FIRST - Prime Minister of the Philippines, Apolinario Mabini - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

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Apolinario Mabini was born to a poor family, but his unusually keen intelligence soon became apparent and he managed to receive education along the way, often working at menial jobs to earn his way. He never forgot the struggles he had coming from a poor background. The desire to see justice for these people moved him to seek a career in law, advocating for the poor classes. He received a law degree from the University of Santo Tomas in 1894. It was there that he came into contact with people who were beginning the rumblings of ambitions for independence from the occupying Spanish. About this time he also contracted polio which left him with paralyzed legs.

Catching wind of the independence movement, the Spanish authorities arrested members of the Andres Bonifacio independence movement in 1896, and included Mabini with them although he had never joined their group. He was, in fact, in league with Dr. Jose Rizal and his La Liga Filipina, advocating reform rather than revolution. When the Spanish authorities brutally executed three Filipino Priests, then put Rizal to a firing squad in the Luneta (now Rizal Park), Mabini threw himself wholeheartedly behind the revolution for independence, as did many others. This was the beginning of the end of Spanish rule over the Filipino people.

Mabini became the chief propagandist for the revolution and in 1896 became personal adviser to General Emilio Aguinaldo. When the the revolutionary congress finally convened in September 1898, Mabini opposed the constitution and wrote his own version which was ultimately rejected. Mabini remained loyal to the cause, however, and became the first prime minister.

It was the United States, however, who intervened as the Spanish withdrew, and the revolution had a new antagonist. Though the United States ultimately proved to be a more humane taskmaster than Spain, they viewed the leaders of the independence movements as threats to stability and had them arrested and deported to Guam.

Mabini, because of his intellectual contributions to the revolution and the power of his ideas, was seen as particularly dangerous, as a threat to foment the people. He suffered for two years in Guam, returning to his homeland only a few months before his death at age thirty-eight, never acquiescing to the demands of the United States, a true Filipino patriot to the last.

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APOLINARIO MABINI
(1864 - 1903)

of Batangas was called "The Sublime
Paralytic," "The Brain of the Revolution."
A Brilliant Lawyer and Scholar, Edu-
cator, Constitutionalist, Jurist, he is the
First Filipino Minister of Foreign
Affairs and the First Prime Minister
of the Philippines

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