Stolen heroes' letter recovered by Nat'l Library from eBay

Three letters – belonging to the government trove known as the "Philippine Insurgent Records" (PIR) – were recovered over the weekend by the National Library of the Philippines.

- By LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL

One of them was from Katipunan co-founder Ladislao Diwa; another was from Balangiga hero Eugenio Daza and the third from Teodoro Sandico, a member of the Aguinaldo Cabinet.

The documents had surfaced for sale on the multinational e-commerce site eBay. UK and London-based Katipunan scholar Jim Richardson had made the discovery. The "Insurgent Records" were captured by the US Army during the Philippine-American War and are composed of revolutionary documents dating from 1896 to 1903. They included the Trial of Bonifacio, military orders of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and many others such as documents signed by Gen. Antonio Luna. Sent to Washington for study, they were stamped with War Department markings that would become the telltale signs of their origin.

It was only after strenuous lobbying begun in the 1920s by Teodoro M. Kalaw, the first director of the National Library, that the documents were finally returned in 1957 to the Philippine government along with microfilm duplicates.

Today, they are one of the treasures of the National Library of the Philippines and the Filipino nation.