Angel M.

Panon Disciplines and Ideas in the

Grade 11 - St. Martin De Porres Social Sciences (DISS)

Importance of the good code in behalf of the Ten

commandments stated on Apolinario Mabini’s “THE
TRUE DECALOGUE”
The document “The True Decalogue” became a code of good citizenship and moral conduct for
Filipinos as they navigate the challenges of running a fledging republic. It was written as an ideal
guide for the Revolutionary Government. The True Decalogue would be mirroring the ten
commandments of Moses, but expressed more fully in the historical context of the Philippines in
the late nineteenth century.  As the “True” Decalogue, it would combine moral principles and
political concepts that were often presented side by side with one another. The boundaries
between moral philosophy and political philosophy was blurred in Mabini’s Decalogue, as he
saw in the formulations both the realization of moral righteousness and political independence
that Filipinos should advance, if Filipinos were to achieve what he termed as the objectives of
human life. In his introduction to the decalogue, Mabini said: “To be able to establish the true
structure of our social regeneration, it is necessary for us to change radically, not only our
institutions, but also our way of living and thinking. It is important to undergo an internal and
external revolution at the same time; it is necessary to establish a more solid basis for moral
education and to foreswear the vices that we have inherited.” Mabini continued by stating that
what was contained in the documents were his proposals for the internal revolution for the
people to adopt as their moral and behavioral guide, and for the external revolution for the
revolutionary government to espouse as the framework of governance.
Apolinario Mabini (1864-1903) was a Filipino political philosopher and architect of the
Philippine revolution. He formulated the principles of a democratic popular government,
endowing the historical struggles of the Filipino people with a coherent ideological orientation.
On 24 June 1898, Apolinario Mabini printed a pamphlet that contained the documents The True
Decalogue and The Constitutional Program of the Philippine Republic, that form the basic
documentation of the programs pertinent to the revolutionary government being established by
the revolutionary government of Aguinaldo, in order for the people, in Mabini’s words, to
“understand that reason and your conscience constitute the only solid and true basis of your
moral education, in the same way that honest work is the real basis for your material education,”
(Palma, 1941, 41).  Mabini continued by stating that what was contained in the documents were
his proposals for the internal revolution for the people to adopt as their moral and behavioral
guide, and for the external revolution for the revolutionary government to espouse as the
framework of governance. According to Mabini’s Decalogue, not only because it offers basic
lessons in citizenship that remain relevant to our time, but also because, at a deeper level, it tries
to replace the entrenched disagreement of a religious culture and a hierarchical society with the
more nuanced concepts of a secular and modern society. Consider the True Decalogue’s first
rule: “Love God and your honor over all things: God as the source of all truth, all justice and all
activity; your honor, the only power that obliges you to be truthful, just and industrious.”  Notice
that God and honor are made to sit on the same bench. The closest synonym to honor I can think
of is self-respect. It is this, according to Mabini, not God or his earthly agents, that commands us
to be truthful, just and industrious.
Mabini expressed his love of country by influencing people to be good and have a better
perspective in life to take the disciples of God especially the Ten Commandments. His concept
of love is instructive. Mabini believes in a republican form of government because of his duty
and honor. He was bothered by the monarchical system of the government, because of this, they
might not prove equal to the challenge of self-rule. He hoped to see them confidently assert
themselves as free citizens of a republic, rather than live as docile subjects of a monarchy or of a
few homegrown political dynasties.