SOMETIME in the latter part of 1898,
Apolinario Mabini received a letter from an old friend, Emilio Jacinto. Mabini
was then serving as the top political adviser of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo,
president of the Philippine Revolutionary Government. The government was then
headquartered in Malolos, Bulacan. Jacinto was the former right-hand man of
Andres Bonifacio, founder of the Katipunan who was arrested, tried, and executed
in May 1897 for his alleged rebellion against Aguinaldo’s government.
In his letter, Jacinto was asking Mabini
if he could come to Malolos to enroll in a law course at the Literary
University of the Philippines, which had just been established by Aguinaldo’s
government. Jacinto also requested Mabini to ask Aguinaldo if “what had
happened before” (the Bonifacio-Aguinaldo rivalry) would not affect his stay in
Malolos.
Response
Mabini answered Jacinto in a letter,
which runs thus in full:
“Malolos,
December 17, 1898
“MR.
EMILIO JACINTO
“My
very dear Friend:
“Many
thanks for your present. During the first days, I pretended not to remember
you, fearing that they would not
approve of our friendship. I needed, then, all their faith in me so that I
could give the stamp of regularity on the progress of the government, although
I did not accomplish this fully.
“When
I received your letter, I sent someone to ask Captain Emilio whether you could
stay in Malolos with the assurance that nobody would trouble you for what had taken place before. He
answered yes, adding that you should forget everything.
“Regarding
your matriculation fees, it is necessary that you come personally because,
having lost your certificate, you have to present an affidavit, signed by two
witnesses, to the effect that you have finished First Year Law and you were
actually taking up Second Year course. There is still time. December 1st is the
deadline.
“I
am glad of your coming because I am confident that you can be of great help to
us.
“I
am ever at your service in anything that I can be of help.
“AP.
MABINI”
(Source: The Letters of Apolinario Mabini, Manila: National Heroes
Commission, 1965, p. 81.)
In his own letter, Mabini was 1)
assuring Jacinto that nobody would cause him any trouble in Malolos; 2) telling
Jacinto to forget the sad events of the past; and 3) instructing Jacinto how to
enroll in a law course at the Literary University.
Those contents of Mabini’s letter are
very clear.
Misinterpretation
In his book The Philippines: A Past Revisited (Quezon City: Tala Publishing Services, 1975), historian Renato Constantino quoted the said Mabini’s
letter and concluded:
“Emilio Jacinto, for one, was still operating independently and as
late as after the Malolos government had already been organized he was still
being invited by Mabini to join Aguinaldo” (p.
212).
Constantino erred in his
interpretation of Mabini’s letter because in the said letter, Mabini was not
inviting Jacinto to become part of Aguinaldo’s government. It was Jacinto who was
willing to come to Malolos to pursue his law studies and fulfill his childhood
dream of becoming a lawyer.
