Bonifacio’s bolo
When represented in art, Andres Bonifacio wields a bolo. The source for this is not historical, but, rather, two iconic images: a detail from National Artist Carlos V. Francisco’s mural on the history of Manila in Manila City Hall, and the prewar statue by Ramon Martinez based on a drawing by Jorge Pineda, originally located in Balintawak before it was moved to Vinzons Hall at the University of the Philippines Diliman. In both images Bonifacio wears a white camisa de chino and red kundiman pants; he brandishes a bolo and shouts the call to revolution.
A counterimage is by National Artist Guillermo Tolentino, who represented Bonifacio in an embroidered barong. In the Caloocan monument that gave the place called “Monumento” its name, a multitasking Bonifacio holds the iconic bolo in his right hand and a revolver on his left. Tolentino made another monument in front of the Manila Post Office where Bonifacio carries both weapons on his hips: revolver on the right, bolo on the left, suggesting that he was right-handed. All these obscure details may seem trivial in the context of Bonifacio’s role in the emergence of the Filipino nation, but as we remember the Supremo of the Katipunan on his 150th birthday we must move beyond the stereotype images and oversimplified textbook history to appreciate a hero based on scant historical documentation.
Preserved in the National Library of the Philippines is a copy of the proceedings of Bonifacio’s trial in 1897, that records on one of its pages an inventory of weapons seized from the Supremo during his arrest:
“Mauser L-2798 plate bearing initial A.B. removed; Mauser K-2894 with additional No. 1, plate bearing initials H.B.; Remington No. 7537, plate bearing initials A.B. removed; Remington No. 1,200, plate bearing initials A.B. removed; Remington No. 12620, iron plate of the butt and trigger removed; Remington No. 2085; Remington No. D610; Remington No. 3279, A.B. removed; Remington No. 3580, Magdalo removed; Remington No. 23871 = 16, A.B. removed; Remington No. 3302 A.B.; Remington No. 3379 plate bearing A.B. removed; Remington No. 9075, plate bearing A.B. at the trigger removed; Remington No. 38384 Magdalo; Remington without plate number removed; Remington, English make; One shotgun with double barrel; One shotgun, center fire; Two shotguns with double barrel; One shotgun, Saun; Four Arabucos and one Mactan; One Juan Estrella; One shotgun, center fire.”
In that list we find: two Mausers, 14 Remingtons, three double-barrel shotguns, two center-fire shotguns, and four arquebuses. I don’t know what a Saun, a Mactan, and a Juan Estrella are. It is significant that no bolo is listed in the inventory. How come we always remember Bonifacio with a bolo when his weapon of choice was a gun?
In my last column I wrote about the dispute between two historical figures—Guillermo Masangkay and Pio Valenzuela—over a revolver in the National Museum allegedly owned by the Supremo. Well, the descendants of Bonifacio have a “Wibley” revolver that was reportedly taken by Katipuneros from a friar house and presented to the Supremo. Which revolver was truly his?
Bonifacio’s bolo is more complicated because in the 1938 National Museum Catalog of Paintings, Sculptures and Historical Objects, three bolos are listed, one of them as follows: “BOLO OF ANDRES BONIFACIO (19th century). Bonifacio had this bolo with him when the Katipuneros gathered in Balintawak.” Unlike the two other bolos listed in the catalog, this one was not owned by the museum but was on loan from a certain Isabelo Donato who issued an affidavit in 1966 that reads:
“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 on Calle Lavezares, 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 in the evening of this 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 was opened in the presence of Mariano Gomez.”
This bolo was believed destroyed during the Battle for Manila in 1945, but it resurfaced in 1966. Then there was another bolo that was acquired by a collector from Bonifacio’s sister Espiridiona in 1949. We have yet another bolo still preserved by the Bonifacio family.
It is quite amusing that we have documentation for an armful of bolos but still lack additional material on Andres Bonifacio. One would think that 150 years since he was born we should know a lot about him, but he remains as elusive as ever.
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