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Philippine History
CHAPTER 3
LESSON 3

T H E C RY O F
P U G A D L AW I N / B A L I N TAWA K

H T T P S : / / W W W. Y O U T U B E . C O M / WAT C H ?
V = D 8 2 O FA O P W V M & T = 9 4 9 S
K AT I P U N A N
REVOLUTION
• The first re volutiona ry or g anization, w as
founde donthe 7 t h of July,1 8 92, inM a nila ,by
Andres Bonifacio.

The na me “Ka tipunan” is the Ta g alog w ord

for Association.

The complete name of this organization was:

Sovereign and Very Venerable Association of
the Sons of the People or Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-
galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan
 • The founder and organizer of the
Katipunan.
• Nov. 30, 1863, Tondo, Manila
• Messenger-Clerk Fleming &
Company
• Agent-Fressell & Company
• The Great Plebian, Poet,
Essayist

ANDRES BONIFACIO y
DE CASTRO
We a p o n s of the
Katipunan

Bolo Knives Bamboo Spears

 Mauser Rifle (below)
Rebolber
and Remington Rifle
(above )
 Points to understand:

*What is the Significance about this topic?

* What was the “Cry” all about?

*How the origin of the “Cry of Pugad Lawin” took place and why
is it considered in our country’s history of revolution ?
 DEFINITION OF THE “CRY”
-The term "Cry" is translated from the Spanish el grito de
rebelion (cry of rebellion) or el grito for short.
-Thus the Grito de Balintawak is comparable to Mexico's Grito
de Dolores (1810).
-However, el grito de rebelion strictly refers to a decision or call to
revolt. It does not necessarily connote shouting, unlike the
Filipino ”sigaw”.
 I n te rpre ta tion s o f th e “ C ry”

The debate has long been clouded by a lack of

consensus on exactly what is meant by the “Cry”. The
term has been applied to three related but distinct
events –

• “Unang Laban” - the first encounter with

Spanish forces;
•
“Pasya” - the decision to revolt; and
“Pagpupunit”
• - the tearing of cedulas
In 1896, according to
the National
Historical
Commission (NHCP),
the house and yard
of Juan Ramos had
stood on this site.
Semina
ry
road,
Project
8
where said Pugad
the Lawin is
mentioned

- google.com/maps
The main inscription on the
plinth read “Homenaje del
Pueblo Filipino a los Heroes
d e ’ 96 / Ala-ala ng
Bayang Pilipino sa mga
Bayani ng ‘96”, and a
smaller plaque bore the
date “26 Agosto
1896 ” .
The First Monument, 1 9 1 1
 Pugad Lawin’s Origin
• The story begins in the late 1920s, when a small group of senior
Katipunan veterans began to press the case that the term “Cry of
Balintawak” was a misnomer, and should be discarded.
Balintawak, they insisted, in the strict, narrow sense that a
particular barrio to the east of Caloocan, with delineated
boundaries w as not w here the “C ry” had occurred. The “Cry”
had occurred, they said, at a place known as Pugad Lawin.

- Richardson, J. (2016). “Pugad

Lawin near Pasong Tamo”
 Does Pugad Lawin really exist?

• Sofronio Calderon’s account

“conducting research in the late 1920s on the
toponym “Pugad Lawin,” went through the
municipal records and the Census of 1903 and
1 9 1 8 , could not find the name, and concluded that
“Isang…pagkakamali… ang sabihing mayroong
Pugad Lawin sa Kalookan.”
• Pio Valenzuela’s account

“ Sa y s t he revolutionists m e t in K a n g k o n g on A u g u s t
22, but t h e decision w a s t a k e n on A u g u s t 2 3 a t Juan
R a m o s ’ s p l a c e (son of M e l c h o r a Aquino) a t P u g a d
Lawin, and t he “ C r y ” followed t h e decision.” - Richardson, J.
(2016)
 In 1928, Valenzuela
went to commemorate
the “Cry” at a site in
Pasong Tamo together
with four other well-
known KKK veterans –
Gregoria de Jesus
(Bonifacio’s widow),
Briccio Pantas and the
brothers Alfonso and
Cipriano Pacheco .
- Richardson, J.
(2016)
• Cipriano Pacheco’s account (1933)
“Says the decision was taken at Kangkong,
(“nang ipahayag na ang pinagkasunduan...”) but
that the revolutionists then went to a place
“nearby” known as Pugad Lawin (location not
specified), where Bonifacio announced the
decision and cedulas we re torn. - Richardson, J. (2016)
 pre-eminent Filipino
historians of the 20th
century.
•

• Essayist
• Poet.

Teodoro A. Agoncillo (1912-1985)

- www.goodreads.com
• Agoncillos’s account (1956)
“follows the “Memoirs” that Valenzuela wrote in the 1920s in saying the
pasya was taken at Juan Ramos’ place in Pugad Lawin.” - Richardson, J. (2016)
“says that Ramos lived in Pugad Lawin but his mother lived in Pasong
Tamo, and that the two places were a significant distance apart.
J. (2016)

“repeats this story in an article he wrote in 1960, saying that from Pugad
- Richardson
Lawin the “rebels walked pell-mell through the night to Pasong Tamo.”
-Richardson, J. (2016)
• It w a s mainly upon Agoncillo’s advice, it is commonly said,
that the Philippine government ruled that the term “Cry of
Balintawak” should b e discarded in favor of “ Cry of Pugad
Lawin.”

• This change was signaled formally in 1 9 6 3 by President

Macapagal, whose Proclamation 1 4 9 declared that the
67 t h anniversary of the “Cry of Pugad Lawin” on August
23 would be a special public holiday in Quezon City,
“where the event took place.”
 Pursuing the site
• In 1983, however, the mayor of Quezon City constituted a
“Pugad Lawin Historical Committee” to examine whether
the “Cry” site could be definitively identified at last.

• The search for Pugad Lawin thus boiled down to a search

for where Juan Ramos had lived.
- Richardson, J. (2016)
• NHI’s account
“The Committee relayed its findings to the government’s
historical agency (then called the National Historical
Institute), which despatched someone to visit the site,
deliberated on the matter, and declared the Committee to be
right. On the occasion of the next commemoration of the
“Cry,” on August 23, 1984, the NHI placed its marker at the
site in Seminary Road, Bahay Toro where it has since
remained.” - Richardson, J. (2016
 Pugad Lawin in Bahay ni Toro
• Isagani Medina’s account
“claims his position is corroborated by the recollections of five
Katipunan veterans who actually witnessed the “Cry” and one other
who was very close to the events of August 1896.”
“This is what he writes, very clearly and precisely, about four of the
witnesses: “Ang pagpupunit ng sedula... nga’y nangyari sa may sityo Pugad-
lawin, sa nayon ng Bahay-Toro sa bayan ng Kalookan... noong Agosto 23,
1896. Ito’y pinatutunayan ng apat na saksi: Dr Pio Valenzuela, Briccio
Brigido Pantas, Cipriano Pacheco at Domingo Orcullo.” The fifth “saksi sa
mga pangyayari sa Pugadlawin,” he says, was Mariano Alvarez. - Richardson, J. (2016)
Locations of Pugad Lawin

• Pasong Tamo

• Bahay Toro
• In 1963, as noted, the Philippine Historical
Committee had not in fact identified the supposed
site of the “Cry.” It had agreed only that the
location should be shifted from Balintawak to
“Pugad Lawin, wherever it was”. It is however
clear from the body of the 2001 report that the
Panel’s recommendation is really that the NHI
should reaffirm the later, 1984, position o- fcRi“haPdr uos gn,
aLawin
.J d
in Bahay Toro.”
• Today, the “Cry” continues to be officially
marked in Bahay Toro almost by default, by
the force of inertia. “Pugad Lawin in
Bahay Toro” retains its official status not
because there is any supporting evidence
for that site, but because nobody has
pushed
case for the
the actual site.
- Richardson, J. (2016)
Cry of Pugad Lawin Park, Quezon City
On point of the Cries is the Cry of Montalban on April 1895 in the
Pamitinan Caves where group of Katipuneros wrote on the walls, “Viva
la Indepencia Filipina!”
The Historian Teodoro Agoncillo emphasized Bonifacio’s tearing of the
cedula but Guardia Civil Manuel Sityar never mentioned the event in his
memoirs but did note the pacto de sangre ( Blood pact).
Some writers consider the first military engagement with the
enemy as the defining moment of the Cry. To commemorate this
martial event upon his return from exile in Hongkong, Emilio
Aguinaldo commissioned a “Himno de Balintawak”.
On September 1911, a monument to the Heroes of 1896 was
erected in what is now the intersection of Epifanio de los Santos
Avenue and Andres Bonifacio Drive- North Diversion Road. It is
not clear why 1911 monument was erected there.
The question is, where and when did the “Cry” happened?
It is quite clear that first, eye witnesses cited in Balintawak as the better-
known reference point for a larger area. Second, while Katipunan may have
been massing in Kangkong, the revolution was formally launched elsewhere .
Moreover, eyewitness and therefore historians disagreed on the site and
date of the Cry.

In 1970, the historian Pedro A. Gagelonia pointed out:

The controversy among historians continues to the present day. The

“Cry of Pugad Lawin” (August 23, 1896) cannot be accepted as historically
accurate. It lacks positive documentation and supporting evidence from the
witness. The testimony of only one eyewitness (Dr. Pio Valenzuela) is not
enough to authenticate and verify a controversial issue in history.
 Conflicting Accounts

Was there a meeting at Pugad Lawin on 23 August 1896, after the meeting at Apolonios
Samson’s residence in Hongkong? Where were the cedulas torn, at Kangkong or Pugad
Lawin?
In September 1896, Valenzuela stated before the Olive Court, which was charged
with investigating persons involved in the rebellion, only that Katipunan meetings took
place from Sunday to Tuesday or 23 to 25 August at Balintawak.
In 1911, Valenzuela averred that the Katipunan began meeting on August 22 while
the Cry took place on August 23 at Apolonio Samson’s house in Balintawak.
From 1928 to 1940, Valenzuela maintained that the Cry happened on August 24 at
the house of Melchora Aquino (Tandang Sora) in Pugad Lawin.
In 1935 Valenzuela, Pantas and Pacheco proclaimed, “ The first Cry of
the revolution did not happen in Balintawak where the monument is,
but in a place called Pugad Lawin.”
In 1940, research team of the Philippine Historical Committee (NHI),
which included Pio Valenzuela, identified the precise spot of Pugad
Lawin as part of Gulod, Banlat, Kalookan City.
In 1963 upon the NHI endorsement, President Diosdado Macapagal
ordered that the Cry be celebrated on 23 August and that Pugad Lawin
be recognized as its site.
John N. Schrumacher S.J. of Ateneo de Manila University was to
comment on Pio Valenzuela’s credibility.
 The Pugad Lawin Marker

In the account of Teodoro Agoncillo in Revolt of the Masses (1956) he

mentioned that, it was in Pugad Lawin, where they proceeded upon leaving
Samson’s place in the afternoon of the 22nd that the more that 1000 members of
the Katipunan met in the yard of Juan Ramos, in the morning of August 23.
Macapagal ordered that the Cry of Balintawak be called the “The Cry of
Pugad Lawin,” and that it be celebrated on 23 August instead 26 August.
In 1911 monument in Balintawak was later removed to the highway. Students
saved the monument and later moved it to the front of Vinzons Hall in the
Diliman campus of UP on November 1968.
 In 1962, Teodoro Agoncillo, together with the UP Students Council, placed a marker at the
Pugad Lawin site.

 On June 30 1983, Quezon City Mayor Adelina S. Rodriguez created the Pugad Lawin
Historical Committee to determine the location of Juan Ramos’s 1896 residence at Pugad
Lawin.

The NHI files on the committee’s findings show the following:

• In August 1983, Pugad Lawin in Barangay Bahay Toro was inhabited squatter
colonies.
• There was an old Dap-dap Tree at the site when the NHI conducted its
survey in 1983.
• Pio Valenzuela, the main proponent of the “Pugad Lawin” version, was dead at the
time the committee conducted the research.
• Teodoro Agoncillo tried to locate the marker installed in August 1962 by the UP
Student Council. However, was no longer extant in 1983.
The place name “Pugad Lawin”, however, is
problematic. In History of the Katipunan (1939), Zaide
records Valenzuela’s mention of the site in a footnote.
In 1897, the Spanish historian Sastron mentioned Kalookan,
Balintawak, Banlat and Pasong Tamo. The names mentioned in some
revolutionary sources and interpretation were not identified as barrios.
Even detailed Spanish and American maps mark only Kalookan and
Balintawak.
Writer and linguist Sofronio Calderon, conducting research in the late
1920 on the toponym “Pugad Lawin,” went through the municipal
records and the Census of 1903 and 1918, but could not find the name and
concluded that there was no Pugad Lawin in Kalookan.
 The official stand of NHI is that the cry took place on 23
August 1896.
The later accounts of Pio Valenzuela and Guillermo
Masangkay on the tearing of cedulas on 23 August are
basically in agreement, but conflict with each other on
location.
 The Turning Point

The Cry must be defined as the turning point when the Filipinos
finally rejected Spanish colonial dominion over the Philippine Islands.
Where did this take place?
The introduction to the original Tagalog text of the Biyak na Bato
Constitution states:
Ang paghihiwalay ng Filipinas sa kahariang Espanya sa pagtatag
ng isang bayang may sariling pamamahala’t kapangyarihan na
pangangalang “Republika ng Filipinas” ay siyang layong inadhika
niyaring Paghihimagsik na kasalukuyan, simula pa ng ika- 24 ng
Agosto ng taong 1896…
The Spanish text also states:

The Separation of the Philippines from the Spanish Monarchy,

constituting an independent state and with proper sovereign
government, named the Republic of the Philippines, was the end
pursued by the revolution through the present hostilities, initiated on 24
August 1896,…
 Emilio Aguinaldo’s memoirs, Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan (1964), refer to two
letters from Andres Bonifacio dated 22 and 24 August.
The events of 17-26 August 1896 occurred closer to Balintawak than to
Kalookan. Traditionally, people referred to the “Cry of Balintawak” since
that barrio was better-known reference point that Banlat.

In the round table discussion in February this year, a grand daughter of
Tandang Sora protested the use of Toponym “Pugad Lawin” which, she
said, referred to a hawk’s nest on top of a tall Sampaloc tree at Gulod.

It is clear that the so-called Cry of Pugad Lawin of 23 August is an

imposition and erroneous interpretation, contrary to indisputable and
numerous historical facts.

The centennial of the Cry of Balintawak should be celebrated on 24

August 1996 at the site of the barn and house of Tandang Sora in Gulod.
THANK YOU