How fellow Filipinos murdered the Bonifacio brothers

First of two parts

THE killing of national hero Andres Bonifacio is not just a gruesome deed committed by Filipinos against their fellow countrymen. It is also a battle of controversial documents and texts.

On Dec. 1, 1928, Lazaro Macapagal gave his account of the execution of the Bonifacio brothers and published it in the Philippines Free Press magazine. Andres and Procopio were executed on May 10, 1897. Their brother, Ciriaco, was killed in Limbon by the Magdalo forces who had entered the Bonifacio camp in search of Andres.

Bonifacio was aghast at the sight of Tagalogs killing other Tagalogs. One of the Magdalo men fired at Bonifacio, grazing his shoulder. Another attacked him with a knife, wounding him in the neck.

Andres was brought to Maragondon, where a military court sentenced him to death for treason. Emilio Aguinaldo commuted the death sentence to exile. But upon the prodding of his elite generals, the 28-year-old Aguinaldo withdrew the commutation.

The Bonifacio brothers were executed in the forest of Maragondon. While many Filipinos were taught that the execution site was on Mount Buntis, the historical marker was placed on nearby Mount Nagpatong, near Mount Hulog.

The following is the account of Lazaro Makapagal, which has been translated from the original Tagalog. This is Document #1, and it is preserved at the Archives of the Veteranos de la Revolucion:

"I received orders from General Mariano Noriel to take Andres Bonifacio and Procopio Bonifacio from the place where they had been detained [Maragondon] and to conduct them to the hill of Tala in Maragondon, Cavite. At the same time, General Noriel handed to me a sealed package, with the order that it be not opened until we had reached the place mentioned. I was charged to follow to the letter the instructions contained in the parcel.

"In compliance with these orders, I took with me the two brothers to the place mentioned, together with four soldiers under my command. On the road, we conversed freely since we were friends. But I already had a presentiment of the order contained in the parcel.

"Upon reaching Tala Hill in Maragondon, I opened the order. I read it, and then I let the brothers read it. It was an order for their execution. The two brothers were filled with terror. Andres pleaded with me in Tagalog: 'Patawarin ninyo ako kapatid.' [Brother, please forgive me.] I answered that I was very sorry, but by military duty, I had to carry out the unhappy task.

"I conducted Procopio, who was stronger, to a wooded place. Upon reaching the top of the hill, I ordered one of the soldiers to shoot him in the back. This done, the soldiers and I, using bayonets and bolos, dug a pit where we buried Procopio.

"Then we returned to Andres. When I approached the place where he was, he said, 'Patay na ang kapatid ko' [My brother is dead], and he added [again in the third person], 'Patawarin ninyo ako, kapatid.' I replied that I was very sorry but it was my military duty to follow the order to the letter.

"Suddenly, Andres Bonifacio tried to escape. He ran even if he was wounded, but he could not go far because of the thick shrubbery around. One of the soldiers reached him, fired at him from behind and shot him in the back. After digging one more grave with our bayonets and bolos, we buried Andres in it."

Other accounts say that after Bonifacio was killed, he was even stabbed with a bolo and his face bashed in with a rock. Later, the murderers would find Bonifacio's wife, Gregoria de Jesus, and rape her.

Of all lamentations on his death sentence by a kangaroo court and his cold-blooded murder in a secluded mountain site, Apolinario Mabini's remains the last word. In a chilling summation of what was to come to this benighted land, he said Bonifacio's assassination was "the first victory of personal ambition over true patriotism."

Back story

The killing of Bonifacio was indeed a power play between two factions of our toxic politics, the malaise that has hounded the Philippines then — and now.

Since the time the Katipunan was discovered, the rivalry between the Magdalo and the Magdiwang factions of the organization in Cavite led to a series of reverses. Many of the Katipunan's battles ended up with the Filipinos losing. On the other hand, the Magdalos were winning their battles against the Spaniards. Then and now, the call was for unity, a consolidation of forces to finally expel the Spaniards from the native land. And so, the Magdalo faction invited Bonifacio to Cavite to settle their differences.

On March 22, 1897, an assembly was called at Tejeros, Cavite. Bonifacio presided over the conference to establish a united republic of the Philippines. In the election, Aguinaldo was elected president, Mariano Trias vice president, and Bonifacio secretary of the Interior.

Bonifacio felt insulted when Daniel Tirona, a Magdalo, questioned his election as interior secretary. Tirona said that it was not proper for a person without a lawyer's diploma to hold such a position.

The hot-headed Bonifacio invoked his authority as the Supremo, the undisputed head of the Katipunan. He declared the proceedings null and void. Then he moved to Naic, Cavite, and started to form his own government and army.

Bonifacio, with his family and around 40 men, left Naic for Indang, Cavite, on his way to return to Montalban. Aguinaldo swiftly sent his troops to arrest him, but Bonifacio resisted arrest, being critically wounded in the process.

To be continued