The Katipunan

and the
Philppine
Revolution
By: Precy Villanueva
The Katipunan(Association)
• Is a secret or covert libertarian movement
initiated by the peasants.
• Andres Bonifacio and other few fellow
workers founded the association in Tondo,
Manila on July 7,1892.
• Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan
ng mga Anak ng Bayan.
• Blood compact and signing their names with
their own blood.
• Separation of the Philippines from Spain.
The Katipunan Structure
• Kataas-taasang Sanggunian or the Supreme
Council – the highest principal body of the
society.
• Sangguniang Bayan or the Provincial Council
– each province must have this.
• Sangguniang Balangay or Popular Council –
leaded the municipal or town.
• Sangguniang Hukuman or the Judicial Council
– functioned as the jury to those who
committed violations or crimes.
• Cases which were difficult to decide on to
were passed to the so called “secret
chamber” which composed of Bonifacio,
Jacinto and Valenzuela.
Bonifacio – the heart and soul of the
Katipunan, also known as Supremo, and
supported by Emilio Jacinto.
- The Great Plebeian.

Emilio Jacinto – Brain of the Katipunan.

The Katipunan Brotherhood
• The Katipunan belonged to a long tradition of
social movements in the Philippine history
(Ileto, 1997). Like most of these popular
movements, the Katipunan was clothed
millenarianism.
• Millenarianism is a popular movement with a
tone of religious ritual led by a crusading
pope or self-appointed Messiah or locally
called Babaylon.
The Katipunan Brotherhood
• The Babaylan is the intermediary who guides
a person’s relationship with the dead who
are his soul-relatives. He also mediates with
great hierarchy of diwata or deities and with
the spirits who inhabit the proximate
environment.
• Bonifacio and Jacinto recalled the pre-
Spanish period as an era of kasaganaan (great
abundance) and kaginhawaan (prosperity).
The Katipunan Brotherhood
• The Katipunan then envisioned the future as
one marked by kalayaan (independence), a
state of being where there would be once
again be liwanag (knowledge) and
kasaganaan (prosperity).
• Kalayaan would mean a return to the pre-
Spanish condition of prosperity, bliss, and
contentment but in entailed cutting ties with
the colonial mother, Spain, and the birth of a
nurturing real mother, Inang nayan or
Motherland, meaning Philippines (NCC, 1998)
Katipunan Membership

• The triangle system is first used in recruiting

members in the secret society.
• It is when a katipunero will have to recruit 2
members who do not know each other. That
2 members will have to recruit other 2 to
form a new triangle.
3 categories of the membership of the
Katipunan
1st degree – the katipon with the password of
“anak ng bayan”
2nd degree – the kawal with the password of
“gomburza”
3rd degree – the bayani with “rizal” as their
password.
The women served as fronts to deceive the
spanish authorities.
Jose Rizal in the Katipunan
• The two novels of Rizal, the Noli Me Tangere
(Touch Me Not) and the El Filibusterismo (The
Subversive), denounced the abuses of the
colonial order.
• After the execution of the three martyred
priests, fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose
Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora ushered in a
new movement led by Rizal and his
fellow ilustrados called the Propaganda
Movement in Europe where they
vigorously campaigned for the
implementation of the much-needed
reforms in the Philippines.
Jose Rizal in the Katipunan

• In 1892, Bonifacio sought the counsel of Rizal

on their planned revolution and the latter
cautioned them that it was not the right time
and the Filipino people were not prepared to
fight against the Spanish forces in the
Philippines.