Andres Bonifacio
Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro (November 30, 1863 – May 10, 1897), a Filipino revolutionary leader and founder in 1892 of the revolutionary secret society Katipunan, germ of the future Philippine revolutionary army. Frontally opposed to the Spanish government, Andrés Bonifacio led the Philippine Revolution, the first revolution in Asia against a European government.
Biography
Born into a poor family in Manila in 1863, he was one of the leaders of the Katipunan. With radical approaches and a supporter of armed action against the Spanish, Bonifacio inflamed the indigenous masses and incited his followers to start a violent rebellion against the "kastila" (Spanish in Tagalog). When José Rizal created the Philippine League on July 3, 1892, Bonifacio was one of the few members who did not accept Rizal's peaceful vision. Rizal was arrested on July 6. and deported to the island of Mindanao by order of the Captain General of the Philippines D. Eulogio Despujol. The next day Bonifacio and five members of the "Liga" (Deodato Arellano, Ladislao Wada, José Dizón, Teodoro Plata and Valentín Díaz) founded the "Katipunan" ("The Society"). "The Supreme and Venerable Society of the Children of the People," a secret society, with Masonic overtones, that would seek an armed uprising against Spain. The first "Supreme" of the Katipunan was Deodato Arellano, who had been the Secretary of the League. However, both Arellano and his successor, Román Basa, barely managed to grow the & # 34; Society & # 34; due to its bourgeois immobility. In 1894 Bonifacio was named the third "Supremo" and with his revolutionary impetus and the help of a young secretary, Emilio Jacinto, he totally transformed the & # 34; Katipunan & # 34;, opening it to the lower classes and making it grow vertiginously. He was dubbed the title of "Supreme" of the Katipunan, and later succeeded in establishing a revolutionary government (Pamahalaang Mapaghimagsik).
On August 23, 1896, “the Cry of Balintawak” took place, a meeting of the members of the Katipunan in Balintawak in which they made the decision to take up arms shouting “Long live the Philippines!” "Long live the Katipunan!". On August 25 the first armed conflicts took place. When the revolutionaries held an election for the fledgling republic in Tejeros, Cavite, Emilio Aguinaldo was elected president, while Bonifacio was appointed director of the Interior. Bonifacio and his followers, known as the “Magdiwang”, clashed with the other majority faction, the “Magdalos”, led by Aguinaldo, who launched a smear campaign against Bonifacio, considering him unfit for office. Bonifacio responded by challenging the legality of the election and rejecting its results. These events led to a skirmish, in which Andrés's brother, Procopio Bonifacio, was wounded. Given these events, Bonifacio and his followers fled from the site, but both he and his brother were captured. Both were subjected to a council of war, in which they were found guilty of sedition and treason, and sentenced to death. They were executed, under an administrative order, by Aguinaldo's forces on May 10, 1897, in the forest of Mount Buntis de Cavite.