was brought to the tyrant’s wife, who at the time was playing panguingue in another house, that one of their male servants was fished dead out of their  well.  The motive was not known.  The matter was reported to the town officials.  But the authorities did not believe in the alleged suicide story, and instead suspected foul play.
 Immediately an autopsy was performed.  This post-mortem examination led to the conclusion that the man did not commit suicide as alleged but was murdered.  Investigation was conducted to prosecute of detecting, solving and proving, and robbed them plenty of their time for rest before they could find the real murderer.  The entire personnel in the tyrant’s household was subjected to a severe cross examination but no one gave out the authentic narration of how the crime was committed.  Later, however, after they could no longer bear the strain and torture of the “third degree” one by one the servants broke down and confessed.

 The tyrant was the perpetrator of the beastly crime.  According to the confession of the six servants of the autocrat they themselves did the killing of their mate but only through the force and command of the tyrant.  It was recounted that soon after their companion had offended their lord and master, the six servants were commanded to bind his arms and legs, strip him off of his clothes, and hang him head down from the ceiling to be whipped to death.  At first the six were reluctant to obey their lord and master.  But before they could think of their Hail Mary! They realized that it was no use for them not to carry on their obligation.  And so, against their own will, the six servants tortured their mate to death.
 Then when it was assured that the soul of the hanging victim had departed from his body, the autocrat commanded the six killers to remove the corpse and throw it into the well in his yard.  He gave explicit instruction that the dead man must be forgotten for two days and then on the third day news would be circulated that the dead man had been fished out from the well and they would have it appeared a suicide.  The tyrant threatened and scared his six servants not to divulge to anybody what had really transpired.

 But crime, perfect though it might be, always speaks out-and aloud.  The investigation was conducted and after it was conclusively proved that the tyrant had been the perpetrator of the beastly crime, he was sentenced by the tribunal to die by the guillotine.  His six servants who executed the killing without their free will were condemned to life imprisonment with hard labor.

 All the riches of this autocrat, together with the influence wielded by his family did not succeed in saving him from the scaffold.  His wife and little daughter sought refuge in Santo Domingo, a town north of Vigan, in order to evade the humiliating insults, criticisms, and looks that usually follow such a great crime.  After a few days they sailed fro Manila never to show their faces anymore to the people of Vigan.

 The day designated for the execution of the punishment came.  It was one Friday afternoon during the Easter season.  The autocrat and his six servants with their upper parts bare hands and feet bound, were places on cows, and paraded in the principal streets of Vigan to be humiliated, insulted and cursed.

 The parade terminated at the public plaza in front of the Catholic cathedral of the town.  Here, on the elevated platform where the guillotine was erected, waited the verdugo to claim the life of the tyrant for the sake of justice and peace.  A Catholic priest was also waiting to administer the last Sacrament to the autocrat.

 After hearing the last confession and giving the final absolution, the priest surrendered  his man to the verdugo and retreated to one corner of the platform where the six servants stood to witness the end of their once lord and master.  The verdugo placed the neck of his victim under the suspended ax of the guillotine.  At the signal given by the executioner, the verdugo cut off the rope supporting the ax.

 Bang! And the head was completely severed from the body.  There was absolute silence in the astounded crowd of spectators.  Justice had claimed the life of an undesirable citizen, a dangerous element in the community.  There ended the bloody career of the “tyrant” of Vigan.
 
Reprinted from Katipunan Finance Review, March 1933