Cuerpo Vigilancia
Cuerpo Vigilancia
Cuerpo Vigilancia
archival collection
Rene R. Escalante
Access provided by University of Winnipeg Library (20 Aug 2018 17:33 GMT)
R e n e R . E sca l a n te
Philippine Studies Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints 65, no. 4 (2017) 451–83
© Ateneo de Manila University
A
ndrés Bonifacio and the Katipunan became a controversial
subject of postwar historical discourse despite the dearth of
primary sources on which historians and researchers could base
their narratives. The topic stole the limelight in the 1960s after
Teodoro Agoncillo (1956/2001) published his award-winning
biography of Bonifacio. Research interest continued in the succeeding
decades, with the Filipino uprising against Spain from 1896 to 1898 figuring
prominently in Agoncillo’s classic textbook on Philippine history. The 1998
centennial of the proclamation of Philippine independence also contributed
to the enrichment of the historical literature dealing with Bonifacio and the
Katipunan, given the numerous conferences and academic discussions held
in the 1990s and the release during that decade of publications dealing with
other aspects of the Philippine revolution.1
Jim Richardson’s (2013) The Light of Liberty is another major contribution
to the historiography of the Katipunan. The documents he found in the
Archivo General Militar de Madrid (General Military Archive of Madrid)
corrected, clarified, expanded, and deepened our knowledge about the
Katipunan. For instance, he presented evidence that as early as January 1892,
six months before the founding of La Liga Filipina (The Philippine League),
the Katipunan had already been conceived (ibid., xv). What Richardson
has accomplished must be sustained in order to clarify and ultimately settle
the contentious issues surrounding Bonifacio, particularly the controversial
documents attributed to him and the secret society that he cofounded.
This article aims to supplement Richardson’s work. However, instead of
mining further the rich materials in the Archivo General Militar, it examines
the intelligence reports of agents (agentes) of the Cuerpo de Vigilancia de
Manila (Surveillance Corps of Manila) and other materials on the Katipunan.
This study shows that the Cuerpo de Vigilancia collection contains many
documents that can fill historical gaps and enhance the accuracy of the
narrative of the Philippine revolution. Moreover, it presents new data that
run counter to common knowledge about the revolution. Because the
collection is voluminous, this article is limited to documents pertaining to
the Katipunan, Bonifacio and his associates, and some reports that enrich the
social history of the revolution. This social history is an important addition to
the existing literature because it sheds light on how the revolution affected
the lives of ordinary people at that time, a subject that previous studies on
the revolutionary period have tended to ignore. This article seeks to augment
The letter is addressed to Civil Gov. Manuel Luengo who the author
calls imbécil (idiotic). It also labels the Guardia Civil Veterana as stupid
(estúpido) and thieves (ladrones). The undated letter seems to be an original
composition because it is not a transcription by a Cuerpo agent. It is highly
provocative, disrespectful, and aims to undermine the competence of the
military arm of the colonial government at that time.
If this letter is compared with documents allegedly written by Bonifacio
that Jim Richardson found in the Archivo General Militar de Madrid, one
can easily detect that Bonifacio’s handwriting and signature are very different
in the Cuerpo letter and in those other documents.12 Moreover, the letter
in the Cuerpo collection is in Spanish, not Tagalog, the frequently used
language of many Katipuneros at that time. Interestingly, fugitives would
normally conceal their place of residence, but in this letter the alleged
author gives his address to the arresting officers. These observations, however,
should not be used as ground to dismiss the letter as dubious and without
historical value. First, Bonifacio could possibly have altered his penmanship
deliberately to confuse the Spaniards who were looking for him. Second,
he wrote in Spanish because the letter was intended primarily for Luengo
and not the Tagalog-speaking Katipuneros. Third, disclosing one’s address,
if it was genuine, would not have been a big deal for Bonifacio because
he was already peripatetic at that time, as in all probability the letter was
written after the Diario de Manila fiasco. In short, the letter could have been
a propaganda material that Bonifacio and his men used in order to divert
the attention of the colonial army to focus their attention on Tondo so that
the Katipuneros could freely maneuver in the present-day Quezon City area
where Bonifacio and his men had camped out. Finally, the letter showed
that the author was no coward and ready to personally confront his armed
enemies, a kind of personality reflective of Bonifacio, who was known to be
confrontational.
Interestingly, the Cuerpo collection includes a, by now, widely publicized
portrait of the supremo (fig. 4). This photograph includes a label beneath the
document are not exactly the same because in Del Castillo’s drawing the
“definición” text is in the upper right-hand corner while in that of the
Cuerpo it is located in the lower right-hand corner. Moreover, the same
image has been presented for different purposes. Ileto used it as evidence for
the triangular organization of the Katipunan, whereas in this article it is part
of the discussion of anting-anting. Ileto’s focus is on the triangle, while my
focus is on the all-seeing eye.
Cuerpo agents reported that in the provinces of Laguna and Tayabas
(present-day Quezon) one could find many anting-anting devotees. One
report narrated that on Mount Makiling there appeared a “holy man” who
was warmly received by the local folks (Moreno 1898a). He lived in a cave
with three gates that people considered sacred. Near the cave was a big
tree the branches of which were made into anting-anting. Cuerpo agents
monitored his activities because he predicted that in the coming Holy Week
the insurgents would attack Manila and the capital would be razed to the
Conclusion
Using documents from the archival collection of the Cuerpo de Vigilancia,
this article has shown that the story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan are still
works in progress and many details need to be incorporated into the narrative.
Previous studies mentioned that Katipuneros met secretly in public places
and used all forms of fronts to deflect the attention of the Spanish authorities.
Using the Cuerpo reports, this article has been able to identify some of the
List of Abbreviations
CdV collection Cuerpo de Vigilancia documentos, copias, impresos, y otros
papeles del Katipunan y de la Insurrección Filipina
Doc. Documento
Ms. Manuscrito
NAP National Archives of the Philippines, Manila
NCCA National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Manila
NCCA-CHR National Commission for Culture of the Arts Committee on
Historical Research
NHCP National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Manila
2 Citations of all materials from this collection provide the author, if available, and year of the
document. If the document is undated, its citation includes a short title. Where no author’s name
is given, the citation of the document simply includes the name of the archive where it is currently
housed, i.e., the NAP. Full bibliographic details including the manuscript code, manuscript title if
available, as well as document number are given in the list of references.
3 Far East Bank and Trust Company no longer exists today after it was bought by the Bank of the
Philippine Islands in 1999.
4 For more details about this controversy, see Isyu: Manila Daily News Magazine 1997a, 1997b,
1997c, 1997d; Philippine Daily Inquirer 1997a, 1997b, 1997c, 1998.
5 Given the prolonged closure of the NAP’s Spanish section, researchers have the option of
accessing the digital copy of the Cuerpo de Vigilancia collection by visiting the resource center
of the NHCP in Manila.
6 People wanting to verify if their long-departed relatives participated in the revolution may pore
over the Cuerpo reports to find the answer. I am not suggesting that the Cuerpo has a complete
list of those who took part in the revolution, but the Cuerpo list is the longest that I have seen so
far.
7 Diaz (1896) did not mention Honoria by name, but alluded to her when he wrote “su hermana,”
referring to Patiño’s sister.
8 The document provides no specific date, but this event must have happened before 16 August
1896, the date when Patiño met Fr. Mariano Gil (Zaide 1931, 42).
9 Agoncillo (1956/2001, 339–40 n. 19) did not accept the claim of Gregorio F. Zaide (1968, 106–8)
that Patiño revealed the secrets of the Katipunan to his sister because he wanted her to leave
the orphanage and go back to their hometown in the Visayas. His motive was to spare his sister
from the possible danger that might happen in case war broke out. Agoncillo, for his part,
asserted that vengeance for not getting what he wanted from his employer was Patiño’s motive
in revealing the secrets of the Katipunan.
11 Agoncillo’s (1956/2001, 44) translation is “Highest and Most Respectable Association of the
Sons of the People”; Zaide’s (1968) is “Highest and Respectable Association of the Sons of
the People”; Ileto’s (1979, 93) is “The Highest and Most Honorable Society of the Sons of the
Country,” while Schumacher’s (1981, 48) is “Highest and Most Respectable Society of the Sons
of the People.”
13 Among contemporaries, Artemio Ricarte (1992, 52) suspected that Aguinaldo had a hand in the
death of Bonifacio. Cf. Cristobal 1997, 156, 158–59.
14 Anting-anting appeared in various forms and served different purposes. Some offered protection
from physical harm while others could make a person invisible. There were also those that
15 Academics who have tackled anting-anting as a thematic element in their studies include: Ileto
1998; Covar 1998; Medina 1994; Salazar 1995; Abrera 1992.
16 Personally, I had never known of the oraciones given in the document before I came across it in
the Cuerpo collection.
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