Biography of Emilio Jacinto: Life and

Accomplishments
Fast Fact:
Name: Emilio Jacinto – (December 15, 1875 to April 16, 1899)
Born: December 15, 1875
Father: Mariano Jacinto
Mother: Josefa Dizon
Better Known: Brain of the Katipunan
Emilio was born in Trozo, Manila on December 15, 1875. When his father,
Mariano Jacinto died, his mother Josefa Dizon, a midwife, had to work harder
to support his studies. Later, he was forced to live with his uncle, Don Jose
Dizon, who enrolled him at the San Juan de Letran College. Then he
transferred to the University of Santo Tomas to take up Law. His studies
however, were interrupted when he joined the katipunan at the start of the
Philippine Revolution in 1896. His sad experiences with his Spanish
classmates, his sensitivity to the flight of his people, and his readings about
the Spanish injustices led him to do so against the wishes of his mother and
his uncle. He was only 19 years old, but became one of the ablest leaders of
the Katipunan. To Bonifacio, he was an adviser, a secretary, and a fiscal. He
edited the Ang Kalayaan, the newspaper of the Katipunan which informed
the people of the aims and activities of the association. He wrote the Kartilla,
the primer of the Katipunan which contained its rules and regulations. He
supervised the manufacture of gunpowder. Thus, he was called the “Brain of
the Katipunan.”
Jacinto was also a poet. His greatest poem was “A La Patria,” inspired by
Rizal’s “Ultimo Adios.” It was signed “Dimas-Ilaw,” Jacinto’s pen name.
In one of the battles in Majayjay, Laguna, Emilio Jacinto was wounded
critically; he died on April 16, 1899 at the age of 24.

Rules of the Association

of the Sons of the People
Cartilla

“The life that is not consecrated to a lofty and reasonable purpose

is a tree without shade, if not a poisonous weed.”
“To do good for personal gains and not for its own sake is not
virtue.”
“It is rational to be charitable and love one’s conduct, act s and
words to what is in itself reasonable.”
“Whether our skin be black or white, we are all born equal:
superiority in knowledge, wealth, and beauty are to be
understood, but not superiority by nature.”
“The honorable man prefers honor to personal gain, the
scoundrel, gain to honor.”
“To the honorable man, his word is sacred.”
“Do not waste thy time: wealth can be recovered, but not the
time lost.”
“Defend the oppressed and fight the oppressor before the law or
in the field.”
“The prudent man is sparing in words and faithful in keeping
secrets.”
“On the thorny path of life, man is the guide of woman and of
children, and if the guide leads to precipices, those whom he
guides will also get there.”
“Thou must not look upon woman as a mere plaything, but as a
faithful companion who will share with thee the penalties of life;
her weakness will increase thy interest in her and she will remind
thee of the mother who bored thee and reared thee.”
“What thou dost not desire done unto thy wife, children, brothers
and sisters, that do not unto the wife, children, brothers and
sisters of thy neighbor.”
“Man is not worth more because he is a king, because his nose is
aquiline, and his color white, nor because he is a priest, a servant
of God, nor because of the high prerogative that he enjoys upon
earth, but he is worth most who is a man of proven and real
value, who does good, keeps his words, is worthy and honest; he
who does not oppress, nor consent to being oppressed, he who
loves and cherishes his Fatherland, though he be born in the
wilderness and know no tongue but his own.”
“When this rules of conduct shall be known to all, and the longed
for sun of Liberty shall rise brilliant over this most unhappy
portion of the globe and its rays shall diffuse everlasting joy
among the confederated brethren of the same rays, the lives of
those who have gone before, the fatigues and the well paid
suffering will remain: if he who desires to enter informs himself of
all this and believes he will be able to perform what will be his
duties, he my fill out the following application for admission.”

Liwanag at Dilim
(Light and Darkness)

"LIGHT AND GLITTER"

"Glitter hurts the eye and deceives. Light favors sight and shows
things as they are.
"Glitter is fallacious.
 "Let us seek light and do not let us be deceived by the false
glitter of the wicked.
"Does a brilliant carriage pass as drawn by spirited horses? We
salute and consider that he who sits in it is a person of social
standing. But, perhaps, he is a thief and the jewelry and vain
show of honesty may conceal a perverse heart.
"Does a poor man pass us, bent under the heavy burden he is
bearing? We smile and ask ourselves where he stole that which
he is carrying. But, thanks to the light, we can see by the sweat
of his brow and the fatigue of his body that this man is living by
his own tail.
"Alas! It is the custom to worship glitter and reject light.
"This is the reason why man and nations are suffering misery and
pain.
"Treason and perversity seek glitter in order to conceal their
falseness from the eyes of the spectators; but honesty and
sincere love go naked and allow themselves to be seen
confidently by the light of the day....."
"LIBERTY"
"Liberty is the attribute of man from the moment he is born;
thanks to it, he thinks and does as he pleases, provided he do no
harm to another. Liberty comes from Heaven and no power on
earth is entitled to appropriate it, nor have we a right to consent
to its being done.
"Yet the majority of the peoples bear the heavy chains of
servitude.
"The multitudes are subjugated by a few tyrants.
"The seas of the people are generally despoiled of the fruit of
their labor, which goes to increase the power and tyranny of the
directors of the government, and these, intoxicated by the
incense of selfish flatterers, forget that all their boasted power,
greatness, and social pre-eminence, are derived from the
governed whom they enslave and impoverish.
" There are instances when Liberty is smothered by error, by the
bkind worship of ancient bad practices and laws suggested by
crafty hench men.
"If there is right, it is because there is Liberty; Liberty is the
column that sustains the edifice and the audacious one who tears
it down in order to bring down the building must be annihilated.
"ALL MEN ARE EQUAL"
"All men are equal; the origin of all is the same. Christ said; You
are all equal; you are brothers.
"When my eyes contemplate the pitiful spectacle of the life of the
peoples, I can not prevent deep sadness from taking possession
of my heart upon hating that this palpable truth is violated with
the aid of muskets and prison chains, owing to the lack of union
and cowardice of the peepless; sometimes, also, because
falseness masquerades as honesty and servile satellites, with
abundant beautiful arguments, succeed in covering up violations
of right and equality and the people in their blindness accept
these arguments and consider them as good.
"Oh thou, who sittest enthroned in a high place like God, does
thou not inderstand that the grief thou wondst feel of thou wert
despoiled of thy wealth will be as that which the poor feel when
thou despoilest them of the paltry pittance for their labor?
"Ye, the great, who, confiding in the nobility of your blood and in
the prestige of your class, have constituted yourselves lords and
masters of your equals, turn for a moment your boastful
intelligence to the examples we have given and you ill see that all
men are equal.
"but do not let any one believe that the equality proclaimed is
contrary to the respect due all authority governing the people; no,
this peeminence, which was created by the people, the people
respect, but the representative of the authority, as a man, is a
man just like the rest.
"If homage is ppaid to the mirage of presumption and the
humbug of welath, which much more reason should homage be
paid to the tiller of the soil who, under the open skies , allows
himself to be soaked to the skin and searched by the sun in order
to make the soil produced by his labor.
"LOVE"
" Of all human sentiments, none is more sublime than love - Love
for the fellowmen. Without it, the peoples would disappear from
the earth and the communities, the associations, and life itself
would resemble the day leaves of the tree swpt away by the
wind. For its sake, the greatest deeds are performed and one's
own life and well being sacrificed. But rascality and fraud reap
their harvest under the guise of love, hiding their ferocious
selfishness behind an infinitesimal quantity of charity.
"The compassion for our fellow-beings who are the victims of
misfortune, which impels us to share with them what little is ours;
the solicitude and even boldness which we show in the defense of
the rights of the oppressed, and true charity for our fellow-man,
from what source do they spring but from love?
"But love for the fellow creature does not always prevail in the
peoples: Sometimes they are assailed by selfishness and
depravation , and when this is the case, the fishers in the troubled
waters profit by the occasion and sow discard, mutual rancer, and
ratricidal static, because such internal divisions are necessary for
their criminal egoism. When the others have thus been morally
and materially broken and exhausted the wicked find ample and
sufficient gain for themselves.
"THE PEOPLE AND THE GOVERNMENT"
"Now, when the Aurora of liberty is beginning to appear and the
path of true joy is the rule of the common effort until the desired
goal is reached, the sense of the people must learn all those
things which the subjection to Spain has prevented them from
learning.
"It is important that they should know them, because they are like
the flowers tat ripens into a fruit, and are what the wind is o the
sail of the caravels that marks and point out the course or the
peoples and the governments in order to make them true and
permanent.
" When this is not the case, the right path is abandoned and the
most beautiful project is bit a histrionic exhibition and the most
beautiful discourse traitorious suggestion.
"Oh, son of the people! Remember the blood thou hast spilled and
thy suffering and efforts in order that honor and right, which were
downtrodden, might spring to new life. Consider them well, and
thou wilt be sorry to have that - right taken from thee again
because of thy blindness and cowardice.
"Always bear in mind that with anew life come new customs.
"And, who can foretell? Perhaps ignornat and corrupt authorities
may govern who will not desire thy welfare, but be lawless
exploiters , who will dazzle thy eyes in the splendor of their power
and with the attractive eloquence of their words. It is thy duty to
be on guard, top sharpen thy intelligence, and to distinguish the
ggod ruler from the bad, in order that thy efforts may not
miscarry.
"The people when I address is not the local community, but that
formed by the inhabitants of the whole earth.
"Nevertheless, in every community and society there is need of a
head, of one who has poer over the rest for direction and good
example, and for the maintenance of unity among members, and
associates, and who will guide them to the desired goal, just as a
vessel that is not guided by a skillful navigator runs the risk of
losing its course and suffer dreful shipwreck in mid-ocean, without
hope of ever reaching the shores of the happy land of promise for
which it was bound.
"This head is called the government, and he who is called upon to
exercise its power, the governor.
"The object of al government is the people, and the security and
welfare of the people must be the aim of all its laws and acts.
"For whatever may happen, the government is responsible. And
its duties are to guide and lead the people to happiness. If it turns
out boldly and departs from the right path, it will be because it
wanted to do so and because it was misled.
"And if one who sins against another is punished, what will be the
punishment of him who sins against a whole people, an infinite
multitude of his similars? And if the departure from the right path
was due to the ignorance on the part of the guide and ruler, why
did he not allow, or make, another act as guide who knew the
right path? Let us wipe out the habit of thinking that the rulers is
the lord of the people and whatever he thinks and does is good.
Let us accustom ourselves to thinking and saying that the
happiness of all is the only duty of the ruler, in order that he may
near it in mind.
"I believe, and believe firmly, that the prosperity of the people lies
with the people itself. A people that knows and esteems right and
has as a rule of conduct mindness and dignity in all its acts, will
not place and frauds, nor become the accomplice of the exalated
and abominable prevaricator who rules on the heights of power.
"And as I believe in this, I call it to the attention of the sons of the
people, because thus only will that custom be relegated to
oblivion and no longer will we have said of us what Baltazar says
in the following verses: "While the perverse and traitors raise
their arrogant heads, the good are ashamed and hang their
heads.
"We have already seen that we are all equal; that the power of
the ruler was not given to him by nature, and that as a man he is
on the same level as the rest. Hence all power, in order to be
reasonable and genuine, must be exercised for the benefit of the
people from which it emanated.
"Briefly, we must not recognize the superiority of the ruler as an
attribute attached to him by nature. The obedience and respect
due him are derived from the power which is the integration of all
the power of the people.
"For this reason, he who obeys the power conferred by the people
obeys the people and identifies himself with the will of all the
citizens that compose the people, which - identification or accord
is necessary for the very life of the people.
"This alone will prevent abominable treason, now bankrupt, from
again raising her hand or posing as the hero or champion of the
people and of liberty.
"Otherwise, the people will not travel on the right path, and the
people and its liberty will be overcome by invocations of these
three magical names which are always pleasing to the ear.
"It is already an axiom that nobody can look out for a person as
well as that person himself
"And it is uncumbent upon the people, if they wish to prevent
their being held in contempt and enslaved, to be firm and to
unmask and repel the disguised traitor.
"The tranquility and prosperity of a community or society demand
the existence of an intermediary high power, elected by the
community, whose purpose it is to insure unity among the
associates, which is the source of strength and vitality,
"From the highest official to the humblest citizen they must obey
and comply with the laws that have emanated from this power
created by the people and established by its representative, the
Congress
"But, alas! Often the must and proper is relegated to the
background and the excessive ambition for power, allied with the
boundless ambition for gain, struggle to open the way for
iniquity.
"The power of those who govern depends upon the - love and
esteem of the governed, and these are obtained only by a just
and prudent conduct,
"Those make a great mistake who believe they can maintain their
power by means of force and the gun; they are nearsighted and
do not understand the lesson taught by terrible events recorded
in History.
"Nobody is as goodhearted as he who is sincere and honest by
disposition, yet at the same time nobody abominated like him
abuses and violence and abject meekness.
"Those who govern consistently appeal to right and to the
gratitude owing by the people. That is what they continually harp
upon. But he on whose side is the right is the people, because he
who governs awes duties to the people, namely, to work for its
prosperity and execute its will. But, how many understand or
wish to understand this truth?
"The welfare of the people, and nothing else, is the real reason
and object, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, of
all the duties of those who govern.
"But this same welfare often disappear and suffers when
heartless petulance rises to power; when protection and right
surrender to bribery and to servility towards the mighty.
"It is then that criminals reap their harvests and that
presumptuous stupidity rises like the foam.
"The time is come for the wicked to change their ways and
spontaneously to make reparation for their great errors. They
resemble the chameleon that takes the color of the tree to which
it clings.
"The most efficient lever against these evils is the education of
the people and a change in their customs.
"The laws must therefore be obeyed and respected, as the
expression of the popular will, and not the will of those who
govern, as they are merely charged with carrying out those same
laws.
"This ancient custom of considering the judge as above the law
has serious consequences, because law and right are both
undermined by it.
"This custom must, therefore, be abandoned and it must be
proclaimed that the laws are above all human consideration,
because they are the expression of the will of the people, and
that if the judges desire to retain their positions, they must
necessarily comply with the dictates of justice; otherwise they
must be moved.
"The welfare of the people is the sole purpose of all the
government on earth. The people is all: life and blood, wealth and
strength, all is the people. The army raised for the defence of the
lives of all is formed by the sons of the people; the great
obedience of the seas of the people, and all that is useful to life, is
the product of the industry of the sons of the people, who till the
fields, bread and keep the cattle, and make the things and
utensils necessary for life.
"We have seen that the people, in order to exist and progress,
need a head or government whom it is the duty of the people to
grant, for its maintenance, subsidies or taxes which must be
imposed and invested only with the manifest consent of the
taxpayers.
"FALSE BELIEFS"
"By false belief we wish to say a blind belief in what another
says. If a person has his eyes open often loses his way, what will
not happen to him who has them closed? This false belief is not
only contrary to common sense, but alsi to the will of God who
endowed man with intelligence wherewith to distinguish the true
from the untrue, the reasonable and good from the bad. Owing to
this blind belief, intelligence is in a lethargic, state and is not used
in accordance with will of God.
"To this are due the calamities and misfortunes that are afflicting
the islanders, and are the work of the so-called disciples of Christ.
But on account of the perversity of these latter, the people have
made a careful investigation and have unmasked the treachery
and selfishness that masquerade as charity and the infamous
serpent that lurks behind their meekness. And they who do not
practice any of the teachings of Christ, call themselves men of
Christ!
"Christ said: love one another; you are all equal. And the love of
these who call themselves Christians consists in defrauding and
robbing their fellowmen, and equality and fraternity the practice
by exploiting their similars and abscending with their wealth.
"Christ said: the haughty you shall humble and the humble you
shall exalt. But they who call themselves Christinas exalted the
haughty and humiliated the meek.
"On a certain day Christ entered the temple and drove forth from
it the merchants and the buyers: 'It is written,' he said, 'that my
house shall be the dwelling of God and ye have converted it into a
den of thieves. And, tell me, can the church where gold is being
piled up to be called the house of God?
"He who wishes to call himself a disciple and man of Christ must
imitate him, his humility, kindness, and love or his fellowmen.
"It is also asserted that whatever happens is the will of God, be it
good or bad. But God cannot desire the bad because he is
kindness itself. The bad are we, and whatever calamities,
plagues, and misfortunes befall use are our own fault.
"Speak to the sluggard of his poverty and he will answer: God
wills it so. And it is God's will that the sluggard shall live in
poverty.
"Speak to the people that bewails the tyranny and rapacity of
those who govern it and they will answer: Such is the will of God.
And it is the will of God that suffering shall be the lot of the
peoples who can not stand together and battle for the triumph of
right, that precious gift of God.
"If all happens by the will of God, no punishment - should be
meted out to the robber or the murderer, because they are
unable to prevail against the will of the Almighty who orders them
to rob and murder. And the criminals sin again and again and are
becoming even greater criminals, because they attribute their
deeds to the imperative will of God.
"God is the father of humility, and what a father requires of his
children is not constant protestations of respect, fear, and love for
him, but the performance of his mandates of reason, hence the
true respect and obedience to the dictates of reason, and to them
we must adjust all our acts, words, and movement, because
reason originates with God himself.
"This is the rue belief and faith that impel us towards true liberty,
equality, love and helpfulness to our fellowmen.
"And from this love of true liberty and equality spring unity, and
sourceful activity, strength, tranquility, and prosperity.
"From love and helpfulness to our fellowmen spring sincerity and
charity, that beautiful flower of the heart, that gentle and sweet
balm of the unfortunate.
"This belief and faith makes no distinction between baptized and
unbaptized, nor of the race, color and tongue of the believer,
because it is the true faith in God, and all men, being sons of God,
can put it into practice.
"WORK"
"Work is a gift to humanity, because it awakens and gives vigor to
the intellectual power, will and body, which are indispensable for
progress in life. The sacred writings from which the Christian
religion originated, narrate that work is a punishment imposed by
God upon Adam, the father of the human race, for having tasted
of the forbidden fruit, and this punishment has been inherited by
us, his sons. But this legend is erroneous and contrary to the will
of God, and from it springs the human error that work, being a
punishment, is a corporal affliction looked upon like an
unavoidable ailment.
"For this reason many are ashamed to work, principally the
wealth, the powerful, and the learned who make a vain show of
that which they style the comforts of life or corporal well-being.
"And they finish in the mind, leading a miserable and abject life
that tends to bring about the destruction of the human race.
"Whatever is useful, whatever tends to make life easier, that let
us support because it is a result well worthy of our efforts.
"He who toils keeps away from a life of disorderly and bad habits
and boredom, finds diversion in labor and becomes strong,
prosperous and cheerful.
"Contemplating the so-called rich, great, and alleged wise men,
we can see through their outward prosperity, social splendor, and
happiness, and perceive wearisomeness, weakness, haughtiness,
coupled with vicious habits that little by little destroy them.
"How much truth us there in what our Baltazar has sung in his
verses 'Those who grow up 'midst the revelries of wealth, are
devoid of judgement and kindness and lacking in counsel.'
'Ang laki sa layaw karaniwa'y hubad sa bait at muni'y sa hatol ay
salat.'

a La Patria
(To The Fatherland)
Dimas-Ilaw
October 8, 1897

Hail! Oh my native country! More than aught I adore thee

Whom with so many treasures lavish nature has blessed;
Eden where flowers more fragrant bloom than in other
gardens,
Where with more beautiful colors, rising, the dawn paints the
heavens,
And where the poet, enraptured, sees what he elsewhere but
dreamt.
Hail! Oh thou queen enchanting! Filipinos beloved,
Venus beauty enshrouded, peerless, beloved land!
Region of light and color, poetry, fragrance, and gaiety,
Regions of fruits delicious and or sweet harmonies, gently lulled
to sleep by the breezes
and the surf of the sea.
Pearl the most precious and dazzling of our Eastern Ocean,
Paradise built by the splendors of our brilliant sun:
Eagerly do I greet thee, and adoration ardent.
Offers my soul with the burning, fervent desire to see thee
Free from thy bitter sorrow, free from the Spaniard’s yoke!
Ah, in the midst of thy splendors, sadly in chains dost though
languish,
That which to thee is most precious-freedom, though has it
not!
Ah, to relieve thee, my country, in thy distress, in thy
suffering,
Pain would I give my life-blood, gushing forth from my bosom
To the last drop, and oblivion find, eternal rest.
What should be thine by Justice, rights unalienable
Are naught but words vain and hollow, cruel mockery to thee;
Justice is but a deception in thy sad situation,
Bonmaid art thou, though worthy of a Queen’s purple instead,
Joy givest thou to thy tyrant, who gives thee gall in return.
What does it help thee, my country, sad bowed by dire
misfortune,
That thou hast skies like the turquoise, clear and diaphanous,
That of thy moon the silvery beams are of matchless beauty:
What does it help thee, who, weeping, sighing in bitter
bondage,
Hast for four centuries been suffering - what is the good to
thee?
And what avail thee flowers covering thy smiling meadows,
What the bird’s carols that sweetly in your forests resound?
Ah, the same breeze that their fragrance bears and their songs
harmonious,
Bears on its wings cries and sobbing, weeping and bitter
complaints,
That fill the soul with anguish and the mind with sad thoughts.
What is the good of thy splendor, pearl of virginal beauty,
What of the wealth oriental of thy alluring charms,
If all thy grace and beauty tyrants have cruelly blighted,
Bound with mortiferous iron, fetters or hardness unequaled,
Drawing enjoyment and pleasures from thy anguish and woe?
What is the good of thy fertile soil and its matchless
exuberance,
That it brings forth fruits delicious and manifold, bountiful?
If all thy generous heavens smile down upon and shelter
Is claimed as his by the Spaniards, who stepping boldly
forward,
Insolent in his vileness, loudly proclaims his right?
But to end comes all silence and must all servile patience,
Now, that the tocsin resounding call us to light for thee,
And without fear, without mercy, openly, crush the servile
serpent
That with its venom has poisoned thy embittered existence;
Fatherland, here we are, ready, anxious to die for thee!
All, the idolized mother, and the wife whom we worship,
Even the babe whom his father loves like a piece of his soul,
In the defense of thy cause we abandon them, leaving behind
us,
Happiness, love and hope: all we hold dear we give up,
All our fondest dreams, our illusions all.
And lo! Throughout the country heroes spring up
enchantment,
Burning with love of their country, radiant with virtue’s light,
Fighting with ardor that only death can defeat and vanquish,
And even in dying they will utter thy sacred name.
Fatherland, wishing thee happiness, still with their dying
breath.
Numerous like stars in the heavens, thousands of noble
heroes
Lay on thy sacred altars willingly down their lives,
And when ye hear of the combats and the desperate charges
Fervent prayers to heaven send up, ye children ye aged,
And ye woman, that victory may be with our hosts!
Midst the most horrible tortures cruelty can imagine,
Only because they have loved thee and desired thy good,
Countless martyrs have suffered, yet in the midst of their
torments
Blessings for thee have risen from their pure souls, and even
Those who were slain met death with last wish for thee.
What does it matter that hundreds, thousands of sons of thine
perish,
In the unequal struggle, in the tremendous strife,
And that their precious lifeblood flows till it seems like an
ocean?
Is it not split in defending thee and thy sacred home?
Little it matters if fighting bravely, they die in thy cause!
Little it matters if exile is our fate, and the prison,
Or even torture, with savage fury inflicted on us,
For t the sacred altar that in his heart each patriot
To thee has raised, have us all, one and all have we sworn
Fealty to our cause, and our honor pledged.
And it we forth from the flight come with the laurels of glory,
And our self-sacrificing labor is crowned with success,
Future ages will honor heap upon honor and crown thee
Queen of the realm of the free, pure and unblemished queen,
And all the peoples on earth mute and admiring will stand.
On the horizon slowly rises the dawn, most brilliant,
Of a new day of freedom, love and prosperity,
And of those who have fallen in the dark night of the struggle
Never let perish the memory, and in their graves, cold and
humble,
Happy their slumber will be, happiness being thine.
And if the crown of the victor should be the spoil of the
Spaniard,
and if the fickle fortune should turn its back on thee,
Yet we shall always be brethren - be what it may the outcome,

Liberty will always have the champions while there are tyrants
alive.
And our faith will not perish - while there is life, there is hope!
Silent forces are working while a false calm is reigning
Calm precedes the storm - soon will the hurricane rage,
And with more firmness, more prudence will our work we
continue
And start the struggle again, but with more ardor and
strength,
Till in the end we shall triumph, till dried your tears shall be.
Fatherland, idolized, precious, as your sorrows are growing
So our love grows again, your affection for thee,
Do not lose hope or courage, for from the wound, the gaping,
Always the blood will flow, while there is life in us,
And we shall never forget thee in eternity’s space.