DIFFERING ACCOUNTS OF THE FIRST CRY OF THE REVOLUTION

 Dr. Pio Valenzuela 's Account

The official date and place or the first cry were largely based on the account of Dr. Pio Valenzuela, an
official of the Katipunan and a friend of Andres Bonifacio, who was present during the event. His account was
published as Memoirs of the K.K.K. and the Philippine Revolution (Manila, n.d.)

The Account:

The first place of refuge of Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, Procopio Bonifacio, Teodoro Plata, Aguedo
del Rosario, and myself was Balintawak, the first five arriving there on August 19, and I, on August 20, 1896.
The first place wbere some 500 members of the Katipunan met on August 22, 1896 was the house and yard of
Apolonio Samson at Kangkong. Aside from the persons mentioned above, among those who were there were
Briccio Pantas, Alejandro Santiago, Ramon Bernardo, Apolonio Samson, and others. Here, views were only
exchanged and no resolution was debated or adopted.

It was at Pugad Lawin, in the house, store-house and yard of Juan Ramos, son of Melchora Aquino,
where over 1,000 members of the Katipunan met and carried out considerable debate and discussion on
August 23, 1896. The discussion was whether or not the revolution against the Spanish government should be
started on August 29, 1896. Only one man protested and fought against a war and that was Teodoro Plata.
Besides the persons named above, among those present at this meeting were Enrique Cipriano, Alfonso
Pacheco, Tomas Remigio, Sinforoso San Pedro, and others. After the tumultuous meeting, many of those
present tore their cedula certificates and shouted "Long live the Philippines! Long live the Philippines!"

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 Santiago Alvarez's Account
In 1927, a pre-World War II Tagalog weekly magazine named Sampaguita began publishing the
Katipunan memoirs of Gen. Santiago Virata Alvarez, (nom-de-guerre: Kidlat ng Apoy) one of the leaders of the
Cavite revolution. The series appeared in 36 parts. It told the story of the Philippine Revolution starting in
March 1896 until late 1897 interspersed with personal accounts and stories of events during the revolution
taken from Alvarez's notes. The series was later published as a book, titled The Katipunan and the Revolution
(QC: ADMU, 1992) with an English translation by Paula Carolina Malay.

The story of the First Cry is found in Chapter 6 of the memoirs. Alvarez presents an account devoid of any
dramatic description as it is merely a narration of the events that happened in Bahay Toro (now part of Project
8 in Quezon City) on August 24, 1896.

The Account:

We started our trek to Kangkong at about eleven that night. We walked through the rain over dark
expanses of muddy meadows and fields. Our clothes drenched and our bodies numbed by the cold wind, we
plodded wordlessly. It was nearly two in the morning when we reached the house of Brother Apolonio Samson
in Kangkong. We crowded into the house to rest and warm ourselves. We were so tired that, after hanging our
clothes out to dry, we soon fell asleep....

The Supremo began assigning guards at five o'clock the following morning, Saturday August 1896. He
placed a detachment at the Balintawak boundary and another at a the backyard to the north of the house
where we were gathered...

No less than three hundred men assembled at the bidding of the Supremo Andres Bonifacio. Altogether,
they carried assorted weapons, bolos, spears, daggers, a dozen small revolvers and a rifle used by its owner, on
e Lieutenant Manuel, for hunting birds. The Supremo Bonifacio was restless because of fear of a sudden attack
by the enemy. He was worried over the thought that any of the couriers carrying the letter sent by Emnilio
Jacinto could bave been intercepted; and in that eventuality, the enemy would surely know their whereabouts
and attack them on the sly. He decided that it was better to move to a site called Bahay Toro.

At ten o'clock that Surnday morning, 23 August 1896, we arrived at Bahay Toro. Our number had
grown to more than 500 and the house, yard, and warehouse of Cabesang Melchora was getting crowded with
us Katipuneros. The generous hospitality of Cabesang Metchora was no less than that of Apolonio Samson. Like
him, she also opened her granary and had plenty of rice pounded and animals slaughtered to feed us....

The following day, Monday, 24 August, more Katipuneros came and increased our number to more
than a thousand. The Supremo called a meeting at ten o'clock that morning inside Cabesang Melchora's barn.
Flanking him on both sides at the head of the table were Dr. Pio Valenzuela, Emilio Jacinto, Briccio Pantas,
Enrique Pacheco, Ramon Bernardo, Pantelaon Torres, Francisco Carreon, Vicente Fernandez, Teodoro Plata,
and others. We were so crowded that some stood outside the barn.

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The following matters were approved at the meeting:

1. An uprising to defend the people's freedom was to be started at midnight of Saturday, 29 August 1896.

4. To be on a state of alert so that the Katipunan forces could strike should the situation arise where the enemy
was at a disadvantage. Thus, the uprising could be started earier than the agreed time of midnight of 29
August 1896 should a favorable opportunity arise at that date. Everyone should steel himself and be resolute in
the struggle that was imminent.

5. The immediate objective was the capture of Manila...

After the adjournment of the meeting at twelve noon, there were tumultuous shouts of Long live the Sons of
the People!"

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 Guillermo Masangkay's Account
In 1932, Guillermo Masangkay, a friend and fellow Katipunero of Andres Bonifacio, recounted his experiences
as a member of the revolutionary movement. In an interview with the Sunday Tribune magazine, Masangkay
said that the First Cry happened in Balintawak on August 26, 1896. In the first decade of American rule, it was
his account that was used by the government and civic officials to fix the date and place of the First Cry which
was capped with the erection of the "Monument to the Heroes of 1896" in that place.

However, in an interview published in the newspaper Bagong Buhay on August 26, 1957, Masangkay changed
his narrative that the revolution began on August 23, 1876, similar to the assertion of Dr. Pio Valenzuela. But
Masangkay's date was later changed again when his granddaughter, Soledad Buehler-Borromeo, cited sources,
including the Masangkay papers, that the original date was August 26.

The Account:

On August 26, a big meeting was held in Balintawak at the house of Apolonio Samson, then the cabeza
of that barrio of Caloocan. Among those who attended, I remember were Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, Aguedo del
Kosario, Tomas Remigio, Briccio Pantas, Teodoro Plata, Pio Valenzuela, Enrique Pacheco, and Francisco
Carreon. They were all leaders of the Katipunan and composed the board of directors of the organization.
Delegates from Bulacan, Cabanatuan, Cavite, and Morong (now Rizal) were also present.

At about nine o'clock in the morning of August 26, the meeting was opened with Andres Bonifacio
presiding and Emilo Jacinto acting as secretary. The purpose was to discuss when the uprising was to take
place. Teodoro Plata, Briccio Pantas, and Pio Valenzuela were all opposed to starting therevolution too early.
They reasoned that the people would be in distress if the revolution were started without adequate
preparation. Plata was very forceful in his argument, stating that the uprising could not very well be started
without arms and food for the soldiers. Valenzuela used Rizal's argument about the rich not siding with the
Katipunan organization.

Andres Bonifacio, sensing that he would lose in the discussion then left the session hall and talked to
the people who were waiting outside for the result of the meeting the leaders. He told the people that the
leaders were arguing against starting the revolution early, and appealed to them in a fiery speech in which he
said: "You remember the fate of our countrymen who were shot in Bagumbayan. Should we return now to the
towns, the Spaniards will only shoot us. Our organization has been discovered and we are all marked men. If
we don't start the uprising, the Spaniards will get us anyway. What then, do you say?"

"Revolt," the people shouted as one.

Bonifacio then asked the people to give a pledge that they were to revolt. He told them that the sign of slavery
of the Filipinos were (sic) the cedula tax charged each citizen. "If it is true that you are ready to revolt,"
Bonifacio said,

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"I want to see you destroyed your cedulas. It will sign that all of us have declared our severance from the
Spaniards."

With tears in their eyes, he people, as one man, pulled out their cedulas and tore them to pieces. It was the
beginning of the formal declaration of the separation from Spanish rule....

When the people's pledge was obtained by Bonifacio, he returned to the session hall and informed the leaders
of what took place outside. "The people want to revolt, and they destroyed their cedulas, " Bonifacio said, "So
now we have to start the uprising, otherwise the people by hundreds will be shot. There was no alternative.
The board of directors, in spite of the protests of Plata, Pantas, and Valenzuela, voted for the revolution. And
when this was decided, the people shouted, "Long Live the Philippine Republic."