Andres Bonifacio

Andres Bonifacio

by Maricel Bautista

​Often known as “The Father of the Philippine Revolution”, Andres Bonifacio was a revolutionary leader and the president of the Tagalog Republic. He was the supreme leader of the nationalist Katipunan society, who provoked the revolt of August 1896 against the Spanish.

​Early Life and Education

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• Born in Tondo, Manila, on November 30, 1863, Andres Bonifacio y de Castro was the eldest of the six children of Catalina de Castro, a Spanish mestiza, and Santiago Bonifacio, an alkalde of Tondo.

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  • He attended Guillermo Osmeña’s private school and studied English while working as a clerk-messenger in a British firm.

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• Bonifacio was skilled in crafts and visual arts, and he created canes and paper fans that he and his other siblings sold. He even made posters for business firms. This turned out to be their family’s thriving source of income that continued even when he, Ciriaco, Procopio, and Troadio worked for private and government agencies.

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• In his late teenage years, Bonifacio worked as a mandatario (agent) for the British trading firm Fleming and Company, where he got promoted and became a corredor (broker) of tar, rattan, and other goods. Soon, he transferred to German trading firm Fressel and Company, where he worked as a bodeguero (storehouse keeper) in charge of the warehouse inventory.

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• Bonifacio was also a theater actor and played the role of Bernardo Carpio, a fictional character in Tagalog myths.

• On top of speaking Tagalog and Spanish, Bonifacio was also well-versed in English, which he learned while being an employee at J.M. Fleming and Co.

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• He did not finish school but enriched his natural intelligence with self-education, reading books about the French Revolution, contemporary Philippine penal and civil codes, biographies of Presidents of the United States, novels like Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Eugene Sue’s Le Juif errant, and Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

​Marriages

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• Bonifacio was married twice – initially to a someone named Monica of Palomar, Tondo, who seemed to be his neighbor. She died of leprosy and had no children with him.

• In 1892, 29-year-old Bonifacio met 18-year-old Gregoria de Jesus through his friend and her cousin, Teodoro Plata. Gregoria’s parents disapproved first of their relationship since Andres was a freemason, a person considered enemies of the Catholic church back then.

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• However, they gave in as soon as the couple got married through a Catholic ceremony in Binondo Church in March 1893 or 1894. Andres and Gregoria also got married through Katipunan rites in a friend’s house in Santa Cruz, Manila, on the same day of the church wedding.

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• In early 1896, they had a son, who later died of smallpox.

​Early Political Activism

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• In 1892, Bonifacio was among the proponents of Jose Rizal’s La Liga Filipina, a society that raised concerns and political reforms in Spain’s colonial government in the Philippines. However, La Liga got disbanded after Rizal’s arrest.

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• Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, and others revived the organization in Rizal’s absence, and Bonifacio started establishing local chapters within Manila.

• He became the chief propagandist of the revived Liga, which contributed moral and financial support to the Propaganda Movement of the Filipinos against Spain.

​Katipunan

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• • On the night of July 7, 1892, the day after Rizal got deported, Bonifacio and his colleagues “founded” the Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (“Highest and Most Respected Society of the Country’s Children”, commonly known as the Katipunan).

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• This secret society sought independence and freedom from Spain through an armed uprising, instigated by Freemasonry through its rituals and organization. Within the Katipunan, Bonifacio used the pen name May pag-asa (“There is Hope”).

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• Over a period of time, Bonifacio was active in both the Katipunan and La Liga Filipina. However, the latter eventually split because some members, including Bonifacio, thought that peaceful reform would not solve anything. The more conservative and wealthy members who still believed in La Liga’s objective set up the Cuerpo de Compromisarios, which pledged continued support to the reformists in Spain.

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• The Katipunan had several branches in some provinces, such as in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija. A majority of its members, referred to as Katipuneros, were from the lower and middle classes, and most of its local leaders were well-known figures in their municipalities. Initially, the Katipunan was an exclusively male society, though the membership was later extended to females, with Bonifacio’s wife Gregoria leading the group.

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• From the beginning, Bonifacio was among the chief Katipunan officers, though he did not become its Supremo (supreme leader) or Presidente Supremo (supreme president) until 1895. He was considered the third head of the secret society after Deodato Arellano and Roman Basa. Before this, he acted as the organization’s comptroller and ‘fiscal’ (advocate/procurator).

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• Within the Katipunan, he established a strong friendship with Emilio Jacinto, who became the society’s adviser and confidant. Bonifacio, Jacinto, and Pio Valenzuela worked together on the society’s organ, Kalayaan (Freedom), which had only a single printed issue. Bonifacio wrote a number of articles and pieces for the paper, including the poem “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” under the pen name Agapito Bagumbayan. The publication of the paper in March 1896 catapulted its popularity, thus increasing the society’s membership, which spread throughout Luzon, Panay, Visayas, and even Mindanao. With no more than 300 members in January 1896, the Katipunan grew to 30,000 to 40,000 by August 1896.

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• The rapid increase in Katipunan activity alarmed the Spanish government. By early 1896, Spanish intelligence had news of the existence of the militant secret society, suspects were kept under watch, and arrests were made.

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• On May 3, Bonifacio called for a general assembly of the Katipunan leaders in Pasig, where they argued when to start the revolution.

• Spanish troops confirmed the existence of the Katipunan on August 19, 1896. Hundreds of Filipino suspects, both innocent and guilty, were arrested and jailed for treason.

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• • Eluding the manhunt, Bonifacio gathered thousands of Katipuneros in Caloocan, where they decided to start the revolution. The event, marked by the tearing of personal identity documents, known as cedulas, was called the “Cry of Balintawak” or “Cry of Pugad Lawin”.

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