Battle of San Juan del Monte | |||||||
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Part of the Philippine Revolution | |||||||
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Few soldiers killed, several wounded [2] | 200 killed [2] |
The Battle of San Juan del Monte, also referred to as Battle of Pinaglabanan, took place on August 30, 1896. It is considered as the first major battle of the Philippine Revolution, which sought Philippine independence from Spain. The first battle cry of the Katipunan coincided with the pealing of church bells at nine o'clock on the night of August 29, 1896. [3] : 43
At 5 pm on the 29th, the Supremo Andrés Bonifacio and 800 Katipuneros met up with Katipunero Felix Sanchez, chairman of the Sapa chapter, at Hagdang Bato in San Felipe Neri. [3] : 42 By 7 pm, with a thousand men, including the local police force, they attacked the civil guards, who surrendered immediately. [3] : 43 However, the Tala chapter chairman, Katipunero Buenaventura Domingo, allowed the parish priest to escape. [3] : 42–43 Troops under General Ramón Bernardo then took the town hall of Pandacan and, by 11 pm, were dispatched to Santa Mesa. [3] : 44 Troops under Santiago V. Alvarez, Artemio Ricarte and Mariano Trías were deployed in Noveleta and San Francisco de Malabon in Cavite. [3] : 44 Bonifacio, along with Genaro de los Reyes and Vicente Leyba, proceeded to San Juan del Monte. [3] : 44
After the discovery of Katipunan on August 19, 1896, Andrés Bonifacio became aware of the Spanish government's plans for military action. On August 25, Bonifacio deployed several of his men around the Pasong Tamo bridge when he heard infantrymen and Spanish guardia civil coming to raid communities around the bridge. [2]
On the evening of August 29, Bonifacio, with his aide Emilio Jacinto, led a group of Katipuneros towards El Polvorin, a Spanish powder magazine situated in San Juan del Monte. Spanish infantry and artillerymen (twelve Philippine soldiers and two Spanish officers)[ citation needed ], armed with German Mauser rifles, guarded Polvorin; the Katipuneros were generally armed with bolo knives, a few assorted guns, sharpened Bamboo spears and anting-antings . [2]
After two successful skirmishes with the civil guards, Bonifacio was joined by 300 men from Santolan. [3] : 45 The chapter chairman was Valentin Cruz. [3] : 45
By midnight, a small second group of Katipuneros, under the command of Sancho Valenzuela, and coming from Santa Mesa, arrived at Polvorin. This group was composed of 100 Katipunan members, two of them women: Luisa Lucas and Segunda Fuentes Santiago. [4]
Before noon, the 73rd "Jolo" Regiment, composed of Filipino soldiers under Spanish officers, under the command of General Bernardo Echaluce y Jauregui, arrived as Spanish reinforcements at San Juan del Monte to assist in suppressing the rebellion. The 73rd Regiment, like most of the native conscripts in the Spanish army in the Philippines, were armed with the Remington Rolling Block rifle. [4]
The revolutionaries regrouped at Santa Mesa and engaged the arriving Spanish troops. The 73rd Regiment, together with the garrison of the magazine, almost wiped out Bonifacio's men, leaving about 150 dead and capturing over 200. Despite the Katipunaneros being numerically superior, the Spaniards inflicted heavy losses to Bonifacio which he will never recover. This disastrous outcome forced Bonifacio to retreat towards the Pasig River. [5]
After the unsuccessful attack at Polvorin, armed resistance spread towards Central Luzon and provinces along Southern Tagalog.
At 8:00 p.m. on August 30, Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas issued an executive order placing the eight provinces of Manila, Pampanga, Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac under martial law. [6] As a lesson to revolutionaries, the Katipuneros captured at Polvorin were summarily tried and executed. One of them was Sancho Valenzuela, who was dragged off in chains together with his men, Modesto Rivera, Eugenio Silvestre and Ramon Peralta, towards the tribunal. [4]
To ease the increasing tension throughout the colony, Blanco offered a pardon to Filipino rebels who would lay down their arms and surrender to the Spanish authorities. Dr. Pío Valenzuela, the chief physician and aide of Bonifacio, was one of the first Katipuneros who availed himself of this amnesty. [5] However, after his surrender, he was deported and imprisoned in Madrid, and later incarcerated in a Spanish outpost in Africa. [5]
Aside from granting amnesties to returning rebels, the Spanish colonial government also assisted on trying and executing several members of the Katipunan. Fifty-seven of the revolutionaries at San Juan del Monte were executed on August 31, 1896. [5] On September 4, Sancho Valenzuela, Rivera, Silvestrre and Peralta were executed, [5] on the Campo de Bagumbayan, facing the Luneta Esplanade. [7] : 369 On September 12, thirteen revolutionaries were executed in Cavite. [8]
The present-day design of the Philippine flag features the eight-ray sun, which, some of the provinces that Blanco took under martial law on August 30, 1896, took a representation. The eight rays of the sun represent the eight provinces that initiated revolution against Spain: Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Laguna and Batangas, [9] though historian Ambeth Ocampo listed Tarlac instead of Bataan. [10]
On July 25, 1987, former President Corazon C. Aquino signed Executive Order 292 which declared the last Sunday of August each year as a public holiday in the Philippines. This commemorates the Cry of Pugad Lawin and the start of the Philippine Revolution. [11]
In 1974, the Pinaglabanan Shrine was unveiled in San Juan, along Pinaglabanan Street. "Pinaglabanan" is a Tagalog word for "fought over". The present-day San Juan Elementary School stands on the former grounds of the ruined El Polvorín. [12] In 2006, a museum for the Katipunan was opened by the San Juan city government located by the shrine. [13]
The Katipunan, officially known as the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan and abbreviated as the KKK, was a revolutionary organization founded in 1892 by a group of Filipino nationalists Deodato Arellano, Andrés Bonifacio, Valentin Diaz, Ladislao Diwa, José Dizon, and Teodoro Plata. Its primary objective was achieving independence from the Spanish Empire through an armed revolution. It was formed as a secret society before its eventual discovery by Spanish authorities in August 1896. This discovery led to the start of the Philippine Revolution.
Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro was a Filipino revolutionary leader. He is often called "The Father of the Philippine Revolution", and considered a national hero of the Philippines.
San Juan, officially the City of San Juan, is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 126,347 people. It is geographically located at Metro Manila's approximate center and is also the country's smallest city in terms of land area.
The Philippine Revolution was a war of independence waged by the revolutionary organization Katipunan against the Spanish Empire from 1896 to 1898. It was the culmination of the 333-year colonial rule of Spain in the archipelago. The Philippines was one of the last major colonies of the Spanish Empire, which had already suffered a massive decline in the 1820s. Cuba rebelled in 1895, and in 1898, the United States intervened and the Spanish soon capitulated. In June, Philippine revolutionaries declared independence. However, it was not recognized by Spain, which sold the islands to the United States in the Treaty of Paris.
Pinaglabanan Memorial Shrine is a Filipino national shrine and park along Pinaglabanan Street in the city of San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines. This was built to commemorate the heroism of the Katipuneros who laid siege to Almacen de Polvorín, an armoury belonging to the Spanish Colonial Government, becoming the first battle of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire.
Independence Day is a national holiday in the Philippines observed annually on June 12, commemorating the declaration of Philippine independence from Spain in 1898. Since 1978, it has been the country's National Day.
The Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite were Filipino patriots in Cavite, Philippines who were executed by firing squad on September 12, 1896, for cooperating with the Katipunan during the Philippine Revolution against Spain. The de facto capital city of Trece Martires in Cavite is named after them.
Ladislao Diwa y Nocon was a Filipino patriot who was among the founders of the Katipunan that initiated the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896.
The Tejeros Convention and also known as the Tejeros Assembly and the Tejeros Congress, was a meeting held on March 22, 1897, between Katipunan factions of Magdiwang and Magdalo in San Francisco de Malabon, Cavite that resulted in the creation of a new revolutionary government that took charge of the Philippine Revolution, replacing the Katipunan. It followed on a previous meeting now known as the Imus Assembly. Filipino historians consider the first presidential and vice presidential elections in Philippine history to have been held at this convention, although only Katipuneros were able to take part, and not the general populace.
Gregoria de Jesús y Álvarez, also known by her nickname Oriang, was the founder and vice-president of the women's chapter of the Katipunan of the Philippines. She was also the custodian of the documents and seal of the Katipunan. She married Andrés Bonifacio, the Supremo of the Katipunan and President of the Katagalugan Revolutionary Government. She played a major role in the Philippine Revolution. After the death of Bonifacio, she married Julio Nakpil, one of the generals of the revolution. She had one son from Andrés Bonifacio and five children from Julio Nakpil.
General Aquilino Tiburcio de León y Gregorio Tolomeo was a Filipino freedom fighter who was a general during the 1896 Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War. He first served under Andrés Bonifacio in the Katipunan, and then, reluctantly, under the revolutionary government formed by Emilio Aguinaldo.
The Cry of Pugad Lawin was the beginning of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire.
Daniel Tirona y Tria was a Filipino politician. He became infamous for causing divisions within the Philippine revolutionary movement and for insulting and maligning Andres Bonifacio during the Tejeros Convention in 1897.
The Battle of Binakayan–Dalahican was a simultaneous battle during the Philippine Revolution that was fought on November 9–11, 1896 that led to a decisive Filipino victory. The twin battle took place at the shores of Binakayan, in the town of Cavite Viejo ; Dalahican and Dagatan in Noveleta; and, to minimal extent, in Imus and Bacoor towns in Cavite, Philippines that lasted for two days before the Spanish army retreated demoralized and in disarray. The result of the battle was the first significant Filipino victory in the country's history.
1896 in the Philippines details events of note that happened in the Philippines in the year 1896.
The Battle of Kakarong de Sili was fought on January 1, 1897, at Pandi, Bulacan, in the Philippines. The Kakarong Republic, based in the little fort in Pandi, was attacked by a force of Spaniards who massacred the Katipuneros there. At the end of the battle, General Eusebio Roque was captured by the Spaniards. The Kakarong Republic was considered the first republic formed in Bulacan and in the Philippines.
The Battle of San Mateo and Montalban was fought between the remaining Katipuneros under the command of Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto and the Spanish government after a failed attempt to capture the El Deposito water works at San Juan del Monte.
The Battle of Manila of 1896 occurred in Manila in the Spanish colony of the Philippines during the Philippine Revolution. Katipunan under Andres Bonifacio attempted to take the city but the attempt failed, and Bonifacio retreated to the city's outskirts. The Battle of San Juan del Monte was joined a day later when Bonifacio attempted to capture the San Juan's powder magazine, but this too failed.
This is the timeline of the Philippine Revolution—the uprising that gave birth to Asia's first republic. The roots of the revolution trace back to the Cavite mutiny and subsequent execution of Gomburza in 1872, and ended with the declaration of independence from Spain in 1898.
Museo ng Katipunan is a history museum in the city of San Juan in Metro Manila, Philippines dedicated to the Katipunan. It is situated within the grounds of the Pinaglabanan Shrine.