The tragic life and sad saga of Gat Andres Bonifacio
Today is the 155th birth anniversary of the Great Plebeian, the hero of the working class, founder and supremo of the Katipunan, Father of the Philippine Revolution and President of the Tagalog Republic, Gat Andres C. Bonifacio. In my hierarchy of Philippine heroes, he was the truly great Filipino – even greater than Jose Rizal – who should have been credited as the first president of the Philippines, instead of General Emilio F. Aguinaldo. But his life was tragic and the saga of his struggles was all tears, blood and sweats, while Rizal had all the glory and the adulation. Bonifacio was battle-scarred, wounded and pained all his life as an orphan, widow, an oppressed worker, victim of intrigues. He was cheated in the Tejeros mock elections, betrayed and killed by his own comrades, his wife was raped by his murderers, and he never saw the dawning of freedom and liberty.
It has been said that Dr. Jose Rizal was all ideas with no action while Ka Andres Bonifacio was all action with no ideas. Such line of thinking, to my mind is unfair to both Rizal and Bonifacio. The novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were Rizal’s own description of their own characters Rizal is Crisostomo Ibarra, well-educated, well-traveled, cultured and refined, while Ka Andres was an unschooled peasant, manual laborer and union leader from Tondo who never gone out of Luzon. Gat Andres was Elias and Simoun, rebel and dreamer. Both of them loved their motherland. Rizal was well-dressed as an ilustrado, Bonifacio was an ill-clad. Rizal’s monument stands proudly in Luneta to be viewed by kings, presidents and prime ministers. Bonifacio’s monument is consigned under the trees in front of the National Post office and in Caloocan, away from the eyes of the tourists and foreign dignitaries.
Gat Andres was in his teens when both his parents died of cholera in the peasant neighborhood of Tondo, home of Manila’s working class, where workers from Visayas and Mindanao usually find shelter straight from the docking areas of the boats from the south. The young eldest son had to feed and care for all his siblings by making canes and paper fans which he sold to the moneyed elite in Ermita and the Chinese community in Binondo. He got odd jobs as manual laborer and later as ‘bodegero.’ He never had formal schooling but his aunt taught him how to read and write. He started to read stories about the French revolution and biographies of US presidents, which inspired him and instilled in him love for country.
He founded the Katipunan in July of 1892 at the young age of 29. One of the members was Emilio Aguinaldo from Cavite, who later ousted the founder and took over as leader in the rigged elections dominated by the Magdalo faction which outnumbered the Magdiwang from Tondo. Bonifacio was tried by a kangaroo court created by his opponents led by Aguinaldo. Charged ironically of treason, (how could he betray the country that he so loved), he was found guilty by a ragtag tribunal who already decided to execute him and his two brothers, Ciriaco and Procopio even before he was heard. His widow, Gregoria de Jesus-Bonifacio was raped by his executioners and Bonifacio’s life was ended in tears and agony, tragedy and ignominy.
Aguinaldo was an ilustrado, landed and educated like Jose Rizal. Bonifacio was a peasant, but who loved his country, offered his life and his death to the motherland. Today, we should honor his memory and the great examples he gave to the Filipinos. He was hacked and shot at the back in the jungles of Cavite, while Rizal was given the drama of being executed in front of cameras in the tourist center in Luneta. History had been too unkind to the one who suffered more and the people do not know the depths of Bonifacio love for his country and people.
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