One way to understand the swift spread of the Katipunan society in 1896 is to

examine the contents of its one and only of its organ the KALAYAAN.

Only one thousand copies were printed, but these were passed from hand to hand.
When copies of Kalayaan were distributed around the end of March 1896 “hundreds
of people nightly joined the Katipunan in the municipalities of San Juan del Monte,
San Felipe, Neri, Pasig, Pateros, Marikina, Caloocan, Malabon and other places.

The most important item in the Kalayaan issue is Bonifacio’s manifesto “ Ang Dapat
Mabatid ng mga Tagalog” (“What the Tagalogs Should Know”).

Its importance stems from the fact that:

-it places struggle for independence in a framework of meaning which is

“traditional”

-interprets the past, beginning with an account of the “fall” of the tagalong race

Pasyon
-To begin with Bonifacio uses the words - are common attributes of paradise
kasaganaan(sagana) and
kaginhawaan(ginhawa), to describe pre
Spanish situation.

-furthermore he discussed that the - Just as Adam and Eve could name all
Tagalogs could read and write thus had the plants and animals in paradise.
knowledge

-Then the Spaniards arrived offering
increased prosperity and knowledge if
the tagalongs would ally with them.
-the Filipinos believe the sweet words of
the Spaniards and thus allies with them
-just like the serpent offering knowledge
through the forbidden fruit
-Eve because of her weak mind
succumbs to the words of the serpent.

-The serpents description matches that -The serpent was never true to his word
of the Spanish Friars in Katipunan and deceives Adam and Eve
Documents

The next paragraph begins with a continued description of the effects of Spain’s inability to have
compassion and her increasing cruelty to the tagalongs.

Pasyon
-There is much weeping and wailing in -Suffering of Mother Mary who
the land from orphans, widows and participated in Christ’s experience.
parents bereft of their children
The second major item in the first issue of Kalayaan is a manifesto by Emilio Jacinto,
a man of some education who was called the “eye” of the Katipunan. In this
manifesto Kalayaan is personified and appears to a youth (katagalugan) who is in
darkness.

Pasyon
The youth can comprehend the future
only when Kalayaan explains the past
and present in terms of the pasyon.
Kalayaan elaborates upon her previous
assertion that the tagalongs had known
her that under her protective care they
had experienced happiness, prosperity,
and knowledge.
Then slavery came and offered ultimate The serpent came in paradise offering
glory to the tagalongs, who were knowledge, thus Adam and Eve were
seduced by Slavery’s appearance of seduced by the serpent
beauty, goodness and smoothness.
They forgot kalayaan in a classic case of same as Judas’s turning away from his
failure to show utang na loob maestro who loved him and failing to
“reflect upon” the motherly care that
Mary had shown him
-for the youth there is still hope. First in Having realized the worthlessness of the
recognizing Kalayaan and the layaw she pieces of Silver Judas was cast in despair
showed upon his ancestors, then in which he never overcame
heeding her call for the oppressed to
love her and be willing to die for her

The story of King Bernardo Carpio

Peasants believed that the Tagalog Folk hero, Bernardo Carpio-was imprisoned in
the caves of the mountain waiting the day when he would break loose and return to free the
people. Bernardo Carpio was one of the favorite characters in awits and komedyas of the nineteenth
century.

-the Filipinos were deceived and lead to
believe that Spain was their mother,
-only upon realizing that the Philippines
is their true mother that their eyes had
been completely opened
-they realized that they should fight to
free their motherland from slavery.
Bernardo Carpio
Only when he has repudiated his
deceitful stepfather and his patron the
king is he able to set out in search of his
imprisoned parents.
-When like a flash of liwanag his parents’
names are revealed to him by heaven,
Bernardo becomes ever more aware of
his mission in life.