The Katipunan; or, The Rise and Fall of the Filipino Commune. Francis St. Clair
councils re-entered the masonic lodges, and these took up the work of the Liga, a thing very easy to accomplish, when we remember that there was not a single member of the society who was not a freemason.
“There remained however, as a living remembrance of the Liga, a committee formed of the lawyer Numeriano Adriano and Deodato Arellano (a brother-in-law of Pilar) president and secretary, who had at their orders some 20 or 30 members from among the most important of the defunct Liga and who were known under the name of the compromisarios (63). These enjoyed no special organization and worked with almost entire independence. Their mission was the propagation of the La Solidaridad and the gathering of funds for the sustainment of the paper, and of the delegations in the Peninsula and elsewhere, with which they sustained active political correspondence. The work was continued with greater cunning by the lodges and by the compromisarios; and they succeeded in keeping alive the spirit of protest in a good part (the most influential) of the native element till the end of the year 1895.
«About this time the populous empire of China was defeated by the Japanese, and the Japanese Empire, having won the laurels of victory so easily, began to consider the weaving of a net of preponderance in the Occident. The Filipinos who followed with interest and satisfaction our contrarieties in Cuba, considered the occasion propitious for the Empire of the Rising Sun to copy in these islands the conduct of the Americans in the Antilles. Japan became the fashion in the Archipelago and its inhabitants were chosen as models of culture (64), wealth, of liberty and strength. They sighed for their protection and assistance, and to the attaining of it they uselessly directed their efforts. Doroteo Cortés emigrated to Yokohama (65), and with him Ramos, Baza, Español and others, where they established a separatist committee in correspondence with that of Manila. Marcelo del Pilar prepared to leave Madrid to join them, but died suddenly in Barcelona and finally the foolish political schemers dreamed of the liberation of Rizal (66) who had been deported to Dapitan, in order that he also should follow Cortés and the others. From Manila there departed frequently parties of wealthy Filipinos who went to Japan under the pretext of making recreative, instructive or artistic voyages, but in reality to conspire, and it is assured that they were listened to by some of the official element of that nation (67). The Japanese corvette Kongo (68) arrived in Manila in the month of May and no one could explain its sudden appearance in the bay; but on the other hand the officers were mysteriously banqueted by a commission of Filipinos in the Bazar Japones (69) where they lodged. Causalities perhaps, but. …
1 The numbers which will be found throughout this document signify notes to be found in the appendix. The letters in brackets signify footnotes of minor importance.
2 Barcelona.
3 About this same time a lodge composed of Filipinos was formed in Madrid, and known as the Solidaridad. There it was that steps were taken to catechize the masses of the Filipinos in their own homes.
4 In the Official Bulletin of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ for Sept. 1896, Morayta, speaking of this association of separatists said: “It was born strong—the filipino colony numbered then more than 70 members, by the side of whom labored several peninsular Spaniards.” It is a pity Morayta did not classify these peninsular Spaniards, for had he done so we might perhaps have found among their number some of the social outcasts who have since aided the insurgent element against the legitimate authority of the United States.
5 These aspirations almost all turned upon the idea of independence. The ability of the natives to govern themselves has had many tests. During the last days of Spanish rule a taste of this privilege in minor grade was allowed the native as a test, and it needed but a drop of the independence tincture to put the patient into a burning fever. It truly takes a visionary to claim for the Filipino the ability to govern his own country. In the Filipino family the woman “wears the breeches” and in the pueblo all is subservient to the “boss”, the presidente. The aspirations of the pre-American Filipinos are the same as the aspirations of the Federal Party: aspirations which can never be realized till the character of the aspirant radically changes. “Filipinas” yet awaits in expectation to find the Filipino who can govern his own household!
6 The executive committee of the Liga was composed of Moises Salvador, Ambrosio Flores, Apolinario Mabini, Domingo Franco, Numeriano Adriano, Timoteo Paez, Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, and the brothers Venancio and Alejandro Reyes. Testimony of Antonio Salazar. (fols. 1118 to 1129).
K. K. K. N. M. A. N. B.
Kataastaasang Kalagayan Katipunan Nang Mang̃a Anak Nang Bayan.
Supreme Society of the Sons of the People1.
Whilst Rizal, in Manila, was engaged in the organization of the “Liga Filipina” into which only the well-to-do or educated classes could enter (70), an attempt which, for that time, failed on account of his immediate deportation, Marcelo H. del Pilar, from Madrid, in July 1892, advised the creation of another association, which was to be similar thereto, but which was to include the agricultural laborers and persons of little or no education and instruction (71), but who directed in the localities by the caciques and chiefs, were to form an enormous nucleus which should, at the proper time, give forth the cry of rebellion. He (Pilar) provided minute instructions concerning the organization and forwarded a project of regulations.
“Deodato Arellano (brother in-law of Marcelo), Andrés Bonifacio, Ladislao Dina and Teodoro Plata where those commissioned to carry into practice the project of Pilar (72); they discussed the regulations and added to them making them still more terrifying, agreeing that they should all immediately proceed with the preparatory works, and they were not interrupted till the conspiracy was discovered on the 19th of August of this year (1896). Both the said organizers and the others who composed the first Supreme Council, belonged to the «Liga filipina».
“The organization given to the society was analogous to that enjoyed by the «Liga» (73) but amplified to the extent of anarchism, swearing hatred and destruction to everything of a character or nature Spanish (74), and sowing the seed of a race-hatred which has developed to a great extent (75). The Supreme, the Provincial and the popular Councils, the sections and the delegations ruled this horrible association. The first governed the whole Tagalog Katipunan (76); the second, that corresponding to a pueblo and the sections were sub-divisions or fractions into which the popular councils were divided. Those commissioned to form sections were called delegations, and whilst they remained unconstituted, they depended directly upon the Supreme Council. Every associate paid an entrance fee of a medio peso, and a monthly subscription of a real. The collections were made by the respective treasurers and passed into the central treasury of the Supreme Council. The funds so gathered were utilized for the succor of the brethren in their afflictions and sicknesses, for the covering the expenses of the works of propaganda, and for the secret acquisition of fire and other arms (77).
«As in freemasonry, the initiations (78) were performed with a wealth of the ridiculous, and with unending extravagances; but of such a nature, that the ignorant indian was fascinated and became converted into a slave of his oath.
«The initiated were masked (79) as also was the person to be initiated; before a table was placed a skull and crossbones, a triangle and two candles; the person about to be initiated was told that the object of the Katipunan2 was the liberating of the Tagalog people, and the expulsion of the Spaniards from