CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The Tejeros Assembly, alternate names include Tejeros Convention and the Tejeros Congress,
was the gathering between the Magdiwang, led by Andres Bonifacio, and Magdalo, led by Emilio
Aguinaldo. The assembly was called upon to discuss the defense of Cavite against the Spaniards during
the Philippine Revolution or the Tagalog War. The assembly became an election to decide the leaders of
the aforementioned revolutionary movement, bypassing the Supreme Council.

The two rival factions of the Katipunan, started out as mere sangguniang balangay (councils).
Andres Bonifacio presided over the founding of both. The Magdiwang was formed in Noveleta, Cavite on
April 2, 1896; the Magdalo, in Kawit, Cavite, on April 3, 1896. The two branches were elevated by the
Kataastaasang Sanggunian (Katipunan Supreme Council) to the status of sangguniang bayan (provincial
councils) because of its rapid growth — afterwards; which the two groups were authorized to form
balangays under them and to expand their influence. The conflict between the two groups grew when
Spanish forces reached Cavite in 1896; the two factions began their own regional government with
separate leaderships, military units, and “mutually agreed territories.” The rivalry was limited to the
province of Cavite and some parts of Batangas because these areas were already liberated and thus
revolutionists could freely move and convene. The rivalry between the two groups never culminated into
violence. At times, the two groups were cordial and fought side by side against the spaniards. On March
22, 1897, the Katipunan, the Magdiwang and the Magdalo, met at the administration building of the friar
estate in Tejeros, San Francisco de Malabon in Cavite. The convention instated the planned defense of the
liberated territory of Cavite against the Spanish, and the election of a revolutionary government. The
meeting was first presided over by Jacinto Lumbreras, a member of the Magdiwang faction, who would
later become the chair to Bonifacio when it came time to address the reorganization of the revolutionary
government.

CHAPTER II. CONTROVERSIES

INTRODUCTION
The Tejeros Convention was the gathering held between the Katipunan's Magdiwang and
Magdalo factions on March 22, 1897. It is the first presidential and vice presidential elections in recorded
Philippine history, although just the Katipuneros could partake, and not the general people. Caviteño
authorities outnumbered Bonifacio's party, Emilio Aguinaldo was chosen as President. There were
allegations that many ballots were already filled and that the voters had not done this without anyone
else's help. Bonifacio supporters made proposition to make him the vice president. In any case, Daniel
Tirona protested that the position should not be possessed by a man with no degree or a lawyer’s diploma.
Offended, Bonifacio drew a gun and was going to discharge at Tirona, however was halted. Bonifacio
proclaimed the election void and stepped out in annoyance.

FIRST CONTROVERSY : Andres Bonifacio was entitled as “President”

The election on March 22, 1897 was supposedly manipulated by allies of Emilio Aguinaldo.
During the election of the leaders for the revolutionary movement, no one knows the total number of
delegates present in the said historic event, but there were 26 names recorded, 17 of whom were from
Magdiwang (according to Santiago Alvarez), and 9 from Magdalo (according to Emilio Aguinaldo and
Carlos Ronquillo.) Ronquillo also noted that many unnamed participants were in the upstairs area of the
estate house “filled to capacity.” Which means: there was a huge possibility that those unnamed
participants also voted even if there was no proof. Moreover, it was stated that some of the people present
in the election were also from parts of Batangas and some provinces to the north. Hence it is very difficult
to determine the exact number of voters present then.

Relevantly, according to historian Jim Richardson, a substantial number of delegates present,

though affiliated with Magdiwang, could be more accurately be tagged as “independents” who did not
necessarily support Bonifacio. This brings in new factors to the election that took place. Records only
mention those who won, but not the number of votes.

Since the number of votes were not given, a controversy was created and the writings of Gregoria
de Jesus, the wife of Andres Bonifacio, was exposed.

“The election was rigged to favor the Magdalos,” De Jesus writes. “Those who entered the
hacienda were asked (by Aguinaldo’s men) who they would vote for. Even those who did not know how
to write were given ballots already filled up apparently signed by the voters.”

Moreover, she adds that Apolonio Santos, who belonged to the rival faction Magdiwang, was
“mistaken for Magdalo” and “forced to vote for Emilio.”
“All those fraudulent machinations were tolerated,” De Jesus declares.

SECOND CONTROVERSY : Bonifacio’s trial and death

Aguinaldo requested the arrest of Bonifacio after he got a letter asserting that Bonifacio had
torched a town and requested the burning of the church of Indang after townspeople declined to give him
provisions. Some principal men of Indang exhibited to Emilio Aguinaldo a several complaints against
Bonifacio that the Supremo's men stole carabaos and other work creatures by power and killed them for
food.

Andres Bonifacio and his sibling Procopio were executed by Revolutionary Government for the
crime of treason and allegedly conspiring to murder Aguinaldo.

The jury was completely made out of Aguinaldo's men and Bonifacio's defense lawyer acted
more like an investigator as he himself pronounced Bonifacio's blame and rather requested for less
punishment.

The brothers were eventually brought to a bloody execution.

Apolinario Mabini composed that Bonifacio's death debilitated numerous agitators from Manila,
Laguna and Batangas who had come to help those in Cavite, and made them quit. In different territories,
Bonifacio's nearby partners like Emilio Jacinto and Macario Sakay proceeded with the Katipunan and
never perceived Aguinaldo's power.

CHAPTER III. STAND OF THE GROU

The group’s stand about the controversies is that Bonifacio should have been considered as the First
Philippine President and his trial and death along with his family and comrades was unjust and done
without due process. Below are some of the reasons why we have come to an agreement about our stand
as a group.

As First Philippine President

Bonifacio established a government through the Katipunan before a government headed by Aguinaldo
was formed at the Tejeros Convention. the Katipunan had been organized with "its own laws,
bureaucratic structure and elective leadership”.

They printed its Kartilya, a small handbook containing the rules, the 14-point code of ethics, and the
recruitment process. In it, the Katipunan declared that the word “Tagalog” stood for “all who were born in
this archipelago… hence Visayans, Ilocanos and Pampangos etc. were all Tagalogs”. A day after the Cry,
the Supreme Council of the Katipunan held elections, with the following results: Andres Bonifacio as
President/Supremo, Teodoro Plata as Secretary of War, Emilio Jacinto as Secretary of State, Aguedo del
Rosario as Secretary of the Interior, Briccio Pantas as Secretary of Justice, Enrique Pacheco as Secretary
of Finance.

The above was divulged to the Spanish by the Katipunan member Pío Valenzuela while in captivity.
Teodoro Agoncillo thus wrote:
“Immediately before the outbreak of the revolution, therefore, Bonifacio organized the Katipunan into a
government revolving around a ‘cabinet’ composed of men of his confidence.”

Milagros C. Guererro and others have described Bonifacio as "effectively" the commander-in-chief of the
revolutionaries. They assert:
“As commander-in-chief, Bonifacio supervised the planning of military strategies and the preparation of
orders, manifests and decrees, adjudicated offenses against the nation, as well as mediated in political
disputes. He directed generals and positioned troops in the fronts. On the basis of command
responsibility, all victories and defeats all over the archipelago during his term of office should be
attributed to Bonifacio.”

"Presidente" Bonifacio in La Ilustración Española y Americana, February 8, 1897

In documents predating Tejeros and the First Philippine Republic, Bonifacio is called the president of the
"Tagalog Republic".

One name for Bonifacio's concept of the Philippine nation-state appears in surviving Katipunan
documents: Haring Bayang Katagalugan ("Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan", or "Sovereign Tagalog
Nation") - sometimes shortened into Haring Bayan ("Sovereign Nation"). Bayan may be rendered as
"nation" or "people". Bonifacio is named as the president of the "Tagalog Republic" in an issue of the
Spanish periodical La Ilustración Española y Americana published in February 1897 ("Andrés Bonifacio -
Titulado "Presidente" de la República Tagala"). Another name for Bonifacio's government was Repúblika
ng Katagalugan (another form of "Tagalog Republic") as evidenced by a picture of a rebel seal published
in the same periodical the next month.

Official letters and one appointment paper of Bonifacio addressed to Emilio Jacinto reveal Bonifacio's
various titles and designations, as follows:
* President of the Supreme Council
* Supreme President
* President of the Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan / Sovereign Tagalog Nation
* President of the Sovereign Nation, Founder of the Katipunan, Initiator of the Revolution
* Office of the Supreme President, Government of the Revolution

We also believe that it is true that the election during the Tejeros Convention was rigged to favor the
Magdalo from the written accounts of De Jesus and other historians.

Trial and Death

The jury was entirely composed of Aguinaldo's men; Bonifacio's defense lawyer acted more like a
prosecutor as he himself declared Bonifacio's guilt and instead appealed for less punishment; and
Bonifacio was not allowed to confront the state witness for the charge of conspiracy on the grounds that
the latter had been killed in battle, but later the witness was seen with the prosecutors. And his death
whether he was captured unjustly, shot to death or hacked to death was basically an unlawful act.

Sources:
https://sites.google.com/site/melojaneelumbaring/philiphines-history
http://www.enhanceavillage.org/blog/president_andres-bonifacio-0-0?hs_amp=true
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/content/323562/the-case-for-andres-bonifacio-as-the-first-
philippine-president/story/
http://bakitwhy.com/articles/was-andres-bonifacio-rightful-first-philippine-president
http://globalbalita.com/2014/12/28/was-bonifacio-the-first-president/