The Philippine Revolution as a Conflict of Class

By:  Paolo Flores

 The Philippine revolution aside from ethnicity and gender, is a conflict of class.Most of the ilutstrados or the middle class denounced the Katipunan and sided their loyalty to Spain. Ilustrados are branding the Katipuneros as un-educated, and the revolt they started was an ill-timed and ill-prepared struggle. Later the Ilustrados embraced the Katipunan because it is winning its battles against the Spaniards.these ilustrados, though driven by nationalism like the masses, fought to preserve their social status and economic wealth. Their interests and agenda vastly differed from the objectives of the Katipuneros. Other ilustrados preferred to remain fence-sitters until the tide of the Revolution was clear. In a study of the municipal and provincial elite of Luzon during the Revolution, Milagros C. Guerrero concluded that well-to-do Filipinos as well as municipal and provincial officials refused to join the Revolution during 1897 and early 1898. There was even hesitancy even after they did join.

Many history books assert that class conflict was symbolized by the leadership struggle between Bonifacio and Aguinaldo. In contrast to the working class background of Bonifacio, Aguinaldo was an ilustrado and a former gobernadorcillo or town executive in his home province of Cavite. Aguinaldo’s ascendance to prominence as a result of his strategic victories in battles naturally brought him into conflict with Bonifacio over the leadership of the Revolution. In a sense, their bitter struggle reflected the falling out of the masses and the ilustrados during the Revolution.

It started as a result of the intramural between the two factions of the Katipunan in Cavite - the Magdiwang and Magdalo. Their conflict had deteriorated such that each one refused to assist the other in battles. Moreover, in one of the battles in Manila, the Caviteno forces even failed to provide assistance to the revolutionaries of Manila. Bonifacio as Supremo of the Katipunan was invited to Cavite to resolve the factional differences and thus ensure a united front against the Spaniards in the province. Once in Cavite, the ilustrados maneuvered to ease Bonifacio from the leadership. In the Tejeros Convention of March 22, 1897, they voted to supersede the Katipunan with a revolutionary government and an election of the officers of the new government was conducted. Aguinaldo was elected as President while Bonifacio lost in several elections for key posts before he finally won as Director of the Interior. But a Caviteno, Daniel Tirona, immediately questioned his lack of education and qualification for the post, and insisted that he be replaced instead by a Caviteno ilustrado lawyer, Jose del Rosario. Insulted and humiliated, Bonifacio as Supremo of the Revolution declared the election and the formation of the new government void. What followed was a black mark in the history of the Revolution.

Aguinaldo, upon the prodding of his fellow, ilustrados, ordered the arrest and trial of Bonifacio on the grounds of treason. A bogus trial found Bonifacio and his brother, Procopio, guilty, and they were sentenced to death. Aguinaldo gave his approval and the Bonifacio brothers were shot on May 10, 1897, at Mt. Tala, Cavite. In rationalizing the fate of Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and his men claimed Bonifacio was establishing his own government which would have subverted the revolutionary cause. His elimination was necessary to maintain unity under Aguinaldo’s leadership. Ironically, Bonifacio, the father of the Revolution, became a victim to the ambition and self-serving interests the ilustrados as personified by Aguinaldo.

(This is in response of Paolo Flores to the article published in opinion.inquirer.net entitled A question of heroes: Aguinaldo vs Bonifacio)

The Challenge of Knowing Andres Bonifacio More

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon
CALABARZON

We have known and learned about Andres Bonifacio as the brave poor founder and supremo of the Katipunan, that to support his siblings, he has to sell canes and fans.  He is a reader of Rizal’s writings apart from other classic books written purely in Spanish in his time.

Source:  Philippine Daily Inquirer, Nov. 30, 2012

In this regard, having lived so much in the myth about Abonifacio, we have forgotten to think otherwise that with his traits, Bonifacio must have had a good education.  And to have it otherwise, he must have been not from ordinary poor families but from a middle class one.

In a DZMM  recent interview with De la Salle University History Professor Michael Chua, he explained that he was born of a half Spanish mother and that he lived a life of a middle class until the death of his parents at the age of 14.  He also hold managerial positions in various capacities with an average equivalent income of Php38,000.00 today.  This was the reason why he is able to buy various books which he reads voraciously and learned from (11-30-2015).

Indeed, we know little about Bonifacio and as what Bryan C. Paraiso a senior historic sites development officer at the National Historical Commission of the Philippines said in his article entitled Bonifacio Reveals Fervor in Writings published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, made him an elusive character in the Philippines’ struggle for independence.

With this, Paraiso, repeated historian Glenn Anthony’s comment that “… Bonifacio has been posthumously re-created. He has been given a new personality and a childhood that may bear little resemblance to his real one … The national hero who has emerged from this process of re-creation—the Bonifacio celebrated in history textbooks and memorialized in statues around the Philippines—is, in reality, something closer to a national myth.”

Bryan Paraiso further explained that much of what Filipino students of history know about Bonifacio has been culled from the writings of historians based on firsthand narratives of witnesses and protagonists in the national uprising.

But those writings are colored by the historians’ subjective interpretation, such as the article of Epifanio de los Santos in Revista Filipina that aims to vindicate the Supremo against the “cold and hostile … to the extent of objecting to his being given due recognition”  and the view that Bonifacio was the progenitor of a “class struggle” that arose from the inadequacies of the Reform Movement and apathy of the educated gentry for the masses.

Since college, I was already thinking why many know little about Andres Bonifacio.  With his writing of “Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog,” “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa,” and his translation to the vernacular of Rizal’s “Me Ultimo Adios” already put me to admire him and to put him on equal putting with Rizal on a different roles in the shaping of our nation’s history.

Analyzing these facts, we couldn’t avoid really thinking that he must have not from ordinary poor families in his time because other wise, he could not afford to have an education which matches the skills and prowess he shown.

Paraiso is saying the same.  He explained that snippets of prose and poetry may provide a clear picture of the personality and the rational workings of Bonifacio’s mind. “They reveal a man with an adequate education, adept at writing using an elegant hand and passionate about his idealistic and nationalistic principles,” he said.

Bulatlat.com author of Eight Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bonifacio and Katipunan Mong Palatino said that Bonifacio was an actor. He was a member of the Samahang Dramatista ng Tundó. He helped establish El Teatro Porvenir. As an artist, he knew how to effectively communicate with and use the language of the masses. Not surprisingly, his poems (Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa, Katapusang Hibik) are rated as among the best in Tagalog literature. Aside from being well-read, Bonifacio had deep knowledge of local narratives like Bernardo Carpio and Florante at Laura.

Mong Palatino furthers that It is not only Rizal who is considered the ‘pride of the Malay race’. Tan Malaka, one of Indonesia’s national heroes and founding leaders, recognized the heroism of both Rizal and Bonifacio. He specifically cited the revolutionary legacy of Bonifacio and his influence in sparking the anti-colonial movements across Southeast Asia. Professor Ramon Guillermo translated this quote from Tan Malaka: “Si Bonifacio ang pinakauna, hindi lamang sa Pilipinas, kundi sa buong Indonesia, oo, sa buong Asia na nanggaling sa, at edukado bilang, proletaryado, na nag-organisa ng mga proletaryo.”

Critiques and historians alike are validating our misconceptions and myth that surrounds the real Bonifacio which was compounded by the very symbol attached to him.

In an article written by Ambeth Ocampo for the Philippine Star entitled was Andres Bonifacio ambidextrous?, he made mention of how the popular mind commonly portrayed Bonifacio in a cameza de chino raising a bolo on one hand.  This portrayal of him was made into a symbol and immortalized by the work  of National Artist Guillermo Tolentino at the Caloocan Monument.

Teodoro Agoncillo said otherwise that Bonifacio never fought with a bolo. “I interviewed his contemporaries, like Pio Valenzuela and Guillermo Masangkay, and they insist that Bonifacio never fought with a bolo. As a matter of fact, Manila’s hero fought only in one battle—the battle of San Juan—and there he lost and nearly died. But he used a gun. That Tolentino monument is misleading. It compounds further an already popular misconception of how Bonifacio actually fought.”

“Bonifacio neither fought with a saber nor a bolo, as confirmed by minutes of the trial when Aguinaldo’s tribunal enumerated the weapons found on his person. The records repetitiously mention guns and revolvers, but never sabers or bolos.”

Bonifacio didn’t wield the iconic bolo, he didn’t wear the white camisa and screaming red pants, he didn’t shout what has come down in history as “El grito de Balintawak” (The Cry of Balintawak), he actually began the revolution in Pugad Lawin, not Balintawak.”

There is a persistent myth that Bonifacio didn’t win a single battle as leader of the Katipunan. But the Nagsabado sa Pasig event (which is still being commemorated up to this day) involving 2,000 Katipuneros who attacked a Spanish cuartel, proves that there were numerous local battles that Bonifacio and Katipunan spearheaded that eventually led to the military defeat of the Spaniards.

With these, we can safely say that indeed, there is much that we need to know about Andres Bonifacio.  Apart from a hero who met a tragic death and martyred not in the hands of the enemy but in the very hands of a fellow Filipino, we need to continuously reflect on the struggle that still exist between the ilustrados and the masses as clearly reflected by the kind of political leadership today.

Without the needed education in his time, Bonifacio could not have been what he is.   It is a stark reality that the poor's education is very important, and the poor educated ones need to continuously learn and think not for himself but for his country as he struggle to become a new ilustrado.  A new ilustrado and ultimately an elite who will work and struggle for change, good governance, end of political patronage and political dynasties to make the political environment inclusive, not exclusive to evil few.

This is the challenge of knowing Andres Bonifacio more, one of our two major heroes, who unlike Rizal need to be studied more so as in knowing we could do more in realizing his dream and desire for our beloved country.

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.) 

References:

Paraiso, Bryan C., Bonifacio Reveals Fervor in Writings, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Nov. 30, 2012

Ocampo, Ambeth R., Was Bonifacio Ambidestrous?, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Nov. 29, 2012

Mong Palatino, Eight Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bonifacio and the Katipunan