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Updated: June 24, 2025
The Government of Madrid disapproved of General Blanco's new policy and speedily appointed Lieutenant-General Don Camilo Polavieja to supersede him, and despatched forthwith a large number of Regulars to the Philippines. General Polavieja advanced against the revolutionary forces with 16,000 men armed with Mausers, and one field battery.
He had scarcely reconquered half of Cavite province when he resigned, owing to bad health. That was in April, 1897. Polavieja was succeeded by the veteran General Don Fernando Primo de Rivera, who had seen much active service.
His family waited long outside the Governor-General's place to ask a pardon, but in vain; General Polavieja had to pay the price of his appointment and refused to see them. The mother and sisters, however, were permitted to say farewell to Rizal in the chapel, under the eyes of the death-watch.
The clamor grew so great that it seemed possible to take advantage of it to displace General Blanco, who was not a convenient tool for the interests. So his promotion was bought, it is said, to get one Polavieja, a willing tool, in his place. As soon as this scheme was arranged, a cablegram ordering Rizal's arrest was sent; it overtook the steamer at Suez.
In December, 1896, General Polavieja issued a decree, suspending the elections which were to take place that month for one-third of the municipal electors, and directed the Governors of Provinces to send in names of persons suitable for appointment, together with the recommendations of the village priest in each case.
But he did not escape condemnation from his own countrymen, and when he visited Giron, years after he had returned to the Peninsula, circulars were distributed among the crowd, bearing Rizal's last verses, his portrait, and the charge that to Polavieja was due the loss of the Philippines to Spain.
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