Apolinario Mabinis True Decalogue - ROSES AND THORNS

On June 23, 1898, Apolinario Mabini advised General Emilio Aguinaldo to change his government from a dictatorship to one that is revolutionary. And the following day, he issued his True Decalogue establishing the Ten Commandments for the Filipinos norm of behavior. Here is an early English translation of that Decalogue:

1. Thou shalt love God and thy honor above all things: God as the fountain of all truth, of all justice, and of all activity; and thy honor, the only power which will oblige thee to be truthful, just and industrious.

2. Thou shalt worship god in the form which thy conscience may deem most righteous and worthy; for in thy conscience, which condemns thy evil deeds and praises thy good ones, speaks thy God.

3. Thou shalt cultivate the special gifts which God has granted thee, working and studying according to thy ability, never leaving the path of righteousness and justice, in order to attain thy own perfection, by means whereof thou shalt contribute to the progress of humanity, thus thou shalt fulfill the mission to which God has appointed thee in this life, and by so doing, thou shalt glorify thy God.

4. Thou shalt love thy country after God and thy honor and more than thyself; for she is the only Paradise which God has given thee in life, the patrimony of thy race, the only inheritance of thy ancestors, and the only hope of thy posterity; because of her thou hast life, love and interest, happiness, honor and God.

5. Thou shalt strive for the happiness of thy country before thy own, making of her the kingdom of reason, of justice, and of labor; for if she be happy, thou, together with thy family, shalt likewise be happy.

6. Thou shalt strive for the independence of thy country; for only thou canst have any real interest in her advancement and exaltation, because her independence constitutes thy own libery; her advancement, thy perfection; and her exaltation, thy own glory and immortality.

7. Thou shalt not recognize in thy country the authority of any person who has not been elected by thee and thy countrymen: for authority emanates from God, and as God speaks in the conscience of every man, the person designated and proclaimed by the conscience of a whole people is the only one who can use true authority.

8. Thou shalt strive for a republic and never for a monarchy in thy country: for the latter exalts one or several families and founds a dynasty; the former makes a people noble and worthy through reason, great through liberty and prosperous and brilliant through labor.

9. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: for God has imposed upon him, as well as upon thee, the obligation to help and not to do unto thee what he would not have thee do unto him; but if thy neighbor, failing in this sacred duty, attempts against thy life, thy liberty, and thy interest, then thou shalt destroy and annihilate him, for the supreme law of self-preservation prevails.

10. Thou shalt consider thy countryman more than thy neighbor. Thou shalt see in him thy friend, thy brother, or at least thy comrade, with whom thou art bound by one fate, by the same joys and sorrows, and by common aspirations and interests. Therefore, as long as national frontiers subsist, raised and maintained by the selfishness of race of family, with thy countrymen alone shalt thou unite in a perfect solidarity of purpose and interest, in order to have force, not only to resist the common enemy, but also to attain all the aims of human life.

Conflicts of Apolinario Mabini and Emilio Aguinaldo in the katipunan

Emilio Aguinaldo and Andres Bonifacio were friends. This is a fact glossed over in our history books like Historia:Pag-usbong, Pakikipag-tagpo at Pagbubuo by Prof. Raul Roland Sebastian and Dr. Amalia C. Rosales. Aguinaldo, a bachelor and the capitan municipal of Cavite El Viejo (now Kawit), was induced into the Katipunan, a secret revolutionary society founded by Bonifacio, the Katipunan Supremo. This was in March 1895, before Aguinaldo's twenty-sixth birthday (based on my report), in a house on Clavel Street, in Tondo, Manila. It was Santiago Alvarez, his bosom friend and son of Mariano Alvarez, capitan municipal of Noveleta, Cavite, who persuaded Aguinaldo, a mason, to join the Katipunan. Aguinaldo in turn persuaded Alvarez to join the Free masonry.

According to the book that I have read, entitled "Katipunan: si Kuya Andres at Kuya Miong", Alvarez was the cousin of Gregoria de Jesus, wife of Bonifacio. He later became a general of the revolution. In the Katipunan, Aguinaldo, a deeply religious man, adopted the nom de guerre "Magdalo", after Mary Magdalene, the patroness of Kawit. Similarly, Aguinaldo's pseudonym in the Freemasonry was "Colon" after Christopher Columbus, who discovered America in 1492, (if I'm not mistaken). Aguinaldo's affiliation with Bonifacio's Katipunan was a godsend. A popular and charismatic capitan municipal, the highest elective post to which a native could aspire during the Spanish regime, Aguinaldo recruited many new members for the revolutionary society, including his close friend, Candido Tria Tirona, and his first cousin, Baldomero Aguinaldo, both of whom later became revolutionary generals and well-known Kawit residents like Santiago Dao, Canuto Encarnacion, and Tomas Aguinaldo. All were masons like Emilio Aguinaldo, who belonged to the principalia (According to my High School teacher), then the ruling class of each municipality in the country. But those people- peasants and workers- who could not be admitted into Freemasonry for lack of qualifications were nevertheless recruited by Aguinaldo in Katipunan. Bonifacio was naturally much delighted and gratified to learn about the recruitment of many members of the Katipunan in Cavite. Bonifacio himself congratulated Aguinaldo, saying the latter was able to sign up many Katipuneros because he was "such a good capitan municipal".

Aguinaldo made periodic trips to Manila to personally report to Bonifacio on the rapid increase in membership of the Katipunan in Kawit and nearby towns. To express his appreciation for Aguinaldo's efforts, Bonifacio one day joined the energetic capitan municipal on his trip to Kawit and organized a Katipunan branch or chapter which the supremo called "Magdalo", at the same time designating Aguinaldo as president of the new chapter. I have read, "The Truth About Aguinaldo and Other Heroes" by Alfredo Saulo, I have learned that one day in June 1895, Bonifacio, accompanied by Dr. Pio Valenzuela and Katipunan secretary Teodoro Gonzales, went to Kawit a second time to set up the Magdalo Council which comprised several towns of Cavite. Because of its unusually large membership, the Magdalo Council was organized ahead of the Magdiwang Council in the neighboring town of Noveleta which was originally headed by Mariano Alvarez. The littleknown but important historical fact is also glossed over by our historians, like what I've said a while ago. However, the Magdiwang Council of Alvarez had a much larger territory than Aguinaldo's Magdalo Council. In this connection, it is important to remember that the revolution in Cavite should not be confused with the Katipunan revolt led by Bonifacio. Following the discovery of the Katipunan on August 19, 1896, Bonifacio and his followers were forced to take to the field and, despite their lack of preparation, raised the standard of rebellion in Pugad Lawin on August 23. Based on my observation in many Filipino historians, one historian refers to this event as the "Cry of Pugad Lawin", but at least two more senior historians describe the incident as the "Cry of Balintawak" and say that it happened on August 26, not three days earlier as claimed by historian Agoncillo. Still other historians, Conrado Benitez and Teodoro M. Kalaw, call the incident the "Cry of Kangkong", for the water plant kangkong grew in the area. In contrast, there was only one "Cry of Cavite", and this took place in the towns of San Francisco de Malabon (now General Trias), Noveleta, and Kawit on the same day, August 31, 1896, the day after the Katipunan revolt had fizzled out in the Battle of San Juan del Monte, in Morong (now Rizal) province. The error is that most historians regard the two armed uprisings against the Spanish regime as part of the Philippine Revolution. The truth is that these two incidents occurred in widely separated areas and were entirely independent of each other. The Katipunan uprising was purely a revolt- and an abortive one- by a few hundred men under the leadership of Bonifacio

and Emilio Jacinto, while that of Cavite involved thousands of people on the first and many more thousands on the succeeding days, weeks, and months. By sheer magnitude and intensity, the Cavite uprising was a full-blown revolution. Except for a narrow strip of land where the Spanish arsenal was located, the entire province of Cavite was liberated by the revolutionists in less than a week. The rebels in the Battle of San Juan were all Katipuneros. In the revolution at Cavite, however, the preponderant majority were non-Katipuneros- people who had probably never heard of the Katipunan before the uprising because it was secretly revolutionary society. They joined the armed struggle against the Spaniards purely out of patriotism. According to General Baldomero Aguinaldo, president of the Magdalo Council- or government-based in Imus, there were only about 300 Katipuneros in the province of Cavite. General Emilio Aguinaldo, however, estimated that there were about 500 Katipunan members in Cavite at the outbreak of the revolution. There is a lot of truth to the statement of historian Schumacher that the "Revolution in Cavite had outgrown the Katipunan and would cast it aside" (Based on the book of Teodoro M. Kalaw, that I have read during my report). In fact, the Cavite revolutionists forthwith rejected the Katipunan and set up the revolutionary government to carry on the struggle for national liberation and independence.

Although its membership was well spread in many provinces, especially in Luzon, the Katipunan, because of poor military leadership, was able to put up only a one-week revolt, August 23 to 30, ending in a complete debacle: 153 Katipuneros killed and about 200 taken prisoner. The Katipunan uprising paled into insignificance when compared with earlier revolts. I talk to myself, like "Kagaya rin pala ito ng pag-aalsa nina Tamblot sa Bohol, Sumuroy sa Palapag,Samar, Andres Malong sa Pangasinan, Francisco Dagohoy sa Bohol, Diego Silang sa Ilocos, Juan dela Cruz Palaris sa Pangasinan, at Apolinario dela Cruz sa Tayabas, Ano ba naman yan!" Bonifacio fled to the hills of San Mateo and Montalban with absolutely no further chance of a successful comeback because the Katipunan in Manila and its environs had melted away. Bonifacio himself admitted that he had no followers left in the city.

After the San Juan fiasco, the Katipunan went into oblivion, and Bonifacio himself was soon forgotten. The Spanish forces under Bernardo Echaluche did not bother to pursue him in the jungles of Morong, dismissing the remaining rebel force as of little military significance. It would take the passage of several years, long after the death of Bonifacio, before poet Fernando Ma, Guerrero, editor of El Renacimiento, started building the Bonifacio cult, extolling and magnifying his revolutionary achievements out of proportion to his actual deeds.

President of the Tejeros Convention

President of the Biyak-na-Bato Republic

Dictator of the Dictatorial Government

President of the Revolutionary Government

President of the 1st Philippine Republic

He was the leader of the revolution and the first President of the first republic, but he is criticized for ordering the execution of Andres Bonifacio and for his possible involvement in the murder of Antonio Luna, and also for accepting an indemnity payment and exile in Hong Kong. Some scholars view him as an example of the leading role taken by members of the landowning elite in the revolution. His term also featured the setting up of the Malolos Republic, which has its own Congress, Constitution, and national and local officialdom -- proving Filipinos also had the capacity to build. On 18 June, Aguinaldo issued a decree formally establishing his dictatorial government. On June 23, another decree signed by Aguinaldo was issued, replacing the Dictatorial Government with a Revolutionary Government, with himself as President. Aguinaldo is best remembered for the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898, in Kawit, Cavite. The Philippine National Anthem - Aguinaldo commissioned Julian Felipe, a composer from Cavite province was asked to write an an instrumental march for the proclamation of independence ceremony. The original title was "Marcha Filipina Magdalo". This was later changed to "Marcha Nacional Filipina". The lyrics was added in August 1899 based on the

poem titled "Filipinas" by Jose Palma. The original lyrics was written in Spanish, then to English then later, was translated to Tagalog, which underwent another change of title to Lupang Hinirang, the Philippine National Anthem. Continue to Filipino-American Hostilities.

Effects of the discovery of the Katipunan

A.

Spanish Suspicion Aroused

More and more Filipinos were becoming members of KKK Although this is advantageous for Bonifacio, it also became a disadvantage for the

organization because the new members were impatient. Due to their impatience, they met nightly and this aroused the Spanish suspicion that a

rebellious organization existed which has the goal of over throwing the Spanish government Rumors and news of the meetings of the KKK members reached Manila which caused

anxiety for the Spanish population particularly the Spaniards.

B.

Betrayal The discovery of the Katipunan was because of an unfortunate incident that took

place between two katipuneros who was working in the Spanish owned Diario de Manila Apolonio dela Cruz and Teodoro Patino had a misunderstanding and to get revenge,

Patino revealed the secretsof the society to his sister Honoria. Honoria, informed Sor Teresa, madre portera of the orphanage where she worked, and

later suggested that Patino confess to Father Mariano Gil In the afternoon of August 19, Patino revealed what he knew of the secret society The discovery of the KKK was immediately followed mass arrests of Filipino

suspects.

C.

Wealthy Filipinos Implicated Bonifacio thought that in order to force the wealthy Filipinos to join the

KKKmovement, they had to make it appear that they were deeply involved in the movement This led to the arrest of Luis R. Yangco, Francisco L. Roxas, and other wealthy

Filipinos denied being part of the organization Roxas was executed and Yangco alog with others, bribed the officials and they were

eventually set free.