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Andres Bonifacio

Fragment of a speech, circa February 1895

 

                                          Source: Archivo General Militar de Madrid: Caja 5677, leg.1.92

 

Introduction

 

Nobody knows why Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora were charged with complicity in the Cavite mutiny.  Nobody knows why they were found guilty by a military court that refused to hear any defence; or why on February 17, 1872 they were taken to Bagumbayan to have their necks broken by the garrotte.  The Archbishop of Manila asked the Governor General to let him see the evidence on which the three priests were convicted, but his request was denied, and the trial records have still not been made accessible to this day.   

 

Outrage at this atrocity never faded.  More than any other single event, the executions awakened the sense of national identity that impelled Filipino patriots in the 1880s to campaign for greater justice and liberty under the Spanish flag and in 1890s to conclude that the Islands should sooner or later be free.  Rizal famously dedicated his second novel, El Filibusterismo, to the martyred priests, “as victims of the evils which I undertake to combat”.  Although still a child in 1872, he recalled elsewhere, he felt fiercely that the injustice and cruelty must eventually be avenged, and he swore to dedicate his life to that purpose.[1]  

 

The killing of Burgos, Gomez and Zamora was also seen as a momentous, pivotal event by the Katipunan   To mark the anniversary of the executions in 1896, Pio Valenzuela relates, each of the popular councils was instructed to erect a catafalque, shrouded in black, with a torch at each of the four corners.  The catafalque was adorned with wreaths made of the makabuhay plant, a symbol of immortality.  The members then entered the room in single file, prayed for the souls of the martyrs and, like Rizal, swore to avenge their deaths.[2]

 

Transcribed below is the unfinished draft of a speech Bonifacio wrote for the commemoration the previous year, 1895.  The day would come, he pledged, when “those with debts will have to pay.” 

 

 

 

 

 

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Minamahal kong mga kapatid

 

Ang kalumbayang na mamalas sa mukha at kaayusan ng lahat na ditoy nag kakapulong, nag bibigay hapis sa gunita, at nag papakilalang sa puso nang lahat ay laging na na riwa ang mahapding sugat na binugsan ng kalupitan at kaliluhan sa pag kitil ng mga mahalagang buhay ng ating mga kababayang si BxGxZx.

 

Ang ikalawang buan ng taong isang libo at pitong puoo at dalawa, ay nakintal sa puso ng lahat ng mga tunay na anak ng bayang Katagalugan at lalong lalo na sa bawat Anak ng KxKxKx, sa pagkat ito ang taong katandaang tinataglay kapagkarakang maging dapat sa kanyan kandugan.

 

Dalawang puo at tatlong taong bumibilang sa ngayon ang kalagimlagim pag isiping lamang na nangyari sa parang ng Bagong bayan ng bitayin ang tatlong tagalog na nangunang nag sabog ng kaliwanagan at nag wasak sa nakatatabing na dilim sa mga mata ng Katagalugan.  Ang bayan, pinanunhan ng buong katiisan, at sa pagkat mahina, mahina sapagkat di magkakaisa sa pag daramdam at pag dadamayan….[paper crumbled; two lines illegible] ang malalin na pag hihimutog at nabigkas ang “May araw ring sisikat ang araw ng Katuiran, at magbabayad ang may mga utan.”

 

 

 

 

 

 


Notes

 

[1] Jose Rizal to Mariano Ponce, April 18, 1889 in Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epistolario Rizalino, vol.II (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1930), p.166.

[2] Testimony of Pio Valenzuela y Alejandrino, October 21, 1896 in Wenceslao E. Retana (comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol.III (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de M. Minuesa de los Rios, 1897); p.305.