Womans's chapter
of the Katipunan
- "Brains of the Katipunan"
- Emilio was born in Tondo on December 15, 1875
- His parents were : Mariano Jacinto and Josefa Dizon
- He enrolled at San Juan de Letran college and later at University of Santo Tomas ,where he developed his taste in reading.
- At the age of 18, he joined the Katipunan becoming the youngest member.
- In 1893 , Bonifacio opened the Katipunan to patriotic and scrupulous women who had the virtue to keep their tounges in place.
- Their duty was to take in new members amd to see it that the meeting of the male were not disturbed by surprise raids of the Spaniards.
- while the men were holding a meeting, the women danced and sang in the sala full of view of the passersby to distract away the suspicion of the authorities.
- He was the editor of the society's newspaper "Kalayaan"
Flags of the Katipunan
- When the revolution flared up, the magdalo faction of the Katipunan adopted a flag consisting of a red rectangular banner with a K in the ancient tagalog script in the center of the sun represented by a white circle, with an indefinite number of rays
- With the Katipunan now well organized, Bonifacio turned his attention to the symbol of its authority. Upon his request, Benita Rodriguez, Gregoria De Jesus, Bonifacio's wife, made a flag.
- It consisted of a red rectangular piece of cloth with three K's arranged horizontally at the center.
- This became the first official flag of the society.
- Another flag of Gregorio del Pilar was adopted, which consisted of an equilateral triangle with a K at each angle. Inside the triangle was a mountain with the sun rising behind it.
- The Katipon can graduate to the Kawal class if he had brought several members into the society, while the Kawal could become a Bayani upon being elected an officer of the society.
The Katipunan Codes
- To maintain the secrets of their communications, Bonifacio evolved a system of writing that would make it difficult, if not, impossible for the Spaniards to discover the existence of the society.
- Bonifacio himself had a personal flag which consisted of a red rectangular piece of cloth at the center of which was a white sun with an indefinite number of rays. Below were the three white K's arranged horizontally.
The Katipunan
Newspaper
- Due to the lack of uniformity in the design of the flag, some generals of the revolutions adopted their own deisign. General Mariano Llanera used a black banner with a skull above two cross-bones and the letter K all in white.
- When the society was discovered and it alphabetical key decoded, Bonifacio invented a new system of communication using a cipher in numbers
- After the Tejeros Convention held on March 22, 1897, Bonifacio and Jacinto again agreed to change their code.
- Later on, the rays of the sun were limited to eight to represent the first 8 provinces which first took up arms against the Spaniards.
- This flag became the first official banner of the revolutionary forces and was blessed in a mass celebrated in Imus.
- Some members had their own flag with three K's arranged in the form of a triangle.
The Founding of the Katipunan
- Another step taken by the Katipunan to propagate its teaching and to win more adherents to its side was the establishment of a printing press.
- Two Katipuneros from the Visayas, Candido Iban and Francisco del Castillo, had 1000 pesos, the two bought the small printing press of Bazar El Cisne, its owner Antonio Salazar sold if for 400.
- BAYANI - The third grade was called Bayani, wore a red mask and sash with green borders, symbolizing courage and hope. The front of the mask had a white borders that formed a triangle with three K's arranged as if occupying the angles of a triangle within a triangle. At the latter's base were the letters Z. Ll. B. The password is Rizal.
That night of July 7, 1982, the night that the news of Rizal's deportation to Dapitan leaked out , Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan along with Valentin Diaz , Teodoro Plata , Ladislao Diwa , Deodato Arellano and few other met secretly at a house on Azcarraga (presently the Claro M. Recto Avenue) decided to form an association called Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan , or Katipunan for short.
They performed blood compact and signed their membership papers with their own blood. It was also agreed to use the triangle method to gain more members of the society.Also agreed upon the meeting was the payment of an entrance fee of one real ( 25 centavos ) and a monthly due of medio real ( 12 centavos )
BONIFACIO AND THE KATIPUNAN
- In Naik assembly of March 17, 1897, the Katipunan Military leaders decided to adopt a flag with a new design. It consisted of a red rectangular cloth with a white mythological sun and rays in the middle. This flag superseded the flag of the Magdalo faction and became the First official flag of the Filipinos until the signing of the Truce of Biyak-na-bato on December14-15, 1897
- Eight months later, August 1896, the fifth and last Supreme Council took its oath to office.
The Objectives of the Katipunan
Kinds of Membership
Andres Bonifacio ---------- Supremo
Emilio Jacinto ---------- Secretary of State
Teodoro Plato ---------- Secretary of War
Briccio Pantas ---------- Secretary of Justice
Aguedo Del Rosario ------- Secretary of Interior
Enrique Pacheco ---------- Secretary of Finance
- KATIPON - The first grade was called Katipon and wore a black hood that has a triangle of white ribbon inside of which were the letters Z. Ll. B. (A. ng. B.) which means Anak ng Bayan , the password of the Katipon.
- The First number contained a editorial of Jacinto. It greeted the poeple and wished them "solidarity and independence" and offered them his "life and all he had for the good of the Filipino people"
- Political - consisted in working for separation of the Philippines from Spain
- Moral - revolved around the teaching of good manners, hygiene, good morals, and attacking obscurantism, religous fanticism, and weakness of character.
- Civic - about the priciniple of self-help and the defense of the poor and the opressed.
- Also written in the first number was the article by Valenzuela , Is it right ? which described the cruelties of Spanish priest and civil guards of San Francisco del Monte and Bonifacio's Pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa.
- Their pen names were as follows : Dimas-ilaw for Jacinto ; Agap-ito Bagumbayan for Bonifacio ; and Madlang-Away for Valenzuela.
- KAWAL - The second grade was called Kawal, wore a green hood witht a triangle consisting of white lines. At the three angles of the triangles were the letters Z. Ll. B. Suspended from the neck of the kawal was a green ribbon with a medal at the end, with the letter K in the ancient Tagalog script appearing in the middle of the medal. Beaneath the K was a crossed swords and flag. The password for Kawal was Gom-Bur-Za.
The Structures
of Katipunan
Structurally , the society had three governing bodies :
- Kataastaasang Sanggunian (Supreme council)
- Sangguniang bayan (Provincial council)
- Sangguniang balangay (Popular council)
- Sanggguniang Hukuman
Celebrations
- February 17 of every year was recalled as the day of prayers in memory of the three Filipino priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora.
- In a meeting in February 1893, Bonifacio , disgusted Arellano's inaction, deposed him and replaced Roman Basa as the president.
Sangguniang Hukuman
Kataastaasang
Sanggunian
- The officers the Second Supreme council were :
- On December 31, 1895 another election was held with the following officers
- highest governing body of the society and was composed of president , fiscal , secretary , treasurer and a interventor.
- It sat as a court of justice to pass judgements on any member who violate the rules of the society or to mediate between quarelling brethen or faction.
Andres Bonifacio ---------- Supremo
Pio Valenzuela ---------- Fiscal
Emilio Jacinto ---------- Secretary
Vicente Molina ---------- Treasurer
- All popular councils were instructed to erect a catafalque, shrouded in black, with a torch at each of the four corners.
Roman Basa --------- President or Supremo
Andres Bonifacio --------- Fiscal
Jose Turiano Santiago --------- Secretary
Vicente Molina --------- Treasurer
Briccio Pantas --------- Treasurer
Restituto Javier --------- Councilor
Teodora Plata --------- Councilor
Teodoro Gonzales --------- Councilor
Ladislao Diwa --------- Councilor
Sangguniang Bayan and Sangguniang Balangay
- the sangguninang bayand and sangguniang balangay represented , respectively the province and municipality or town. Each of these had a council similar to the Supreme council.
- Early in 1895, Bonifacaio realized that Roman Basa was an ineffctual as Deodato Arellano, he called a meeting and deposed Basa that resulted to the elevation of the following to the different offices :
- The triangle method of taking in members was so slow and clumsy that in October 1892 Bonifacio decided to change the method of recruiting members.
- It was agreed that any member of the society could take in as many new members they can. Under this new method the membership of the society reached more than a hundred and an election was held with the following officers of the First supreme council :
ANDRES BONIFACIO
Andres Bonifacio --------- President/Supremo
Emilio Jacinto --------- Fiscal
Jose Turiano Santiago --------- Secretary
Vincente Molina --------- Treasurer
Pio Valenzuela --------- Physician
Pantaleon Torres --------- Physician
Aguedo Del Rosario --------- Councilor
Doroteo Trinidad --------- Councilor
Deodato Arellano ---------- President or Supremo
Andres Bonifacio ---------- Interventor / Comptroller
Ladislao Diwa ---------- Fiscal
Teodoro Plato ---------- Secretary
Valentin Diaz ---------- Treasurer
- Andres was born in Tondo on November 30, 1863.
- His parents were : Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro.
- He has 3 brothers and 2 sisters namely : Ciriaco , Procopio , Espiridiona , Troadio , and Maxima.
- He studied alphabet in a school conducted by Guilermo Osmena of Cebu.
- He was employed as a clerk messenger in Fleming and company then later transferred to Fressell and Company as an agent.
- Monica - his first wife , died because of leprosy.
- In 1892 he met Gregoria del Jesus. After months of courtship they got married a catholic church in Binondo, with Restituto Javier and Benita Rodriguez as their sponsors.
- Gregoria was initiated into the Women's Chapter of the Katipunan and chose Lakangbini as her symbolic name.
- Wrote the Kartilla a decalogue for the Katipunan, but after realizing that Emilio's writing is better he did not hesitate to adopt it as the official teachings of the society.
- In 1895, Bonifacio along with the others went to the interior part of Morong to find a place to hide in case of the discovery of the society. They reached San Mateo and Montalban and found the caves of Makarok and Pamitnan places for refuge.
- He is overshadowed by Rizal as the national hero because when the Americans came they found in Rizal's philosophy of education of the masses first before independence fitting a rationalization of their colonial policy, namely that of ''benevolent assimilation", and so they encouraged and promoted Rizal cult.