El Grito De Rebellion:

A Discourse on the
Controversy of the Dawn of
the Philippine Revolution
Jeremiah Daniel S. Jorge, Jewel Ann A. Mercado, Charles Steven S. Mojica, Riyah C. Oaing,
Joel D. Obero, Bhea Angela P. Rejano, Ignacio Aizen Santos III, Lawrence C. Tuliao
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

College of Engineering
Central Luzon State University
Introduction

The “Cry of Pugad Lawin” or “Cry of Balintawak”

marked the beginning of the Philippine Revolution
against Spanish colonial rule.
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Overview

• Where and when did the first Cry occur?

• Balintawak vs. Pugad Lawin vs. etc.
• Date discrepancy: August 23 to 26, 1896
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Geography
All of the events regarding the start of the
revolution happened in the Municipality of Caloocan,
Province of Manila (which is now part of Quezon
City, National Capital Region). Before, Caloocan was
composed of one town (población) and 11 barrios,
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

namely Balintawak, Bahay Toro, Banlat, Culiat,

Kangkong, Loma, Marulas, Talipapa, and Tangke
(Ronquillo, 1898).
Geography

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Geography
However, it seems like no detailed maps of the
municipality are known to have survived from the
Spanish era, and perhaps none ever existed. This
creates more confusion in this controversy, e.g.
“Pugad Lawin” is referred to by primary sources to
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

not just one of the contending “Cry” sites, but to

two—Bahay Toro and Pasong Tamo.
The Term “Cry”
The debate has long been clouded by a lack of
agreement on exactly what is meant by the “Cry”.
The term has been applied to three related but
distinct events –
the “pasya” – the decision to revolt;
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

the “pagpupunit” – the tearing of cedulas; and

the “unang labanan” – the first encounter with
Spanish forces.
The Term “Cry”
Among the historians who have studied the “Cry” in greatest
detail, there is a sharp divergence of opinion as to how the
term should be defined.
Teodoro A. Agoncillo equates the term with the
pagpupunit, which he says happened immediately after the
pasya.
Isagani R. Medina also takes the “Cry” to mean the
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

pagpupunit, but says it happened before the decision to

revolt had been taken.
Soledad Borromeo-Buehler takes the view – the traditional
view that KKK veterans took, she says - that the “Cry”
should mean the unang labanan.
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt

When did it happen?

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt
When did it happen?

Sources that we currently have so far almost agrees

that the decision to start the revolution against the
Spaniards was taken on Monday, August 24, 1896
after a lengthy meeting (or series of meetings) since
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Sunday, August 23.

Pasya: The Decision to Revolt
When did it happen?

At least four sources support the notion of the

date:
Biak-na-bato Constitution of 1897
Carlos Ronquillo’s chronicles
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Liga Filipina Memorial inscription

Santiago Alvarez’s memoirs “Ang Katipunan at
Paghihimagsik”
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt

Where was it taken?

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt
Where was it taken?

Despite the fact that the revolution occurred on

August 24, 1896, The problem of verifying the exact
location where the revolution took place remains
difficult and convoluted. As a result, things continue
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

to be challenging and confusing.

Pasya: The Decision to Revolt
Where was it taken?

The sources provide three specific possibilities:

Apolonio Samson’s place in bo. Kangkong,

Caloocan Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Melchora Aquino’s place near Pasong Tamo in

bo. Banlat, Caloocan
Juan Ramos’s place in bo. Bahay Toro, Caloocan
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt

Case #1: Kangkong

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Kangkong
In 1917 a Katipunan veterans’ association, the Labi
ng Katipunan, erected a memorial on the site at
Apolonio Samson’s house on the Kaingin Road in
barrio Kangkong where they remembered the
decision to revolt had been taken.
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

“Sa pook na ito,” the inscription stated, plainly and

simply, “...ipinasya ng KKKNMANB ang paghihimagsik
noong ika-23 ng Agosto 1896”
Kangkong
They referred in vaguer terms to “Caloocan,”
meaning “somewhere in the municipality of
Caloocan,” or to “Balintawak,” meaning “some
distance to the east of Caloocan población, in the
general area where Balintawak is the best-known
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

place.”
Kangkong
8 out of the 10 individuals who mentioned either
Kangkong, Pasong Tamo, or Bahay Toro - recalled
the decisive meeting and/or the “grito” as having
taken place in Kangkong specified by Tomas
Remigio, Julio Nakpil, Sinforoso San Pedro, Guillermo
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Masangkay, Cipriano Pacheco, Briccio Pantas,

Francisco Carreon and Vicente Samson.
Kangkong
Pio Valenzuela – only one to ever maintain that the
decisive meeting took place at Melchora Aquino’s
place near Pasong Tamo. But his memory was
erratic. He also once recalled (in 1911) that the
pasya had been taken in Kangkong. If his testimony
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

on that occasion is counted, the tally for Kangkong

would be 9 out of 10.
Kangkong
Ramon Bernardo – remembered the decision as
having been taken in Bahay Toro, but he did not say
“Juan Ramos’s place in Bahay Toro.” He said it had
been taken at Melchora Aquino’s place, “sa pook ng
Sampalukan, Bahay Toro.”
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Kangkong
Unless and until any solid evidence is found to the
contrary, therefore, the only possible conclusion to
be drawn from the veterans’ testimony is that
“pasya” was taken by the Supreme Assembly at the
house of Apolonio Samson in Kangkong
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Kangkong
The main pagpupunit also took place in Kangkong, as
the veteran Cipriano Pacheco later recalled.

He told them the momentous news: “Mga kapatid,

ang pinagkaisahan ay ipagpatuloy ang
paghihimagsik. Kung gayon, ilabas ninyo ang inyong
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

mga sedula personal at punitin, tanda ng pagtalikod

sa kapangyarihan! Mabuhay ang Katagalugan!” And
the crowd responded as one, “Mabuhay!”
Kangkong
The main pagpupunit also took place in Kangkong, as
the veteran Cipriano Pacheco later recalled.

He told them the momentous news: “Mga kapatid,

ang pinagkaisahan ay ipagpatuloy ang
paghihimagsik. Kung gayon, ilabas ninyo ang inyong
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

mga sedula personal at punitin, tanda ng pagtalikod

sa kapangyarihan! Mabuhay ang Katagalugan!” And
the crowd responded as one, “Mabuhay!”
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt

Case #2: “Pugad Lawin in

Pasong Tamo”
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
In the late 1920s, when a small group of senior Katipunan
veterans began to press the case that the term “Cry of
Balintawak” was a misnomer, and should be discarded.

The “Cry” had occurred, they said, at a place known as

Pugad Lawin. Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

In 1917, Pio Valenzuela had testified in court that the

event had been taken at Melchora Aquino’s house on the
road known as Daan Malalim, in Pasong Tamo, “also known
as Pacpac-lawin.”
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”

However, in contemporary records, alas, and on

contemporary maps, the name Pugad Lawin cannot
be found anywhere. “Isa[ng] ... pagkakamali... ang
sabihing mayroong Pugad Lawin sa Kalookan,” the
scholar Sofronio G. Calderon decided after a
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

fruitless search way back in the 1920s.

“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”

Valenzuela recalled that Pugad Lawin was in Pasong

Tamo – “sa loob ng nayong Pasong Tamo”. In 1928,
Valenzuela went to Pasong Tamo to commemorate
the “Cry” together with four other well-known KKK
veterans – Gregoria de Jesus (Bonifacio’s widow),
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Briccio Pantas and the brothers Alfonso and

Cipriano Pacheco.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Any doubt that Pio Valenzuela identified Pugad
Lawin with Pasong Tamo, and specifically with
Melchora Aquino’s place, was dispelled in August
1940, when together with two other Katipunan
veterans (Genaro de los Reyes and Sinforoso San
Pedro) he returned there with Eulogio B. Rodriguez
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

and Luis Serrano of the Philippine Historical

Committee (a forerunner of the NHCP) to verify the
location.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Luis Serrano wrote a detailed account of the 1940
expedition which makes it absolutely clear not only
that Valenzuela and his companions believed the
“Cry” took place at or near Melchora Aquino’s place,
a spot they remembered as Pugad Lawin, but also
that their geographical point of reference,their
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

starting point for locating the exact spot, was

Pasong Tamo.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Teodoro Agoncillo – initiator of Pugad Lawin’s relocation

Agoncillo does not, however, adhere fully to Valenzuela’s

version of events even if it is based on a memoir of
Valenzuela. In the present context, one of his
departures is especially pertinent. Valenzuela believed
Ramos and his mother both lived in “Pugad Lawin near
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Pasong Tamo”. Agoncillo, on the other hand, says that

Ramos lived in “Pugad Lawin” (without specifying where
it was) but that his mother lived in Pasong Tamo, and
that the two places were a significant distance apart.
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt

Case #3: “Pugad Lawin in

Bahay Toro”
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
“Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”
What had now become officially known as the “Cry
of Pugad Lawin” continued to be commemorated at
Balintawak until the 1980s.

“Pugad Lawin Historical Committee” was

constituted in 1983 to examine whether the “Cry”
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

site could be definitively identified at last.

“Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”
The Committee took Professor Agoncillo’s position
that Pugad Lawin was a considerable distance from
Pasong Tamo, and that the yard where cedulas
were shredded had belonged to Juan Ramos, not to
his mother, Melchora Aquino.
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

The search for Pugad Lawin thus boiled down to a

search for where Juan Ramos had lived.
“Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”
The committee claimed to have identified the former
site of Ramos’s place on the basis, it seems, of oral
testimony from one of Juan Ramos’s grandsons,
Escolastico Ramos

These findings were declared to be right. Kaya on the

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

occasion of the next commemoration of the “Cry,” on

August 23, 1984, the NHI placed its marker at the site
in Seminary Road, Bahay Toro where it has since
remained.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”
Some people, needless to say, begged to differ from the NHI -
described evidences submitted as too tenuous, the case too
dubious.

The debate eventually subsided for a while but it did not resume
until the mid-1990s, before and during the centennial of the
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

revolution, when various forums were organized.

New documentary evidence was presented, and the discussion

as a whole was more detailed and nuanced than hitherto
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”

Medina found official documents from 1896 that leads to

his conclusions:
Melchora Aquino and Juan Ramos were listed under
different cabecerías.
Ramos’s cabecería was located in “sitio Pugad Lawin -
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

pero he acknowledges frankly in his annotations that

such a place cannot be found in nineteenth century
records.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”

The foremost proponent of “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”

in this renewed debate was Isagani R. Medina.
presented the case for Bahay Toro more fully, and
with more documentation, than anybody else has
before or since Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

delivered at a conference in 1993 and then in his

annotations to Ronquillo’s memoirs, first in a paper
patently wished to make his case as forceful and
persuasive as he could without omitting any evidence
he felt to be significant
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”
Medina himself notes, however, that other family members told
contrary stories, including Ramos’s grandson, Escolastico
Ramos. The weightiest is the testimony of Ramos’s daughter,
Monica Ramos-Figueroa.

Ramos’s daughter, the descendant best acquainted with the

family’s situation around the turn of the century, believed their
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

home was at “Pugad Lawin near Pasong Tamo.”

The other evidence Medina presents to support his “Pugad

Lawin in Bahay Toro” position might be described as equally
insubstantial. But that would be too kind. His other evidence, to
be blunt, borders on the spurious.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”
Medina claims his position is supported by the recollections of five
Katipunan veterans who actually witnessed the “Cry” and one other
who was very close to the events of August 1896.
Dr. Pio Valenzuela
Briccio Brigido Pantas
Cipriano Pacheco
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Domingo Orcullo
Mariano Alvarez

But in reality, not a single one of these five men left any written
testimony to the effect that Pugad Lawin was situated in the barrio of
Bahay Toro.
“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”

Medina also says the “sigaw sa Pugad Lawin” story was

endorsed by Gregoria de Jesus. He makes this claim on the
basis of a single sentence in José P. Santos’s short
1935 biography of Bonifacio:

“Ang pagunita nina Dr. Pio Valenzuela ay kinakatigan ng Balo ng

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Supremo na si Ginang Gregoria de Jesus.”

“Pugad Lawin in Pasong Tamo”
Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro”

Medina, in short:
renders every reference to Pugad Lawin as
meaning “Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro,”
transports the pagpupunit to Bahay Toro from
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Kangkong
persistently distorts the veterans’ testimony to
make it bolster his own version of events
Pasya: The Decision to Revolt

Case #4: Balintawak

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu
Balintawak
It used to be celebrated as the "Cry of Balintawak" every
August 26 since 1908. However, controversies erupted
after the place and date of the celebration were
superseded officially in 1962 with Pugad Lawin and August
23, respectively.
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

One primary source supporting that the cry was held in

Balintawak was Gregoria De Jesus’ “Mga Tala ng Aking
Buhay” written on Nov. 5, 1928 confirming that “the
(Balintawak) uprising began with the cry for liberty on 26
August 1896.”
Balintawak
It used to be celebrated as the "Cry of Balintawak" every
August 26 since 1908. However, controversies erupted
after the place and date of the celebration were
superseded officially in 1962 with Pugad Lawin and August
23, respectively.
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

One primary source supporting that the cry was held in

Balintawak was Gregoria De Jesus’ “Mga Tala ng Aking
Buhay” written on Nov. 5, 1928 confirming that “the
(Balintawak) uprising began with the cry for liberty on 26
August 1896.”
Balintawak
In her book "The Cry of Balintawak: A Contrived Controversy"
published by the Ateneo De Manila University Press in 1998,
Dr. Soledad Borromeo-Buehler said it was only after the
government repealed the Sedition Law in 1907 that the yearly
commemoration of the "Cry of Balintawak" was held in 1908.

Dr. Buehler, a granddaughter of the Katipunan Gen. Guillermo

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Masangkay, one of the original and close associates of

Bonifacio in the KKK, wrote that through a public subscription,
a monument to the "Cry" was built in Balintawak.
Balintawak
First Cry Monument in Vinzons Hall
(Student Union Building), University of the
Philippines–Diliman

“Itinayo sa Balintawak, noo’y sakop ng

Kalookan, 27 Agosto 1911, bilang pag-alaala sa
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

mga bayani ng himagsikang Filipino ng 1896.

Nilikha ni Ramon Martinez y Lazaro.
Pinasinayaan, 3 Setyembre 1911. Inilipat sa
Bulwagang Vinzons. Unibersidad ng Pilipinas,
Diliman, Lungsod Quezon, 29 Nobyembre 1968.”
Balintawak
Meanwhile, according to Guillermo Masangkay, the Cry took place
in Balintawak on 26 August 1896. He also pointed out that Pantas,
Pacheco, and Samson were not present when the Cry occurred.

However, on Agoncillo's notes of the interview, Masangkay stated

that the cry happened on August 24. The inconsistencies in his
accounts also makes him an unreliable source. Moreover, he
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

based his claims regarding the cry on his friend Pio Valenzuela. He
proved his point by saying that Valenzuela is a direct eye witness
of the event and his claims should be valid. But Valenzuela’s
account is inconsistent, making him an unreliable source as well.
Balintawak
An officer of the Spanish guardia civil, Lt. Olegario Diaz,
stated that the Cry took place in Balintawak on August 25,
1896. Historian Teodoro Kalaw in his 1925 book The Filipino
Revolution wrote that the event took place during the last
week of August 1896 at Kangkong, Balintawak.

Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Conclusion
History professor, lecturer, book author and columnist
Ambeth R. Ocampo included the following paragraph in the
Preface of his book "Bones of Contention: The Andres
Bonifacio Lectures" published in 2014 by Anvil Publishing Inc.:

“Despite documentary evidence presented for each side, it

seems we may never come to a satisfactory solution. With
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

historians perennially insisting on the validity of their

particular date and place, we end up more confused than
when we started because aside from a series of August
dates, we now have September 6, 1896 too.”
Conclusion
“Aside from Pugad Lawin and Balintawak, we also have to
consider Bahay Toro, Pacpac Lawin, Pasong Tamo, Kangkong,
and, in jest, even Pugad Baboy!

Despite all the heated discussion over the details, the general
outline of the story remains the same and without question:
somewhere in Caloocan, sometime in August 1896, the
Photo Credit: St. Theresa's College of Cebu

Katipunan Supremo changed the course of our history, and

began our journey to nationhood."