Don Vicente Samson

Another Eyewitness Account of the
(August 26, 1896)
By Don Vicente Samson
Don Vicente Samson, a native of Balintawak, confirmed the authenticity and credibility of
-year old boy at the time,
actually witnessed the event with his father and older brother, both of whom were katipuneros.
Moreover, he recalled the first fight of the revolution in the afternoon of the same day, August
Don Vicente Samson, a graying old man in his middle seventies, is one of the
most respected and most popular figures in Balintawak, Quezon City. As the owner and
manager of the well-known Samson Gravel and Sand Company and the undefeated
barrio lieutentan of Bo. Balinggasay of that district, he is regarded by everybody as a
community leader and a man of means.
However, there is one thing about Samson that Balintawak folks do not know
ween the Katipuneros and the

Spaniards, signaling the start of the Philippine revolution.
Bo. Balinggasay.
The old man revealed that he was 12 years old when the event happened but it
is still fresh in his mind because his father was then a Katipunan leader and his older
brother, a Katipunero. He said that they were among those who participated in the
ceremonies and fight that later ensued between the rebels and the Spanish civil guards
and infantrymen.
Don Samson recalls that everybody in Balintawak knew that something was afoot
as Katipunana leaders and members started converging at the house of Apolonio
Samson in Bo. Kangkong a few days before August 26. Apolonio Samson, a cousin of
Don Vicente and reputedly one of the richest men in Balintawak that time, threw open
his barn and butchered his cows, pigs and chickens for the Katipuneros.
Out of curiousity, Don Vicente followed his father and brother to those meetings
and often heard the rebels spiritedly discuss the planned revolution. Don Vicente
remembered Bonifacio as being taller and fairer than most of the Katipuneros and had
his hair parted near the side of his head. He also recalled the Supremo as having a
large voice that clearly and easily dominated the discussions for the several hundreds of
the Katipuneros present. Don Vicente also remembered Emilio Jacinto as a boyish-
looking man who was always beside Bonifacio writing down notes.
Don Vicente recalled that it was in the morning of August 26, that the discussion
on the revolution became more intense and heated than usual. He said it was the
prevailing sentiment that the revolution would start right away, but there were some
objections from some members and these cause verbal clashes so much so that
Bonifacio had to intervene every now and then. Shortly however, it was agreed that the
revolution would start on August 29. After that Don Vicente saw Bonifacio stood up on a
platform and delivered a short speech.
cedulas out, tore them to pieces, and threw them into a dry carabao mud-hole nearby
where they were burned. Asked where the mud-hole was then located, Don Vicente
pointed to a direction near where the present old Balintawak monument now stands.
Hearing reports that the Spaniards were on their way to Balintawak, Bonifacio
Here, Don Vicente said, was where the Katipuneros had their first fight with the
Spaniards.
Don Vicente said that as the enemy civil guards and infantrymen, numbering
and led by Bonifacio himself, executed an enveloping movement in an effort to capture

them. However, since the Katipuneros were only armed with bolos, spears, sulsulin and
arkonite (the latter two are crude guns made of iron tubes which use iron fragments for
bullets and which were fired with their ends buried in the ground), they had to deploy
most of the time in the face of the Mauser and Remington rifles of the enemy.
The old man remembered the bravery of one Simplicio Acabo, a neighbor of the
Samsons, who in his desire to capture one of the enemy rifles had to pay with his life.
The man apparently was the first to die in the revolution. According to Don Vicente,
Acabo bravely came out from his hiding place and lunged at a civil guard with his bolo,
but before he could touch the civil guard, he was felled by a bullet.
Old man Samson said that as Acabo lay mortally wounded, the civil guards and
infantrymen retreated towards Manila.
Don Vicente recalls that after this, the Katipuneros, including his father and
brother, left Balintawak. He did not know what they did next, but he remembers very
well that after the Katipuneros had left, the Spanish authorities instituted repressive
measures in Balintawak. The Spaniards searched every house in Balintawak in an effort
to find out who were sympathetic to the Katipunan. Persons found with scars on their
left arms and those who had no cedulas were immediately herded and thrown in jail.
Some of them were exiled to Guam. Among these was Melchora Aquino, known
Like most of the old folks of Balintawak, Don Vicente believes emphatically that
believe that the stories that the first fight happened in other places. They were just

Don Vicente Samson

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Don Vicente Samson

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Another Eyewitness Account of the

(August 26, 1896)

By Don Vicente Samson

ween the Katipuneros and the

and led by Bonifacio himself, executed an enveloping movement in an effort to capture

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