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| [Maraming salamat kay Dr. Ambeth Ocampo para sa orihinal na kopya ng artikulo na ito.] |
The Cry of Balintawak
By Carlos Quirino
Published in Philippines Free Press (26 August 1950)
We have been celebrating the anniversary of the famous “Cry of Balintawak” for half a century but– on the wrong day.
The Confederation of Veterans (Convets) headed by General Carlos P. Romulo, is sponsoring a nationwide observance of this historic occasion this Saturday (August 26) when, according to living witnesses who were present in Balintawak 54 years ago, the celebration should be held either on the
23rd or 25th – but certainly not on the 26th of August.
It was on August 23, 1896, that Andres Bonifacio and his Katipuneros gathered several kilometers northeast of Manila in what is now known as Balintawak to tear up their cedulas as a symbol of defiance against Spanish government. And it was two days later (August 25) in the same vicinity that the first Filipino blood was shed in an armed encounter between the guardias civiles and the Katipuneros.
The Plot
Yes, on August 26, 1896, government troops sent post-haste to the spot did shoot and kill three innocent farmers who happened to be in that locality. But the poor victims were not Katipuneros, and the Spanish commander must have submitted an exaggerated report to his superiors of the encounter, for Spanish chroniclers of the period have marked this date as the first bloody clash of the Philippine Revolution. And American and earlier Filipino historians have repeated this error without a verification of facts. (°)
Dr. Pio Valenzuela, one of the Bonifacio’s principal assistants in the Katipunan organization, is downright positive that we are making a mistake in observing the “Cry of Balintawak” on the 26thday of August. “I was present at those meetings’” he stated, “and I ought to know the dates when the various events took place.”
The plot of the Katipunan to stage an uprising came to knowledge of the Spanish authorities 54 years ago last August 19. Fray Mariano Gil of Tondo got the information from Teodoro Patiño, a member of the revolutionary association. A controversy has arisen as to whether or not this information was derived through the confessional; however, from the historical point of view, it is immaterial. The result of the exposure was that an alarmed government began to make wholesale arrests of Filipino suspects and the leaders of the Katipunan were forced to show their hand earlier than they had planned.
Andres Bonifacio, the Supremo, called a meeting of his men residing in Manila and the vicinity and the residence of some Katipuneros in nearby Balintawak. The members began trickling in by two’s and four’ from the nearby regions and the Supremo kept moving their meeting place from one hamlet to another for security reasons and in order to cause too heavy a drain on the hospitality of the member host. On the afternoon of the 21st, more than a hundred rebels had gathered at neighboring barrio of Kangkong at the house of one, Apolonio Samson. The following morning, the members present exchanged views about recent events, but did not reach an accord. Later in the day, the group which had swollen considerably in number moved to the Barrio of Pugad-Lawin (hawk’s nest) and met in the home of Juan Ramos, son of Melchora Aquino, the famed “Tandang Sora” of the KKK.
The meeting started in the earnest the following morning, August 23. Nearly a thousand members must have been present, for it was necessary for “Tandang” Sora, acoording to Dr. Valenzuela, to slaughter ten carabaos and open one hundred sacks of rice to feed the entire assembly.
A discussion arose as to whether or not a revolt should be staged on the 29th. The plan was to attack Manila itself. Only one member protested against the uprising: Teodoro Plata, brother-in-law of the Supremo. “He claimed the time was not yet ripe,” says Valenzuela. “We lacked arms and ammunition, and as the palay had just been planted, our men would lack food. In a way, he was right: for arms we had only bamboo spears, 200 bolos, and two revolvers – owned by Bonifacio and the other by me.”
Torn Cedulas
However, other members overruled the objector. Bonifacio announced the decision to continue with the revolt. Mounting an improvised platform, he harangued the crowd in Tagalog. He possessed a magnetic personality and was a full orator. At the conclusion of his speech he turned to his followers: “Brothers, do you swear to repudiate the government that oppresses us?”
“Yes!” the rebels cried in one voice.
“Then tear up your cedulas to symbolize our determination to take up arms!”
A rustle of papers – and in a minute the ground was littered with torn cedulas. From the crowd came the shout: “Long live the Philippines – long live the Katipunan!”
The die was cast. The Rubicon had been crossed. The Philippine Revolution had been commenced.
An amusing incident took place later in the day, according the Francicsco Carreon in his memoirs, although Dr. Pio Valenzuela does not remember it. It had been raining intermittently during that month, for it was the rainy season, when typhoons lashed the archipelago, and the rebels were cold and hungry. Suddenly, a false warning came that government troops were about to attack, and in their hurry to retreat the men grabbed earthen pots filled with half-cooked rice and dumped the contents into their hats which already contained cut tobacco leaves; on their march to Pasong-Tamo the men were so hungry they gobbled down that sickening mess, for hunger is the best sauce. Naturally, the Katipuneros became briefly but violently ill.
Carrreon left the place that days carrying Valenzuela’s little black physician’s bag in which Bonifacio had hidden the funds of the association with the admonition to be careful on the return to Manila because “everybody is being questioned there.”
At Pasong-Tamo on the morning of the 25th, Valenzuela remembers, a group of about 30 or 40 guardias civilles swooped down on the rebels who fortunately, had received adequate warning of their approach and had dispersed. The guardias were composed of Filipino soldiers commanded by Spanish officers; for Filipinos could not hold a military position higher than that of a sergeant; and they were armed with Mauser high-powered rifles. Despite the discrepancy in arms, the rebels hacked to death one of the soldiers. They lost two of their men in the encounter.
By the 26th, the Katipuneros had left the region and were marching towards Marikina in the vicinity of Balara, so when the government artilleros hastened to Pasong-Tamo that day the rebels were nowhere to be found. It thus became necessary for the Spanish commander of the unit to “manufacture” a bloody incident for his own glory.
“But Guillermo Masangkay has stated that the first shots were fired on the 26th,” we remonstrated.
Dr. Valenzuela smiled. A dignified old man of 81, he retains all his faculties and recalled without any hesitation the various incidents of the revolution wherein he was personally involved.
“Yes, he was member of the organization – but how can be he sure? When on the 20th of August, just before I left Manila, I called for him at his house on Calle Magdalena, he refused to come with me. I am positive about the dates of the various incidents that took place in Balintawak because –“he concluded simply, “– I was there.”
*Notable exception in the Filipino historian, Manuel Artigas (Historia de Filipinas, Manila 1916, p.586) who stated that “on the 25th of August a group of 200 followers of Bonifacio started in Pasong-Tamo the first hostilities against 30 guardias civiles who were concentrated in the Tambobong site.” Gregorio F. Zaide (History of the Katipunan, Manila, 1993 p.103) though repeating the error of the Spanish annotators was careful to the point out that the “place and date of the first Cry of the Philippine Revolution are still moot questions in the island historiography.”
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