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| This illustration based on a photograph appeared in the 08 February 1897 issue of La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana. |
The Filipino revolution against the Spanish colonial masters broke out in August 1896. It wasn't 'breaking news' in Spain's news media. There was Cuba to occupy them anyway.
Six months later however a picture and a bitty item on Andres Bonifacio appeared in the 08 February 1897 issue of La Ilustracion española y americana, a weekly journal in Madrid. Three months later, Bonifacio was assassinated in Cavite, which, to our knowledge, also did not merit mention in the Spanish press.
Six months later however a picture and a bitty item on Andres Bonifacio appeared in the 08 February 1897 issue of La Ilustracion española y americana, a weekly journal in Madrid. Three months later, Bonifacio was assassinated in Cavite, which, to our knowledge, also did not merit mention in the Spanish press.
La Ilustracion captioned Bonifacio's picture as 'presidente de la republica tagala.' president of the tagalog republic. In a single-sentence paragraph that followed, he was the 'presidente de la republica de katipunesca,' which thus acknowledged the armed revolutionary movement he led, but then callled the Katipunan a group of ungrateful mad children of Spain who wanted to establish the republic 'after the extermination of all the whites.'
The reporter wondered how the very humble origin of Bonifacio--his livelihood depended on Fressel and Company, a commercial house in Manila--could have earned him the first place or top post in his group/
The 'government that the rebels formed' was listed as consisting of the Ministers of the Supreme People's Council: President, Andres Bonifacio; War, Teodoro Plata; State, Emilio
Jacinto; Governance, Aguedo del Rosario; Justice, Birecio Pantas;
Treasury, Enrique Pacheco.
This was followed by an obit to 'Teodoro Plata and other ministers and heads of the republic who were shot the day before yesterday in Manila [06 February 1897].'
Obviously, a cablegram dispatched from Manila to Madrid came right on time just before Ilustracion got to the press on 08 February 1897.
The story then went to inform about what General Camilo Polavieja would do to finish the 'comedy government': attack Cavite, the entire province being a rebel stronghold except Carmona, which can be entered from Binan and Laguna de Bay.
To isolate this 'core of rebellion', Polavieja established a line from Calamba to Tanauan and to a banana farm in Taal. He placed armed boats in both Laguna and Taal lakes. He wanted to cut rebel communications to central and northern Luzon. He used the line following the Pansipit river to cut the lines between the rebels and south Luzon. He guarded Manila Bay so that no arms and ammunition would land in Cavite, and there would be no communications between the Cavite rebels and those of Bataan and Bulacan.
'The victory of our troops is assured,' the Ilustracion predicted, 'because it is very well prepared; but it will be expensive, because the enemy has had many months to prepare the defense. The land is favorable to them, some parts very rough and others marshy, and now the rice fields completely flooded because the Cavitenos broke the dams. Andres Bonifacio and his general Emilio Aguinaldo have about 60,000 men, of whom more than 20,000 well armed.'
Twists of fate, personal and historical, happened in the life of the revolutionary factions and their leaders, and the budding nation as well, after 08 February 1897. Polavieja did not march into Cavite, and three months later, Bonifacio died in the hands of Cavitenos,
Bonifacio stands frozen on a pedestal in Monumento, Caloocan City. The El Grito (the Cry) monument in UP Diliman has the unknown rebel still raising his bolo and flag in defiance. The modern Bonifacios are either fighting in the underground or seething with various advocacies in the social media or in parliaments on the streets when the occasion arises.
To isolate this 'core of rebellion', Polavieja established a line from Calamba to Tanauan and to a banana farm in Taal. He placed armed boats in both Laguna and Taal lakes. He wanted to cut rebel communications to central and northern Luzon. He used the line following the Pansipit river to cut the lines between the rebels and south Luzon. He guarded Manila Bay so that no arms and ammunition would land in Cavite, and there would be no communications between the Cavite rebels and those of Bataan and Bulacan.
'The victory of our troops is assured,' the Ilustracion predicted, 'because it is very well prepared; but it will be expensive, because the enemy has had many months to prepare the defense. The land is favorable to them, some parts very rough and others marshy, and now the rice fields completely flooded because the Cavitenos broke the dams. Andres Bonifacio and his general Emilio Aguinaldo have about 60,000 men, of whom more than 20,000 well armed.'
Twists of fate, personal and historical, happened in the life of the revolutionary factions and their leaders, and the budding nation as well, after 08 February 1897. Polavieja did not march into Cavite, and three months later, Bonifacio died in the hands of Cavitenos,
Bonifacio stands frozen on a pedestal in Monumento, Caloocan City. The El Grito (the Cry) monument in UP Diliman has the unknown rebel still raising his bolo and flag in defiance. The modern Bonifacios are either fighting in the underground or seething with various advocacies in the social media or in parliaments on the streets when the occasion arises.
- Report. 1897 February 8. Filipinas - Andres Bonifacio - titulado presidente de la republica tagala. La ilustracion espanola y smericana. 41:5 (79 text, 88 picture). Retrieved from Biblioteca Nacional de Espana at http://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/issue.vm?id=0001174678
