DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO COLLEGE

La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311

HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Module Number II
Module Title Content and Contextual Analysis of Selected Primary Sources in
Philippine History
Duration Four (4) Hours
Week Number 3
Date January 2 – 7, 2023

OBJECTIVES:

1. To familiarize oneself with the primary documents in different historical periods of the
Philippines.
2. To learn history through primary sources.
3. To properly interpret primary sources through examining the content and context of
the document.
4. To understand the context behind each selected document.

DISCUSSION

A. The KKK and the “Kartilya ng Katipunan”

The Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK)

or Katipunan is arguably the most important organization formed in the Philippine
history. While anti-colonial movements, efforts and organizations had already been
established centuries prior to the foundation of the Katipunan, it was only this
organization that envisioned (1) a united Filipino nation that would revolt against the
Spaniards for (2) the total independence of the country from Spain. Previous armed
revolts had already occurred before the foundation of Katipunan, but none of them
envisioned a unified Filipino nation revolting against the colonizers. For example, Diego
Silang was known as an Ilocano who took up his arms and led one of the longest
running revolts in the country. Silang, however, was mainly concerned about his locality
and referred to himself as El Rey de Ilocos (The King of Ilocos). The imagination of the
nation was largely absent in the aspirations of the local revolts before Katipunan. On the
other hand, the propaganda movements led by the Ilustrados like Marcelo H. del Pilar,
Graciano Lopez Jaena and Jose Rizal did not envision a total separation of the
Philippine from Spain, but only demanded equal rights, representation, and protection
from the abuses of the friars.

In the conduct of their struggle, Katipunan created a complex structure and a

defined value system that would guide the organization as a collective aspiring for a
single goal. One of the most important Katipunan documents was the Kartilya ng
Katipunan. The original title of the document was “Manga [sic] Aral Nang [sic] Katipunan
ng mga A.N.B.” or “Lessons of the Organization of the Sons of Country.” The document
was written by Emilio Jacinto in the 1896. Jacinto was only 18 years old when he joined
the movement. He was a law student at the Unibersidad de Santo Tomas. Despite his
youth, Bonifacio recognized the value and intellect of Jacinto that upon seeing that
Jacinto’s Kartilya was much better than the Decalogue he wrote, he willingly favored that
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La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311
HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

the Kartilya be distributed to their fellow Katipuneros. Jacinto became the secretary of
the organization and tool charge of the short-lived printing press of the Katipunan. On 15
April 1987, Bonifacio appointed Jacinto as a commander of the Katipunan in Northern
Luzon. Jacinto was 22 years old. He died of Malaria at a young age of 24 in the town of
Magdalena, Laguna.

The Kartilya can be treated as the Katipunan’s code of conduct. It contains

fourteen rules that instruct the way a Katipunero should behave, and which specific
values should he uphold. Generally, the rules stated in the Kartilya can be classified into
two. The first group contains the rules that will make the member an upright individual
and the second group contains the rules that will guide the way he treats his fellow men.

Below is the translated version of the rules in Kartilya:

I. The life that is not consecrated to a lofty and reasonable purpose is a tree
without a shade, if not a poisonous weed.

II. To do good for personal gain and not for its own sake is not virtue.

III. It is rational to be charitable and love one’s fellow creature and to adjust
one’s conduct, acts and words to what is reasonable.

IV. Whether our skin be black or white, we are all born equal: superiority in
knowledge, wealth and beauty are to be understood, but not superiority
by nature.

V. The honorable man prefers honor to personal gain; the scoundrel, gain to
honor.

VI. To the honorable man, his word is sacred.

VII. Do not waste thy time: wealth can be recovered but not time lost.

VIII. Defend the oppressed and fight the oppressor before the law or in the
field.

IX. The prudent man is sparing in words and faithful in keeping secrets.

X. On the thorny path of life, man is the guide of woman and the children,
and if the guide leads to the precipice, those whom he guides will also go
there.

XI. Thou must not look upon woman as a mere plaything, but as faithful
companion who will share with thee the penalties of life; her (physical)
weakness will increase thy interest in her and she will remind thee of the
mother who bore thee and reared thee.
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HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

XII. What thou dost not desire done unto thy wife, children, brothers and
sisters, that do not unto the wife, children, brothers and sisters of thy
neighbor.

XIII. Man is not worth more because he is a king, because his nose is aquiline
and his color white, not because he is a priest, a servant of God, nor
because of the high prerogative that he enjoys upon earth, but he is worth
most who is a man of proven and real value, who does good, keeps his
words, is worthy and honest; he who does not oppress nor consent to
being oppressed, he who loves and cherishes his fatherland, though he
be born in the wilderness and know no tongue but his own.

XIV. When these rules of conduct shall be known to all, the longed-for sun of
Liberty shall rise brilliant over this most unhappy portion of the globe and
its rays shall diffuse everlasting joy among the confederated brethren of
the same rays, the lives of those who have gone before, the fatigues and
the well-paid sufferings will remain. If he who desires to enter has
informed himself of all this and believes he will be able to perform what
will be his duties, he may fill out the application for admission.

As the primary governing document, which determines the rules of conduct in the
Katipunan, properly understanding the Kartiya will thus help in understanding the values,
ideals, aspirations and even the ideology of the organization.

B. Analysis of the “Kartilya ng Katipunan”

Like what we have done to the accounts of Pigafetta, this primary source also
needs to be analyzed in terms of content and context. As a document written for a
fraternity whose main purpose is to overthrow a colonial regime, we can explain the
content and provisions of the Kartilya as a reaction and response to certain value
systems that they found despicable in the present state of things that they struggled
against with. For example, the fourth and the thirteenth rules in the Kartilya are an
invocation of the inherent equality between and among men regardless of race,
occupation, or status. In the context of the Spanish colonial era where the Indios were
treated as the inferior of the white Europeans, the Katipunan saw to it that the alternative
order that they wished to promulgate through their revolution necessarily destroyed this
kind of unjust hierarchy.

Moreover, one can analyze the value upheld in the document as consistent with
the burgeoning rational and liberal ideals in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Equality, tolerance, freedom, and liberty were values the first emerged in the eighteenth-
century French Revolution, which spread throughout Europe and reached the educated
class of the colonies. Jacinto, an ilustrado himself, certainly got an understanding of
these values. Aside from the liberal values that can be dissected in the document, we
can also decipher certain Victorian and chivalrous values in the text. For example,
various provisions in the Kartilya repeatedly emphasized the importance of honor in
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words and in action. The teaching of the Katipunan on how women should be treated
with honor and respect, while positive in many respects and certainly a significant stride
from the practice of raping and physically abusing women, can still be telling of the
Katipunan’s secondary regard for women in relation to men. For example, in the tenth
rule, the document specifically stated that men should be the guide of women and
children and that he should set a good example, otherwise the women and the children
would be guided in the path of evil. Nevertheless, the same document stated that
women should be treated as companions by men and not as playthings that can be
exploited for their pleasure.

In the contemporary eyes, the Katipunan can be criticized because of these

provisions. However, one must not forget the context where the organization was born.
Not even in Europe or in the whole of the West at that juncture recognized the problem
of gender inequality. Indeed, it can be argued that Katipunan’s recognition of women as
important partners in the struggle, as reflected not just in Kartilya but also in the
organizational structure of the fraternity where a women’s unit was established, is an
endeavor advanced for its time. Aside from Rizal’s known Letter to the Women of
Malolos, no same effort by the supposed cosmopolitan Propaganda Movement was
achieved until the movement’s eventual disintegration in the latter part of the 1890s.

Aside from this, the Kartilya was instructive not just of the Katipunan’s conduct
toward other people, but also for the member’s development as individuals in their own
rights. Generally speaking, the rules in the Kartilya can be classified as either directed to
how one should treat his neighbor or to how one should develop and conduct oneself.
Both are essential to the success and fulfillment of the Katipunan’s ideals. For example,
the Kartilya’s teachings on honoring one’s word and not wasting time are teaching
directed toward self-development, while the rules on treating the neighbor’s wife,
children, and brothers the way that you want yours to be treated is an instruction on how
Katipuneros should treat and regard their neighbors.

All in all, proper reading of the Kartilya will reveal a more thorough understanding
of the Katipunan and the significant role that it played in the revolution and in the
unfolding of the Philippine history, as we know it.