The Town Hall Power Play — Noli Me Tángere

In the town hall youths and elders feud over the fiesta budget. Don Filipo, distrusting the gobernadorcillo's delay, follows Tasio's advice to propose the conservatives' extravagant plan himself so they will reject it, then let a young cabeza present the real program of local plays, prizes, fireworks without bombs, and a future schoolhouse the town could actually afford. Workers want a fiesta that feeds the plaza, not only the pulpit.

The hall erupts in debate until Capitan Valentin defeats Filipo's parody and the youth's sensible plan wins applause from workers tired of imported comedies and empty processions that drain wages each year while the curate's comedies arrive from Manila by courier. Then the gobernadorcillo admits the curate already ordered six processions, three sermons, and a Tondo comedy; contributions are collected and obedience required before anyone leaves the hall.

Youths withdraw; Filipo laments a slave chief. Ibarra leaves for the provincial capital with mysterious business. Rizal exposes local democracy as theater when friar will overrides town vote and every debate was only rehearsal for a decision already made in the convento before the first gavel fell. The fiesta will celebrate obedience, not the town that thought it chose how to spend its own wages, pride, and hope.