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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Philippines
Index
After Rizal's arrest and exile, Andres Bonifacio, a
self-educated man of humble origins, founded a secret society,
the Katipunan, in Manila. This organization, modeled in part on
Masonic lodges, was committed to winning independence from Spain.
Rizal, Lopez Jaena, del Pilar, and other leaders of the
Propaganda Movement had been Masons, and Masonry was regarded by
the Catholic Church as heretical. The Katipunan, like the Masonic
lodges, had secret passwords and ceremonies, and its members were
organized into ranks or degrees, each having different colored
hoods, special passwords, and secret formulas. New members went
through a rigorous initiation, which concluded with the pacto
de sangre, or blood compact.
The Katipunan spread gradually from the Tondo district of
Manila, where Bonifacio had founded it, to the provinces, and by
August 1896--on the eve of the revolt against Spain--it had some
30,000 members, both men and women. Most of them were members of
the lower-and lower-middle-income strata, including peasants. The
nationalist movement had effectively moved from the closed circle
of prosperous ilustrados to a truly popular base of
support.
Data as of June 1991
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