Professional Documents
Culture Documents
It is surprising that there are different versions on the dates for the first
cry of the revolution as well as the venue. This controversy up to this time remains
unsolved. It is believed that the so-called Cry took place in Balintawak; but others would
say that it really happened in Pugad Lawin. Nevertheless, there are different versions to
consider in knowing the real date and place of the Cry. These include Pio Valenzuela’s
Controversial “Cry of Pugad Lawin”, Santiago Alvarez’s “The Cry of Bahay Toro”,
Gregoria de Jesus’ version of the “First Cry”, and Guillermo Masangkay’s “The Cry
if Balintawak”.
This controversial version of the “Cry of the Pugad Lawin” has been authorized
by no other than Dr. Pio Valenzuela, who happened to be the eyewitness himself of the
event. In his first version, he told that the prime staging point of the Cry was in
Balintawak on Wednesday of August 26, 1896. He held this account when the
happenings or events are still vivid in his memory. On the other hand, later in his
life and with a fading memory, he wrote his Memoirs of the Revolution without
consulting the written documents of the Philippine revolution and claimed that the
Ramos, son of Melchora Aquino, where over 1,000 members of the Katipunan met and
carried out considerable debate and discussion on August 23, 1986. The discussion
was on whether or not the revolution against the Spanish government should be started
on August 29, 1986. Only one man protested and fought against a war, and that
was Teodora Plata Bonifacio’s brother-in-law-Z. Besides the persons named above,
among those present at this meeting were Enrique Cipriano, Alfonso Pacheco,
Tomas Remigio, Sinforoso San Pedro, and others. After the tumultuous meeting,
many of those present tore their cedula certificates and shouted, “Long live the