Tagalog Republic

The term Tagalog commonly refers to both an ethno-linguistic group in the Philippines and their language. Katagalugan often refers to the Tagalog-speaking regions of the island of Luzon in the Philippine archipelago.

However, the Katipunan secret society extended the meaning of these terms to all of the natives in the Philippine islands. The society's primer explains its use of Tagalog in a footnote:

Sa salitáng tagalog katutura’y ang lahát nang tumubo sa Sangkapuluáng itó; sa makatuid, bisaya man, iloko man, kapangpangan man, etc., ay tagalog din. (The word Tagalog refers to all of those born in this archipelago; therefore, even Visayans, Ilocanos, Kapampangans, etc. would just as well be called Tagalogs.)[1][2]

The revolutionary Carlos Ronquillo wrote in his memoirs:

Ang tagalog o lalong malinaw, ang tawag na "tagalog" ay waláng ibáng kahulugán kundi ‘tagailog’ na sa tuwirang paghuhulo ay taong maibigang manirá sa tabíng ilog, bagay na 'di maikakaila na siyáng talagáng hilig ng tanang anák ng Pilipinas, saa’t saán mang pulo at bayan. (Tagalog, or more precisely, the name "Tagalog", has no other meaning but "tagailog" which, traced directly to its root, refers to those who prefer to settle along rivers, truly a trait, it cannot be denied, of all those born in the Philippines, in whichever island or town.)[1][2]

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In this respect, Katagalugan may be translated as the "Tagalog nation."[1][2]

Andrés Bonifacio, a founding member of the Katipunan and later its supreme head (Supremo), promoted the use of Katagalugan for the Philippine nation. The term "Filipino" was then reserved for Spaniards born in the islands. By eschewing "Filipino" and "Filipinas" which had colonial roots, Bonifacio and his cohorts "sought to form a national identity."[1]

In 1896, the Philippine Revolution broke out after the discovery of the Katipunan by the authorities. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the Katipunan had become an open revolutionary government.[1][3][4] The American historian John R. M. Taylor, custodian of the Philippine Insurgent Records, wrote:

The Katipunan came out from the cover of secret designs, threw off the cloak of any other purpose, and stood openly for the independence of the Philippines. Bonifacio turned his lodges into battalions, his grandmasters into captains, and the supreme council of the Katipunan into the insurgent government of the Philippines.[1][2]

Several Filipino historians concur. According to Gregorio Zaide:

The Katipunan was more than a secret revolutionary society; it was, withal, a Government. It was the intention of Bonifacio to have the Katipunan govern the whole Philippines after the overthrow of Spanish rule.[1][4]

Likewise, Renato Constantino and others wrote that the Katipunan served as a shadow government.[5][6][7][8]

Influenced by Freemasonry, the Katipunan had been organized with "its own laws, bureaucratic structure and elective leadership".[1] For each province it involved, the Supreme Council coordinated provincial councils[2] which were in charge of "public administration and military affairs on the supra-municipal or quasi-provincial level"[1] and local councils,[2] in charge of affairs "on the district or barrio level".[1]

Sovereign Tagalog Nation Haring Bayang Katagalugan
1896–1897
Two of several variations of Katipunan flags Great Seal
Anthem: Marangál na Dalit ng̃ Katagalugan ("Honorable Hymn of the Tagalog Nation")
Status	Unrecognized state
Capital	Tondo, Manila
Common languages	Tagalog, Philippine languages
Government	Revolutionary republic
President / Supreme Leader
• 1896–1897	Andrés Bonifacio
Legislature	Kataas-taasang Sanggunian (Supreme Council)
Historical era	Philippine Revolution
• Cry of Pugad Lawin	August 24, 1896
• Battle of Pinaglabanan	August 30, 1896
• Siege of Imus	September 1, 1896
• Execution of José Rizal	December 30, 1896
• Imus Assembly	December 31, 1896
• Tejeros Convention	March 22, 1897
• Execution of Andrés Bonifacio	May 10, 1897
Currency	Peso
Preceded by Succeeded by Captaincy General of the Philippines Captaincy General of the Philippines Tejeros Government

In the last days of August, the Katipunan members met in Caloocan and decided to start their revolt[1] (the event was later called the "Cry of Balintawak" or "Cry of Pugad Lawin"; the exact location and date are disputed). A day after the Cry, the Supreme Council of the Katipunan held elections, with the following results:[1][2]

The above was divulged to the Spanish by the Katipunan member Pío Valenzuela while in captivity.[1][2] Teodoro Agoncillo thus wrote:

"Presidente" Bonifacio in La Ilustración Española y Americana, February 8, 1897

Immediately before the outbreak of the revolution, therefore, Bonifacio organized the Katipunan into a government revolving around a ‘cabinet’ composed of men of his confidence.[9]

Milagros C. Guerrero and others have described Bonifacio as "effectively" the commander-in-chief of the revolutionaries. They assert:

As commander-in-chief, Bonifacio supervised the planning of military strategies and the preparation of orders, manifests and decrees, adjudicated offenses against the nation, as well as mediated in political disputes. He directed generals and positioned troops in the fronts. On the basis of command responsibility, all victories and defeats all over the archipelago during his term of office should be attributed to Bonifacio.[1]

One name for Bonifacio's concept of the Philippine nation-state appears in surviving Katipunan documents: Haring Bayang Katagalugan ("Sovereign Nation of the Tagalog People", or "Sovereign Tagalog Nation") - sometimes shortened into Haring Bayan ("Sovereign Nation"). Bayan may be rendered as "nation" or "people". Bonifacio is named as the president of the "Tagalog Republic" in an issue of the Spanish periodical La Ilustración Española y Americana published in February 1897 ("Andrés Bonifacio - Titulado "Presidente" de la República Tagala"). Another name for Bonifacio's government was Repúblika ng Katagalugan (another form of "Tagalog Republic") as evidenced by a picture of a rebel seal published in the same periodical the next month.[1][2]

Official letters and one appointment paper of Bonifacio addressed to Emilio Jacinto reveal Bonifacio's various titles and designations, as follows:[1][2]

• President of the Supreme Council
• Supreme President
• President of the Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan / Sovereign Tagalog Nation
• President of the Sovereign Nation, Founder of the Katipunan, Initiator of the Revolution
• Office of the Supreme President, Government of the Revolution

An 1897 power struggle in Cavite led to command of the revolution shifting at the Tejeros Convention, where a new government was formed with Emilio Aguinaldo as President. Bonifacio refused to recognize the new government after his election as Director of the Interior was questioned by Daniel Tirona, for which he was later executed. After Bonifacio's execution, the Philippine Republic, usually considered the "First Philippine Republic", was formally established in 1899, after a succession of revolutionary and dictatorial governments (e.g. the Tejeros government, the Biak-na-Bato Republic) headed by Aguinaldo.[10][11]

Tagalog Republic Repúbliká ng̃ Katagalugan
1902–1906
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan
Status	Unrecognized state
Capital	Rizal
Government	Republic
President
• 1902–1906	Macario Sakay
Vice President
• 1902–1906	Francisco Carreón
Historical era	Philippine–American War
• Declaration of Independence	May 6, 1902
• Capture of Macario Sakay	July 14, 1906
Preceded by Succeeded by United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands First Philippine Republic Insular Government of the Philippine Islands
Today part of	The Philippines

After Emilio Aguinaldo and his men were captured by the US forces in 1901, General Macario Sakay, a veteran Katipunan member, established in 1902 his own Tagalog Republic (Tagalog: Repúbliká ng̃ Katagalugan) in the mountains of Morong (today, the province of Rizal), and held the presidency with Francisco Carreón as vice president.[12] In April 1904, Sakay issued a manifesto declaring Filipino right to self-determination at a time when support for independence was considered a crime by the American colonial government.[13]

The republic ended in 1906 when Sakay and his leading followers were arrested by American authorities and the following year executed for banditry.[13] Some of its survivors escaped to Japan to be joined with Artemio Ricarte, an exiled Katipunan veteran, and later returned to support the Second Philippine Republic, a client state of Japan, during World War II.

• Republic of Biak-na-Bato
• List of Unofficial Presidents of the Philippines