Andrés Bonifacio (November 30,

1863 – May 10, 1897)

"The Father of the Philippine
Revolution"
 ANDRES BONIFACIO
Andrés Bonifacio (November 30, 1863 – May 10,
1897) was a Filipino revolutionary leader and the
president of the Tagalog Republic. He is often called
"The Father of the Philippine Revolution". He was one
of the founders and later Supremo (Supreme Leader) of
the Kataas-taasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng
mga Anak ng Bayan or more commonly known as
"Katipunan", a movement which sought the
independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial
rule and started the Philippine Revolution.He is
considered a de facto national hero of the Philippines.
 Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro
 November 30, 1863
 Tondo, Manila,
 Spanish Philippines
 DiedMay 10, 1897 (aged 33)
 Maragondon, Cavite,
 Spanish Philippines
 Resting place Remains lost
 Nationality Filipino
 Other names May pagasa, Agapito Bagumbayan,
Sinukuan
 Education Self-educated
 Known for Philippine Revolution
 Cry of Pugad Lawin
 Battle of Manila (1896)

 Battle of San Juan del Monte

 Battle of Pasong Tamo

 Battle of San Mateo and Montalban

 Political party La Liga Filipina

 Katipunan

 Spouse(s) Monica (c. 1880–1890, her death)

 Gregoria de Jesús (1893–1897, his death)

 Children Andres de Jesús Bonifacio, Jr. (born on early

1896, died in infancy)
 Bonifacio's mother, Catalina de Castro, a native of
Zambales, was a mestiza born of a Spanish father
and a Filipino-Chinese mother. She worked as a
supervisor in a cigarette factory. His father,
Santiago, was a tailor, a boatman and a local
politician who served as Tondo’s teniente mayor.

 He learned his alphabet in 10 years through his

mother's sister and he was first enrolled in a private
school of one Guillermo Osmeña where he learned
Latin and mathematics though his normal schooling
was cut short when he dropped out at about
fourteen years old to support his siblings after both
of their parents died of illnesses one year apart.
 Not finishing his normal education, Bonifacio
enriched his natural intelligence with self-education.
He read books about the French Revolution,
biographies of the Presidents of the United States,
books about contemporary Philippine penal and
civil codes, and novels such as Victor Hugo's Les
Misérables, Eugène Sue's Le Juif errant and José
Rizal's Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo.
Aside from Tagalog and Spanish, he could speak
and understand English, which he learned while
working at J.M. Fleming and Co.
 KATIPUNAN
 On the night of July 7, 1892, the day after Rizal's
deportation was announced, Bonifacio and others
officially "founded" the Katipunan, or in full,
Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga
Anak ng Bayan ("Highest and Most Respected Society of
the Country's Children"; Bayan can also denote
community, people, and nation).The secret society
sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.It
was influenced by Freemasonry through its rituals and
organization, and several members including Bonifacio
were also Freemasons. Within the society Bonifacio used
the pseudonym May pag-asa ("There is Hope").Newly
found documents though suggest that Katipunan has
already been existing as early as January 1892
 For a time, Bonifacio worked with both the Katipunan and
La Liga Filipina. La Liga eventually split because some
members like Bonifacio lost hope for peaceful reform and
stopped their monetary aid. The more conservative
members, mostly wealthy members, who still believed in
peaceful reforms set up the Cuerpo de Compromisarios,
which pledged continued support to the reformists in
Spain. The radicals were subsumed into the Katipunan.
From Manila, the Katipunan expanded to several
provinces, including Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan,
Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija.Most of its members, called
Katipuneros, came from the lower and middle classes,
and many of its local leaders were prominent figures in
their municipalities. At first exclusively male, membership
was later extended to females, with Bonifacio's wife
Gregoria de Jesús as a leading member.
 PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION
 The Spanish authorities confirmed the existence of the
Katipunan on August 19, 1896. Hundreds of Filipino
suspects, both innocent and guilty, were arrested and
imprisoned for treason. José Rizal was then on his way
to Cuba to serve as a doctor in the Spanish colonial army
in exchange for his release from Dapitan. When the news
broke, Bonifacio first tried to convince Rizal, quarantined
aboard a ship in Manila Bay, to escape and join the
imminent revolt. Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto and Guillermo
Masangkay disguised themselves as sailors and went to
the pier where Rizal's ship was anchored. Jacinto
personally met with Rizal, who rejected their rescue offer.
Rizal himself was later arrested, tried and executed.
 Eluding an intensive manhunt, Bonifacio called
thousands of Katipunan members to a mass
gathering in Caloocan, where they decided to
start their uprising. The event, marked by the
tearing of cedulas (community tax certificates)
was later called the "Cry of Balintawak" or "Cry of
Pugad Lawin"; the exact location and date of the
Cry are disputed. The Supreme Council of the
Katipunan declared a nationwide armed
revolution against Spain and called for a
simultaneous coordinated attack on the capital
Manila on August 29.
 Bonifacioappointed generals to lead rebel forces
to Manila. Other Katipunan councils were also
informed of their plans. Before hostilities erupted,
Bonifacio reorganized the Katipunan into an
open de facto revolutionary government and they
named the nation and its government Haring
Bayang Katagalugan (loosely translates to
Tagalog Republic), with him as President and
commander-in-chief (or generalissimo) of the
rebel army and the Supreme Council as his
cabinet.] On August 28, Bonifacio issued the
following general proclamation:
 On August 30, 1896, Bonifacio personally led an attack
on San Juan del Monte to capture the town's powder
magazine and water station (which supplied Manila). The
defending Spaniards, outnumbered, fought a delaying
battle until reinforcements arrived. Once reinforced, the
Spaniards drove Bonifacio's forces back with heavy
casualties. Bonifacio and his troops regrouped near
Marikina, San Mateo and Montalban. Elsewhere, fighting
between rebels and Spanish forces occurred in
Mandaluyong, Sampaloc, Santa Ana, Pandacan,
Pateros, Marikina, Caloocan,Makati and Taguig. The
conventional view among Filipino historians is that the
planned general Katipunan offensive on Manila was
aborted in favor of Bonifacio's attack on San Juan del
Monte,which sparked a general state of rebellion in the
area.
 However, more recent studies have advanced
the view that the planned offensive did push
through and the rebel attacks were integrated;
according to this view, Bonifacio's San Juan del
Monte battle was only a part of a bigger whole –
an unrecognized "Battle for Manila". Despite his
reverses, Bonifacio was not completely defeated
and was still considered a threat. Further, the
revolt had spread to the surrounding provinces
by the end of August.
 In the last days of August, the Katipunan members met in
Caloocan and decided to start their revolt[54] (the event
was later called the "Cry of Balintawak" or "Cry of Pugad
Lawin"; the exact location and date are disputed). A day
after the Cry, the Supreme Council of the Katipunan held
elections, with the following results:
 President / Supremo Andrés Bonifacio
 Secretary of War Teodoro Plata

 Secretary of State Emilio Jacinto

 Secretary of the Interior Aguedo del Rosario

 Secretary of Justice Briccio Pantas

 Secretary of Finance Enrique Pacheco
“ 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
 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.
 KATIPUNERO: EMILIO JACINTO.
THE “BRAINS OF THE
KATIPUNAN.”
(15 DECEMBER 1875 – 16 APRIL
1899).
 Known as the “Brains of the Katipunan”, Emilio Jacinto
was born in Trozo, Tondo, Manila, on Dec 15,1875. He
was the son of Mariano Jacinto and Josefa Dizon. He
was fluent in both Spanish and Tagalog, but he spoke
more in Spanish. He studied in the Universidad de Santo
Tomas, but did not finish college and at 20 joined the
Katipunan. Because he was very brilliant, he became the
advisor on fiscal matters and secretary to Andres
Bonifacio. He also edited and wrote for the Katipunan
newspaper “Kalayaan”–Freedom in Tagalog. He wrote in
the newspaper under the pen name Dimasilaw, and in
the Katipunan he was called Pingkian. Emilio Jacinto was
the author of the Kartilya ng Katipunan. After Andres
Bonifacio’s death, he continued fighting the Spaniards.
 On October 8, 1897, Emilio Jacinto, dubbed in Philippine
history as the Brains of the Katipunan, wrote "A La
Patria" (To The Fatherland), a patriotic piece inspired by
"Mi Ultimo Adios" (My Last Farewell) written by Dr. Jose
Rizal before his execution at the Bagumbayan field
(known today as the Rizal or Luneta Park). Jacinto wrote
the poem under the coconut palms of Sta. Cruz, Laguna.
 Emilio was only 19 when he joined the Katipunan. He
was known as the brains of the Katipunan when it comes
to military matters. His book entitled Kartilya was the one
used by the Katipuneros as their guide in fighting the
Spanish colonizers. It contained the constitution and by-
laws ofthe Katipunan.
 Jacinto, who carried the nom de plume "Dimas Ilaw", was
an equally cerebral and influential writer whose pieces
essentially exhorted the Filipino masses to join the
revolution against Spain and that every Filipino aspiring
for freedom should be ready to make sacrifices for the
country.
 A foremost revolutionary of the Katipunan, Jacinto wrote
the "Kartilla", the primer of the Katipunan on how
Katipuneros should conduct themselves in the fight for
freedom against the Spanish colonizers.
 He likewise edited the newspaper "Kalayaan" (Freedom),
the secret society's organ which tremendously boosted
the membership of the Katipunan from 300 to 30,000 just
before the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in August
1896.
 The simplicity and ease of comprehension of his writing
style to the masses evoked power and admiration among
all his readers.
 His other writings include: "Liwanag at Dilim" (Light and
Darkness), "Pahayag" (Manifesto), "Sa Mga Kababayan
Ko" (To My Countrymen) that all contain his socio-political
ideas using Dr. Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar as his
role models.