Learned Truth Before Too Late
ON JUNE 6, 1950, 60-year-old Teodoro Barrameda died in the electric chair at Muntinlupa, Rizal, in the Philippine Islands. He was executed for having been a pro-Japanese collaborator during World War II. His case was very unusual and caused a great stir among the people.
From 1931 to 1933 this man had been a policeman in Lipa. Then he served as a soldier, after which he turned to farming. Shortly before the war he became interested in politics and joined the Filipino Ganap “fifth column” in Batangas. When the Japanese came in he signed up with their occupational police force.
The war over, he was brought to trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment on four counts. He was accused of being involved in the death of four Americans, besides the burning of an aged woman, the cold-blooded killing of two blind boys, and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. These charges, however, he flatly denied as false. When the case was appealed the supreme court turned a jurisprudent handspring and changed the life sentence to the death sentence. Twice he pleaded to President Quirino and twice the president refused to commute the sentence. All human efforts to save his life failed.
Then something happened. During his confinement Barrameda came in contact with the message of the Kingdom and learned of God’s purpose to establish a new world of righteousness under His beloved King Christ Jesus. He began to study the Bible, gained knowledge of the truth, made a consecration, and was baptized June 12, 1949. During the last year of his life he served as one of Jehovah’s witnesses behind prison walls.
The day of execution came, and the formal order of death was read by the prison director. All present were astonished at Barrameda’s composure and calmness. Instead of spending the last few hours weeping and wailing and attending mass, as so many superstitious Catholic prisoners do, this man sang Kingdom songs of praise to Jehovah, thankful that he had had the opportunity to learn the truth before his death. He also talked freely with the prison guards, giving them comfort and hope. His conscience was clear. In ignorance he had become mixed up in politics, but he was entirely innocent of the barbaric crimes for which he was being executed. He declared that he was “a victim of manufactured accusations”, like Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippine national hero.
Brought into the death chamber, he refused to take morphine or chloroform, saying: “Only the guilty would want to be anaesthetized.” Unlike hardened criminals that are hateful and bitter, he kindly bade farewell to those that strapped him in the chair, in the spirit of a true Christian.—Matt. 5:44; Acts 7:60; Rom. 12:14; 1 Cor. 4:12, 13.
The mental resoluteness and serenity that come over one who knows he is right made a great impression on those present at Barrameda’s execution. As reporter Virgilio Talusan wrote in the Manila Daily Mirror: “The six newsmen who saw the execution, as well as the other witnesses, were unanimous in praising the courage of the man. But I beg to differ with them. I believe it is not courage but resignation, sustained by a trust in the man’s belief of a judgment in the life hereafter.” Put in better language, Barrameda feared Almighty God, not those who killed his body. His hope was in the resurrection, and, like the evildoer that hung on the torture stake next to Christ, he appealed his case to the Supreme Judge and hopes for life in the new-world paradise of righteousness.—Matt. 10:28; Luke 23:39-43, NW.