by Tommy Matic IV
A longstanding and perniciously prevalent misconception by many Filipinos is that Aguinaldo was so jealous of Bonifacio's leadership position and, being a powerful elite, conspired to eliminate his masa rival, Bonifacio.
This hypothesis is historically inaccurate on so many levels, a pop culture myth inspired by more than a century of miseducation.
And the reasons it is nothing more than a myth are as follows:
1) Aguinaldo wasn't the jealous or grasping type. If anything he was cautious and hesitant to stand in the spotlight.
Aguinaldo repeatedly demonstrated a reluctance to grasp or hold on to top leadership positions. When the Cavite Katipuneros were talking about unifying the Magdalo and Magdiwang councils by electing a unified government, Aguinaldo preferred the more highly educated Edilberto Evangelista, the more senior and experienced Licerio Topacio, or the more politically savvy Baldomero Aguinaldo to himself to stand as the Magdalo candidate. After being elected president in absentia, he still refused to participate in the government until his elder brother Crispulo took over his duties, leading the defense of Pasong Santol, and promised to hold the line at all costs.
Later on, after returning to the Philippines and gaining absolute power, Aguinaldo attempted to beg the Filipino people to let him step down and serve as an ordinary general. Mabini was so angry at Aguinaldo's request for a special "Pamaskong aguinaldo" that he burned the pamphlets which Aguinaldo had printed.
2) Bonifacio's claim to leadership was shaky to non-existent
Bonifacio commanded immense respect among the Katipuneros and rightly so. What he - and many of his modern day adherents fail to realize - is that respect does not equivalence leadership or loyalty. While Bonifacio was respected as the man who, like Ray Kroc of MacDonalds, transformed the Katipunan decisively, his performance on the battlefield and failure to carve out a Katipunan bailiwick in Manila (compared to the successes in Bulakan with Karakon de Sili, in the northern and central Luzon regions under Llanera and of course the liberation of the entire province of Cavite under Aguinaldo and Alvarez) led many Katipuneros to leave him for the more successful revolution in Cavite. Bonifacio was in fact, in hiding in Morong, when the Alvarez clan invited him to stand as their candidate for the forthcoming elections.
3) The myth that Aguinaldo was the elite, Bonifacio was the masa.
This claim, rooted in class struggle politics has very little, if any, truth in it. Aguinaldo, like many other local leaders, was a town mayor (Alvarez and Llanera were as well) and the only circle of elites he belonged to was that of local, provincial native leaders, middle range functionaries within the Spanish colonial system. The ridiculously mistaken theory that Aguinaldo was an "elite" seems more rooted in guilt by association - Aguinaldo's first republic government infamously included Pedro Paterno, Felipe Buencamino, Benito Legarda and other elites.
Conversely, the pop culture image of Bonifacio with the camisa de chino, red trousers and kerchief, bolo and other working class visual indicators, while powerful, is highly inaccurate. Bonifacio was a local elite, just like Aguinaldo albeit one whose family had struggled through immense personal (and by extension, financial) loss and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Bonifacio, the unyielding fighter that he was, refused to let his parents' death drag him and his many siblings into oblivion. He tirelessly worked, gave himself an education and bettered himself so he rose out of the pit of poverty into a middle class life. That he was middle class is demonstrated by his acceptance into Philippine Freemasonry and into La Liga Filipina, gentlemen's organizations that he could not have joined had be been a mere "plebeian". Also, Oryang's family would not have even allowed him to get near her had he been lower class.
4) And the myth that Aguinaldo conspired to eliminate Bonifacio, his political rival.
The response to this is three-fold.
a) The alipores of Aguinaldo did his dirty work for him at Tejeros and at Bonifacio's trial.
Actually, the alipores of Bonifacio and Oryang's relatives, the Alvarez clan, far outnumbered and were more powerful than the alipores of Aguinaldo. If Bonifacio and Alvarez wanted to impose their will they could do so by force. Exhibit A: The Tejeros election. Biglang nag tawag nga SNAP ELECTION si Bonifacio at Alvarez while the Magdalo were busy fighting the Spaniards on the road to Imus (Anabu II, Salitran, Pasong Santol) which meant that the Magdalo could not participate in the snap elections.
As for the trial, why would Aguinaldo go through all the trouble to have a military court martial, have his alleged alipores go through the sham for a guilty verdict and then attempt to overturn it? For those assuming that it's identical to Rizal's show trial, they may want to consider the simple basic fact that Aguinaldo was not Polavieja, Aguinaldo was not a Governor General in charge of a massive colonial apparatus but to the utter contrary, Aguinaldo and all the revolutionary leaders were TRAITORS TO THE SPANISH CROWN DESERVING DEATH (the same death meted out to Gabriella Silang, Lamadrid, GOMBURZA, Francisco Roxas, Numeriano Adriano, Sancho Valenzuela and of course, Rizal himself) and had better things to do (fighting the Spaniards to save their own skins) than arranging "mock trials".
Once again I ask the Bonifascist, WHY BOTHER? Why not just put Bonifacio up against a wall and shoot him? Bonifacio himself would have done that to Aguinaldo, as he was attempting to do to Daniel Tirona at Tejeros.
Also take note Lazaro Makapagal's testimony that after he returned from executing the Bonifacio's, the town was under siege by the Spaniards.
A sham trial or kangaroo court would have been a ridiculous waste of time and resources that the Filipino revolutionaries could NOT AFFORD WHEN LACHAMBRE WAS CRUSHING THEM.
b) Bonifacio was Aguinaldo's political rival so he had to be eliminated.
This ridiculous myth of political rivalry may seem plausible if one does not consider the simple fact that Bonifacio and Aguinaldo were only political rivals for as long as the lead up to the unifying elections and the elections themselves (Tejeros) were held. Prior to and after this, there was NOTHING that Bonifacio had, politically or otherwise, that Aguinaldo had to be jealous of.
While Bonifacio was titular Supremo of the Katipunan, his reputation had been heavily tarnished by his inabilty to win battles and capture territory for the Katipunan. By December 1896 he himself admitted in a letter to his in-laws, the Alvarez clan (leaders of Sanggunian Magdiwang) that he "had not taken a single town for assembly or defense" - by that same time Cavite was already liberated from Spain, thanks largely to Aguinaldo's dynamic leadership and tactical prowess.
Also consider that the Cavite revolutionaries were discussing the creation of a new revolutionary government to supersede the Katipunan since, as Evangelista pointed out, "there are more revolutionaries fighting than were initiated into the Katipunan". The Katipunan was a great launch platform for revolution. Once launched, however, its weak internal structure which created a large confederacy of poorly cooperating councils and a very weak top-down hierarchy that even Bonifacio could not benefit from, needed to be replaced with a dedicated revolutionary government specifically created to prosecute all out war.
And then after Tejeros, having won the director of interior seat, Bonifacio was NOT any longer a political rival of Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo would rather have incorporated the erstwhile Supremo's prodigious talent for organizing and inspiring the revolutionaries into the new Revolutionary government, than exterminate him.
The reality is that Bonifacio was only a political rival so long as Bonifacio acted like one. Aguinaldo was not at Tejeros, did not vote at Tejeros, did not go around Tejeros intimidating people to vote for him - halos walang PAKIALAM si Miong sa Tejeros. Aguinaldo's primary focus was fighting the Spaniards NOT POLITICS.
After the Tejeros election, Aguinaldo sent a delegation to invite Bonifacio to participate in the new revolutionary government. Bonifacio refused. How is that Aguinaldo's fault?
After the Naik KUDETA, Aguinaldo PARDONED Noriel and Pio AND DID NOT SEND TROOPS TO CAPTURE BONIFACIO AT THAT POINT. This indicates that Aguinaldo, who had the perfect reason to arrest and execute Bonifacio AT THAT POINT, was REFUSING TO DO SO. Aguinaldo would have pardoned Bonifacio had Bonifacio returned to the fold.
c) Finally, after Bonifacio was sentenced, Aguinaldo STILL ATTEMPTED TO COMMUTE THE SENTENCE. Please explain why this repeated action of Aguinaldo, forgiving Bonifacio's excesses, does not demonstrate character and mercy on Aguinaldo's part.
What Bonifascists utterly ignore is the simple fact that Bonifacio's divisive politicking and selfish ambition DESTROYED THE CAVITE REVOLUTION. Bonifacio's own actions, constantly attempting to nullify the badly needed unity of the Revolutionaries in favor of his own selfish entitlement undermined the resistance of the Filipinos. His betrayal of the defenders of Pasong Santol which led to the Spanish breaking into Filipino lines is nothing short of treachery of the highest order. Add to that the KUDETA at Naik.
Bonifacio made himself hated and despised by the Revolutionaries who refused to elect him at Tejeros, refused to commit to his counter-government at Naik, refused to protect him at Limbon, refused to intervene at his trial, refused to rescue him from prison and refused to allow Aguinaldo to spare his life.
The real reason for Bonifacio's death was Bonifacio himself.
#TuklasPilipinas
#NoHateHistory
