Why Andres Bonifacio Should Be The National Hero

Currently, Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines because of his martyrdom. Compared to the other revolutionaries and nationalists, Rizal was rich and highly educated.

• Unlike Marcelo del Pilar, he did not die of poverty from his activities
• Unlike Andres Bonifacio, he was able to publish his views extensively

However, the main problem with Rizal was that he did not believe that the Philippines should be fully independent from Spain. Instead, he advocated for the Spanish to reform their colonial policy. This is naive and would be similar to Benjamin Franklin asking Britain to reduce the taxes on the American colonies instead of asking for independence.

Bonifacio Did Most of the Work

Andres Bonifacio did most of the work required for a revolution.

• He had the moral cause and therefore the strongest feelings for the freedom of the country
• He had an organization with its laws
• He had propaganda and a military arm
• He got the revolution started

Rizal, Luna, Mabini, etc were just support or professional consultants for Bonifacio, just as Duterte relies on professionals in his cabinet because he doesn’t know everything.

Moreover, Bonifacio really wanted a name change for the Philippines:

Aguinaldo was an opportunist landlord who used his wealth and influence to steal the leadership for his own interests. He used Bonifacio and Luna to gain victories and then killed them when they became threats.

Bonifacio’s mistake was he did not form a treaty with the Aguinaldo to set territorial boundaries for their own governments, since civil wars often happen with revolutionary wars. The lumads and the Moros fought each other a lot even before the Spanish came. Their solution was to set physical boundaries.

The disunity during revolutionary struggles is actually common:

• The American revolution split America into rebels and loyalists
• The Russians were split between the Red and White armies
• The Vietnam war split Vietnam into North and South

Rizal is the Hero of Felipe-nos, Bonifacio is the Hero of Maharlikans

In a nutshell, pro-Spanish/American Philippines has Jose Rizal as its hero. These ‘Felipe-nos’ are under King Philip of the Spanish Hapsburgs who suffered from inbreeding problems which led to their eventual downfall.

Rizal did not believe in the capabilities of the masses at all:

Felipe-nos surrender to policies of foreigners and vested interests, such as exporting its people as overseas workers as OFWs* which are modern-day slaves or aliping namamahay such as lowly-paid maids who live in their foreign master’s condo.

*Overseas Felipe-no Worker, where the ‘King Felipes’ are the wealthy foreigners

On the other hand, Katagalugans (River People) or Maharlikans (free people) have Andres Bonifacio as their national hero. These are free from foreign and vested interests, just as rivers flow freely according to their national interests.

Tagalogs or Maharlikans make their own policies for the benefit of its own people and are against oppression from:

• High taxes
• Trade monopolies
• Profiteering (especially by the Chinese Han [Valley people])
• Lack of representation
• Incompetent government officials
• Abuses of authority

The above were among the list of complaints of Katagalugans against the Spanish, as written in ‘Mga daklang cautosan’ of January 1892. Our proposed solutions are: