Cry of Pugad Lawin | Today in History

The Cry of Pugad Lawin (Filipino: Sigaw ng Pugad Lawin), alternately and originally

referred to as the Cry of Balintawak (Filipino: Sigaw ng Balíntawak, Spanish: Grito de
Balíntawak), was the beginning of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish
Empire.

Contents

 Cry of Pugad Lawin | Today in History

 Sigaw ng pugad lawin cry of pugad lawin 2014
 Different dates and places
 Definition of the Cry
 First skirmish
 Tearing of cédulas
 Formation of an insurgent government
 Other Cries
 Commemoration
 References
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At the close of August 1896, members of the Katipunan secret society (Katipuneros)

led by Andrés Bonifacio rose up in revolt somewhere in an area referred to as
Kalookan, wider than the jurisdiction of present-day Caloocan City which may have
overlapped into present-day Quezon City.
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Originally the term "Cry" referred to the first clash between the Katipuneros and
the Civil Guards (Guardia Civil). The cry could also refer to the tearing up
of community tax certificates (cédulas personales) in defiance of their allegiance
to Spain. This was literally accompanied by patriotic shouts.
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Because of competing accounts and ambiguity of the place where this event took
place, the exact date and place of the Cry is in contention. From 1908 until 1963, the
official stance was that the Cry occurred on August 26 in Balintawak. In 1963
the Philippine government declared a shift to August 23 in Pugad Lawin, Quezon City.
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Sigaw ng pugad lawin cry of pugad lawin 2014

Different dates and places

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Various accounts give differing dates and places for the Cry. An officer of the
Spanish guardia civil, Lt. Olegario Diaz, stated that the Cry took place in Balintawak
on August 25, 1896. Historian Teodoro Kalaw in his 1925 book The Filipino
Revolution wrote that the event took place during the last week of August 1896 at
Kangkong, Balintawak. Santiago Alvarez, a Katipunero and son of Mariano Alvarez,
the leader of the Magdiwang faction in Cavite, stated in 1927 that the Cry took place
in Bahay Toro, now in Quezon City on August 24, 1896. Pío Valenzuela, a close
associate of Andrés Bonifacio, declared in 1948 that it happened in Pugad Lawin on
August 23, 1896. Historian Gregorio Zaide stated in his books in 1954 that the "Cry"
happened in Balintawak on August 26, 1896. Fellow historian Teodoro
Agoncillo wrote in 1956 that it took place in Pugad Lawin on August 23, 1896, based
on Pío Valenzuela's statement. Accounts by historians Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel
Encarnacion and Ramon Villegas claim the event to have taken place in Tandang
Sora's barn in Gulod, Barangay Banlat, Quezon City.
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Some of the apparent confusion is in part due to the double meanings of the terms
"Balintawak" and "Kalookan" at the turn of the century. Balintawak referred both to
a specific place in modern Caloocan and a wider area which included parts of
modern Quezon City. Similarly, Kalookan referred to modern Caloocan and also a
wider area which included modern Quezon City and part of modern Pasig. Pugad
Lawin, Pasong Tamo, Kangkong and other specific places were all in "greater
Balintawak", which was in turn part of "greater Caloocan". Ambeth Ocampo has
remarked that all of the venues mentioned for the cry are in Caloocan which, at the
time, was a district of Balintawak.

Definition of the Cry

The term "Cry" is translated from the Spanish el grito de rebelion (cry of rebellion)
or el grito for short. Thus the Grito de Balintawak is comparable to Mexico's Grito de
Dolores (1810). However, el grito de rebelion strictly refers to a decision or call to
revolt. It does not necessarily connote shouting, unlike the Filipino sigaw.

First skirmish
Up to the late 1920s, the Cry was generally identified with Balintawak. It was
commemorated on August 26, considered the anniversary of the first hostile
encounter between the Katipuneros and the Guardia Civil. The "first shot" of the
Revolution (el primer tiro) was fired at Banlat, Pasong Tamo, then considered a part
of Balintawak and now part of Quezon City.

Tearing of cédulas
Not all accounts relate the tearing of cédulas in the last days of August. Of the
accounts that do, older ones identify the place where this occurred as Kangkong in
Balintawak/Kalookan. Most also give the date of the cédula-tearing as August 26, in
close proximity to the first encounter. One Katipunero, Guillermo Masangkay,
claimed cédulas were torn more than once – on the 24th as well as the 26th.

For his 1956 book The Revolt of the Masses Teodoro Agoncillo defined "the Cry" as
the tearing of cedulas, departing from precedent which had then defined it as the
first skirmish of the revolution. His version was based on the later testimonies of Pío
Valenzuela and others who claimed the cry took place in Pugad Lawin instead of
Balintawak. Valenzuela's version, through Agoncillo's influence, became the basis of
the current stance of the Philippine government. In 1963, President Diosdado
Macapagal ordered the official commemorations shifted to Pugad Lawin, Quezon
City on August 23.

Formation of an insurgent government

An alternative definition of the Cry as the "birth of the Filipino nation state" involves
the setting up of a national insurgent government through the Katipunan with
Bonifacio as President in Banlat, Pasong Tamo on August 24, 1896 – after the tearing
of cedulas but before the first skirmish. This was called the Republika ng
Katagalugan (Tagalog Republic).

Other Cries
In 1895 Bonifacio, Masangkay, Emilio Jacinto and other Katipuneros spent Good
Friday in the caves of Mt. Pamitinan in Montalban (now part of Rizal province). They
wrote "long live Philippine independence" on the cave walls, which some Filipino
historians consider the "first cry" (el primer grito).

Commemoration
The Cry is commemorated as National Heroes' Day, a public holiday in
the Philippines.

The first annual commemoration of the Cry occurred in Balintawak in 1908 after the
American colonial government repealed the Sedition Law. In 1911 a monument to
the Cry (a lone Katipunero popularly identified with Bonifacio) was erected at
Balintawak; it was later transferred to Vinzons Hall in the University of the
Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City. In 1984, the National Historical Institute of the
Philippines installed a commemorative plaque in Pugad Lawin.

References
Cry of Pugad Lawin Wikipedia
(Text) CC BY-SA