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...

Manila, Philippines • August 2026. On This Day, August 19: A Printer, a Priest, and the Revolution That Could Not Wait. katipunan, philippine revolution, andres bonifacio, manuel quezon, commonwealth, 8/19, fil-am, history, manila. On This Day • August 2026 On This Day, August 19: A Printer, a Priest, and the Revolution That Could Not Wait 130 years ago, a workplace grudge at a Manila printing press broke open the Katipunan and forced Andres Bonifacio's hand. Also on this date: the birth of Manuel Quezon and the civic code he issued on his 61st birthday. PinoyBuilt illustration. Diaspora Riso series. August 19 is one of the most loaded dates on the Philippine calendar. It is Quezon Day. It is the anniversary of the event that cracked open the Philippine Revolution. And for this particular editor, it is the date he left the Philippines at age nine — August 19, 1976, on a Northwest Airlines flight f...

Vallejo, CA • March 2026. Beware the Ides of March: Caesar, Brutus, Bonifacio, and the Filipino Betrayal That Still Haunts Us. andres bonifacio, emilio aguinaldo, tejeros convention, philippine revolution, julius caesar, katipunan, filipino history, ides of march, fil-am, betrayal. Philippine History • March 2026 Beware the Ides of March: Caesar, Brutus, and the Filipino Betrayal That Still Haunts Us "Et tu, Brute?" On the day the world remembers history's most famous betrayal, we examine the Filipino parallel that cuts even deeper — the execution of Andres Bonifacio at the hands of the revolution he built. The fractured alliance — Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo, the Philippine Revolution's Caesar and Brutus. (AI-generated illustration) March 15. The Ides of March. In the ancient Roman calendar, the Ides simply marked the full moon — the midpoint of the month, a ...