Benito Sajon is a convict, having been sentenced by a Cebu court to spend time in jail for committing two crimes, namely, 8 years for homicide, and another 2 years for illegal detention.
On account of good behavior, however, he has been given work, under close supervision, at the San Juan de Dios Hospital which is inside the Walled City, a.k.a. Intramuros.
It is the 17th of September, 1894, a Monday, just an ordinary day. Sajon wakes up at 7am as he usually does. He proceeds swiftly to attend to his daily chores at the San Roque ward of the hospital.
On entering the ward, however, he sees one patient having some playful interaction with the other patients. It’s a rough and tumble horseplay. To Sajon, this is a no-no in the hospital as this is disruptive of the solemn atmosphere that should prevail inside the medical treatment facility.
Being a stickler to hospital rules, Sajon pipes up, castigating, cussing Pedro Reyes, the patient who’s the main promoter of noisy commotion that plays havoc with the hospital’s San Roque ward, telling the ill-behaving patients to knock off their horseplay.
Offended by the Mindanaoan convict’s profane words, Reyes rapidly swings a hand across the face of the ad hoc hospital worker. It is a forceful brutal slap that lands on Sajon who is caught unawares.
But no way will this assault be left unanswered for Sajon, being a Mindanaoan native, belongs to one of the south archipelagic island’s fierce tribe-warriors. And so, Sajon makes a retaliatory slap too that Reyes’s tender face catches. Being healthier of the two, Sajon’s thwack is fiercer, more forceful.
From then on, all hell breaks loose, the hospital’s San Roque ward becoming riotous, a place of mayhem.
Though he is the strongest amongst the rest in the ward–well, all people in that ward at that very moment are patients who have been admitted and confined there–Sajon nonetheless fears of becoming ganged up on by the patients. And so the warrior’s instinct in him kicks in. Sajon spies a thick, heavy wooden log that is unobtrusively resting on a spot next to the San Roque altar. He thus grabs it. But the minute he does so, the Mindanaoan warrior gets blinded by a massive explosion of fury. He doesn’t see anything anymore except enemy combatants who surround out to unalive him at this very moment. He thus starts swinging indiscriminately the heavy piece of wood at these patients with fierce intensity. No one is spared, all getting struck by Sajon’s ferocious attacks. Well, there is one patient who escapes the fury by diving under his bed. And another one too, a 13-year-old boy, who is spared, being small and hardly looking an enemy combatant.
The hospital being a healthcare institution run by a Catholic religious order founded in the 16th century, the staff that attend and manage the hospital’s affairs naturally are religious men and women. One of these staff is Sister Josefa de Brioso, a Sister of Charity member.
On this particular day, Sor Josefa is on duty.
At the very moment she hears the loud commotion emerge from the San Roque ward–the screams of the patients upon receiving the merciless blows from Sajon–Sor Josefa rushes headlong to the place. What she sees instantly terrorizes her. Sajon is running amok, running juramentado.
Ah, Sajon spots her.
Another enemy combatant! She too must suffer!
But the Sister of Charity nun immediately turns, fleeing. And being fleet-footed, she is able to find a room, get inside and close the door shut.
Though out of harm’s way, Sister Josefa’s sanctuary is admittedly hardly resistant to Sajon’s rage as the Mindanaoan warrior could just pummel the door by a single swing or two of the heavy wooden log and break it open.
Fortunately, the tumultuous September morning affair has attracted the rest of the hospital crew who have managed to send out alerts and seek the assistance of the authorities. Thus, Spanish military men, a corporal and a pair of infantry soldiers arrive. By now, Sajon’s juramentado rage has faded. And so he meekly submits himself to the armed Spaniards.
An investigation ensues. And the results? Three patients are dead. Seven are seriously injured. Five sustained less serious injury.
Had Sister Josefa de Brioso not been able to flee, she would have been either dead or injured, her name included in the list of Sajon’s victims.
A case is thus filed against Benito Sajon. The evidence is overwhelming.
It is almost 2 years from the time the bloody September morning mayhem had taken place. Finally, the trial winds up. And the decision of the Intramuros trial court? It is hardly unexpected–it’s a conviction. This makes the Mindanaoan warrior a double convict.
But all is not yet lost. There is still hope to overturn the guilty verdict. And so the indefatigable defense lawyer of the warrior from Mindanao elevates the case on appeal to the Audiencia de Manila, the highest court in the land.
Will there be a reversal? Or will the defense advocate’s efforts end up a mere exercise in futility?
a life observer 