Where is Bonifacio’s bolo?
Where are the bones of Andres Bonifacio? That was the question posed in last Wednesday’s column, which prompted recently appointed National Library Director Antonio M. Santos to make an inquiry. The inquiry led to a dead end. In a gathering of librarians on Bonifacio Day, he said in jest that his predecessor Prudenciana Cruz probably ground these into vetsin for use in her kitchen.
Director Santos will be surprised to know that Bonifacio’s bolo was once in the National Library. He will be relieved to know that this bolo was lost or destroyed during the war. If I ask my students where Bonifacio’s bolo is located now, they will probably point to any of the many Bonifacio monuments throughout the country. This national hero is always depicted with a bolo.
On March 23, 1966 the Manila Chronicle ran a front-page story regarding a 21-inch bolo, with a grip fashioned from carabao-horn embellished with tiny stars. The bolo was allegedly owned by Andres Bonifacio. It was offered to the mayor of Manila then, Antonio Villegas, by a shady antique collector/dealer named Enrique P. Montinola for P100,000. Mayor Villegas consulted an anonymous “expert,” who examined the bolo and recommended its purchase at P70,000. At some point in the negotiations, Montinola threatened to sell the bolo to private collectors who were willing to pay more than the city government. One wonders what interventions were made by the National Museum, the National Library, or the National Heroes Commission in 1966 regarding this disputed historical relic. To complicate things, the authenticity of the bolo was questioned and it has since disappeared, just like the famous “Bonifacio Bones” excavated in Maragondon in 1918. The bones were brought to the University of the Philippines for examination and later displayed in the National Library and Museum where these disappeared in 1926.
In the 1938 “Catalogue of Paintings, Sculptures, and Historical Objects” published by the National Library Gallery of Art and History, three bolos are listed. One of these is described as follows: “BOLO OF ANDRES BONIFACIO (19th century) Bonifacio had this bolo with him when the Katipuneros gathered in Balintawak.” Unlike the other two bolos in the catalogue, this one had no assigned government property number because it was not donated to the museum. Rather it was on indefinite loan by a certain Isabelo Donato. When another “Bonifacio Bolo” surfaced in 1966, Alfredo Roces dug up the affidavit of Donato, stating as follows:
“28 August 1896, three days after the incident in Balintawak which ignited the revolution, Procopio Bonifacio, the brother of the hero and Donato’s friend, sought refuge in his home located at 189 Calle Soler, Tondo. Procopio was followed shortly by Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. There, the hero left a bundle for safekeeping. Meanwhile, Donato, after some discussion with a neighbor, Mariano Gomez, decided that his house was not too safe a refuge for the Bonifacios, and so three days later, Andres Bonifacio and his companions were spirited to another home in Calle Lavesares, Binondo. After about a month’s stay, the refugees decided to leave for Cavite. On the night of their departure, a dinner was given in their honor in the house of Mariano Gomez. It was on the evening of their departure, after the dinner, that Donato returned to Bonifacio the bundle entrusted to him on the night the hero arrived in Donato’s house. Bonifacio opened the bundle that contained a pistol and a bolo, and, keeping the pistol, he said to Donato, ‘I give you this bolo because it would only be cumbersome to me.’ This bundle had been opened in the presence of Mariano Gomez.”
In his affidavit Donato also stated that the sister of Bonifacio and a certain Vicente Carmona were likewise present and could verify his claims. This so-called “Bonifacio Bolo” must have been in the Museum as early as 1918 because the Dec. 5, 1918 issue of the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, as quoted in the Roces article, had Acting Library and Museum Director Jose Escaler thanking Donato for his “voluntary gift” of the bolo. On Jan. 16, 1919, Donato made it clear to Escaler and the general public that the bolo was not donated but entrusted to the museum for safekeeping. It was a loan, not a permanent gift. This bolo was one of the casualties of the war. It was destroyed with the museum during the Battle for Manila in 1945. Whether someone had spirited it out before the museum was destroyed, or found it in the rubble afterwards, there is no record of the Donato bolo after 1945.
The 1966 Bonifacio Bolo peddled by Montinola was acquired from Espiridiona Bonifacio, sister of the “Supremo of the Katipunan,” on April 14, 1949 some eight months before she passed away. Montinola then produced the signed affidavits of Espiridiona’s sons, Mauro and Cesar Distrito, stating that their mother gave Montinola the bolo in gratitude for [financial] help because of government neglect for her welfare. This bolo can’t be located these days.
Where are these bolos today? If they would be found, can we be certain of their authenticity? Like holy relics they only gain significance depending on one’s faith. If you have faith then the bolos become genuine even if they are not. If you have no faith they can never become genuine even if they are authentic.
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