A soldier of the revolution

Abstract

MARCH 22, 1896, is a day that shall always be etched in my memory. For on this date I took my oath as a full-fledged member of the "Balagay Uliran," a Katipunan unit located in San Nicolas, Bulacan, before serious-minded officials of the organization, after having gone through a series of rigid tests that I never thought I could hurdle.

Doroteo Caragdag, the top-ranking official of the "Balagay Uliran, " shook my hand and warmly embraced me while the tears of joy that I could no longer contain trickled down my checks for being accepted to the brotherhood of brave, patriotic men, whose sole motive was the salvation of their enslaved motherland.

On June 1896, my books and personal belongings securely packed in my suitcase, I took a Manila-bound carriage to resume my studies at the "Escuela Normal de Maestros" operated by Jesuit fathers.

The discovery of the existence of the Katipunan by military authorities, as a consequence of the revelation made by Teodoro Patimo's sister to the parish priest of Tondo Church (Padre Mariano Gil) that a plot was being hatched by the secret society to overthrow the government, distrupted my ambition to become a maestro.