DESPITE their distance from each other, the love and trust of Supreme President Andres Bonifacio (Maypagasa) in his beloved young commanding general was never broken. From March to April 1897, he wrote from Cavite and confided to General Emilio Jacinto (Pingkian) the events that were happening during his stay in Cavite to try to unify the Magdiwang and Magdalo councils.
On March 8, 1897, Andres wrote to Emilio that he had sent only 800 cartridges because there were just so much fighting in Cavite and he wished he could have given more for all the support they all got from Jacinto. He also told him to write in cypher or code because his letters reached him already opened.
On around March 15, 1897, Andres wrote Miling thanking him for the money and gunpowder he sent to Cavite for the revolutionaries. He advised them to learn how to make cartridges, and said that he would also send to Jacinto from Maragondon some people who knew how to make spear traps. He said the enmity of the Magdiwang and Magdalo councils was so great because the Magdalos wanted to rule over everyone else. He learned of a plan to install a new government with General Emilio Aguinaldo as president which, he claims, disgusted the Magdiwang: “The selfishness of the Magdalo people is truly sickening, and has come to be the cause of their many reverses.”
He tells Jacinto to send him some copper because they had a very good foundry in Cavite and he could return them as lantakas, or small cannons. He tells him about Jacinto’s poem that he had someone translate to Tagalog which he would have printed soon and that they hadn’t played Nakpil’s anthem because they were still busy fighting. He reported sending money to Jacinto’s mother. He also entrusted to him the care of his sister Espiridiona.
On April 16, 1897, Bonifacio wrote Miling from Naic telling him that the towns of Silang, Dasmariñas, Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, Noveleta, San Francisco de Malabon, Tanza and Salinas had either fallen or were falling to the Spaniards because of the lack of unity and continuing rivalry among revolutionary leaders. He then told him about the meeting to select new leaders for the revolutionary government at the Tejeros Convention of March 1897, but said that it ended in disorder and he believed that there was cheating in the elections. Therefore, he believed it was not valid anymore. He even goes on to narrate how because of all of this turmoil, people like Daniel Tirona, Juan Cailles and José del Rosario, leaders of the Magdalo, as well as many leaders and citizens from Tanza, had surrendered to the Spaniards.
In this context, Andres told Miling that Batangas, under the leadership of their capable leader Miguel Malvar, submitted to the authority of the Supreme Council and asked him that if ever they were to take Lipa, he could establish a government there and they could proceed all the way to Camarines. He also asked Miling that if ever he was needed in the North, he would immediately proceed there for him.
He also assured him that Miling’s mother was fine and was staying in Maragondon with her relatives.
On April 24, 1897, Bonifacio wrote Miling, and said that eight days after last writing to him he feared that the difficulty of communication across enemy-controlled territory may have hampered that first letter reaching him, so he repeated and then elaborated what he already stated. He details the results of the Tejeros Convention and how Don Emilio Aguinaldo was elected president, and upon his own election as director of the interior, Daniel Tirona objected and insulted him. How Magdalo people forced themselves on people. The bad practices, he believed, nullified the election. He also told Jacinto, “As to the collection of money, I believe we need not beg, but should solicit or take it from whoever is wealthy.”
Towards the end, Bonifacio said, “This is one of the reasons why we desire to leave here, because our life is in danger not only from the Spanish enemy, but still more so from the leaders here, most of whom have wicked intentions....We have sent for your mother, who is now in Maragondon, and we are still waiting for her. Receive the close embrace that I send you from here.”
The next that Jacinto would hear about Bonifacio would be from a letter he would receive from the wife of the Supreme President herself, Gregoria de Jesus (Lakambini), who wrote: “In the late morning of the following day they took the two brothers (Andres and Procopio) out. That afternoon there was fighting outside the town, not far from the place where I was, and then they just let me go....Ay, my brothers! For two weeks I searched in the mountains, and we rested only at night....So just think, brothers, whether or not there was any justice in the cruelty they committed against us.”
Andres Bonifacio was dead, May 10, 1897.