Adriano Hernández


Adriano Hernández 'y Dayot' was a Filipino revolutionary, patriot, and military strategist during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War.

Early life

Hernández was born in Dingle, Iloilo on September 8, 1870, to Fernando Hernández, a soldier from Valladolid, Spain, and Lucía Dayot of the landed and prominent Dayot family of the principalía class of Dingle. His maternal grandfather, Don Juan Marcelino Dayot, and uncle, Don Luís Cantalicio Dayot, had served as gobernadorcillos of Dingle, respectively, in 1829–1835 and 1853–1861, 1869–1873. Juan Marcelino was the teniente mayor of Laglag who was highly instrumental for the re-establishment of Dingle as a pueblo in its own right in 1823, while Luís Cantalicio, the longest-serving gobernadorcillo of Dingle, sold a number of his vast landholdings to pay for the tributes of his constituents during his years in office as town head. Both gobernadorcillos contributed to the construction of the Dingle Church.
Hernández was a Spanish mestizo who studied at the Escuela Católica de Dingle and later at the Ateneo Municipal in Manila. His elder brother, Gen. Julio Hernández y Dayot, later became the Secretary of War of the Federal State of the Visayas during the revolutionary period. His two younger siblings were Consuelo and Pilar.
Hernández was fully engaged in agriculture from 1890 until October 1898 when the second phase of the Philippine Revolution against Spain during the Spanish–American War broke out in the Visayas.

Military career

During the Philippine Revolution, Hernández organized a revolutionary movement in Iloilo against the Spanish colonial authorities and then from 1898, against the United States. He was the leader of the "Cry of Lincud," which formally launched the Philippine Revolution in Iloilo on October 28, 1898, at the house of his maternal uncle, José Dayot, at Barrio Lincud in Dingle, along with his older brother Gen. Julio Hernández y Dayot, his first cousin and aide-de-camp Maj. Estefano Muyco y Dayot, Maj. Nicolás Roces, Lt. Col. Francisco Jalandoni, and Col. Quintín Salas who fought together with 600 revolucionarios. This victorious event is known today as the first armed uprising and declaration of revolution for Philippine independence in the island of Panay.
Hernández then became an aide to General Martín Delgado because of his knowledge in military strategy. He represented the province of Iloilo at the Malolos Congress and was designated Chief of Staff of the revolutionary government in the Visayas in November 1898.
During the Philippine–American War, Hernández led the guerrilla movement in the province until his surrender in 1901.

Post-war life

Hernández declined to hold public office under the Americans in 1901 following his surrender. After the revolution ended with his properties destroyed, he emigrated with his family to Negros Occidental where he managed the Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas for seven years. He was the premier town councilor of Silay, Negros Occidental from 1904 to 1906. In 1907, he became a member of the first Philippine Assembly, the first nationally elected legislative body in the Philippines which was the lower house of the Philippine Legislature of the American colonial Insular Government as a member of the Nacionalista Party for Iloilo's 4th legislative district, which was dominated by the hacendado class who owned the vast hacienda estates that made up most of the cultivated land in the Philippines. In 1912, he was elected as the fifth governor of Iloilo. Halfway through his term of office as Iloilo governor, he resigned from his gubernatorial post after the American colonial government offered to appoint him as director of [Department of Department of Agriculture (Philippines)|Agriculture (Philippines)|Agriculture]. He requested that he be appointed to the position of Assistant Director of Agriculture first, serving in such capacity from 1914 to 1916. A practicing farmer, Hernández became the first Filipino director of the Bureau of Agriculture in 1916, which had been headed by American colonial officials before his tenure. This was part of the Filipinization policy of the American colonial government, following the Jones Act of 1916.
Hernández served as Director of Agriculture until his death in February 16, 1925 after his health failed due to relentless work.

Commemoration

  • Camp General Adriano D. Hernandez in Dingle, Iloilo was named in his honor. It serves as headquarters of the 301st Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army. The initial seven hectares of grassland of the 37-hectare military training camp was donated by his first cousin, Dingle municipal president Don Luís R. Dayot, to form the said military camp several years before World War II.
  • The Cry of Lincud Heroes memorial in Lincud, Dingle was erected in his honor on the site of the initial uprising.
  • The Gen. Adriano Dayot Hernandez monument is a bronze monument located in the Dingle town plaza erected in 1931 in his honor, during the term of office of Dingle municipal president Cipriano J. Montero, Sr., and completed under the administration of municipal president Julio Muyco y Dayot. A National Historical Commission of the Philippines marker was issued in 2008 for the bronze monument.
  • Hernandez Street, the main thoroughfare in Poblacion, Dingle, was named in his honor.

Personal life

Hernández married Carmen Gavira y Mapa of Jaro, Iloilo, a niece of Victorino Mapa who was the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Hernández had six children with her: Lucía, Fernando, Alfonso, José, Ramona, and Guillermo.
Lucía married Ángel Manzano of Teverga, Spain. Tingting Cojuangco and Edu Manzano descend from this line. Fernando became Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals. Alfonso, who was involved with the Bureau of Plant Industry, married María Estrella Macandita R. Dayot, his father's first cousin and daughter of Dingle gobernadorcillo Luís Cantalicio Dayot. José, a national poet and writer in Spanish, was the 1927 Premio Zóbel awardee for his poem Lo que vimos en Joló y en Zamboanga. Ramona married Alejandro Legarda, Sr. The couple owned one of the first Art Deco houses in Manila built in 1937. Another son, Guillermo, was a Spanish, English, and Filipino sportscaster and sports editor.
Adriano and Carmen had an adopted daughter, Dolores Strong Hernández. Hernández also had another daughter with Guadalupe Dairo, Dolores D. Hernández, who became a town councilor of Dingle.