The First Cry of the Revolution

Controversies and Conflicting Views

 Lesson Objectives

To identify the different views on the First Cry of the Revolution

To be critical in analyzing different views and stand points
OBJECTIVES To assess the importance of the event in Philippine history

First Cry of the Revolution

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The First Cry of the Revolution
 Video: Xiao Time

First Cry of the Revolution

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 The Cry of Rebellion

“El grito de rebelion”

The momentous events sweeping the Spanish colonies

First Cry of the Revolution

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Mexico: the “Cry of Dolores” (16
September 1810)

Brazil: the “City of Ypiraga” (7

September 1822)

First Cry of the Revolution

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Cuba: the “Cry of Matanza” (24
February 1895)

Philippines: the “Cry of Pugadlawin”

(23 August 1896)

First Cry of the Revolution

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Historical Background
 The Discovery of the Katipunan

August 19, 1896:

A Katipunero named Teodoro Patiño confessed the secrets of
Katipunan to Fr. Mariano Gil, an Augustinian friar in Tondo, Manila.
First Cry of the Revolution
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  Patiño made the confession because of a
misunderstanding between him and a
fellow Katipunero, Apolonio de la Cruz.

Patiño disclosed the information about the Katipunan to his sister (Honoria),
who was an inmate in an orphanage managed by Sor. Teresa.

Sor. Teresa, then, urged Patiño to confess the information on the Katipunan to
the Tondo curate.
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 The Spanish authorities started to crack down on the
suspected members of the Katipunan and to cordon
Manila.

 Consequently, Bonifacio and his men proceeded to

otheir agreed place outside the city.

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The “First Cry of the Revolution” happened as an initial action of the
Katipuneros for a revolution against the Spanish authorities.

 The revolutionaries tore their cedulas and proclaimed the start of the
fight for Philippine Independence.

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 Activity Time!
 1 whole yellowpad

Valenzuela Alvarez De Jesus Diaz Masangkay Other Sources

Date of
Revolution
Location
People
involved

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First Cry of the Revolution
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 Raging Controversy
If the expression is taken literally –the Cry as the shouting of
nationalistic slogans in mass assemblies –then there were scores of
such Cries.

Some writers refer to a Cry of Montalban on April 1895, in the Pamitinan

Caves where a group of Katipunan members wrote on the cave walls,
“Viva la indepencia Filipina!” long before the Katipunan decided to launch
a nationwide revolution.

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The “Cry”
 The debate has long been clouded by a lack of consensus on exactly
what is meant by the “Cry”. The term has been applied to three
related but distinct events –

 the “pasya” – the decision to revolt;

 the “pagpupunit” – the tearing of cedulas; and
 the “unang labanan” – the first encounter with Spanish forces.

 These three events, to state the obvious, did not all happen at the
same time and place. When and where the “Cry” should be
commemorated thus depends on how it is defined.
First Cry of the Revolution
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The “Cry”

 Among the historians who have studied the “Cry” in greatest detail,
there is a sharp divergence of opinion as to how the term should be
defined.

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The historian Teodoro Agoncillo chose to
emphasize Bonifacio’s tearing of the cedula (tax
receipt) before a crowd of Katipuneros who
then broke out in cheers.

However, Guardia Civil Manuel Sityar never

mentioned in his memoirs (1896-1898) the tearing
or inspection of the cedula, but did note the pacto
de sangre (blood pact) mark on every single Filipino
he met in August 1896 on his reconnaissance
missions around Balintawak.
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The “Cry”
Teodoro A. Agoncillo equates the term with the pagpupunit, which he
says happened immediately after the pasya.

Isagani R. Medina also takes the “Cry” to mean the pagpupunit, but says
it happened before the decision to revolt had been taken.

Soledad Borromeo-Buehler takes the view – the traditional view that

KKK veterans took, she says - that the “Cry” should mean the unang
labanan.

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 Raging
RagingControversy
Controversy
Some writers consider the first military engagement with the enemy as
the defining moment of the Cry. To commemorate this martial event
upon his return from exile in Hong Kong, Emilio Aguinaldo commissioned
a “Himno de Balintawak” to herald renewed fighting after the failed
peace of the pact of Biyak na Bato.

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On 3 September 1911, a
monument to the Heroes of
1896 was erected in what is
now the intersection of
Epifanio de los Santos
Avenue and Andres Bonifacio
Drive –North Doversion
Road. From that time on until
1962, the Cry of Balintawak
was officially celebrated
every 26 August.

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Which “Cry” was used in the
creation of the first
monument to the events of
August 1896?

a. Pasya
b. Pagpunit
c. Unang Labanan

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It was the unang labanan, as Borromeo-Buehler points out, that was
commemorated by the first monument to the events of August 1896

“Homenaje del Pueblo Filipino a los Heroes de ’96” (Ala-ala ng Bayang Pilipino sa mga
Bayani ng ’96)
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The name Balintawak was often used as shorthand to denote that general area, and
the “Cry” had become popularly known as the “Cry of Balintawak” even before the
monument was erected.

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It is not clear why the 1911 monument was erected there.

It could not have been to mark the site of Apolonio Samson’s house in barrio
Kangkong; Katipuneros marked that site on Kaingin Road, between Balintawak and San
Francisco del Monte Avenue.
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Nobody professed in 1911, though, that the statue marked the “exact spot” where the
first battle had been fought.

It was simply in Balintawak, on a plot donated by a local landowner, Tomas Arguelles.

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 Raging Controversy
1911 Monument

A contemporary map of 1896 shows that the August battle between the
Katipunan rebels and the Spanish forces led by Lt. Ros of the Civil
Guards took place at sitio Banlat, North of Pasong Tamo Road far from
Balintawak.

The site has its own marker.

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First Cry of the Revolution
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 Raging Controversy
Balintawak or Pugad Lawin
It is quite clear that first, eyewitnesses cited Balintawak as the better-
known reference point for a larger area.

Second, while Katipunan may have been massing in Kangkong, the

revolution was formally launched elsewhere.

Moreover, eyewitnesses and therefore historians, disagreed on the

site and date of the Cry.

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 Raging Controversy
Balintawak or Pugad Lawin
But the issue did not rest there. In 1970, the historian Pedro A. Gagelonia
pointed out:
The controversy among historians continues to the present day. The “Cry of Pugad
Lawin” (August 23, 1896) cannot be accepted as historically accurate.

It lacks positive documentation and supporting evidence from the witness.

The testimony of only one eyewitness (Dr. Pio Valenzuela) is not enough to
authenticate and verify a controversial issue in history.

Historians and their living participants, not politicians and their sycophants, should
settle this controversy.
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 Raging Controversy
Conflicting Accounts
The controversies on the Katipunan continued even on the date and the
place of the First Cry.

Based on the 1963 exhaustive research made by the National Historical

Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the First Cry of the Revolution
happened on August 23, 1896, at Pugad Lawin.

But even until now, some historians claim that the date and place declared by
the NHCP are still disputable.

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Conflicting Accounts
Raging Controversy

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The “Cry” of August 1896:
Event

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 The “Cry” of August 1896
 Recently called as “The Cry of Pugadlawin”
 The supposed site of “Pugad Lawin” is situated in Brgy. Bahay Toro, Quezon
City
 Memorialized with a tableau of life-sized, oddly rigid Katipuneros tearing
their cedulas.

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The “Cry” of August 1896
 “In the vicinity of this place, Andres
Bonifacio and about one thousand
Katipuneros met on the morning of
August 23, 1896 and decided to
launch the revolution against the
Spanish government in the
Philippines. They affirmed their
decision by tearing their cedulas,
symbols of the enslavement of the
Filipinos. This was the first cry of the
oppressed people against the
Spanish nation, and was given force
by means of arms.”
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The “Cry” of August 1896

 In 1896, according to the National

Historical Commission (NHCP), the
house and yard of Juan Ramos had
stood on this site.

First Cry of the Revolution

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 The “Cry” of August 1896
 Historians agree the precise date and location are not vitally
important.

 They concur, a few mavericks excepted, that the “Cry” took place
between August 23 and 26, 1896 in what was then the municipality of
Caloocan.

 The doubt about the exact site could be put aside, as Ambeth Ocampo
has suggested, simply by calling the occasion the “Cry of Caloocan”.

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 The “Cry” of August 1896
 The detail of the “Cry” might seem insignificant in relation to the
broader sweep of events, he (Nicolas Zafra) acknowledged, and
indeed it might seem “pointless and unprofitable” to pursue the
matter, but the historical profession had a duty to ensure the facts of
public history were as accurate as humanly possible.

 Settling the problem, he said, would rebound to the “credit, honor and
glory of historical scholarship in our country.”

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Let's get to understand certain
details about “The Cry”

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 Geography
 The barrios, hamlets and farmsteads where the revolution began
were all within the municipality of Caloocan in the province of Manila.
 The municipality was large, but sparsely inhabited.
 Its total population in 1896 was tallied at just 7,829.
 Of this number, 2,694 lived in the town (población), 977 lived in the
largest barrio, Balintawak, and the remaining 4,158 were scattered in
ten other barrios – Baesa, Bagobantay, Bahay Toro, Banlat, Culiat,
Kangkong, Loma, Marulas, Talipapa, and Tangke.

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 Geography
 No detailed maps of the municipality are known to have survived
from the Spanish era, and perhaps none ever existed.
 The barrio boundaries of the time are said to have been sketchy, and
are now forgotten.
 The terrain, moreover, was unremarkable, a mix of farmland and
rough grassland, talahib and cogon, with few natural landmarks.
 Many of the sources on the “Cry” are consequently vague and
inconsistent in how they identify and locate the settlements, roads
and other features of the area.

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 Geography
 Most confusingly of all, the name “Pugad Lawin” came to be used in
the twentieth century to refer not just to one of the contending “Cry”
sites, but to two.
 First one site, and then another.
 Today, the Pugad Lawin marker is in Bahay Toro, where Juan Ramos
had supposedly lived.
 But in previous decades, as will be discussed later, Pugad Lawin was
said to have been three kilometers or so to the northeast, where
Ramos’s mother Melchora Aquino (“Tandang Sora”) had lived near
Pasong Tamo in barrio Banlat.

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