Topic Outline (Cry of Pugadlawin)

I. The word "CRY"

From the Spanish el grito de rebelion or el grito which refers to a decision or call to revolt.
Unlike the Filipino term Sigaw or Sigao, it does not always imply yelling. It is the First clash
between the Katipuneros and the Civil Guards, the tearing up of cedulas in defiance of the Spanish
government could also be referred to by the cry.
Because of competing accounts and ambiguity of the place where this event took place, the
exact date and place of the Cry is in contention. From 1908 until 1963, the official stance was that
the cry occurred on August 26 in Balintawak. In 1963 the Philippine government declared a shift to
August 23 in Pugad Lawin, Quezon City.

II. THE FIRST CRY

The First Cry refers to the generally signified as the first call of rebellion, seeking of
interdependence for the Philippines from Spanish colonial with the use of violence and arms.

III. HOW DID IT STARTED?

It was started with the initiative of Andres Bonifacio and his colleagues. they founded a
Philippine revolutionary organization commonly known as Katipunan or KKK.

IV. Different Place and Date of the Cry

PERSON PLACE DATE
Pio Valenzuela Pugad Lawin August 23, 1896
Bahay Toro, Quezon
Santiago Alvarez August 24, 1896
City
Gregoria De Jesus Caloocan August 25, 1896
General Guillermo
Balintawak August 26,1896
Masangkay
L.T. Olegario Diaz Balintawak August 25, 1896
Teodoro Kalaw Kangkong, Balintawak Last week of August
Gregorio Zaide Balintawak August 26, 1896
Teodoro Agoncillo
(according to
Pugad Lawin August 23, 1896
statements of Pio
Valenzuela)

Historian Gregorio Zaide identified the Cry to have happened in Balintawak on 26 August 1896,
while Teodoro Agoncillo puts it at Pugad Lawin on 23 August 1896, according to statements by Pio
Valenzuela. Research by historians Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel Encarnacion, and Ramon Villegas
claimed that the event took place in Tandang Sora's born in Gulod, Barangay Banlat, Quezon City, on
21 August 1896.
 V. Accounts of the Cry

A. PIO Valenzuela Y Alejandrino •"The first Cry of the revolution did not happen in Balintawak
where the monument is, but in a place called Pugad Lawin.“

In 1911, Valenzuela averred that the Katipunan began meeting on 22 August while the Cry took place on 23
August at Apolonio Samson's house in Balintawak.
From 1928 to 1940, Valenzuela maintained that the Cry happened on August 24 at the house of Tandang
Sora (Melchora Aquino) in Pugad Lawin, which he now located near Pasong Tamo Road. A photograph of
Bonifacio's widow Gregoria de Jesus and Katipunan member. Valenrucla, Briccio Brigido Pantas, Alfonso
and Cipriano Pacheco, published in La Opinion in 1928 and 1930, was captioned both times as having been
taken at the site of the Cry on 24 August 1896 at the house of Tandang Sora at Pasong Tamo Road.

In 1935 Valenzuela, Pantas and Pacheco proclaimed "na hindi sa Balintawak nangyari ang unang sigaw ng
paghihimagsik na kinalalagian ngayon ng bantayog, kung di sa pook na kilala sa tawag na Pugad Lawin.,“
(The first Cry of the revolution did not happen in Balintawak where the monument is, but in a place called
Pugad Lawin.)

In 1940, a research team of the Philippine Historical Committee (a forerunner of the National Historical
Institute or NHI), which included Pio Valenzuela, identified the precise spot of Pugad Lawin as part of
Gulod site, Banlat, Kalookan City. In 1964, the NHI's Minutes of the Katipunan referred to the place of the
Cry as Tandang Sora's and not as Juan Ramos' house, and the date as 23 August.

Valenzuela memoirs (1964, 1978) averred that the Cry took place on 23 August at the house of Juan Ramos
at Pugad Lawin. The NHI was obviously influenced by Valenzuela's memoirs. In 1963, upon the NHI
endorsement, President Diosdado Macapagal ordered that the Cry be celebrated on 23 August and that
Pugad Lawin be recognized as its site.

B. General Guillermo Masangkay  

- -He is an original member of Katipunan, designated to build the KKK in Cavite. His
accounts contribute to our understanding of the Cry of Balintawak and the death of
Bonifacio: - On August 26, a big meeting was held in Balintawak, at the house of
Apolonio Samson,then Cabeza of that Barrio of Caloocan.At about nine o’clock in
the morning, the meeting was opened with Andres Bonifacio presiding and Emilio
Jacinto acting as secretary. The purpose was to discuss when the uprising was to
take place. Teodoro Plata, Briccio Pantas, and Pio Valenzuela were all opposed to
starting the revolution too early. Andres Bonifacio left the session hall and talked to
the people, who were waiting outside for the result of the meeting of the leaders. He
told the people that the leaders were arguing against starting the revolution early and
appealed to them in a fiery speech in which he said: “You remember the fate of our
countrymen who were shot in Bagumbayan. Should we return now to the towns, the
Spaniards will only shoot us. Our organization has been discovered and we are all
marked men. If we don’t start the uprising, the Spaniards will get us anyway. What
then, do you say?” “Revolt!” the people shouted as one.
 C. SANTIAGO ALVAREZ
- Santiago Virata Alvarez is the honorary president of the Nacionalista Party also
known as Kidlat ng Apoy. He is known for his inflamed bravery and dedication to
Cavite’s famous battle, Dalahican. And he was known to be The Hero of Dalahican.
He also stated what they experienced. He said they started their trek to Kangkong at
eleven that night.They walk through the rain and muddy fields. Their clothes are
drenched, and their bodies are numb due to cold wind. They arrived at the house of
Brother Apolonio Samson at nearly two in the morning. They were tired and fall
asleep after hanging their clothes. The Supremo assigned guards at five o’clock the
next morning, Saturday, August 22, 1896. He placed detachments at the Balintawak
boundary and at the backyard to the north of the house where they gathered. Not
less than three hundred men are gathered at the bidding of Supremo Andres
Bonifacio.
D. GLORIA DE JESUS
- This version was written by no other than the “Lakambini of the Katipunan” and
wife Andres Bonifacio, Gregoria de Jesus. She has been a participant of this event and
became the keeper of the secret documents of the Katipunan. After the revolution in August
1896, she lived with her parents in Caloocan then fled to Manila when she was told that the
Spanish authorities wanted to arrest her. Eventually, she joined her husband in the mountains
and shared adversities with him. In her account, the First “Cry” happened near Caloocan
on August 25, 1896.

“The activities of the Katipunan had reached nearly all corners of the Philippine
Archipelago, so that when its existence was discovered and some of the members arrested, we
immediately returned to Caloocan. However, as we were closely watched by the agents of the
Spanish authorities, Andres Bonifacio and other Katipuneros left the town after some days. It was
then that the uprising began, with the first cry for freedom on August 25, 1896.

Meanwhile, I was with my parents. Through my friends, I learned that Spanish were coming
to arrest me. Immediately, I fled town at eleven o’ clock at night, secretly going through the rice
fields to La Lorna, with the intention of returning to Manila. I was treated like an apparition, for,
sad to say, in every house where I tried to get a little rest, I was driven away as if people therein
were frightened for their own lives. Later, I found out that the occupants of the houses which I had
visited were seized and severely punished – and some even exiled. One of them was an uncle of mine
whom I had visited on that night to kiss his hands, and he died in exile.

CARTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE
A rough sketch or croquis de las operaciones practicadas in El Español showed the movements of Lt. Ros
against the Katipunan on 25, 26, and 27 August 1896. The map defined each place name as site "Baclac"
(sic: Banlat). In 1897, the Spanish historian Sastron mentioned Kalookan, Balintawak, Banlat and Pasong
Tamo. The names mentioned in some revolutionary sources and interpretations - Daang Malalim, Kangkong
and Pugad Lawin - were not identified as neighborhoods. Even detailed Spanish and American maps mark
only Kalookan and Balintawak.

In 1943 map of Manila marks Balintawak separately from Kalookan and Diliman. The sites where
revolutionary events took place are within the ambit of Balintawak. Government maps issued in 1956, 1987,
and 1990, confirm the existence of barangays Bahay Toro, but do not define their boundaries. Pugad Lawin
is not on any of these maps.

According to the government, Balintawak is no longer than Quezon City but has been replaced by several
barangays. Barrio Banlat is now divided into barangays Tandang Sora and Pasong Tamo. Only bahay Toro
remains intact.

Writer and linguist Sofronio Calderon, conducting research in the late 1920s on the toponym "Pugad
Lawin," went through the municipal records and the Census of 1903 and 1918, could not find the name, and
concluded that “Isang..pagkakamali…. ang sabihing mayroong Pugad Lawin sa Kalookan." (It would be a
mistake to say that there is such as Pugad Lawin in Kalookan