The Bonifacio Trial House

 

 

 

 

When the Revolution broke out on August 23,1896, the Katipunan ceased to be a secret society. Later in the year, it was proposed that a new government be established to unite the Katipuneros under a single leadership. The Magdalo faction nominated Emilio Aguinaldo, a young Katipunan leader from Kawit. The Magdiwang faction maintained that Bonifacio, the Katipunan’s Supremo, should settle the leadership issue. Bonifacio was invited to an assembly in Tejeros, Cavite, on March 22, 1897.

The Trial of the Father of the Revolution

At the Tejeros Convention, a Revolutionary Government was established with Aguinaldo as president and Bonifacio as minister of the interior.

While Bonifacio was being proclaimed, Daniel Tirona, a Magdalo, stood up and questioned his qualifications. A lawyer, he said, should fill that position. Gravely insulted, Bonifacio, invoking his authority as presiding officer, declared the proceedings null and void and went on to establish his own government in Naic, Cavite.

On Aguinaldo’s orders Bonifacio was arrested in Barrio Limbon in Indang, Cavite, for refusing to recognize the revolutionary government.

Also arrested were his wife Gregoria and brother Procopio.

[Gregoria de Jesús  also known as Aling Oriang, was the founder and vice-president of the women's chapter of the Katipunan of the Philippines. She was also the custodian of the documents and seal of the Katipunan. She married Andrés Bonifacio,  the supremo of the Katipunan, and played a major role in the Philippine Revolution.]

[Procopio Bonifacio y de Castro (1873 - May 10, 1897) is a younger brother of Philippine National Hero Andres Bonifacio. He was a Philippine independence activist and revolutionary during the Philippine Revolution of 1896 against Spain. He was a member of the secret revolutionary society turned revolutionary government Katipunan with his other siblings, his eldest brother Andrés being one of its founders and eventually President.]

In the brief but intense struggle, Bonifacio was stabbed in the throat and grazed by a bullet on the shoulder. His brother Ciriaco was killed. The wounded Bonifacio was placed in a hammock and brought back to Naic, along with Gregoria and Procopio, for a pre-trial hearing.

Based on sufficient cause, a military court was quickly convened in Maragondon, Cavite, on May 4. The following day, the court charged the Bonifacio brothers with treason and sedition. On May 6, they were sentenced to death.

On the morning of May 10,1897 the Bonifacio brothers were taken by Major Lazaro Makapagal to Mount Tala.

When they reached Hulog, a barrio in the vicinity of Mount Nagpatong, Makapagal, upon Bonifacio’s insistence, opened his sealed orders. The order was for the execution of the two brothers, with a warning of severe punishment should he fail to execute the order. To this day, the death of the Father of the Revolution remains a controversial issue in the nation’s history.

The house in Maragondon, Cavite, where a military court tried Katipunan founder Andres Bonifacio and his brother Procopio, has been turned into a museum commemorating a significant, if dark, episode in our history. Its centerpiece is a life-size diorama recreating the trial scene.

[left click on any photo to view in larger format]

[left click on any photo to view in larger format]

 

[National Historical Commission of the  Philippines and  The Bonifacio Trial House]

 

Bonifacio as national hero

José Rizal is generally considered the National hero, but Bonifacio has been suggested as a more worthy candidate on the grounds of having started the Philippine Revolution.  Teodoro Agoncillo notes that the Philippine national hero, unlike those of other countries, is not “the leader of its liberation forces”. Renato Constantino writes that Rizal is a “United States-sponsored hero” who was promoted as the greatest Filipino hero during the American colonial period of the Philippines – after Aguinaldo lost the Philippine–American War. The United States promoted Rizal, who was taken to represent peaceful political advocacy, instead of more radical figures whose ideas could inspire resistance against American rule.  Specifically,  Rizal was selected over Bonifacio who was viewed as “too radical” and Apolinario Mabini who was “unregenerate.” Historian Ambeth Ocampo gives the opinion that arguing for Bonifacio as the “better” hero on the grounds that he, not Rizal, began the Philippine Revolution, is moot since Rizal inspired Bonifacio, the Katipunan and the Revolution. Even prior to Rizal’s banishment to Dapitan, Rizal was already regarded by the Filipino people as a national hero, having been elected as honorary president by theKatipunan.  Leon Ma. Guerrero notes that while Rizal did not give his blessing to Bonifacio because he believed the time was premature, he did not condemn the aim of independence per se. Teodoro Agoncillo gives the opinion that Bonifacio should not replace Rizal as national hero, but they should be honored “side by side”. Despite popular recognition of Rizal as “the Philippine national hero”, the title itself has no explicit legal definition in present Philippine law. Rizal and Bonifacio, however, are given the implied recognition of being national heroes because they are commemorated annually nationwide – Rizal Day on 30 December and Bonifacio Day on 30 November. According to the website of the National Center for Culture and the Arts: Despite the lack of any official declaration explicitly proclaiming them as national heroes, Rizal and Bonifacio remain admired and revered for their roles in Philippine history.

Heroes, according to historians, should not be legislated.Their appreciation should be better left to academics. Acclamation for heroes, they felt, would be recognition enough.

Bonifacio’s bones

In 1918, the American-sponsored government of the Philippines mounted a search for Bonifacio’s remains in Maragondon. A group consisting of government officials, former rebels, and a man reputed to be Bonifacio’s servant found bones which they claimed were Bonifacio’s in a sugarcane field on 17 March.

The bones were placed in an urn and put into the care of the National Library of the Philippines. They were housed at the Library’s headquarters in the Legislative Building in Ermita, Manila, together with some of Bonifacio’s papers and personal belongings. The authenticity of the bones was much disputed at the time and have been challenged as late as 2001 by Ambeth Ocampo. When Emilio Aguinaldo ran for President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935, his opponent Manuel L. Quezón (the eventual victor) invoked the memory of Bonifacio against him, the bones being the result of Bonifacio’s execution at Aguinaldo’s hands. During World War II, the Philippines was invaded by Japan in 1941.

The bones were lost due to the widespread destruction and looting during the Allied capture of Manila in February 1945.

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