Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Alangilan Campus
Alangilan, Batangas City

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE & FINE ARTS

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

READING IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

THE CRY FOR A NATIOWIDE REVOLUTION

MILAGROS C. GUERRERO
EMMANUEL N. ENCARNACION
RAMON N. VILLEGAS

THE RAGING CONTROVERSY

⬗ On September 3, 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 Diversion Road (Balintawak Cloverleaf Interchange).

⬗ From 1911 until 1962, the Cry of Balintawak was officially celebrated every
August 26.

⬗ It is not clear why the 1911 monument was erected in that site since
eyewitnesses and historians disagreed on the site and date of the Cry.

THE CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS

⬗ Pio Valenzuela had several versions of the Cry. Only after they are compared
and reconciled with the other accounts will it be possible to determined what
really happened:

• In September 1896, Pio Valenzuela stated before the Olive Court (Military
tribunal headed by Colonel Francisco Olive which was charged with
investigating persons involved in the rebellion) that only Katipunan
meetings took place from August 23 to 25 at Balintawak.

• In 1911, Valenzuela stated that the Katipunan began meeting on August

22 while the Cry took place on August 23 at Apolonio Samson’s house in
Kangkong, Balintawak.

• From 1928 to 1940, Valenzuela maintained that the Cry happened on

August 24 at the house of Tandang Sora in Pugad Lawin, which he now
situated near Pasong Tamo Road known as the Daang Malalim.

• A photograph of Gregoria de Jesus and Katipunan members, Valenzuela,

Briccio Pantas, Alfonso and Cipriano Pacheco, published in “La Opinion” in
1928 and 1930, was captioned as having been taken at the site of the Cry
on August 24 at the house of Tandang Sora at Pasong Tamo Road.

• In 1935, Valenzuela, Pantas and Pacheco proclaimed: “Hindi sa Balintawak

nangyari ang unang sigaw ng paghihimagsik na kinalalagian ngayon ng
bantayog, kung di sa pook na kilala sa tawag na Pugad Lawin.”
 • In 1940, a research team of the Philippine Historical Committee (founded
in 1935) which included Pio Valenzuela, identified the precise spot of Pugad
Lawin as part of Sitio Gulod, Banlat, Kalookan City (now Tandang Sora
Quezon City).

• Valenzuela’s memoirs (which Agoncillo says dated from the early 1920s)
claimed that the Cry took place on August 23 at the house of Juan Ramos
at Pugad Lawin.

• John N. Schumacher S.J, of the Ateneo de Manila University commented

on Pio Valenzuela’s credibility:

“I would certainly give much less credence to all accounts coming From Pio
Valenzuela, and to the interpretations Agoncillo got from him verbally, since
Valenzuela gave so many versions from the time he surrendered to the Spanish
authorities and made various statements not always compatible with one
another up to the time when as an old man he was interviewed by Agoncillo.”

THE PUGAD LAWIN MARKER

⬗ The prevalent account of the Cry is that of Teodoro Agoncillo in Revolt of the
masses (1956):

“It was in Pugad Lawin, where they proceeded upon leaving Samson’s place in
the afternoon of the 22nd, that the more than 1,000 members of the Katipunan
met in the yard of Juan A. Ramos, son of Melchora Aquino,…in the morning of
August 23rd. Considerable discussion arose whether the revolt against the
Spanish government should be started on the 29th. Only one man protested…
But he was overruled in his stand… Bonifacio then announced the decision and
shouted: “Brothers, it was agreed to continue with the plan of revolt. My
brothers, do you swear to repudiate the government that oppresses us?” And
the rebels, shouting as one man replied: “Yes, sir!” “That being the case,”
Bonifacio added, “bring out your cedulas and tear them to pieces to symbolize
our determination to take arms!”...Amidst the ceremony, the rebels, tear-
stained eyes, shouted: “Long live the Philippines! Long live the Katipunan!”

⬗ Agoncillo used his considerable influence and campaigned for a change in the
recognized site to Pugad Lawin and the date August 23.

⬗ In 1962, Teodoro Agoncillo, together with the UP Student Council, placed a

marker at the Pugad Lawin site. According to him, the house of Juan Ramos
was there in 1896, while Tandang Sora’s house was located at Pasong Tamo.

⬗ Consequently, Macapagal ordered that the Cry of Balintawak be called the “Cry
of Pugad Lawin,” and that it be celebrated on August 23 instead of August 26
(Proclamation No. 149, s. 1963).

⬗ The 1911 monument in Balintawak was later removed from the highway.
Student groups moved to save the discarded monument, and it was installed
in front of Vinzons Hall in the Diliman campus of the University of the
Philippines on November 29, 1968.

⬗ On June 30, 1983, Quezon City Mayor Adelina S. Rodriguez created the
Pugad Lawin Historical Committee to determine the location of Juan Ramos’s
1896 residence at Pugad Lawin.
 ⬗ The NHI files on the committee’s findings show the following:

• In August 1983, Pugad Lawin in barangay Bahay Toro was inhabited by

squatter colonies. The NHI believed that it was correct in looking for the
house of Juan Ramos. However, the former residence of Juan Ramos was
clearly defined: there was an old dap-dap tree at the site when the NHI
conducted its survey in 1983. Teodoro Agoncillo, Gregorio Zaide, and Pio
Valenzuela do not mention a dap-dap tree in their books.

• Pio Valenzuela, the main proponent of the “Pugad Lawin” version, was dead
(1956) by the time the committee conducted its research.

• Agoncillo tried to locate the marker installed in August 1962 by the UP

Student Council. However, was no longer extant in 1983.

⬗ In spite of the above findings and in the absence of any clear evidence, the
NHI disregarded its own report that the Philippine Historical Committee (PHC)
had determined in 1940 that the Pugad Lawin was Tandang Sora’s residence
and that the specific site of Pugad Lawin was Gulod in Banlat, Kalookan.

⬗ The presence of the dap-dap tree in the Pugad Lawin site is irrelevant, since
none of the principals like Pio Valenzuela, Santiago Alvarez, and others, nor
historians like Gregorio Zaide and even Agoncillo himself before that instance
mentioned such a tree.

⬗ On the basis of the 1983 committee’s findings, the NHI placed a marker on 23
August 1984 on Seminary Road in barangay Bahay Toro behind Toro Hills High
School, the Quezon City General Hospital, and the San Jose Seminary.

CARTOGRAPHIC CHANGES

⬗ Was there a Pugad Lawin in maps or literature of the period?

• A rough sketch or croquis de las operaciones practicadas en el Español

showed the movements of Lieutenant Ros against the Katipunan on 25,
26, and 27 August 1896. The map defined the place named “Sitio de
Baclac” (Banlat).

• In 1897, the Spanish historian Manuel Sastron mentioned Kalookan,

Balintawak, Banlat, and Pasong Tamo. The names were mentioned in some
revolutionary sources and interpretations – Daang Malalim, Kangkong, and
Pugad Lawin – were not identified as barrios.

• In the late 1920s, Writer and linguist Sofronio Calderon conducted research
on “Pugad Lawin,” went through the municipal records and the Census of
1903 and 1918, could not find the name, and concluded that “Isang
pagkakamali ang sabihing mayroong Pugad Lawin sa Kalookan.”

• The 1943 map of Manila marks Balintawak separately from Kalookan and
Diliman. The sites where revolutionary events took place are within the
ambit of Balintawak.

• Government maps issued in 1956, 1987, and 1990, confirm the existence
of barangays Bahay Toro, but do not define their boundaries. Pugad Lawin
is not on any of these maps.

• According to the government, Balintawak has been replaced by several

barangays. Barrio Banlat is now divided into barangays Tandang Sora and
Pasong Tamo. Only Bahay Toro remains intact.
 ⬗ What can we conclude from all this?

• First, “Pugad Lawin” was never officially recognized as a place name on

any Philippine map before Second World War.

• Second, “Pugad Lawin” appeared in historiography only from 1928, or 32

years after the “Cry” took place.

• Third, the revolution was always traditionally held to have occurred in the
area of Balintawak, which was distinct from Kalookan and Diliman.

⬗ Therefore, while the toponym “Pugad Lawin” is more idealistic, it is more

accurate to stick to the original “Cry of Balintawak.”

DETERMINING THE DATE

⬗ The official stand of NHI is that the Cry took place on 23 August 1896. That
date, however, is debatable:

“The later accounts of Pio Valenzuela and Guillermo Masangkay on the tearing
of cedulas on 23 August are basically in agreement, but conflict with each other
on the location. Valenzuela points to the house of Juan Ramos in Pugad Lawin,
while Masangkay refers to Apolonio Samson’s in Kangkong… Valenzuela’s date
(23 August) in his memoirs conflict with 1928 and 1930 photographs of the
surveys with several Katipunan officers, published in La Opinion, which claim
that the Cry took place on the 24th.”

THE TURNING POINT

⬗ What occurred during those last days of august 1896?

• Eyewitness accounts mention captures, escapes, killings of Katipunan

members; the interrogation of Chinese spies; the arrival of arms in
Meycauyan, Bulacan; the debate with Teodoro Plata and others; the
decision to go war; the shouting of slogan; tearing of cedulas; the sending
of letters presidents of Sanggunian and balangay councils; the arrival of
civil guard; the loss of Katipunan funds during the skirmish. All these
events, and many others, constitute the beginning of nationwide
revolution.

• The Cry, however, must be defined as that turning point when the Filipinos
finally rejected Spanish colonial dominion over the Philippine Islands, by
formally constituting their own national government, and by investing a
set of leaders with authority to initiate and guide the revolution towards
the establishment of sovereign nation.

⬗ When did it take place?

• The introduction to the original Tagalog text of the Biyak na Bato

Constitution states:

“Ang paghiwalay ng Filipinas sa kahariang España sa patatag ng isang bayang

may sariling pamamahala’t kapangyarihan na pangangalang “Republika ng
Filipinas” ay siyang layong inadhika niyaring Paghihimagsik na kasalukuyan,
simula pa ng ika- 24 ng Agosto ng taong 1896.”

“La separacion de Filipinas de la Monarquia Española, constituyendose en

Estado Independiente y soberano con Gobierno propuio, con el nombre de
Republica de Filipinas, es en su Guerra actual, iniciada en 24 de Agosto de
1896.”
 “The separation of the Philippines from the Spanish Monarchy, constituting an
independent state and with a proper sovereign government, named the
Republic of the Philippines, was the end pursued by the revolution through the
present hostilities, initiated on 24 August 1896.”

⬗ These lines, in a legal document, are persuasive proof that in so far as the
leaders of the revolution are concerned, revolution began on 24 August 1896.
The document was written only one and a half years after the event and signed
by over 50 Katipunan members, among them Emilio Aguinaldo, Artemio
Ricarte, and Valentin Diaz.

⬗ Emilio Aguinaldo’s memoirs, Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan (1964), refer the two
letters from Andres Bonifacio dated 22 and 24 August. They pinpoint the date
and place of the crucial Cry meeting when the decision to attack Manila was
made:

“On 22 August 1896, the Magdalo Council received a secret letter from
Supremo Andres Bonifacio, in Balintawak, which stated that the Katipunan will
hold an important meeting on the 24th of the said month, and that it was
extremely necessary to send two representatives or delegates in the name of
the said Council. Upon receiving the said invitation, our President, Mr.
Baldomero Aguinaldo, called a meeting at Tribunal of Cavite el Viejo… We were
apprehensive about sending representatives because the areas they would
have to pass through were dangerous… Nevertheless, we agreed and
nominated to send a single representative…, Mr. Domingo Orcullo… Our
representative arrived safely at his destination and also returned unharmed,
bearing a letter from the Supremo dated 24 August. It contained no orders but
the shocking announcement that the Katipunan would attack Manila at night on
Saturday, 29 August, the signal for which would be the putting out of the lamps
in Luneta.”

⬗ The first monument to mark the Cry was erected in 1903 on Ylaya Street in
Tondo, in front of the house were Liga Filipina was founded. The tablet cites
Andres Bonifacio as a founding member, and the “Supreme Head of the
Katipunan, who gave the first battle Cry against tyranny on August 24, 1896.”

⬗ Other Remarks:

• In Philippine Historical Association round-table discussion in February

2003, a great granddaughter of Tandang Sora protested the use of
toponym “Pugad Lawin” which, she said, referred to a hawk’s nest on top
of a tall sampaloc tree at Gulod, the highest elevated area near Balintawak.

CONCLUSION

⬗ It is clear that the so-called “Cry of Pugad Lawin” of 23 August 1896 is an

erroneous interpretation, contrary to indisputable and numerous historical
facts.

⬗ Yet, we must respect and commemorate with what has been proclaimed by
the government, that the cry for nationwide revolution, the “Cry of Pugad
Lawin” happened on 23 August 1896, in the Juan Ramos’s house in “Pugad
Lawin”, Bahay Toro, Kalookan

Prepared by:

___________________________
Mr. Gian Nicolo Dexter M. Atienza
Lecturer