The Cry of Balintawak · after Botong Francisco

Revolution against Spain

Bonifacio led the uprising against Spanish rule. This milestone introduces the revolutionary struggle presented in the museum’s Bonifacio collection.

In late August 1896, after the society was discovered, members gathered in the hills north of Manila, tore up their cédulas and declared the revolt. The first major clash followed at San Juan del Monte on August 30.

The secret broke after a quarrel at the Diario de Manila printing shop: Teodoro Patiño confided in his sister and then in Father Mariano Gil, the parish priest of Tondo, who alerted the authorities. The cry itself is still debated. The official date is August 23, but accounts give dates from August 20 to 26 and places including Balintawak, Kangkong and Bahay Toro.

For decades the event was commemorated as the Cry of Balintawak, where a monument to the heroes of 1896 rose in 1911; it now stands at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The NHCP counts 153 Katipuneros killed at San Juan del Monte. Governor-General Ramón Blanco then declared a state of war in eight provinces, remembered in the eight rays of the sun on the Philippine flag.

Sources for the historical context

• NHCP · Bonifacio marker
• NHCP · “Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan” (discovery, state of war)
• NHCP marker · Ang Sigaw ng Pugadlawin 1896
• NHCP · I. C. B. Alfonso, “Bonifacio, the Katipunan and the Independence Day” (2013) (disputed dates and sites)