MODULE 13

HISTORICAL
CONTROVERSY:
Cry of Balintawak or Cry of
Pugadlawin?
On the Unang Sigaw ng Himagsikan (The First Cry of the Revolution): Was it Balintawak
or Pugadlawin or in three other places?

The “Bonifacio Mural”, painted in 1964 by Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco (Philippine National
Artist for Visual Arts since 1973). The work depicts the so-called First Cry of the Philippine
Revolution against Spain in 1896, led by Andres Bonifacio. The question, however, concerns
the exact location of the event: was it at Balintawak (in present day Caloocan City) or
Pugadlawin (in present day Quezon City), or in three other places..
Preliminary Events

During the closing days of August,1896, katipuneros (or members of the secret society known
as Katipunan, from its acronym K.K.K.) led by Andres Bonifacio rose up in revolt. However, the
actual site is still in contention. From 1908 until 1963, the official stance of the Philippines was
that it occurred on August 26 in Balintawak, a suburb in the present-day Caloocan City. This
was popularized by the historian Gregorio F. Zaide in his textbook that initially appeared in
1954.
In 1956, another textbook, History of the Filipino People by Teodoro A. Agoncillo that came
out in 1956 debunked both the place and the date. The author got hold of the memoirs of Dr.
Pio Valenzuela, a close associate of  Andres Bonifacio who, declared in 1948 that it happened
in Pugad Lawin on August 23, 1896. Here was the Agoncillo account of the First Cry:

The news of the discovery of the Katipunan spread throughout Manila and the suburbs.
Bonifacio, informed of the discovery, secretly instructed his runners to summon all the
leaders of the society to a general assembly to be held on August 24. They were to meet at
Balintawak to discuss the steps to be taken to meet the crisis. That same night of August
19, Bonifacio, accompanied by his brother Procopio, Emilio Jacinto, Teodoro Plata, and
Aguedo del Rosario, slipped through the cordon of Spanish sentries and reached
Balintawak before midnight. Pio Valenzuela followed them the next day. On the 21st,
Bonifacio changed the Katipunan code because the Spanish authorities had already
deciphered it. In the afternoon of the same day, the rebels, numbering about 500, left
Balintawak for Kangkong, where Apolonio Samson, a Katipunero, gave them food and
shelter. In the afternoon of August 22, they proceeded to Pugadlawin. The following day, in
the yard of Juan A. Ramos, the son of Melchora Aquino who was later called the "Mother of
the Katipunan", Bonifacio asked his men whether they were prepared to fight to the bitter
end. Despite the objection of his brother-in-law, Teodoro Plata, all assembled agreed to fight
to the last. "That being the case, " Bonifacio said, "bring out your cedulas and tear
them to pieces to symbolize our determination to take up arms!" The men obediently
tore up their cedulas, shouting "Long live the Philippines!" This event marked the so-
called "Cry of Balintawak," which actually happened in Pugadlawin.

In the midst of this dramatic scene, some Katipuneros who had just arrived from Manila and
Kalookan shouted "Dong Andres! The civil guards are almost behind us, and will reconnoiter
the mountains." Bonifacio at once ordered his men to get ready for the expected attack of
the Spaniards. Since they had inferior arms the rebels decided, instead, to retreat. Under
cover of darkness, the rebels marched towards Pasong Tamo, and the next day, August 24,
they arrived at the yard of Melchora Aquino, known as Tandang Sora. It was decided that all
the rebels in the surrounding towns be notified of the general attack on Manila on the night
of August 29, 1896.

In 1963 the Philippine government declared a shift to August 23 in Pugad Lawin as the site
and date of the First Cry of the Philiippine Revolution.

The controversy lingered. “Despite these becoming textbook facts,” contends the popular
historian Ambeth R. Ocampo in 1995, “the Balintawak tradition continues to thrive. Nick Joaquin
still writes in support of Balintawak, and I myself did not think about this very much until I was
invited to deliver a paper for the first Annual Bonifacio Lectures in 1989. Reviewing sources on
the revolution, I found out that the Balintawak tradition was more popular than that of the
Pugadlawin.”

“In 1989, after a series of articles on the controversy over Balintawak and
Pugadlawin,” adds Ocampo, “ I received a batch of photocopied manuscripts with an invitation
to
peruse the originals of what appeared to be the papers of Bonifacio. Knowing that these were
transcribed and printed by Agoncillo in two separate books, I did not bother to decipher
Bonifacio’s fine script. Months later, on a lazy afternoon, I decided to compare the Agoncillo
transcriptions with the Bonifacio
originals. I was surprised to find discrepancies in the text. While Agoncillo reproduced the
“orihinal sa Tagalog,” it proved to be slightly different.”

A recent work on the subject that appeared in 1998 and published by Ateneo de Manila Pressr
was done by Soledad Borromeo-Buehler, entitled Cry of Balintawak: A Contrived Controversy.
Through a rigorous analysis of eyewitness and contemporary sources, the book concludes that
the “Cry of Pugad Lawin” is an invented story. It reconstructs the events in Balintawak when
Andres Bonifacio’s Katipuneros assembled in Pook Kangkong from 22 to 26 August 1896,
resolves the questions of where and when cedulas were torn, and when and where the initial
engagement between the Katipuneros and the Spanish troops took place.

Adding to the complexity was the actual date of the First Cry. As mentioned, the previously
recognized date of August 26, being the Cry of Balintawak, was popularized by Gregorio Zaide ,
in 1954.
An officer of the Spanish guardia civil, Lt. Olegario Diaz, stated that the Cry took place in
Balintawak on August 25, 1896.
Teodoro M. Kalaw in his classic work, The Filipino Revolution (prepared in 1925) wrote that the
event took place during the last week of August 1896 at Kangkong, Balintawak.
Santiago Alvarez, a Katipunero and son of Mariano Alvarez, the leader of
the Magdiwang faction in Cavite, stated in 1927 that the Cry took place in Bahay Toro (now in
Quezon City) on August 24, 1896. 
Accounts by historians Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel Encarnacion and Ramon Villegas claim
the event to have taken place in Tandang Sora's barn in Gulod, Barangay Banlat, Quezon City.

Other historians, on the other hand, stipulated the meaning of “First Cry.” Originally the term
"cry", says Borromeo-Buehler, it referred to the first clash between the Katipuneros and the
Guardia-Civil (Civil Guards); but “cry” could also refer to the tearing up of cédulas personales)
(community tax certificates) in defiance of their allegiance to Spain. This was literally
accompanied by patriotic shouts.
Still others reflected on the toponyms or place-names in question. Some of the apparent
confusion is in part due to the double meanings of the terms "Balintawak" and "Caloocan" at the
turn of the century. Balintawak referred both to a specific place in modern Caloocan City and a
wider area which included parts of modern Quezon City. Similarly, Caloocan referred to modern
Caloocan City and also a wider area which included modern Quezon City and part of modern
Pasig. Pugad Lawin, Pasong Tamo, Kangkong and other specific places were all in "greater
Balintawak", which was in turn part of "greater Caloocan”

SUPPLEMENTAL READING: Katipunan Documents and Studies. “Notes on the "Cry" of August
1896” at https://sites.google.com/site/katipunandocumentsandstudies/studies/notes-on-the-cry-
of-august-1896

REFERENCES:
Pio Valenzuela, Cry of Balintawak (Zaide 1990, vol 8, pp 301-302)
Santiago Alvarez, Cry of Bahay Toro (Zaide 1990, vol 8, pp 303-304)
Gregoria de Jesus, Version of the First Cry (Zaide 1990, vol 8, pp 305-306)
Guillermo Masangkay, Cry of Balintawak (Zaide 1990, vol 8, pp 307-309)
Katipunan Documents and Studies. “Notes on the "Cry" of August 1896” at
https://sites.google.com/site/katipunandocumentsandstudies/studies/notes-on-the-cry-of-august-
1896