DOCUMENTS OF THE

 

Katipunan

Mataas na Sangunian

Letter dated September 28, 1897

 

                                       Source: Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental, Madrid, Sign. 63/13

 

› › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › ›

  HOME

 

 

Although this letter is brief and its subject matter unremarkable – a request for a donation to the revolutionary cause – it is interesting because it shows that the Mataas na Sangunian [the KKK High Council in the area around Manila] was still functioning four or five months after Bonifacio’s execution, and functioning independently, it seems, of Aguinaldo’s government, which was then in Biak-na-bato.  Julio Nakpil is soliciting funds for the revolutionary government “dito” – here – meaning in effect the Mataas na Sangunian itself, whose partisans he explicitly describes as “mga Katipunan ng mga anak ng bayan.” The selyo or stamp impressed on the letter, likewise, places the words “Mataas na Sangunian – Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan” together in a circle around the Katipunan’s “baybayin K within a sun” symbol.  Nothing in the letter alludes to the “Republica Filipina” of which Aguinaldo had been proclaimed president in April.[[1]]  The letter also indicates that the Sangunian, which in late 1896 had been based in the town of Pasig, was now operating even closer to the seat of Spanish power, in the Manila suburb of Sta. Ana.

 

One might expect to find such a letter addressed to a wealthy resident of Sta. Ana, or of another suburb or town nearby.  Surprisingly, this particular letter was sent to Paete, a town in Laguna some fifty miles distant.  Even more surprisingly, the addressee was the parish priest of Paete, who was a Francisan friar and presumably a Spaniard. 

 

› › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › ›

 

Tagalog text

 

Maginoong Cipriano Ortiz

Cura Parroco sa Paiti

 

 

Maginoong Cipriano Ortiz,

 

Di gunitang tua iring tatamuhin kung kayo’y maluahating dadnin niring abang liham lalu pa kung tiwasay at walang ano mang sakuna.

 

Ang dahilan nitong kalatas ay kayo umangbag dito sa Gobierno revolucionario ng salapi upang may maigugol sa mga gastos de guerra at inaasahan ko na kayo’y gagawa ng isang kasulatan na kayo’y hindi magpapanganyaya sa mga Katipunan ng mga anak ng bayan o defensores de la patria; ang katibayang ito’y siya kong panghahawakan.

 

Kayo’y ingatan nawa ng Maykapal sa mahabang panahon.

 

Sta. Ana ika 28 ng Septiembre ng taong 1897.

 

Akong Mataas na Pang-Ulo.

 

Julio N. Giliw

 

Huling Lagda:  Ang tawong may taglay nito, maipagkakaloob ninyo ang salaping ambag sampu ng katibayan, at ang mapahamak dito sa Bayan ng Silangan ay kapatid ang inyong mahal na ulo.

 

                                                                                    Mayhalaga

                                                                                    Giliw

 

› › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › 0

 

English translation (based on a translation filed with the original document in AFIO, Madrid)

 

 

Senor Cipriano Ortiz,

 

Unforgettable joy shall be mine if you will be well when this humble letter reaches you, particularly if you are at peace and without any misfortune.

 

The reason for this message is to request you to contribute to this Revolutionary Government in order that it may have something to spend for the expenses of war, and I hope you will make a written statement that you will not cause any harm to the Katipunan ng mga anak ng bayan or defenders of the fatherland; I shall rely upon this document.

 

May the Lord protect you for a long time.

 

Sta. Ana, the 28th of September of the year 1897.

 

I, the High President

 

Julio N. Giliw

 

Postscript:  You can entrust to the bearer of this (letter) the contributed money as well as the certification, and whoever suffers in this land of the East is a brother of your dear chief.

                                                                                    Respectfully

                                                                                    Giliw

 

 

 

 

                             


[1] Nakpil did for a time accept a position – Minister of Fomento – in the Departmental Government of Central Luzon, which had been constituted with Aguinaldo’s sanction at an assembly in Puray in mid-1897.  He then “communicated to them [his colleagues in the Departmental Government] my conformity with the constitution of our government, and I hinted the continuation of the Katipunan... for the purpose of collecting more funds for the acquisition of firearms, telling them that the Katipunan revolutionists and even outsiders had very great faith in the Katipunan.  Mr Emilio Aguinaldo took this ill and without any further explanation ordered Generals Severino Taiño and Pio del Pilar to assassinate me.” It was presumably this unwelcome turn of events that made him decide to concentrate his energies again on the Mataas na Sangunian.   Julio Nakpil, “Notes on Teodoro M. Kalaw’s ‘The Philippine Revolution’”, in Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution, with the autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus (Manila: Heirs of Julio Nakpil, 1964), p.45.