Apolinario Mabini y Maranán (; July 23, 1864 – May 13, 1903) was a Filipino revolutionary leader, educator, lawyer, and statesman who served first as a legal and constitutional adviser to the Revolutionary Government, and then as the first Prime Minister of the Philippines upon the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. He is regarded as the "utak ng himagsikan" or "brain of the revolution" and is also considered a national hero in the Philippines. Mabini's work and thoughts on the government shaped the Philippines' fight for independence over the next century.
Born on July 23, 1864, in Tanauan, Batangas, to poor parents—Inocencio Leon Mabini, an illiterate farmer, and Dionisia Maranan, a market vendor. He was the second of eight children.
Two of his works, El Verdadero Decálogo (The True Decalogue, June 24, 1898) and Programa Constitucional de la República Filipina (The Constitutional Program of the Philippine Republic, 1898), became instrumental in the drafting of what would eventually be known as the Malolos Constitution.
Mabini performed all his revolutionary and governmental activities despite having lost the use of both his legs to polio shortly before the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
Mabini's role in Philippine history saw him confronting first Spanish colonial rule in the opening days of the Philippine Revolution, and then American colonial rule in the days of the Philippine–American War. The latter saw Mabini captured and exiled to Guam by American colonial authorities, allowed to return only two months before his eventual death in May 1903.
Early life and education
Apolinario Mabini was born on July 23, 1864, in Barrio Talaga in Tanauan, Batangas. He was the second of eight children of Dionisia Maranan y Magpantay, a vendor in the Tanauan market, and Inocencio Leon Mabini y Lira, an illiterate peasant.
Apolinario Mabini attended the historical school of Father Valerio Malabanan located in Lipa. Being poor, Apolinario Mabini was able to get educated due to the Malabanan school's matriculation of students based on their academic merit rather than ability of the parents to pay. He would meet future leader Miguel Malvar while studying in Lipa.
In 1881, Mabini received a scholarship from Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. An anecdote about his stay there says that a professor there decided to pick on him because his shabby clothing clearly showed he was poor. Mabini amazed the professor by answering a series of very difficult questions with ease. His studies at Letran were periodically interrupted by a chronic lack of funds, and he earned money for his board and lodging by teaching children.
Law Studies Mabini's mother had wanted him to enter the priesthood, but his desire to defend the poor made him decide to study law instead. A year after receiving his Bachiller en Artes with highest honors and the title Professor of Latin from Letran, he moved on to University of Santo Tomas in 1888, where he received his law degree in 1894.
Comparing Mabini's generation of Filipino intellectuals to the previous one of Jose Rizal and the other members of the propagandists movement, journalist and National Artist of the Philippines for Literature Nick Joaquin describes Mabini's generation as the next iteration in the evolution of Filipino intellectual development:Europe had been a necessary catalyst for the generation of Rizal. By the time of Mabini, the Filipino intellectual had advanced beyond the need for enlightenment abroad[....] The very point of Mabini's accomplishment is that all his schooling, all his training, was done right here in his own country. The argument of Rizal's generation was that Filipinos were not yet ready for self-government because they had too little education and could not aspire for more in their own country. The evidence of Mabini's generation was that it could handle the affairs of government with only the education it had acquired locally. It no longer needed Europe; it had imbibed all it needed of Europe.Mabini joined the Guild of Lawyers after graduation, but he did not choose to practice law in a professional capacity. He did not set up his own law office, and instead continued to work in the office of a notary public.
Instead, Mabini put his knowledge of law to much use during the days of the Philippine Revolution and the Filipino-American war. Joaquin notes that all his contributions to Philippine history somehow involved the law: "His was a legal mind. He was interested in law as an idea, as an ideal[...] whenever he appears in our history he is arguing a question of legality."
Masonry and La Liga Filipina
Mabini joined the fraternity of Freemasonry in September 1892, affiliating with lodge Balagtas, and taking on the name "Katabay". The following year, Mabini became a member of La Liga Filipina, which was being resuscitated after the arrest of its founder José Rizal in 1892. Mabini was made secretary of its new Supreme Council. This was Mabini's first time to join an explicitly patriotic organization.
Mabini, whose advocacies favored the reformist movement, pushed for the organization to continue its goals of supporting La Solidaridad and the reforms it advocated.
When more revolutionary members of the Liga indicated that they did not think the reform movement was getting results and wanted to more openly support revolution, La Liga Filipina split into two factions: the moderate Cuerpo de Compromisarios, which wanted simply to continue to support the revolution, and the explicitly revolutionary Katipunan. Mabini joined the Cuerpo de Compromisarios.
When José Rizal, part of the "La Liga Filipina", was executed in December that year, however, he changed his mind and gave the revolution his wholehearted support.
Polio and eventual paralysis Mabini was struck by polio in 1895, and the disease gradually incapacitated him until January 1896, when he finally lost the use of both his legs.
Philippine Revolution
Arrest When the plans of the Katipunan were discovered by Spanish authorities, and the first active phase of the 1896 Philippine Revolution began in earnest, Mabini, still ill, was arrested along with numerous other members of La Liga Filipina.
Thirteen patriots, later known as the "Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite", were arrested in Cavite, tried and eventually executed. José Rizal himself was accused of being party to the revolution, and would eventually be executed in December that year. When the Spanish authorities saw that Mabini was paralyzed, however, they decided to release him.
Adviser to the Revolutionary Government Sent to the hospital after his arrest, Mabini remained in ill health for a considerable time. He was seeking the curative properties of the hot springs in Los Baños, Laguna in 1898 when Emilio Aguinaldo sent for him, asking him to serve as advisor to the revolution.
During this convalescent period, Mabini wrote the pamphlets "El Verdadero Decálogo" and "Ordenanzas de la Revolución". Aguinaldo was impressed by these works and by Mabini's role as a leading figure in La Liga Filipina, and made arrangements for Mabini to be brought from Los Baños to Kawit, Cavite. It took hundreds of men taking turns carrying his hammock to portage Mabini to Kawit.
He continued to serve as the chief adviser for General Aguinaldo after the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12. He drafted decrees and edited the constitution for the First Philippine Republic, including the framework of the revolutionary government which was implemented in Malolos in 1899.
Prime Minister of the Philippines Shortly after Aguinaldo's return to the Philippines from exile in Hong Kong in May 1898, he tasked Mabini with helping him establish a government. Mabini authored the June 18, 1898, decree which established the Dictatorial Government of the Philippines. After the Malolos Constitution, the basic law of the First Philippine Republic, was promulgated on January 21, 1899, Mabini was appointed Prime Minister and also Foreign Minister. He then led the first cabinet of the republic.
Mabini often clashed with the Malolos Congress, as he believed the legislative body’s powers increasingly infringed upon those of the executive branch. A notable instance of his uncompromising character occurred when his nomination to the Supreme Court was challenged on the basis of his physical disability; when told he could not serve because he was lame, Mabini famously retorted, "Why? Does the job entail a lot of walking?". In a memorandum to President Emilio Aguinaldo in January 1899, Mabini formally warned against constitutional provisions that would require Congress to approve all cabinet appointments, fearing it would undermine executive authority.
Serving as both Prime Minister and the nation's first Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mabini acted as a key adviser to Aguinaldo, often referred to as the government’s cámara negra (Black Cabinet). He is noted by historians for his personal integrity, having entered and departed from government service in poverty despite the significant influence he wielded.
Mabini remained vigilant against the influence of the local elite on state affairs. He strongly advised the President against a proposed loan scheme involving wealthy individuals, which would have been secured by the rentals of government estates. Under this proposal, a "Permanent Commission" of the Board of Treasury—composed of major stockholders—would have been empowered to oversee the Treasury and utilize income from personal taxes if estate rentals proved insufficient. Mabini cautioned that this arrangement would effectively grant the Board control over the government’s finances, arguing that "if they controlled the purse, then they controlled the government".
Mabini found himself in the center of the most critical period in the new country's history, grappling with problems until then unimagined. Most notable of these were his negotiations with Americans, which began on March 6, 1899. The United States and the Philippine Republic were embroiled in extremely contentious and eventually violent confrontations. During the negotiations for peace, Americans proffered Mabini autonomy for Aguinaldo's new government, but the talks failed because Mabini's conditions included a ceasefire, which was rejected. Mabini negotiated once again, seeking for an armistice instead, but the talks failed yet again. Eventually, feeling that the Americans were not negotiating 'bona fide,' he forswore the Americans and supported war. He resigned from government on May 7, 1899.
Exile and return The Philippine–American War saw Mabini taken more seriously as a threat by the Americans than he was under the Spanish: Says National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose:The Spaniards underestimated Mabini primarily because he was a cripple. Had they known of his intellectual perspicacity, they would have killed him earlier. The Americans did not. They were aware of his superior intelligence, his tenacity when he faced them in negotiations for autonomy and ceasefire. On December 10, 1899, he was captured by Americans at Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija. He was captured by troopers of the 4th Cavalry Regiment. He was imprisoned after his capture, though he was in bad health, and was exiled to the island of Guam for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States along with other revolutionists Americans referred to as insurrectos (rebels) or Irreconcilables.
Mabini returned to the Philippines after agreeing to take the Oath of Allegiance to the United StatesForeman, J., 1906, The Philippine Islands, A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social and Commercial History of the Philippine Archipelago, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons on February 26, 1903, before the Collector of Customs. On the day he sailed, he issued this statement to the press: