23 AUGUST

The First Cry (of Pugadlawin)

1896 - Filipino revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio y de Castro and other Katipuneros  tear their cedulas in declaration of the start of the war against colonial Spain and in what has become known as the The First Cry (of Pugadlawin) during the opening phase of the Himagsikan; meeting at the farm of the son of Melchora Aquino at Pugad Lawin, Supremo Bonifacio has challenged the members of the revolutionary secret society, Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK), to "Bring out your cedulas and tear them to pieces to symbolize our determination to take up arms," a few days after the Spanish authorities discovered the KKK through a Spanish friar who broke his vow of (confessional) silence and subsequently deciphered its secret codes; therein, the Katipuneros declared the start of the nationwide armed revolution and through the National Assembly a day after, will then transform the KKK into a national government, electing officials to lead the new revolutionary nation and army that will attempt to break the three-hundred-year-old oppressive yoke of Spanish colonial hold on the Southeast Asian archipelago.


Photo credit: http://www.qcpubliclibrary.org/qcmanuscript.php