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| ENG Ang Kalayaan NL | ||||
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| Creation Ang Kalayaan, the newspaper of the Katipunan, informed the people of the aims and activities of the association. Edited by Emilio Jacinto, it measured about 9 inches across and 12 inches tall, slightly larger than the A4 paper size of today. The funds for the printing press were provided by two Katipuneros from Aklan, Francisco del Castillo and Candido Iban, two shell and pearl divers who returned from Australia in 1895, with 1,000 pesos in lottery winnings between them. They used 400 pesos to buy the small printing press of Bazar El Cisne, owned by Antonio Salazar, then located at the corner of what are now Carriedo and Rizal Avenue. Del Castillo and Iban returned to Aklan where they spread the doctrines of the society. Del Castillo was elected general of the revolutionary forces of Aklan. On March 17, 1897, he led his men to Kalibo. The Spanish officials and civil guards, who were barricaded inside the house of the town mayor, fired at Del Castillo's group. Del Castillo was fatally wounded and died that same day. Candido Iban, a native of Lilo-an, Malinao, Aklan, was one of the 19 martyrs of Kalibo, Aklan executed by the Spaniards on March 23, 1897. |
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The press was transferred to Andres Bonifacio's house on what is now Oroquieta Street near
Zurbaran. Dr. Pio Valenzuela suggested the name "Kalayaan". Marcelo H. del Pilar’s name was printed as editor with Yokohama, Japan as the place of publication to mislead Spanish
authorities. |
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| First edition A production problem arose: shortage of type. Wishing to compose the paper in accord with the new Tagalog orthography that disdainful Spaniards called "Germanized" ("alemanizada"), the printers lacked in particular the letters "k" and "w", and also "h", "y" and the common vowels. Valenzuela and Jacinto had to secure them. For each type that was stolen by four employees of the printing press of El Diario de Manila, Valenzuela paid a peso. Aguedo del Rosario and Apolonio de la Cruz gave him types free of charge. Two thousand copies of the first and only issue of Kalayaan dated January 18, 1896 came out in mid-March. The first number, with 8 pages, contained a supposed editorial of del Pilar, which in fact Jacinto wrote. It greeted the people and wished them "solidarity and independence" and offered them his "life and all he had for the good of the Filipino people." There was an article by Jacinto, Valenzuela's Catuiran? (Is it Right?) which described the cruelties of the Spanish priest and civil guards of San Francisco del Monte ( now in Quezon City ) on a helpless village lieutenant, Jacinto's Manifesto which urged the Filipinos to revolt against the Spaniards to secure their liberty, Bonifacio's poem Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Bayan ( Love of Country ), and a sprinkling of news. Jacinto, Valenzuela, and Bonifacio wrote under their pen-names: Dimas-Ilaw, for Jacinto, Agapito Bagumbayan for Bonifacio, and Madlang-Away for Valenzuela. Jacinto was almost done with the second issue but the Spanish authorities raided the place where the paper was being printed, which was then at No. 6 Clavel Street, San Nicolas, Manila. Two of Jacinto's assistants ---Ulpiano Fernandez, a printer with the paper El Comercio, and Faustino Duque, a student at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran--- destroyed the press before the authorities could lay hold of it. |
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| Expansion of the Katipunan However, the first issue had done its bit for the Katipunan. At the end of March 1896, when the 2,000 copies of the periodical had been distributed far and wide, hundreds of people nightly joined the Katipunan in the towns of San Juan del Monte, San Felipe Neri, Pasig, Pateros, Mariquina, Kalookan, Malabon, and other places. The Katipunan also extended to the provinces of Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Laguna. From the founding of the society on July 7, 1892 to January 1, 1896, it did not have more than 300 members, but since the appearance of the Kalayaan, the membership had increased to around 30,000 by the outbreak of the revolution on Aug. 30, 1896. |
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