Bonifacio, Andres

Born Nov. 29,1863, in Manila; died May 10, 1897, on Tala Hill, Cavite, on the island of Luzon. Leader of the national liberation movement in the Philippines.

Bonifacio came from the urban poor. His views were greatly influenced by the patriotic works of J. Rizal and by works on the Great French Revolution. In 1892 he joined the Filipino League, which advocated a peaceful movement for social reform. The same year he founded Katipunan, a secret revolutionary alliance which stood for the interests of wide sections of the population, above all the peasantry. He composed one of the documents on the program of the alliance— The Ten Commandments of the Sons of the People. In August 1896 at his call and under his leadership an armed uprising began against Spanish rule. The bourgeois landowner circles headed by E. Aguinaldo, which joined the uprising, endeavored to seize power and falsely accused Bonifacio of conspiracy. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, but Aguinaldo, fearing he might be answerable to the people for executing a popular leader, commuted the sentence to banishment. However, he subsequently changed his mind, and Bonifacio was secretly shot.