June 12, 2007

  • The cream of the intelligentsia from the wealthy and middle classes with connections attended the colegios San Jose Seminary, the Dominicans' Colegio de San Juan Letran and Colegio de Santo Tomas, and the Jesuits' Ateneo Municipal. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy had attended Letran; Gregorio del Pilar went to Ateneo, Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso and Epifanio de los Santos attended Ateneo and Santo Tomas. Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez, Jacinto Zamora, Apolinario Mabini, and Marcelo Hilario Pilar also went to Santo Tomas. Many of the leaders of the reformists and revolutionists came from the middle class, of mixed heritage, well educated, and staunch proponents of foreign thining, namely, the Enlightenment and Liberalism. It was so even in the case of the less fortunate Andres Bonifacio with America.

    Andres Bonifacio, born in 1864, had organized the Katipunan on July 7, 1892. The objective was the separation of the Philippines from Spain, but only as a last resort, if the friars were not expelled and political rights not granted to the Filipinos by the Spanish government. The revelation of the subversive secret society led to round-ups, tortures, and even massacres.

    On August 16, 1896, in the "Cry of Balintawak," Bonifacio called for independence and to rise in arms; four days later the katipuneros attacked the Spanish garrison at San Juan del Monte. The battle for freedom had begun and with it the casualties of war. Taken from Fort Santiago where he was held a prisoner, Rizal, at the age of thirty-five, was executed by a Spanish firing squad on December 30 at Bagumbayan. The spirit of nationalism, now a revolution, was the first of its kind in Asia. Three months later the Katipunan (Kataastasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan) developed into the revolutionary government headed by Emilio Aguinaldo. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines.