Name: Keisha Marie S. Samson and Genelyn O.

Sablas
Course & Year: BSTM 2A

Activity #1

Instruction: Read the two types of sources that presented to you (The Primary and
Secondary Source). Afterwards, answer the question below.
You encode your answer below after the question using font style (Arial), Font size (12),
Spacing (1.15), and use Justify. Your answer must be in English NO TAGLISH. After
answering you submit it through my CTU email: christianjunn.goki@ctu.edu.ph .
Submission will be on Sunday, 12noon. Fail to submit on time will be given a minus
points.

Primary Source:

A Letter to Emilio Jacinto by Andres Bonifacio

News was also received here last month that you have been killed by the
Carabineers because, it was said, you had given a bad order; but as this news came
from Imus, I did not believe it and I treated it as one of the usual duplicities of these
people.
 As to the collection of money, I believe we need not beg, but should solicit or
take it from whoever is wealthy. Brother Don Nakpil wrote me, asking whether the
money collected by him, almost four hundred pesos or so, should be given to Mamerto
Natividad. Do not allow this to happen, because that man is not sincere in his friendship
with us, and he is very close to Magdalo people.
A piece of sickening news can tell you is the treachery committed by the chiefs of
the Magdalo Council who have applied for pardon or gone over to the Spaniards. These
are Daniel Tirona, Minister of War; Jose del Rosario, Minister of the Interior; Jose
Cailles, Lieutenant-General, and nearly all the Tanza people, even the parish priest
there, the whole lot of them henchmen pr partisan of Capitan Emilio. For this reason,
many people strongly suspect that they strive so hard to get control of the Government
in order to surrender the whole Revolution. Last week I ordered our soldiers to tie up
another of the Ministers of Capitan Emilio because he was caught as he was about to
escape with two Spanish prisoners and a lady. One of these Spaniards told the truth,
that they were going to escape. He [the Minister] was tried by a Council of War, but the
outcome, as usually happens here, was that everybody covered up for each other, or
favoritism. However, the record of the case against the minister mentioned, Don
Cayetano Topacio, remains in my possession, as does that against the Spaniards. This
is one of the reasons why we desire to leave here, most of whom have wicked
intentions.
We have taken away everything: the printing press, the necessary books, the big
map, and the tools for making cartridges.
The spoons you sent for the brother and sisters of Dimas could not be given to
them because they have already left in the direction of Silangan (Laguna). We have
sent for your mother, who is now in Maragondon, and we are still waiting for her.

Receive the close embrace that I send you from here.

Limbon, April 24, 1897

The President of the Sovereign Nation

And.: Bonifacio

Maypagasa

Source: Translation by Jim Richardson, Katipunan: Documents and Studies

Secondary Source:

Bonifacio and Jacinto were like brothers who never separated from each other if either
one could help it. Separation came late in December 1896 when Bonifacio went to
Cavite to mediate between two rival factions of the Katipunan in that province and
Jacinto, appointed commander-in-chief of the revolutionary forces in Laguna, went to
this province to direct the movements of the revolutionists. Nevertheless, they
communicated with each other when time and circumstances permitted. Bonifacio died
two years earlier than Jacinto, who while directing a campaign against the Spaniards in
Mahayhay, Laguna, contracted fever and died on April 16, 1899.

Source: History of the Filipino People, 8th ed. By Teodoro Agoncillo

Questions:

1. Do you consider the letter of Andres Bonifacio an eyewitness account or a

firsthand account of the Philippine Revolution? Explain your answer.
(10points)

Answer: The letter of Andres Bonifacio to Emilio Jacinto was truly an eyewitness of
the events that happened on the country during the Philippine revolution. In that
account, he explained to Emilio that most of their brothers were involved in the
treachery of abandoning the course of the revolution and joining the Spaniards.
He also reported the account of when they were to be elected as officials of the
Republic and how he was rejected by some people when he was chosen as Minister of
Interior. They felt that he was not learned. The entire letter was an eyewitness account.
Indeed Bonifacio was the Supremo of the Katipunan, the rebel organization that took up
arms against Spanish rule in the late 19th century.

Andres Bonifacio has his rightful place in Philippine History as the man who took the
courage to speak out and fight, that ended of over four centuries of Spanish rule in
these Islands. He is, hands down, one of our greatest heroes.

2. How different is the letter of Andres Bonifacio from the passage from
Agoncillo’s History of the Filipino People? Explain your answer. (10points)

Answer: Andres Bonifacio's letter passage is way too different from Agoncillo's History
of Filipino People. In Bonifacio's letter, he stated and narrated almost everything. He
also mentioned certain people in the letter and what these people are up into.
Meanwhile, in Agoncillo's History of Filipino People, he only did focus on the main two,
Bonifacio and Jacinto, how close they are until they separated ways, and how their each
lives went after.

3. Which of the two (The Letter of Bonifacio and the excerpt from History of the
Filipino People) gives you a direct link to the past? Why? (5points)

Answer: Based on the 2 letters, the one that gives us a direct link from the past its
Bonifacio's letter to Jacinto. Because the way he wrote and narrated it was very detailed
and if we just read it carefully, we can likely imagine it in our minds, the people he have
mentioned, their doings and relationships to each other, and we can really sense the
loyalty of Bonifacio to Jacinto as close friends and fellow Filipino.