THE FOUNDING OF THE

KATIPUNAN
On July 7, 1892, the newspapers published the news about the
arrest of Rizal the previous night and the governor-general's order
to banish him to Dapitan. That night, a small group of patriotic
Filipinos met at a house on Azcarraga Street, Manila (now Claro
M. Recto Avenue), and decided to create a secret society. These
men were Andres Bonifacio Teodoro Plata, Valentin Diaz,
Ladislao Diwa, Deodato Arellano, and one or two others. All of
them belonged to the lower class of society. Arellano was the
most educated among them. They organized a society called
Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga
Anak ng Bayan (KKK or Katipunan) or Supreme and Venerable
Association of the Sons of the People. The founders of the
Katipunan performed the blood compact ritual to show their
patriotism and love of things that were Filipino. The
blood
compact was an ancient Filipino custom of sealing
friendship or brotherhood (kapatiran). The members, at
first, agreed that they would recruit Filipinos to become
members through a method called triangle system. For
example, member Jose would recruit Pedro and Juan to
become members. These new members knew Jose but they did not
know each other. This method was used to minimize the danger of
discovery by the Spanish authorities. Later, a new system of
recruiting members similar to Masonry was adopted to
speed up the process of enlisting members. It was also
agreed that each member would pay a membership fee and
monthly dues.
V
 THE AIMS AND STRUCTURE OF THE
KATIPUNAN
-
---
-

Andres Bonifacio, who conceived the idea of organizing the

society, laid down three primary objectives of the
Katipunan: civic, political, and moral. The civic
objective was based on the principle of self-help and the
defense of the weak and the poor. The political
objective was the separation of the Philippines from
Spain, that is, to secure the independence of the colony. The
moral objective focused on the teaching of good manners,
hygiene, and good moral character. The Katipunan members, or
Katipuneros, were urged to help sick comrades and their
families. In case of death, the Society paid the funeral
expenses. Hence, there was damayan among its members.

The Katipunan
Government
Bonifacio had seen and attended the only meeting of the La Liga
Filipina. He took note of this society's structure and when he founded
the Katipunan he borrowed the structure of the Liga. The
Katipunan
unan
had three governing bodies: the Kataastaasang
Sanggunian or Supreme Council, the Sangguniang
Bayan or Provincial Council, and the Sangguniang
Balangay or Popular Council. The Supreme Council was
the highest of these governing bodies, followed by the
Provincial
chamber
Council and the Popular Council. Respectively, they were the a
council o equivalent of the central government, the provincial government,
other body
and the municipal government.
that meets
legislative There
was a Judicial Council, called Sangguniang Hukuman, which i
judicial
passed judgment on members who violated the rules of the Society.
purposes The Katipunan Assembly, on the other hand, was composed
of the members of the Supreme Council and the presidents of the Provincial
and Popular Councils. There was also a Secret Chamber, composed of
Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, and Pio Valenzuela. The Chamber
sentenced members who exposed the secrets of the Katipunan.
Usually, expulsion from the Society was the punishment meted
out to erring members who could not keep secrets.

The Katipunan
Elections
The triangle method of getting new members was slow and
ineffective.
As a ---- ---

result, there were only about 100 new members taken into the Society
comptroller by
the end of 1892. It was, therefore, agreed that all members should be title
of a allowed to get as many new members as circumstances permitted.
financial Consequently, the membership of the Society increased in a few
months.
officer It was
then thought that because the Katipunan had enough members,
fiscal - a leg
official in th a set
of officers would be elected. The elected officers of the first Supreme
I treasury
Council were the following: Deodato Arellano, president or supremo;
Andres Bonifacio, comptroller; Ladislao Diwa, fiscal; Teodoro Plata, secretary; and
Valentin Diaz, treasurer.
As months passed, Bonifacio observed that Arellano,
being a very busy man, was not very active in the
Society. So, early in 1893 Bonifacio, through an
election, moved to replace Arellano. Roman Basa was
elected in Arellano's place. The officers of this
second Supreme Council were as follows: Roman Basa, supremo;
Bonifacio, fiscal; Jose Turiano Santiago, secretary; and Vicente
Molina, treasurer. The elected councilors were Briccio Brigido
Pantas, Restituto Javier, Teodoro Plata, Teodoro Gonzales, and
Ladislao Diwa. Early in 1895, Bonifacio, not contented with the
performance of Basa as supremo, had himself elected to
Deodato Arellano replace Basa. He remained the Supremo of the
Katipunan until the establishment of a revolutionary
government in Tejeros, Cavite. Ladislao
Diwa
121
Membership
The Katipunan members were of three kinds: the first grade was
called katipon; the second grade was kawal; and the third grade
was bayani. The password of the katipon was "Anak ng Bayan”;
that of the kawal was "Gom-Bur-Za"; and that of the bayani was
“Rizal." In order to recognize each other in the streets, a member,
upon meeting another member, would place the palm of his right
hand on his breast, and as he passed the other member he would
close his hand and bring his index finger and his thumb together.

The Katipunan Codes

Because the danger of discovery of the Society was always
present, Bonifacio invented a system of writing which
would make it difficult for the Spaniards to read the Katipunan
letters or any written communication. The first secret code
invented by Bonifacio was the following:

Spanish
Alphabet
Equivalent in the
 Katipunan Alphabet
Spanish Alphabet
Equivalent in the
Katipunan Alphabet
{
<
-
ZO
.
O
s
0m
- - - ID 7m 0 0 0
- T - TO Io non
in
-
>
3
>
&3
>
c
>
<

Three more Katipunan alphabets were devised by

Bonifacio, the last of which was made in Cavite in
March 1897. The changes in the codes of the Katipunan
were necessitated by the discovery of the previous
codes by the Spaniards and, later, by people
considered as enemies by the Katipunan.
The Katipunan
Flags

KKK

K
КІ
ккк
K.K.K

Aside from the secret codes, Bonifacio also wanted a

flag to be used by the members as a symbol of their
unity. Consequently, he requested Benita Rodriguez to
make a flag for the Katipunan. With the help of Bonifacio's
 wife, Gregoria de Jesus, a flag was made. It consisted of a
rectangular piece of red cloth with three white letter K's
arranged horizontally in the middle. This was declared the
official flag of the Katipunan. However, it was changed a
few weeks after the revolution broke out in August 1896.
The new official flag consisted of a red rectangular piece
of cloth with a white sun and eight white rays in the middle.
Inside the circle representing the sun was the letter K
in the ancient Tagalog script. Bonifacio had his own
personal flag. It consisted of a red rectangular piece of cloth with
number of white rays in the
a white sun with an indefinite
center. Below the sun were the three K's arranged
horizontally.
THE TEACHINGS OF THE
KATIPUNAN
To guide the Katipuneros in leading a highly moral
life, Bonifacio prepared some sort of Ten
Commandments for the members. He called these
"commandments” Katungkulang Gagawin ng mga Anak ng
Bayan (Duties of the Sons of the People). These teachings
may be described as a Decalogue.

(1) Love God with all your heart. (2) Bear always
in mind that the love of God is also love of Country,
and this, too, is love of one's fellowmen. (3)
Engrave in your heart that the true measure of honor
and
 happiness is to die for the freedom of your country.
(4) All your good wishes will be crowned with success
if you have
serenity, constancy, reason, and faith in your
acts and
endeavor. (5) Guard the mandates and aims of the
K.K.K. as you guard your
honor.
(6) It is the duty of all to defend, at the risk of their
own lives and
wealth, anyone who runs great risks in the
performance of his
duty. (7) Our responsibility to ourselves and the
performance of our duties
will be the example set for our fellowmen to follow.
(8) Insofar as it is within your power, share your
means with the
poor and the
unfortunate.
(9) Diligence in the work that gives sustenance to you
is the true
basis of love-love for your own self, for your
wife and children, and for your brothers and
countrymen.

(10) Punish any scoundrel and traitor and praise

all good work.
 Believe, likewise, that the aims of the K.K.K. are
God-given, for the will of the people is also the
will of God.
the
Emilio Jacinto, Bonifacio's close friend and right-hand man, wrote
Kartilla which consisted of thirteen "teachings.” Members of
the Society were expected to take the "teachings” to heart. Here
are the important portions of the Kartilla:
Karti | tec
invi I no
no

(1) Life which is not consecrated to a lofty and sacred

cause is like a
tree without a shadow, if not a poisonous weed. (2) A good
deed that springs from a desire for personal profit
and not
from a desire to do good is not kindness. (3) True
greatness consists in being charitable, in loving one's
fellowmen and in adjusting every movement, deed
and word to
true Reason. (4) All men are equal, be the color of their skin
black or white. One
may be superior to another in knowledge,
wealth, and beauty, but
cannot be superior in being. (5) He who is noble
prefers honor to personal gains; he who is mean
prefers personal profit to honor. (6) To a man with a
sense of shame, his word is inviolate. (7) Don't
fritter away time; lost riches may be recovered,
but time lost
will never come again. (8) Defend the oppressed
and fight the oppressor. (9) An intelligent man is
 he who is cautious in speech and knows how
to keep the secrets that must be guarded. (10). In
the thorny path of life, man is the guide of his
wife and children;
if he who guides moves toward evil, they who
are guided likewise
move toward evil. (11) Think not of woman as a
thing merely to while away time with,
but as a helper and partner in the
hardships of life. Respect her in her
weakness, and remember the mother who
brought you into this
world and who cared for you in your childhood.
(12) What you do not want done to your wife,
daughter and sister, do
not do to the wife, daughter and sister of
another. (13) The nobility of a man does not
consist in being a king, nor in the
highness of the nose and the whiteness of the skin,
nor in being a priest representing God, nor in the exalted
position on this earth, but
pure and truly noble is he
who, though born in the woods, is possessed
of an upright character; who is true to his words;
who has dignity and honor; who does not
oppress and does not help those who oppress;
who knows how to look after and loves the land
of his birth.
These two writings of the two great katipuneros constituted
 the "Teachings of the Katipunan."

THE WOMEN OF THE

KATIPUNAN
Bonifacio wanted to involve the women in the Katipunan without
putting it in danger of discovery. So he suggested that women be
taken in as members of the Katipunan. To minimize the danger
of exposing the Society to women who could not be relied upon,
Bonifacio decided that only the wife, sister, daughter of a
Katipunero, and a few selected women could be eligible for
membership. This strict requirement compelled the women
members to keep the secrets of the Katipunan. The Katipunera's
duty, aside from helping the male members in their work of
propagating the ideas and ideal of the Society, was to make the
police authorities believe that no Katipunan meeting was being
held in a house. The women engaged in dancing and singing in
full view of the people on the street. While the Katipuneras
were doing this, the male members were holding a meeting
in a room behind the sala, where the women were singing
and dancing. In this way, the authorities were not able to
detect the meetings of the Katipunan in places designated by
Bonifacio.
Among the prominent women members of the Katipunan were Josefa
Rizal, president; Gregoria de Jesus, vice president; Marina
Dizon, secretary; and Angelica Lopez Rizal, Rizal's niece, as
fiscal. Gregoria de Jesus, in particular, frequently risked
her life by keeping Katipunan documents in her person at a
time when the Spanish authorities were watching the
movements of the members.

THE
KALAYAAN
 Bonifacio and Jacinto believed that they could easily
propagate their revolutionary ideas by having a printing
press. However, the organization had no money to purchase a
printing machine. Fortunately for them, two Visayan patriots
from Kalibo, Capiz gave the Katipunan the money to
purchase a printing press. They were Candido Iban and
Francisco del Castillo, who won one thousand pesos in a
lottery. The printing press was purchased for four hundred
pesos and it was at once transferred to the house of
Bonifacio.
Jacinto purchased some templates to be used in printing
the Katipunan newspaper. Other templates were stolen
from a Spanish printing press. Two experienced printers,
Ulpiano Fernandez and Faustino Duque, both Katipuneros,
managed the press. Dr. Pio Valenzuela suggested the
name of the newspaper, Kalayaan. After weeks of
preparation, the newspaper, written in Tagalog, came
out in the middle of March 1896. The Kalayaan
contained articles written by Bonifacio,
Jacinto, and Valenzuela. To mislead the Spanish authorities, they
put Yokohama as the place of publication and Marcelo H. Del
Pilar as the editor. Jacinto's Pahayag (Manifesto) and
Bonifacio's poem, Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupang (Love of
Country) were published in the only issue of the Kalayaan.
They did not sign their true names for fear that the Katipunan might
be discovered. Likewise, they did not like the Spanish authorities to run after
Pingkian and Dimas-Ilaw;
them. Jacinto used the pen names
Bonifacio used Agapito Bagumbayan; and Valenzuela used
Madlang-Away.
As Bonifacio and Jacinto thought, the Kalayaan easily
influenced many Filipinos to become members of the Society.
In January 1896, the total membership did not exceed 300. But
 after the distribution of the Kalayaan in Pampanga, Tarlac, and
in the Tagalog provinces, from Manila in the center to Nueva
Ecija on the north, and Batangas on the south, the total
membership reached about 30,000. The Kalayaan had done
its duty before it was destroyed by Fernandez and Duque to
prevent the Spanish authorities from confiscating it. The fiery
pen, revolutionary spirit, and political will of the tandem
Bonifacio-Jacinto in the newspaper proved effective in
unifying the people towards kalayaan (freedom and
independence).

TWIN SOULS OF THE

KATIPUNAN:
Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto
Bonifacio and Jacinto both believed that the time had come to
change strategy and tactics. The Katipunan with revolutionary
aims, was a totally different society from the Liga which worked
for radical reforms using evolutionary or peaceful means. The
Katipunan aimed to make the Philippines a free country by force of
arms.
Its founder, Andres Bonifacio, was born on November 30, 1863 in
a small nipa house on what is now. Azcarraga Street near the present
Manila Railroad station. His parents, Santiago Bonifacio and
Catalina de Castro, belonged to the lower middle class. His mother,
Catalina was Spanish-Chinese of Filipino origin from Zambales, and
worked at a cigarette factory. His father, Santiago was a tailor, a
boatman, and a former municipal official of Tondo. Bonifacio's
parents died while he was in his teens. As such, he had to
support the family which consisted of himself, his brothers, Ciriaco,
Procopio, and Troadio, and his sisters, Espiridiona and Maxima. He sold
canes and paper fans in his early years. Because of his poverty, he was
not able to finish the equivalent of grade four today. He worked as a
messenger of J.M. Fleming and Co., an English trading firm; and
later, as an agent of the German Andres Bonifacio trading firm,
Fressel and Co.
At night, he read newspapers and books, which were all written
in Spanish. He taught himself to read and write in this language,
and in time he became literate in Spanish. One of the books he
read was the original Spanish version of Rizal's Noli Me Tangere
and later, El Filibusterismo. He also read books on the French
Revolution of 1789. When Rizal was executed on December 30,
1896, Bonifacio felt sad and angry. He felt sad because a great
Filipino was executed; and he felt angry with the Spaniards
because of what they did to Rizal and his cause to fight for
justice and liberty.
Unlike Rizal and other reformists who were anti-friar but not anti
colonial rule as a whole, Bonifacio was anti-friar and anti-Spanish.
He hated all Spaniards, whether they were friars, civil
employees, or officials. To him, they were all the same:
greedy, immoral, cruel, and lazy. His poems in Tagalog,
especially Tapunan ng Lingap and Ang Mga Cazadores,
attacked the Spaniards furiously. He called the Spaniards
"white cattle." His poem "Huling Hibik ng Pilipinas" openly
called for independence from colonial rule.
The Revolution of 1896 was, therefore, the
Katipunan Revolution, for it was the Katipunan that
sowed the seeds of national independence in the
minds of the masses. As founder and later as
supremo of the Katipunan, Bonifacio may be rightly
regarded as a leading thinker of the Revolution of
1896.
Bonifacio found a twin soul in the Katipunan-the young and
intelligent Emilio Jacinto. Born in Tondo, Manila on December 15,
1875, Jacinto also lived a hard life when he was young like
 Bonifacio. His father died early which compelled his mother
to send him to his uncle's house for support. He first studied
at San Juan de Letran Emilio Jacinto and later transferred
to the University of Santo Tomas where he studied Law.
As a young man of about eighteen, Jacinto heard about the
Katipunan and immediately joined it leaving his studies.
Bonifacio came to love this young man who was serious-
minded, humble, intelligent, and industrious. Bonifacio
warmed up to him and a deep friendship developed
between the two. The two of them greatly influenced the
Katipunan.
Jacinto, like Bonifacio, wrote in Tagalog, the language of
the masses, except for one poem in Spanish, A Mi
Patria (To My Country). Like Bonifacio, Jacinto
believed that the people, the masses, could be reached
only through their own language, so they both wrote in
Tagalog. It is for this reason that Bonifacio and Jacinto
succeeded in uniting the people behind them. This was
where the reformists failed because they wrote for the
intellectuals and Spaniards who read only in Spanish,
more than in any of the Philippine languages.

Jacinto wrote such pieces as the Kartilla, Liwanag at

Dilim, Pahayag, Sa Mga Kababayan, and others. When
the Revolution broke out, he fought side by side with
Bonifacio. Later, Bonifacio assigned him to lead the rebels in
Laguna. He died in Mahayhay, Laguna on April 6,
1899, at the young age of twenty-four.