PHILIPPINE HISTORY TRIVIA OF THE DAY JULY 23 Today in Philippine History, July 23, 1864, Apolinario Mabini was born in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas Posted on Wednesday June 12, 2013 16:56:52 UTC (about a year ago)updated about a year ago. Filed under Day in Philippine History category Apolinario de la Cruz Apolinario Mabini On July 23, 1864, Apolinario Mabini, often referred to as the Sublime Paralytic and known as the brains of the revolution, was born in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas. He was the second of eight children of Dionisia Maranan, a vendor in the Tanauan market, and Inocencio Mabini, an unlettered peasant. He began informal studies under his maternal grandfather, who was a village teacher, and his mother before attending a regular school owned by Simplicio Avelino, where he worked as a houseboy. He took odd jobs from a local tailor all in exchange for free board and lodging. He later transferred to a school conducted by the Fray Valerio Malabanan, whose fame as an educator merited a mention in José Rizals novel El Filibusterismo. In 1881 Mabini received a scholarship to go to the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. An anecdote about his stay there says that a professor there would pick on him because of his shabby clothing which clearly showed he was poor. His studies at Letran were periodically interrupted by a chronic lack of funds. Mabini would survive teaching Latin and then serving as a copyist in the Court of First Instance in Manila. Mabinis mother had wanted him to take up the priesthood, but his desire to defend the poor made him decide to take up Law instead. A year after receiving his Bachilles en Artes with highest honors and the title Professor of Latin from Letran, he moved on to the University of Santo Tomas where he received his law degree in 1894. In 1896, Mabini contracted an illness that paralyzed his legs. When the Katipunan revolt broke out late that year, the Spanish authorities arrested him for being a member of Katipunan. Unknown to many, Mabini was not a member of Katipunan but of the reform association of Jose Rizal, the La Liga Filipina. Bonifacios movement sought military insurrection while Rizals movement aimed for gradual reform. Though as a pacifist reformist, he was at first skeptical of Bonifacio’s armed uprising but would later become convinced of the people’s almost fanatical desire for liberation. Subsequently, he turned out subversive manifestos appealing to all Filipinos to unite against Spain. Mabini came to the forefront in 1898 during the Filipino revolution against Spain. In the subsequent revolution against the United States, he became known as the brains of the revolution. He served as the chief adviser to General Emilio Aguinaldo. He became the president of the Cabinet and secretary of Foreign Affairs. He drafted decrees and crafted the constitution for the First Philippine Republic, including the framework of the revolutionary government which was implemented in Malolos, Bulacan in 1899. Mabini remained the head of Aguinaldos cabinet until his resignation on May 7, 1899. On December 10, 1899, he was captured by the Americans at Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, but was later set free. In spite of his physical condition, Mabini refused to submit to American authority and continued to write against the occupying power. In January 1901, he was arrested the second time by the Americans and was exiled to Guam along with scores of revolutionists the Americans referred to as insurrectos who refused to swear fealty to imperialist America. In Guam, because of his failing health and concerns that he might die on foreign soil, Mabini decided to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, a condition for his return to the Philippines. He was sent back to Manila on February 26, 1903 at the height of a cholera epidemic. On May 13, 1903 Mabini died of cholera in Pandacan, Manila, at the age of 38.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:43:04 +0000
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