PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Caloocan, Philippines • August 1896. August 24, 1896: The Day the Katipunan Became a Nation — and Andrés Bonifacio Became Its First President. katipunan government 1896, haring bayang katagalugan, andres bonifacio first president, philippine revolution august 1896, katipunan flag three k's, philippine history. Caloocan, Philippines • August 1896 August 24, 1896: The Day the Katipunan Became a Nation — and Andrés Bonifacio Became Its First President Days after Filipinos tore their cedulas at Pugad Lawin, the Katipunan reorganized itself into a sovereign government — the Haring Bayang Katagalugan — and elected Andrés Bonifacio its first president. Most textbooks start the story with Aguinaldo. This is the week before that. PinoyBuilt illustration. The Katipunan's flag — a red field bearing three white K's — flew over the government Bonifacio organized in Caloocan, August 24, 1896. I was nine years old in Marikina, in the second...

Caloocan, Philippines • August 2026. August 23, 1896: Bonifacio and the Katipunan Tear Their Cédulas at Pugad Lawin. cry of pugad lawin, andres bonifacio, katipunan revolution, philippine revolution 1896, balintawak vs pugad lawin, cedula personal, filipino american history, on this day philippines. PHILIPPINE HISTORY • AUGUST 1896 August 23, 1896: Bonifacio and the Katipunan Tear Their Cédulas at Pugad Lawin In the yard of a Caloocan farmhouse, a secret society tore up their Spanish tax certificates and opened the Philippine Revolution — the point of no return the Katipunan chose for itself. PinoyBuilt illustration: the Cry of Pugad Lawin, August 23, 1896. By the third week of August 1896, Andres Bonifacio no longer had a choice about timing. Spanish authorities had discovered the Katipunan — the secret society he led, dedicated to Philippine independence — after a member confessed to a friar on August 19. With arrest warrants already m...

Jolo, Sulu, Philippines • August 1899. The Bates Agreement: How the U.S. Bought Moro Neutrality to Crush a Republic. bates agreement, kiram-bates treaty, sultanate of sulu, philippine-american war, moro history, decolonization, bangsamoro autonomy, jamalul kiram ii, general john bates. Philippine-American War • August 1899 The Bates Agreement: How the U.S. Bought Moro Neutrality to Crush a Republic On August 20, 1899, an American general and the Sultan of Sulu signed a treaty that kept the Moro south out of the war in the north — and set the terms for a century of broken promises. PinoyBuilt illustration — not an archival photograph. I grew up in Marikina reading about Rizal and Bonifacio before I ever left the Philippines. The Katipunan's story was the first anti-colonial history I ever knew, and it stayed with me through Chicago, through Vallejo, through everything since. What nobody handed me — not in Marikina, no...

Vallejo, CA • August 2026. The Cable Was Cut: What Manila Didn't Know on August 16, 1898. 8/16 1898, peace protocol manila, mock battle of manila, emilio aguinaldo locked out, wesley merritt, george dewey, fermin jaudenes, spanish american war philippines, philippine-american war origins, american annexation philippines, treaty of paris 1898, rizal act ra 1425, claro m recto, board of national education, filipino american history, decolonization, 8/16 Manila • August 1898 The Cable Was Cut: What Manila Didn't Know on August 16, 1898 Four days after the empires made peace in Washington, the news finally reached a city that had already changed hands — in a battle arranged in advance to keep Filipino soldiers outside the walls. The locked gate, August 1898. PinoyBuilt illustration over period documents — for four days, the men on both sides of that wall fought a war that had already ended. There is a particular kind of cruelty in be...