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DOCUMENTS
OF THE Katipunan |
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Andres Bonifacio Notice of appointment, April 15, 1897
Source: Photograph of the original document in
Teodoro A. Agoncillo,
The Revolt of the Masses:
the story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City:
University of the Philippines, 1956), p.187. . |
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Introduction Bonifacio and many leaders of the Magdiwang council of the Katipunan in This
document appoints Emilio Jacinto as Commander
of the Army in the Northern District of Manila ("Pangulong
hukbo sa dakong Hilagaan ng Maynila"). Revolutionists who did acknowledge the
authority of the government established at Tejeros,
needless to say, would regard Bonifacio’s action in making such appointments
as at best unauthorized and invalid, and at worst treasonous. High-level appointments in the
revolutionary army, they would insist, were now a matter for Aguinaldo
himself as the newly elected President, or possibly for his Director of War
and General-in-Chief. As indicated in the transcription below, Bonifacio penned Jacinto’s name and military title on a printed form that was designed to be used for making a series of appointments, civil as well as military. The form affirms Bonifacio’s authority for making such appointments in various ways. Beneath his name at the top of the form is printed the title “President of the Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan”, and then, as if to emphasize his unique status, “Founder of the K. K. Katipunan of the Sons of the People and Initiator of the Revolution”. The main text makes it known that the appointment has been made by the “Supreme Presidency of the Sovereign Nation”, and the seal at the foot of the document bears the legend “Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan – Supreme Congress”. No less significantly, Bonifacio decrees that the rank bestowed upon Jacinto be recognized and respected by all subjects of the “Revolutionary Government”. Bonifacio had employed some of these appellations even
before the Tejeros convention. He had been using the title “President of
the Sovereign Nation” (“Pangulo ng Haring bayan”), for example, at least as early as December 1896,
and had been affixing the “Supreme Congress” (“Kataastaasang
Kapulungan”) seal to his communications at least
since February 1897. No documents have
yet been found to indicate who belonged to this body, or indeed to confirm
that it ever met, but presumably it was the body whose establishment Santiago
Alvarez reports as having been agreed at an assembly of Magdiwang
and Magdalo leaders held in Imus
at the end of December 1896. Although
that assembly had failed to agree on the formation of a unified revolutionary
government, it did decide, says Alvarez, to appoint Bonifacio to head a
“legislative committee” or “congress” (“Lupung Tagapagbatas” or “Kapulungan”)
and authorize him to appoint as its members “some people known to be worthy”
(“ilang mga taong kilalang karapat-dapat”).([1])
Two of the terms used on this appointment form,
however, are not known to appear on any earlier document, and therefore may
well have been adopted by Bonifacio in the aftermath of the Tejeros convention and as an explicit challenge to its
outcome. The first apparent innovation
is the term “Supreme Presidency” (“Kataastaasang Panguluhan”).
Although obviously very similar to Bonifacio’s long-standing title
within the Katipunan – “Supreme President” (“Kataastaasang
Pangulo”), the shift to the word “Presidency” seems to suggest an executive
wing of government, a presidential office, rather than solely the president
as an individual. The term
“Presidency” (Panguluhan) was also being used at
this time by both the Magdiwang and Magdalo councils in Cavite, and the designation “Supreme
Presidency” would therefore make more explicit the subordination of such
localized, zonal executives to the central executive, in other words to
Bonifacio and his office. Secondly and more plainly, the reference in the
document to a “Revolutionary Government” (“Pamahalaan
nang Panghihimagsik”)
signals Bonifacio’s wish to affirm at this critical juncture that a
legitimate government did exist in the Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan. This
was not – any longer – the Supreme Council that had governed the Katipunan,
for the Katipunan was a body to which only initiates or kapatid belonged. This was a body, like any other national
government, whose authority should be acknowledged and obeyed by each and
every citizen. And most emphatically,
of course, it was not the government just recently constituted at Tejeros. |
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› › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › Transcription |
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M.
ANDRES BONIFACIO MAYPAGASA PANGULO NANG HARING BAYANG KATAGALUGAN, MAYTAYO
NANG K. K. KATIPUNAN NANG MANGA ANAK NANG BAYAN AT UNANG NAG GALAW NANG
PANGHIHIMAGSIK |
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SA PAGKAKILALA sa tapat
na paglilingkod at pag-
tatangol sa
Bayang tinubuan ni M. Emilio Jacinto
Pingkian itong Kataastaasang Panguluhan
sa pag-
ganap nang kaniyang kapangyarihang
tungkol, minarapat
na inihalal ang nasabing kapatid
sa katungkulang Pang-
ulong hukbo sa dakong
Hilagaan
ng Maynila.
Upang mapagkilala at sundin sa buong sakop nang
Pamahalaan nang Panghihimagsik at gamitin sa kaniya
ang nararapat sa pitagan aking iginawad itong Katunayan
dito sa Kataastaasang Panguluhan nang Haring Bayan
ngayong ika 15 nang Abril nang 1897.
