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Philippines The 1896 Uprising and Rizal's Execution
During the early years of the Katipunan, Rizal remained in
exile at Dapitan. He had promised the Spanish governor that he
would not attempt an escape, which, in that remote part of the
country, would have been relatively easy. Such a course of
action, however, would have both compromised the moderate reform
policy that he still advocated and confirmed the suspicions of
the reactionary Spanish. Whether he came to support Philippine
independence during his period of exile is difficult to
determine.
He retained, to the very end, a faith in the decency of
Spanish "men of honor," which made it difficult for him to accept
the revolutionary course of the Katipunan. Revolution had broken
out in Cuba in February 1895, and Rizal applied to the governor
to be sent to that yellow fever-infested island as an army
doctor, believing that it was the only way he could keep his word
to the governor and yet get out of his exile. His request was
granted, and he was preparing to leave for Cuba when the Katipunan revolt broke out in August 1896. An informer had tipped off a
Spanish friar about the society's existence, and Bonifacio, his
hand forced, proclaimed the revolution, attacking Spanish
military installations on August 29, 1896. Rizal was allowed to
leave Manila on a Spanish steamship. The governor, however,
apparently forced by reactionary elements, ordered Rizal's arrest
en route, and he was sent back to Manila to be tried by a
military court as an accomplice of the insurrection.
The rebels were poorly led and had few successes against
colonial troops. Only in Cavite Province did they make any
headway. Commanded by Emilio Aguinaldo, the twenty-seven-year-old
mayor of the town of Cavite who had been a member of the
Katipunan since 1895, the rebels defeated Civil Guard and regular
colonial troops between August and November 1896 and made the
province the center of the revolution.
Under a new governor, who apparently had been sponsored as a
hard-line candidate by the religious orders, Rizal was brought
before a military court on fabricated charges of involvement with
the Katipunan. The events of 1872 repeated themselves. A brief
trial was held on December 26 and--with little chance to defend
himself--Rizal was found guilty and sentenced to death. On
December 30, 1896, he was brought out to the Luneta and executed
by a firing squad.
Rizal's death filled the rebels with new determination, but
the Katipunan was becoming divided between supporters of
Bonifacio, who revealed himself to be an increasingly ineffective
leader, and its rising star, Aguinaldo. At a convention held at
Tejeros, the Katipunan's headquarters in March 1897, delegates
elected Aguinaldo president and demoted Bonifacio to the post of
director of the interior. Bonifacio withdrew with his supporters
and formed his own government. After fighting broke out between
Bonifacio's and Aguinaldo's troops, Bonifacio was arrested,
tried, and on May 10, 1897, executed by order of Aguinaldo.
As 1897 wore on, Aguinaldo himself suffered reverses at the
hands of Spanish troops, being forced from Cavite in June and
retreating to Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan Province. The futility of
the struggle was becoming apparent, however, on both sides.
Although Spanish troops were able to defeat insurgents on the
battlefield, they could not suppress guerrilla activity. In
August armistice negotiations were opened between Aguinaldo and a
new Spanish governor. By mid-December, an agreement was reached
in which the governor would pay Aguinaldo the equivalent of
US$800,000, and the rebel leader and his government would go into
exile. Aguinaldo established himself in Hong Kong, and the
Spanish bought themselves time. Within the year, however, their
more than three centuries of rule in the islands would come to an
abrupt and unexpected end.
Data as of June 1991
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