The first days of the Philippine Revolution saw the defeat of the Katipunan in Manila,

forcing Bonifacio and his men to retreat to the mountains of Montalban. It was a different story
in Cavite. Here, the Katipunan under Emilio Aguinaldo managed to subdue the Spanish forces by
surprise and take control of the province. The victory, however, was short-lived as the Cavite
Katipuneros – which consisted of two groups, the Magdiwang (Bonifacio) and Magdalo
(Aguinaldo) – were soon fighting each other over territory and logistics. Unable to resolve their
differences, Aguinaldo invited the Supremo Andress Bonifacio to Cavite to mediate. However,
when he arrived in infuriated the Magdalos. The two groups finally agreed to form a revolutionary
government (pamahalaang panghihimagsik) which would lead the revolution. The assembly was
set to be held in the friars’s estate house in Bario Tejeros, a part of town of San Francisco de
Moltalban (now General Trias). On March 22, 1897, the Cavite Katipuneros, as well as
representatives of the Katipunan from the nearby provinces, converged at the estate house.
Emilio Aguinaldo, however, was not at the assembly as he was commanding the Filipino forces at the
frontlines in Pasong Santol, Barrio Salitran, Dasmariñas, facing the imminent attack of the
Spanish forces. (Torres, 2018)

The KKK was divided into two rival factions which had its own leaders
and territories; these were the Magdiwang faction led by Andres
Bonifacio’s brother-in-law and the Magdalo faction led by Emilio
Aguinaldo’s cousin. The Magdalo faction mostly comprised of people
from the rich section of society or the ilustrados from Cavite while the
Magdiwang faction comprised of people from the poorer section of
society or the middle-class, most of which came from Manila. The two
factions have always been in dispute despite having one goal. This was
supposed to be settled during the Tejeros Convention which
happened on March 22, 1897. The purpose of the meeting was to
discuss what the revolutionary government would be and to determine
the leaders of the said government. The convention mostly comprised
of members of the Magdiwang faction but they weren’t necessarily pro-
Bonifacio since Bonifacio never really chose sides. The participants
voted and Emilio Aguinaldo came out as the president whilst Andres
Bonifacio came out as the Director of the Interior. However, Daniel
Tirona believed that Bonifacio was too uneducated for the position and
suggested that a lawyer should replace him instead. Insulted and
frustrated, Bonifacio stated that the process of the election was too
disorderly which made the results invalid. In fact, there have been
reports of rigged ballots during the event. Also, according to Mariano
Alvarez, the voters were already manipulated by the Imus crowd by
secretly spreading that they should not be led by men from other towns
or pueblos which meant that they should elect Aguinaldo instead of
Bonifacio.

Now isn’t this all so familiar? Don’t you see the similarities of these
events with the events in the more future years? The conflict between
the rich (ilustrados) and the poor, dirty elections, and filthy
regionalism have repeatedly showed up in the history of Philippine
politics and have had detrimental effects on the country.

Rich vs Poor

This political struggle has been present not only in the Philippines but
around the world as well. The way the ilustrados previously viewed the
revolution as “an irrational act by the uneducated masses” but joined
afterwards to protect their wealth and social status is very familiar in
today’s society. The rich people’s hunger for power has and always will
be one of the main causes of having a filthy government. They usually
use their riches to buy the votes of the people and sometimes even
discriminate against their fellow “poor” candidates.

Dirty Elections

Isn’t this a bit too obvious? Sadly, the Philippines has been known for
having several corrupt government officials due to the filthy
manipulation of voters and ballots. From the rigged ballots in the
Tejeros Convention to the (intentional??) malfunctioning of the PCOS
machines, we clearly have not learned from our lesson.

Filthy Regionalism

Yet another infamous practice in the Philippines. It has GREATLY

affected Philippine politics, both positively and negatively. However, I
believe the negative effects outweigh the positive ones.

VOTING RESULT FOR PRES-

AGUINALDO- 146/256
BONIFACIO- 81/ 256
TRIAS- 29/256
Tumayo si Severeno Delas alas nga dapat si bonifacio na ang vice pres ditso since dakot mn syag votes
Pero ni opposed si Daniel Terona

DAUG NI ANDRES IS DIRECTOR OF INTERIOR

JACINTO LUMBRERAS- NOMINATED ANDRES BONIFACIO AS A PRES