PART III .

REFORM AND REvoLUT'oN THE REI,jLUnI1N: FIRiT PHA,E

186

cried aloud: "I, as chairman of the assembll; and as Presidcnt of the We who sign these presents with our
true names, all officers ol
the army who have met in convention
Supreme Council of the Katipunitn, as all of you do not derr% decli.re headed by the Supreme Chief
this assembly dissolved, and I annul all that has been approved and [Bonifaciol, on account of the critical situation of tfre pucUtos
unA
the war, having discovered the treason
resolved." With this statement, hr: left the hall, followed by his men. committed by certain officer,
who have been sowing discord and
conniving with tie Spurriu.Jr, ou.
cnemies, corrupting tlre- arml and
being guilty of criminal neglect in
The Second Meeting at Tejeros-Aguinaldo, who was at Pasong the care of the wounded, have agreed
Santol, a barrio of Dasmariffas, was notified the following day of his
,l d.liu". the people fri_ tt i,
grave danger by the mea,rs hereinafter
enumerated:
election to the PresiCency. At first he refused to leave his men who were First: All combatants shall, by persuasion
or force, be incorporatrd
preparing to fight the enemy, but his eloer brother, Crispulo Aguinaldo, in an army corps and placed ,rra". tt
command of General pio del
persuaded him to take the oath of office, promising that he would take Pilar. "
his place and would not allow the enemy to overrun the place without f'econd: We shall recognize no one
as being vested with full
dying in its defense. Aguinaldo then acceded to his brother's request power except Right in tle first place,
and thos" ciu.ag"ou, offi...,
and proceeded to Santa Cruz de Malabon (now Tanza), where he and who, since the beginning of the war
and until the present mornent,
the others elected the previous day, with the exception of IJonifacio, havr:,never gt ne back on their oath
and have conducted thernserves
Ioyally.
took their oath of office.
Third: Any disloyal person shall be
Meanwhile, Bonifacio and his men, nurhbering for{,-five, again according to his desserts"
punisherJ on the spot,
met at the estate-house of Tejeros on March 23. All of them felt bad
Such is our agreement, and we swear
about the results of the previous day's proceedings, for they believed ofour birth that we shall keep it unto
belbre God ancl the country
the grave.
that anomalies were committed during the balloting. Convinced that
the election held was invalid, they drew up a document, now called the Among the forty-one men who signed
it ryere Bonifacio, Artemio
Acta de Tejeros, in which they gave their reasons .ior not accepting the R.icarte, Pio delpilag and Severino
de las Alas. The document posed
a
results of the convention held the previous day. From Tejeros, Bonifacio potential danger to the cause of the
Revoluticn, for it meant a definite
and his men proceeded to Naik in order to be as far as possible from the split in the ranks of the revolutiorriss
and almost certain defi;at in the
Magdalo men who, they thought, were responsible for the commission face of a united and wsll_armed
enemy.
of anomalies during the Tejeros election. Aguinaldo, wanting to bring
back Bonifacio to the fold, sent a delegation to him to persuade him The Trial and Execution oi Bonifacio_From
Naik, Bonifacio,
to cooperate with the newly constituted government. But Bonifacio his wife, and two brothers, with a
hmdful of loyal followers, tra.nsfbrred
refused to return to the revolutionary fold headed by Aguina.ldo. to the barrio of Limbon, Indang.
The Naik lrtititary Ag."._"rt
the knowledge of Aguinaldo amd, "u*"
!o realizing the significance of
The Naik Military Agreement-Bonifacio s anger over what Bonifacio's intentions, he ordered
thc arrest of the Bonifacio brothers.
he considered an irregular election and the insult heaped on him A group of soldiers under the comirnand of
Colon"l Ag;;;;onzon
by Daniel Tirona, a Magdal6, rarkled for long. At Naik he and liis was dispatchetl to Limbon to effect
the arrest. Bonzon ordered his men
men drew up another document in which they resolved t,r establish to surround the perimoter of the
zore of which Bonifacio,s house was
a government independent of, and separate tiom, that established at the ct:nter. A skirmish was inevitabh,
and in the firing that lbllowed
Tejeros. An army was to be orgrnized "by persuasion or force" and a Bonifacio was stabbed in the laryrrx,
his brother Ciriaco was killed,
military commander of their own choice was to take comnrand of it. and his other brother procopio
was wounded. Bonifacio was placed in
'Ihe document read: a hammock and broughr
r0 Naifir thte tapital of thl rsttal grriior*t.
/'N),