“pasya” – the decision to revolt; -which is more or less in line with Agoncillo’s,

thus embraces both the pasya and pagpupunit

“pagpupunit” – the tearing of cedulas; and

“unang labanan” – the first encounter with

Spanish forces. *A number of sources, however, indicate that
cedulas were torn on more than one occasion,
• did not all happen at the same
in different places,
time and place
*It is even possible (as Medina believes) that
• Teodoro A. Agoncillo equates the term with
the main pagpupunit preceded the pasya
the pagpupunit, which he says happened
immediately after the pasya.

• Isagani R. Medina also takes the “Cry” to decision to revolt: when was it taken?
mean the pagpupunit, but says it happened
-Monday, August 24, 1896, after a lengthy
before the decision to revolt had been taken.
meeting (or series of meetings) that had begun
• Soledad Borromeo-Buehler takes the view – on Sunday, August 23
the traditional view that KKK veterans took, she
-Many veterans later recalled August 23 as the
says - that the “Cry” should mean the unang
historic day
labanan.
-others specifically remembered the decision
had not been taken until the early hours of
Borromeo-Buehler - unang labanan August 24

 commemorated by the first monument given by at least four important

to the events of August 1896. sources:

*The documentary evidence on the unang 1.Biak-na-Bato constitution of November 1897

labanan is reasonably clear. that mentions “the current war, initiated on
August 24, 1896”
*August 26 - The first battle, an encounter with
a detachment of the Guardia Civil - The constitution’s signatories
included at least one participant in
- five kilometers north-east of
the “Cry” (Cipriano Pacheco)
Balintawak, between the settlements of
Banlat and Pasong Tamo 2.Carlos Ronquillo - first chronicle of the revolt
against Spain by a Filipino
*Borromeo-Buehler and Encarnacion have
shown, the most solid, contemporary sources -his work begins with “Sa isang arao ng
confirm August 26 to be correct. pagpupulong sa Balintawak (24 Agosto 1896)
kaarawan nang pasimulan ang Revolucion”
1960- official definition of the “Cry” changed

-mean the unang labanan and was defined

instead as “that part of the Revolution when the 3.Liga Filipina memorial
Katipunan decided to launch a revolution
against Spain. This event culminated with the
tearing of the cedula”.
4. Santiago Alvarez, in his memoirs Ang *Kangkong
Katipunan at Paghihimagsik, written in 1927
Labi ng Katipunan - Katipunan veterans’
-Internal evidence suggests that association,
Alvarez’s account of the meeting on August 24
-in 1917, they erected a memorial on
is based on information he obtained from
the site where they remembered the decision
Ramon Bernardo
to revolt had been taken = at Apolonio
Samson’s house on the Kaingin Road in barrio
Kangkong.
*August 24 has now been confirmed as the date
of the formal decision by the discovery of a Sa pook na ito,” the inscription stated, plainly
contemporary document - a page from what and simply, “...ipinasya ng KKKNMANB ang
Medina calls the “borador ng pulong ng paghihimagsik noong ika-23 ng Agosto 1896”
Kataastaasang Sangunian,”

or rough copybook of the Katipunan Supreme

-The Labi ng Katipunan was headed by the
Council
veterans Pio H. Santos (who had participated in
The document is dated “Kalookan, the “Cry”) and Claudio P. Carreon.
Maynila ika 26 ng Agosto ng taong 1896,” and it
begins as follows:

In accordance with the decision taken

by the meeting of the Supreme Assembly held Three possible sites :
on the twenty-fourth of the present month
regarding the revolution, and given the - Kangkong
necessity to elect leaders of the people and - Pasong Tamo (in bo. Banlat)
directors of the Army
- Bahay Toro

The decision to revolt (ii) who took it?

 8 out of the 10 individuals who
KKK’s Supreme Assembly- the one who took the mentioned either Kangkong, Pasong
decision to revolt, says the “borador” Tamo, or Bahay Toro, recalled the
decisive meeting and/or the “grito” as
having taken place in Kangkong
The decision to revolt: (iii) where was it taken?  By Tomas Remigio, Julio Nakpil,
Apolonio Samson’s place in bo. Kangkong, Sinforoso San Pedro, Guillermo
Caloocan Masangkay, Cipriano Pacheco, Briccio
Pantas, Francisco Carreon and Vicente
Melchora Aquino’s place near Pasong Tamo in Samson
bo. Banlat, Caloocan

Juan Ramos’s place in bo. Bahay Toro, Caloocan

Only one veteran – Pio Valenzuela – ever - Balintawak, they insisted is a
maintained that the decisive meeting took place particular barrio to the east of
at Melchora Aquino’s place near Pasong Tamo Caloocan, with delineated
boundaries which was not where
- in 1911 he also recalled that the
“Cry” had occurred.
pasya had been taken in Kangkong.
- “Cry” had occurred, they said, at a
Ramon Bernardo - remembered the decision as place known as Pugad Lawin
having been taken in Bahay Toro
*foremost proponent of this argument was Dr
-but he did not say “Juan Ramos’s place Pio Valenzuela
in Bahay Toro.”
He changed his story, more than once:
-He said it had been taken at Melchora
-1911, he had said the decision to revolt
Aquino’s place, “sa pook ng Sampalukan, Bahay
had been taken at Apolonio Samson’s house in
Toro.”
Kangkong
-It therefore seems his recollection was
-1917, he had testified in court that it
simply mistaken, because Melchora Aquino’s
had been taken at Melchora Aquino’s house on
place was near Pasong Tamo, in bo. Banlat.
the road known as Daan Malalim, in Pasong
Tamo, “also known as Pacpac-lawin.”

*the only possible conclusion to be drawn from -But in his “Memoirs,” which Agoncillo
the veterans’ testimony is that “pasya” was says date from the early 1920s, he said it had
taken by the Supreme Assembly at the house of been taken at the place of Melchora Aquino’s
Apolonio Samson in Kangkong. son, Juan Ramos

, in “Pugad Lawin”

*it seems likely that the main pagpupunit also

took place in Kangkong, as the veteran Cipriano
**In contemporary records, alas, and on
Pacheco later recalled.
contemporary maps, the name Pugad Lawin
cannot be found anywhere.

-while the supreme asssembly are meeting at

samsons house, there are 2000 crowds outside
> Valenzuela recalled that Pugad Lawin was in
waiting to hear the news. Then Bonifacio led
Pasong Tamo
announce it in a open field where they can hear
him which is a nearby place in samsons house -1928, Valenzuela went to Pasong Tamo
(kangkong) to commemorate the “Cry” together with four
other well-known KKK veterans – Gregoria de
Jesus (Bonifacio’s widow), Briccio Pantas and
“Pugad Lawin near Pasong Tamo” the brothers Alfonso and Cipriano Pacheco

- In 1920, small group of senior -The newspaper La Opinion carried this

Katipunan veterans said that “Cry of photograph of the group, who according to the
Balintawak” was a misnomer, and caption were standing around the exact spot,
should be discarded.
where 1,000 bolos had been stored just before
they were used in “el famoso grito”

-it therefore seems, “the Cry” was taken to

**As may be seen, the veterans do not
mean the unang labanan, which had indeed
explicitly state the place they remembered as
taken place near Pasong Tamo
Pugad Lawin was where, or near where,
-Even though Pio Valenzuela said the pasya as Melchora Aquino had lived in 1896. --- But it
well as the unang labanan should be was
commemorated at or near this site in Pasong
- 1940, August, any doubt that Pio
Tamo
Valenzuela identified Pugad Lawin
with Pasong Tamo, and specifically
with Melchora Aquino’s place, was
 Around the same time, 1928 or1929,
dispelled
Pio Valenzuela, Briccio Pantas and
Cipriano Pacheco issued a joint
- together with two other Katipunan
statement to the effect that the “Cry”
veterans (Genaro de los Reyes and
had taken place not in Balintawak,
Sinforoso San Pedro) he returned
where the monument had been
there with Eulogio B. Rodriguez and
erected, but in “the place known by the
Luis Serrano of the Philippine
name of Pugad Lawin”. This is the
Historical Committee (a forerunner
statement, as published in the
of the NHCP) to verify the location
Philippines Free Press in November
1930
- Before posing for photographs, the
NA HINDI SA BALINTAWAK NGYARI ANG party marked the site of Melchora
UNANG SIGAW NG PANHIHIMAGSIK SA Aquino’s house with a thin wooden
KINALALAGUIAN NGAYON NG BANTAYOG, stake on which somebody placed
KUNG DI SA POOK NA KILALA SA TAWAG NA their hat.
PUGAD-LAWIN.
- The photograph’s caption is not
-this statement refers to the “unang contemporaneous, because
labanan,” which had indeed been fought near Caloocan did not attain the status of
Pasong Tamo a city until 1963.
-It does not imply that Pantas and
Pacheco agreed with Valenzuela that the pasya - It is possible the description of the
should be marked in that same vicinity. site – “Sitio Gulod, Banlat, Caloocan
City” – reflects how the location
>Pacheco located the pasya and was known in the 1960s rather than
pagpupunit in Kangkong (stated before) in 1940
>Pantas had not been a direct
eyewitness, having left Kangkong for Manila **Luis Serrano wrote a detailed account of the
before the pasya was taken. 1940 expedition which makes it absolutely clear
not only that Valenzuela and his companions
believed the “Cry” took place at or near
Melchora Aquino’s place, a spot they house in 1940, as he had in the
remembered as Pugad Lawin, but also that their 1910s and 1920s. Except, that is, in
geographical point of reference, their starting the words of his “Memoirs”.
point for locating the exact spot, was Pasong - Valenzuela relates that the decision
Tamo to revolt was taken at the “house,
storehouse and yard of Juan Ramos,
- The trip to Pugad Lawin in 1940,
son of Melchora Aquino, in Pugad
Serrano recalls, was organized by
Lawin”.
Eulogio B. Rodriguez in his capacity
as chairman of the Philippine
- Teodoro Agoncillo and Isagani
Historical Committee “
Medina have argued that this
means the pasya site was not at
- Serrano relates, the party
Melchora Aquino’s place, but at a
“negotiated the distance by car up
completely different location, in
to Pasong-tamo and hiked about an
Bahay Toro, three kilometers to the
hour to Pugad-lawin.”
south west of Pasong Tamo

“We found that Pugad-lawin was a

- And yet Luis Serrano, who
knoll of about 30 or 40 feet higher
personally went with Valenzuela to
than the surrounding territory. As
Pasong Tamo in 1940, and who
the remaining vegetation indicated,
later translated the veteran’s
it must have been well covered with
“Memoirs,” did not draw such an
trees during the revolution. It was a
inference
good observation point from a
military point of view because it
- The crux of the matter, Serrano
commanded an excellent view of
doubtless believed, was that
the whole country to the south and
Valenzuela specified in his
west, the only directions from
“Memoirs,” as elsewhere, that the
where the Spanish forces could be
pasya site was at Pugad Lawin,
expected to come. Some of the big
meaning the wooded knoll, to
trees which formed landmarks of
which they had hiked together from
the place were still recognized by
Pasong Tamo.
Dr. Valenzuela.”
- Valenzuela did not expressly repeat
in his “Memoirs” that Pugad Lawin
- Serrano’s account does not was near Pasong Tamo, but neither
mention Bahay Toro, where the site did he specify any other location
of Pugad Lawin is now officially
marked. - Who actually owned the house and
yard near Pasong Tamo where he
Pio Valenzuela’s “Memoirs” remembered cedulas being
shredded, Melchora Aquino or her
- Serrano’s account shows that son Juan Ramos, was just an
Valenzuela still associated Pugad
Lawin with Melchora Aquino’s
 incidental point of detail, not of - Agoncillo does not, however,
basic geography. adhere fully to Valenzuela’s version
of events
- The advocates of the “Pugad Lawin
in Bahay Toro” position have - Valenzuela believed Ramos and his
presented Pio Valenzuela as their mother both lived in “Pugad Lawin
star witness, and his “Memoirs” as near Pasong Tamo”
their prime document. But he does
not mention Bahay Toro as the - Agoncillo, on the other hand, says
pasya site in his “Memoirs,” that Ramos lived in “Pugad Lawin”
(without specifying where it was)
but that his mother lived in Pasong
Tamo, and that the two places were
Teodoro Agoncillo – initiator of Pugad Lawin’s
a significant distance apart.
relocation

- “cry” in Pugad lawin site, acquired - Immediately after the tearing of

even greater currency with the cedulas in Ramos’s yard in Pugad
publication in 1956 of Agoncillo’s Lawin on August 23, Agoncillo
Revolt of the Masses, which writes in Revolt, the Katipuneros
remains to this day the standard got word the Guardia Civil were
work on the Katipunan approaching, and so they hastily
marched off in the dark to Pasong
Tamo, arriving at Melchora
- Agoncillo acknowledged that he had Aquino’s house the next day.
“relied mostly” on Valenzuela’s
testimony when writing about the - Pugad Lawin the “rebels walked
“cry” pell-mell through the night to
Pasong Tamo.”
- He justified his decision by saying
that Valenzuela had been an - The only sources he cites alongside
eyewitness to the historic event, Valenzuela’s “Memoirs” at this
that his “Memoirs,” though written juncture in Revolt are two other
many years afterwards, had been KKK veterans, Guillermo Masangkay
“based on notes scribbled in 1897,” and Francisco Carreon
and that “events, complete with
details” were still vivid in
Official recognition of “Pugad Lawin, wherever
Valenzuela’s memory even in his
it was”
old age
-the Philippine government ruled that the term
- Agoncillo decided to follow “Cry of Balintawak” should be discarded in favor
Valenzuela’s “Memoirs” in saying of “Cry of Pugad Lawin.”
the pasya was taken at Juan
- This change was signaled formally in 1963 by
Ramos’s place in Pugad Lawin
President Macapagal, whose Proclamation 149
declared that the 67th anniversary of the “Cry Isagani Medina’s case for “Pugad Lawin in
of Pugad Lawin” Bahay Toro”

- By “the event” of August 23, -They found the evidence submitted by the
Proclamation 149 meant the pasya, Quezon City mayor’s Committee to be too
not the unang labanan. Agoncillo’s tenuous, the case too dubious
definition of the “Cry” had become
Isagani R. Medina-The foremost proponent of
the official definition.
“Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro” in this renewed
- The “Cry,” therefore, was officially
debate
redefined, and the “Cry” site was
officially removed from Balintawak, -He presented the case for Bahay Toro
but it was reassigned to “Pugad more fully, and with more
Lawin, wherever it was,” not to a documentation, than anybody else has
particular designated spot. before or since
“Pugad Lawin in Bahay Toro” -first in a paper he delivered at a
conference in 1993
- the mayor of Quezon City
constituted a “Pugad Lawin -then in his annotations to Ronquillo’s
Historical Committee” to examine memoirs
whether the “Cry” site could be
definitively identified at last.
**Medina found official documents from 1896,
- The Committee, that is to say, the vecindarios or lists of residents for the
accepted his position that Pugad municipality of Caloocan, which show that
Lawin was a considerable distance Melchora Aquino and Juan Ramos, mother and
from Pasong Tamo, and that the son, were listed under different cabecerías.
yard where cedulas were shredded
had belonged to Juan Ramos, not to - Melchora Aquino lived with her
his mother, Melchora Aquino. youngest daughter, Juana Ramos.
- Another of her daughters, Estefania
- The search for Pugad Lawin thus Ramos, was living with her family
boiled down to a search for where nearby
Juan Ramos had lived. - Her son Juan Ramos, however, was
registered in another cabecería, of
- Pugad Lawin Historical Committee which he was himself the cabeza de
did not discover any fresh barangay, and was living with his
documentary evidence in its 1983 wife, Alejandra Alcantara, and two
investigation BUT claimed to have young children, Filomena and
identified the former site of Canuta
Ramos’s place on the basis, it **Medina includes photographs of the relevant
seems, of oral testimony from one pages from the vecindarios in his annotated
of Juan Ramos’s grandsons, edition of Ronquillo’s memoirs.
Escolastico Ramos
Only medina claimed pugad lawin in barrio
bahay toro