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The death of Andres Bonifacio

By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:05 AM November 24, 2021

Every year on Nov. 30 wreaths is offered at Andres Bonifacio monuments

nationwide. Media often covers the official rites of the inspiring song in bronze by
National Artist Guillermo Tolentino in Caloocan, or the tacky komiks re-
presentation by the late Eduardo Castrillo in Manila.

This year I dug up from my notes a Philippines Free Press article from Dec.
1, 1928: Lazaro Makapagal’s account of the execution of the Bonifacio
brothers. Andres and Procopio were executed on May 10, 1897, their brother,
Ciriaco, was killed in Limbon by the Magdalo forces who entered the Bonifacio
camp guns blazing to take Andres Bonifacio dead or alive; he was preferred dead,
but Bonifacio survived a bullet wound on his shoulder and a stab wound on his
neck. He was brought to Maragondon for trial by a military court that sentenced
him to death for treason. Emilio Aguinaldo commuted the death sentence to
banishment but was later influenced by generals around him to withdraw the
commutation.

The Bonifacio brothers were executed in the Maragondon range, and while
most Filipinos were taught that the execution site was on Mt. Buntis (pregnant), the
historical marker is placed on nearby Mt. Nagpatong (to get on top of), close to
another place called Mt. Hulog (fall). The account of Lazaro Makapagal, translated
from the original Spanish or Tagalog, was preserved in the Archives of the
Veteranos de la Revolucion:

“I received orders from General Mariano Noriel, to take over Andres

Bonifacio and Procopio Bonifacio from the place where they were detained
[Maragondon], and to conduct them to the hill of Tala in Maragondon, Cavite.
General Noriel handed to me at the same time a sealed package with orders that it
be not opened until we reached the place mentioned. I was charged to follow to the
letter, the instructions contained within the package.
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“In compliance with these orders I took with me the two brothers to the
place mentioned, together with four soldiers, under my command. On the road, we
conversed as were friends. But I already had a presentiment of the order contained
within the parcel.

“On reaching Tala hill in Maragondon. I opened the order, read it, and then
let the brothers read it. It was an order for the execution of the brothers. The two
brothers were terror-stricken; Andres told me in Tagalog: ‘Patawarin ninyo ako
kapatid.’ [Brother, forgive me.] I answered that I was very sorry, but by military
discipline, I had to carry out the unhappy task.

“I conducted Procopio, who was stronger, to a wooded place, and on

reaching the top of the hill, I ordered one of the soldiers to shoot him in the back.
This done, I and the soldiers, using bayonets and bolos, dug a pit where we buried
Procopio.

“When I approached the place where Andres was, he said, ‘Patay na ang
kapatid ko’ [My brother is dead], and he added [again in the third person],
‘Patawarin ninyo ako kapatid.’ I replied that I was sorry but it was my military
duty to follow the order.

“Andres Bonifacio tried to escape, but he could not go far because of the
thick shrubbery around. One of the soldiers reached him, firing at him from
behind and shooting him in the back. After digging one more grave with our
bayonets and bolos we buried Andres in it.

“Procopio and Andres were not taken to Tala hill bound, but free. Andres
had only one wound, in one of his arms. From the top of the hill where Procopio
was buried to the grave of Andres, on a hill slope facing a rivulet, there were only
twenty-five steps; while from Andres’ grave to the brook the distance was about
five brazas in Tagalog, a dipa, the length, tip to tip of one’s outstretched arms,
about 1.67 meters].

“The brothers were buried in the morning. This was before the fighting with
the Spaniards took place, when they captured Maragondon.
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“Andres Bonifacio wore a white camisa de chino on the day of his execution.
The gun used was a Remington. The four soldiers who accompanied us were
natives of Kawit, and they are all dead. I am the only survivor of the occurrence.”

Heroes, like saints, are usually commemorated on the day of their death,
their transition into history. Bonifacio is commemorated on his birthday because
his death raises painful questions. Bonifacio was killed by the very revolution he
started. Colonizers are the villains in our history, but Bonifacio’s death points to
Filipino villains.

The trial and death of Andres Bonifacio: A myth

November 30, 2014

Historian and professor Teodoro Agoncillo’s account of Bonifacio’s life

and death is the standard version but it suffers from many flaws. Historian
Glenn May highlighted these flaws, including the authenticity of the sources
used by Agoncillo. May, however, failed to include another flaw: Agoncillo
relied heavily on the Magdalo version of the Tejeros meeting and the events
that led to the death of Bonifacio. Professor Agoncillo did not use the
Magdiwang version of the events, especially the declarations of Gregoria de
Jesus, Francisco Carreon, et. al. What really happened that day? The forged
signature of Bonifacio in the "authenticated" trial records[/caption] THE
TEJEROS ESTATE HOUSE MEETING Bonifacio and his men walked out
of the estate-house after he declared the results of the election, null and
void and proceeded to his encampment at Limbon. Those left in the estate-
house did not know what to do. Santiago Rillo de Leon, Emilio Aguinaldo’s
foster brother, broke the dilemma and declared: “If the Caviteños cannot
enforce what was decided here in Tejeros, we from Batangas will enforce
it.” The Magdalos, led by Aguinaldo, took the oath of office as newly elected
officials of the Revolutionary Government. Aguinaldo himself confirmed that
Bonifacio was killed on April 23, 1897 at the latter’s camp in Limbon,
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Indang, not May 10, 1897. Interviewed by historian Manuel Artigas y

Cuerva in 1911, Aguinaldo declared that the Tejeros meeting divided the
revolutionary forces. To preempt this disunity, Aguinaldo created a Council
of War that accused Bonifacio of planning to overthrow the Revolutionary
Government and kill Aguinaldo. The Council tried Bonifacio en absentia and
sentenced him to death for treason. General Tomas Mascardo as well as
colonels Agapito Bonzon and Jose Paua commanded the troops that were
tasked to arrest or kill Bonifacio if he resisted. Manuel Sityar, a Spaniard
who later joined Aguinaldo, claimed in his memoirs that Aguinaldo planned
to surrender the Bonifacio to the Spanish general Lachambre if they
capture him alive. THE MAGDIWANG VERSION Declarations by the
Magdiwang group, which were not used by Professor Agoncillo and other
historians, contradict the Magdalo version. The Magdiwang declarations
unanimously declared that the force led by colonels Bonzon and Paua
forcibly entered Bonifacio’s encampment in Limbon and summarily carried
out the order. Gregoria, wife of Bonifacio, declared: “They shot my husband
and when he fell, stabbed him repeatedly and clobbered [him] by their rifle
butts.” General Santiago Alvarez declared in his memoirs that Colonel
Bonzon shot Bonifacio. The Chinese Paua then stabbed Bonifacio at the
right side of the neck, which caused blood to spurt out. Capt. Mariano
Salvador, an officer of Bonifacio and an eyewitness, corroborated General
Alvarez’s story. “We were surrounded. Col. Intong (Bonzon) shot
the Supremo who was hit in his right arm and stomach and then was
stabbed in the throat with a sharpened bamboo.” Francisco Carreon,
another officer of Bonifacio, made a similar declaration. Carreon declared
that the group of Bonzon forcibly entered Bonifacio’s camp, shot and killed
Ciriaco Bonifacio. Then Paua shot Bonifacio and hit him in his left arm.
Bonzon rushed to Bonifacio and stabbed him in the neck, pinning the latter
to the ground. PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS OF THE DEATH OF ANDRES
BONIFACIO Accounts of the death of Bonifacio were also published in
newspapers, established by the survivors of the Philippine Revolution. They
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were included in the El Renacimiento and later, its Filipino version,

the Muling Pagsilang. Martin Ocampo and Fernando Ma. Guerrero served,
respectively, as editor and manager of the publications. On Nov. 2, 1906
Muling Pagsilang published Hinggil sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, an essay of
Gonzalo Cue Malay. Malay’s essay highlighted the following: Aug. 23, 1896,
Bonifacio launched the revolution at the yard of Apolonio Samson in
Makangkong; Aug. 26, 1896, the first armed encounter between
revolutionary and colonial forces, and April 23, 1897 at 5 p.m., Bonifacio
was killed by Agapito Bonzon and company. On April 26, 1906, Jose Turiano
Santiago, et al, created a committee to raise funds to erect a monument in
honor of Bonifacio. DISTURBING DETAILS IN THE BONIFACIO TRIAL
RECORDS The microfilmed copies of the Bonifacio Trial Records are
preserved in Reels 83-84 of the Philippine Insurgent Records (PIR), the
copies of which are available in the Filipiniana division of the U.P. Main
Library and the Media Services Division of the National Library of the
Philippines. The records are written in Spanish and Filipino (an English
translation of the trial record was later added.) The Filipino version
contained disturbing details: the signatures of General Pantaleon Garcia,
investigating judge of the Council of War created by Aguinaldo, and Andres
Bonifacio were forged. Historian Teodoro Agoncillo, in his book The Revolt
of the Masses, exposed the forgery and that Garcia was not the
investigating judge but Col. Pedro Lipana. Interviewed by Agoncillo,
Aguinaldo confirmed this. Even more disquieting is the signature of
Bonifacio in the said trial records. The loops and flourish of Bonifacio’s
signature could be seen from the document where he commissioned Emilio
Jacinto to be overall commander of the revolutionary forces in Southern
Luzon. The ones in the trial records lacked the same clarity and firmness.
Besides, how could he have signed the document anyway? How could a
dead man sign such documents? THE BONIFACIO BURIAL MARKER IN
MARAGONDON, CAVITE What gives the trial an even more recurring
disquietude was the marker in Maragondon that explicitly memorialized the
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Bonifacio’s burial. The marker was erected by the fraternal ordel

Legionarios del Trabajo to perpetuate for future generations the truth that
Bonifacio was buried on April 26, 1897, three days after the April 23
Limbon attack. In 1935, the inhabitants, kin, and friends of Bonifacio
inaugurated his monument at Caloocan. It was the grandest of all
monuments erected in memory of the 1896 Revolution.