Seeds of Discontent

days, and cost the insurgents the death of Crispulo Aguinaldo and General Zabala. On March
25, the Span- iards charged the Filipino lines with all their fury and succeeded in driving out
the rebels with heavy losses, Imus was occupied by the enemy on the same day. Pressed by
General Lachambre in the direction of Noveleta and by the victorious enemy in the Imus-
Dasmariñas sector, Gen- eral Aguinaldo transferred his headquarters from Imus to San
Francisco de Malabon, the Magdiwang stronghold."

The situation of the rebels was serious by mid-March 1897, and the future looked dark. On
the one hand, their arms and ammunition were not sufficient to turn the tide of battle, while
on the other, there was no unified command that could take the initiative and the responsi-
bility in the face of their critical situation. The conflict of command in their ranks led to
disastrous results, and the jealousies among the leaders gave the enemy the needed
opportunity to disperse and rout them with dis- astrous consequences. Yet, in spite of this,
the Span- iards were not able to consolidate their gains effectively, for they did not have an
effective general plan of combat to fall back upon. Moreover, the war of liberation in Cuba
had sapped the resources and manpower of Spain, and the raw recruits, who were
unaccustomed to tropical cli- mate and terrain, felt weary and miserable. Demoraliza- tion set
in, leading, in April 1897, to the resignation of Governor-General Camilo de Polavieja, who
feigned ill- health to save face. The insurgents, though racked with petty jealousies and
lacking a responsible unified com- mand, nevertheless employed with effective results the
guerrilla tactics that harassed and depleted the ranks of the enemy. And the Spanish
populace of Manila and of the distant provinces, nervous and impatient owing to the dearth
of soldiers to protect them, were demoralized and found themselves unable to cope with the
rapidly changing scene. Thus, stalled on all fronts, both sides temporarily lay by and
concluded the Truce of Biyak-na- Bato toward the end of the year.

IN THE FIRST flush of rebel victory climaxing the simultaneous attacks upon the Spanish
garrisons and convents, followed by the dismal failure of Governor- General Blanco to smash
the insurgent power, the Katipunan of Cavite, divided into two factions, the Magdiwang and
the Magdalo, immediately proceeded to reorganize the province along partisan lines. Each
fac- tion exercised sovereign power over a number of towns, including those in Batangas
bordering Cavite. Thus, Talisay, a town in Batangas, was under the Magdalo gov- crnment,
while Nasugbu, Tuwi and Look, in the same province, belonged to the Magdiwang. As
independent entities, the leaders of the two provincial councils never got together to elect
ane supreme council that would hold sway over the entire province. The Magdiwang,
proceeding with its election independently of the Magdalo, chose the following men to
administer its government: Mariano. Alvarez, President; Pascual Alvarez, Executive Secretary;
Emiliano Riego de Dios, Minister of the Interior iPagpapaunlad); Mariano Trias, Minister of
Grace and Justice; Ariston Villanueva, Minister of War; Santiago Alvarez, Commander-in-
Chief; Diego Moxica, Minister of Finance; Artemio Ricarte and Mariano Riego de Dios,
Military Commanders with the rank of Brigadier-Gen- eral. On the other hand, the Magdalo
elected the follow- ing to take the reins of its government: Baldomero Aguinaldo, President;
Candido Tirona; Minister of War, Cayetano Topacio, Minister of Finance;-Emilio Aguinaldo,
Commander-in-Chief; Edilberto Evangelista, Lieutenant General; Vito Belarmino and Crispulo
Aguinaldo, Mili- tary Commanders with the rank of Brigadier-General.' Since the organization
of the Magdiwang, its capital had been Noveleta, but in the early part of November, when
General Blanco began his offensive, the capital was moved to San Francisco de Malabon and
later to Naik. The Magdalo, for its part, had its capital in Kawit and when it fell, Imus, San
Francisco de Malabon, Naik and Maragondon successively became its seat.

An attempt was made by both factions to make their respective armies wear the same
uniform. It was agreed to adopt the following insignia: for the President's cap, a sun with
golden rays on a white background, a K (Katipunan), and the letters A.N.B. (Anak ng Bayan) in
the middle. The same insignia was used for the sleeves. The Minister had the same insignia as
the President's except that the letters A.N.B. were not included. The bands on the sleeves of
a Minister, including the K, were of different colors according to the Ministry to which each
belonged. The Minister of War had a red K on a white background, a sun on the cap, a sun on
the left breast but none on the sleeves. The plan, however, did not go beyond the paper
stage, as the rebels did not have the means to buy the uniform.
When Cavite, led by its rival factions, successfully rose in revolt, the leaders fell into disputes
arising from the desire of one group to lord it over the other. Since both groups were
responsible for the rebel victories, neither would bow to the other or allow itself to be placed
under its rival's command. There was no serious open breach, but the silent conflict, more
ominous than it appeared on the surface, threatened to wreck the unity that in the beginning
had done much to prevent the foe from overrunning the whole province and annihilating the
revo- lution at its very inception. It was this conflict, more than anything else, that led to the
rebel's defeat at the hands of Polavieja. The Magdiwang faction, believing that as the initiator
of the revolution in Cavite it had the priority right to rule over the insurgents of the province,
looked with disdain at the way the Magdalo men refused to cooperate with it. The Magdalo
followers, believing that most of the victories in the whole territory were won by their
leaders, wanted to appear the stronger and, therefore, the better fitted to rule.
The situation, though not so serious on the surface,. led the Magdiwang men to invite Andres
Bonifacio to visit Cavite and see for himself all that had been accomplished by the
revolutionists in that area and to intervene in the conflict. A delegate was sent to, look for
the Supremo in the mountains of Montalban and Mariquina to apprise him of the urgent
necessity of mediating on the widening rift between the two popular councils. Bonifacio,
informed of the situation, refused to heed the request of the Magdiwang leaders on the
ground that in order to succeed in the revolution against Spain the leaders must not be
concentrated in a single place. This preliminary contact with the Supremo resulted in the
periodic exchanges of communications between him and the Magdiwang chieftains. On the
third invitation, written by Artemio Ricarte upon the instruction of Mariano Alvarez,
Bonifacio acceded to the request. With his wife and two brothers, Ciriaco and Procopio,
Bonifacio left for Cavite about the middle of December 1896. Emilio Aguinaldo, Candido
Tirona and Edilberto Evangelista were on hand to meet the Supremo and his entourage at
Zapote. It was at this preliminary meeting that a misunderstanding arose between the
Magdalo leaders and Bonifacio, for the former, rightly or wrongly, saw from Bonifacio's
gestures and behavior that he regarded himself superior and "acted as if he were a king."
Even so, the hard feelings that Bonifacio's unconscious and unintentional actions engendered
remained submerged and flared up only in the Imus Assembly.

Bonifacio was brought by the rebel leaders to the house of Juan Castañeda in Imus, where he
was visited by Baldomero Aguinaldo, Daniel Tirona, Vicente Fernandez and others. The
Supremo, upon seeing Fernandez, ordered his arrest. For Bonifacio, remembering that
Fernandez was the same man who had promised, before the battle of San Juan, to attack the
Spaniards in Laguna and Morong simultaneously with Bonifacio's offensive in San Juan del
Monte but whose promise was never carried out, now saw his chance to punish the offender.
Bonifacio blamed him for the defeat in San Juan and was determined that he should not go
unpunished. As Supreme Head of the Katipunan, Bonifacio took it for granted that he would
be obeyed by all. To his surprise and dismay, the Magdalo chieftains, to whom Fernandez had
run for shelter, refused to give up their man. The Supremo by then had realized that he had
very little, if any, influence in the Magdalo area. With doubts crisscrossing his mind and
misgivings assailing his heart, Bonifacio, on January 2, 1897, wrote from San Francisco de
Malabon to his uncle- in-law, Mariano Alvarez: President Mainan Don't fail to come this very
moment for I want to talk to you privately about what happened to me in Magdalo and so
that you might explain their organization to me.

Meanwhile, Esteban San Juan invited Bonifacio to attend the demonstration of the
Magdiwang rebels' in Noveleta. Accompanied by San Juan himself, Baldomero Aguinaldo and
Candido Tirona, Bonifacio arrived at Noveleta amidst the enthusiastic acclamation of the peo-
ple. At three in the afternoon, a parade took place in which Bonifacio, riding in a carriage and
flanked on both sides by the Magdiwang soldiers in red uniform, was the object of the
demonstration. As the parade wound its way toward San Francisco de Malabon, the people
shouted, "Long live the ruler of the Philippines!" to which Bonifacio answered: "Long live
Philippine liberty!" Upon arriving at Malabon, he was quartered in the house of Santos Nocon
and, later, in the house of Mrs. Estefania Potente, where he stayed un- til the Spaniards
captured the town in April 1897.
THE MISUNDERSTANDING THAT existed between the followers of the Magdiwang and the
Magdalo, so destructive of the Katipunan plans, deepened into mutual suspicion and
jealousies that resulted in military reverses in several sectors. Polavieja's counter-offensives
led to the fall of several towns hitherto held by the rebels, and the attitude of non-
cooperation exhibited by one faction when the other was harassed by the enemy led, as it
must, to disaster in the field. The situation, both camps believed, could only be remedied by
coming together and threshing out differences of opinion and solving, ultimately, the
question of leadership in the province. For this purpose, the leaders of the Magdiwang and
the Magdalo decided to call a convention or assembly at Imus."

In the assembly hall, the two factions met and ex- changed the usual greetings. Bonifacio
entered, pro- ceeded to the head of the table and unceremoniously occupied the chair. He
beckoned to the Magdiwang Min- isters to sit at his right side. This obvious partiality to the
Magdiwang was resented by the Magdalo, for as Supreme Head of the Katipunan who was
called upon to mediate between the two factions, Bonifacio was expected to show
impartiality. But his actions in the case were motivated by his regard for his wife's uncle,
Mariano Alvarez, the President of the Magdiwang-a fact that aggravated the situation. Even
so, the Magdalo men did not show their resentment but kept silent in order to prevent
further misunderstanding between the followers of both camps. Seeing that Bonifacio had
called his Ministers, Baldomero Aguinaldo, President of the Magdalo, without being in- vited,
sat to the left of Bonifacio. General Emilio Aguinaldo, seeing his position as a purely military
one, was content to be a mere observer. He had, however, a plan of his own. Since it was the
intention of his faction to propose the establishment of a revolutionary government, he had
decided beforehand that in the coming election for the presidency he would nominate and
support Edilberto Evangelista, since among them all "Evangelista was the best educated."
Bonifacio knew of Aguinaldo's active eiectioneering in favor of Evangelista and was deeply
hurt, for as founder and Supreme Head of the Katipunan he felt that the presidency should be
given to him as a reward.

The assembly opened with Bonifacio as Chairman. It was evident, when Baldomero Aguinaldo
made the pro- posal to establish a revolutionary government, that the two factions would
never come to an understanding. The Magdalo men contended that the continuance of the
Katipunan government was no longer necessary, for since ..the start of the Revolution the
Society had ceased to re- main a secret society and must therefore be supplanted by one that
would better fit the situation. The Magdalo people further contended that being small, Cavite
must not be divided between the two factions. On the other hand, the Magdiwang followers
argued that the Katipunan already had a constitution and by-laws duly approved and
enforced in the Islands and that, by virtue of this, provin- cial and municipal governments in
and around Manila had already been established. There. was, therefore, no ne- cessity of
establishing a new government." Even so, the Magdiwang Minister of War, Ariston
Villanueva, stood up and said that if a new government was to be established, Andres
Bonifacio, who had organized and planned the en tire revolutionary movement, must of right
occupy the presi- dency without any election. Further, he pointed out that as Chairman and
Supremo, Bonifacio should be given blan- ket authority to appoint the Ministers. The
Magdalo group strenuously objected and insisted on an election. The dis- cussion became
heated and did not accomplish any tangi- ble result. The assembly was adjourned and each
faction left without any definite understanding."

4/9

Suspicions and jealousies continued to plague the ranks of the rebels, and even among the
members of the same faction petty quarrels continued to come up. The Magdalo followers
suspected the Magdiwang of courting the favor of the Spaniards, while the same suspicion
was aroused in the Magdiwang as regards the Magdalo. In a situation where the Magdalo
needed the help of the Magdiwang, the latter, to which Bonifacio belonged, re- fused to
come to the aid of the former. 15 Moreover, the Magdiwang followers were themselves
occupied, now and then, with petty jealousies and quarrels that tended to demoralize the
soldiers. Thus, when the town fiesta of San Francisco de Malabon was held in January 1897,
the rebels, then enjoying the afternoon games, were dis- turbed by a series of rifle shots that
sent them scamper- ing away to places of safety. Thinking that the enemy was approaching,
Ariston Villanueva and Santiago Alvarez gathered their men and prepared to meet an attack.

They later found out that the rifle shots came from the men of Captain Mariano San Gabriel,
also a Magdiwang man, who, trigger-happy, had fired several shots in the air. Alvarez's men
tried to disarm the offending soldiers, but instead were themselves disarmed. Alvarez was
furious and demanded that San Gabriel disarm his men. The latter refused and left for
Noveleta. It was only through Ricarte's intervention that the two men, Alvarez and San
Gabriel, were brought together again as comrades. 16 The situation had not eased up a bit
when the leaders of the Magdiwang planned to hold another convention, this time in the
estate-house of Tejeros, a Magdiwang territory situated about two kilometers from San
Francisco de Malabon and about half a kilometer from the town proper of Salinas. The
government under the Magdalo, comprising the towns of Kawit, Bakood and Imus, was at the
time seriously threatened by the Spanish army which occupied the estate-house of Salitran
and which had dug in as a preparatory step to the battle that was about to commence.
General Emilio Aguinaldo, leading the Magdalo soldiers, faced the Spaniards in Salitran, a
barrio between the towns of Imus and Dasmariñas. It was March 22, 1897, Aguinaldo's
birthday, when simultaneously the battle raged and the assembly convened at Tejeros.

The delegates, mostly belonging to the Magdiwang, lazily trooped that sultry afternoon to
the spacious es- tate-house of Tejeros. Some of the men were barefoot; others wore buri hats
or were dressed in barong Tagalog. They came from all directions: from Kawit, Noveleta and
Imus to the north; from Tanza to the west, and from San Francisco de Malabon to the
northeast. The estate-house, surrounded by stone walls and built in the middle of the six-
hectare farm owned by the friars and now in rebel hands, had a 60-meter frontage. The
entrance was through an arched gate connected to the rear arched gate by a long and wide
corridor. To the right, a few meters from the front gate, were the stairs. Directly opposite the
stairs was a storage room, and next to it, to the rear, was the chapel. Directly opposite this
and next to the stairs was another storage room. Up the stairs was the big hall, with the
doors of thirty-four rooms opening to it. In the rear of a room to the right were the dining
room and the azotea that commanded a beautiful view of the fields around and the murky
Ilog Kawayan on whose banks thick clumps of bam- boo protected the house from the glare
of the sun. The estate-house stood alone in that wide expanse of riceland. 17 Directly
opposite the house and across the road was more riceland (tubigan). The long road that
commenced from the town of Salinas led directly to San Francisco de Malabon, and half a
kilometer from the estate-house it branched off to the right, where a bridge connected the
latter town to the town of Tanza or Santa Cruz de Malabon. 14 18

It was this place, the former summer resort of the friars, that witnessed the first important
election held under the auspices of the Katipunan government. An invitation was sent by the
Magdiwang chieftains to the Magdalo followers to attend the meeting, but because of the
battle then raging around the locality not all the Magdalo leaders were able to attend. The
Magdiwang was represented by Andres Bonifacio, Mariano Alvarez, Pascual Alvarez, Santiago
Alvarez, Luciano San Miguel, Mariano Trias, Severino de las Alas, Santos Nocon and others,
while the Magdalo was represented by Baldomero, Aguinaldo, Daniel Tirona, Cayetano
Topacio, Antonio Montenegro and others. The estate-house buzzed with life as more rebels,
some of them uninvited, came tr convention. It was past two in the afternoon when meeting
was formally opened.
election

5/9

Jacinto Lumbreras, acting president of the Magdiwang, took the chair and opened the
convention' with intro- ductory remarks summing up the purpose of the meet- ing. To his
right sat Teodoro Gonzales, also a Magdiwang, who acted as secretary. Severino de las Alas, a
Magdiwang, immediately took the floor and explained that before dis- cussing ways and
means of defending such a small area as Cavite, the convention assembled should first of all
agree upon the kind of government that should be set up to administer the whole country
under the prevailing cir- cumstances. "From this government," he said, "any thing that is
necessary in the defense of the country can ema- nate." The presiding officer, however,
reminded the speaker that a government had already been established upon the founding of
the Katipunan, its Supreme Coun- cil, its Provincial Councils and its Popular Councils, and that
the meeting was called to adopt defensive meas- ures. At this juncture, Bonifacio spoke and
supple- mented Lumbreras' explanation, calling the attention of those assembled to the
Katipunan flag with a K in the mid- dle, which embodied the ideal of the revolutionists,
namely, liberty. De las Alas, not contented with the Supremo's ex- planation countered that
the K in the flag of the Katipunan did not in any way identify the kind of government that
they had, whether such government was monarchical or repub- lican. Bonifacio remarked
that all the Katipuneros, from the Supreme Head to the lowest member, recognized the prin-
ciple of Unity, Fraternity and Equality. "It can be seen," he said, "that the inside the hall.
Lumbreras, sensing the explosive situation, tactfully called a recess to give sufficient time for
the angry men to cool off. At the end of an hour, the meeting was resumed. Jacinto
Lumbreras, seeing that it would be use- less for him to continue to preside in such an
atmosphere, refused to take the chair, saying: "As the question under discussion is
completely outside of what is mentioned in the agenda of the meeting and is concerned
instead with the establishment of an over-all government of the revolu- tion, I should not
continue to preside over this session." Then he took his seat among the members, and
Andres Bonifacio, who was acclaimed by all to succeed him, took the chair as the presiding
officer by virtue of his being the President of the Supreme Council of the Katipunan. He then
called the meeting to order and said: "As you desire to set up a supreme government to
direct the revolution, abolish- ing what was organized by the Katipunan and repudiating the
resolution approved in the Assembly of Imus,20 as Presi- dent of the Supreme Council of the
Katipunan, I accede to your just petition, but first of all I want to ask you to recog- nize a
principle as a basis of agreement in this or in other meetings, which is: that we respect and
obey the will of the majority." Those present saw the justice and wisdom of his proposition
and assented unanimously.
The Republic of the Philippines was then and there proclaimed amidst enthusiastic hurrahs.
With a new form of government determined to take the place of the Katipunan, the election
of officers was then prepared. Nine officers were to be elected by popular vote, namely,
Presi- dent, Vice-President, Captain-General, Director of War, Director of Interior, Director of
State, Director of Finance, Director of Fomento and Director of Justice. Before pro- ceeding
with the election, Bonifacio, probably assailed by doubts and aware of his limitations, called
the attention, of all the electors representing the different regions of the Philippines to the
principle that whoever would be elected should be recognized and respected regardless of his
social condition and education. The proposal, made

A native of the place and present (1947) occupant of the former estate, Arsenio Salvador, 68,
described the estate-house to the writer and made a sketch of it on the ground. This page and
the preceding present an artist's conception of the former estate-house as it must have
looked before it was burned by the insurgents. The building itself and the first and second
floor plans are based on the oral description furnished by Mr. Arsenio Salvador. in the form of
a mere statement and reminder, was ap- proved, for in that convention very few, if any, were
men of high intellectual attainments. The ballots were pre- pared and distributed. The
balloting was made succes- sively, that is, the office of the President was first voted upon,
after which the other offices were filled in singly. After an hour, the ballots were cast for the
presidency, and Einilio Aguinaldo won in absentia over Andres Bonifacio and Mariano Trias.
The President-elect was proclaimed with loud shouts and applause.

Before the ballots were cast for the Vice-Presidency, Severino de las Alas stood up and
suggested that in as much as Bonifacio had received the second largest number of votes he
should automatically be allowed to occupy the Vice-Presidency. The men assembled
appeared lukewarm to the suggestion, there being no one who approved or disapproved it.
Consequently, Bonifacio decided to continue with the election of the Vice- President.
Mariano Trias was elected to the position over Andres Bonifacio, Severino de las Alas and
Mariano Alvarez. The election of the Captain-General came next and Ricarte, the acting
Secretary of the convention, came out over Santiago Alvarez. With a modesty that sprang
from the realization of the responsibility attached to the position, Ricarte stood up and
declared: "None better than I know my own limitations and fitness: the position with which
this assembly honors me is beyond my scant ability and strength; to me it is a very honorable
position but its horizon is too wide for me: so I request the assembly not to resent my refusal
to accept it." Ricarte's modesty, genuine or assumed, proved effective. Cries of disapproval
followed his request to be relieved, and the disturbance created by the enthusiastic followers
of the General forced Bonifacio to call the meeting to order. Then: "It is getting dark," he said,
"so we have to proceed to the election to other positions." Somebody suggested that in order
to expedite the election to the remaining positions, the electors should step to one side when
their candidates were called, a proposal that was immediately approved.

In this manner, the following were elected: Director of War, Emiliano Riego de Dios, who won
over Ariston Villanueva, Daniel Tirona and Santiago Alvarez; Director of Interior, Andres
Bonifacio, who won over Mariano Alvarez and Pascual Alvarez. The election of Bonifacio gave
rise to an incident that nearly ended in a bloody affair. Amidst the acclamations that followed
the announcement of his election, Daniel Tirona, a Magdalo man, stood up and said: "The
position of Director of the Interior is an exalted one and it is not meet that a person without a
lawyer's diploma should occupy it. We have in our province a lawyer, Jose del Rosario;
therefore, we should protest against the elected and acclaimed." And, shouting at the top of
his voice, he added: "Let us vote for Jose del Rosario!" No one, however, took up the
suggestion which was shouted four times. Nevertheless, Bonifacio felt insulted and he turned
crimson with anger. Controlling himself, he demanded that Daniel Tirona retract what he had
said. "Did we not agree," he added, "that we have to abide by the decision of the majority
whatever may be the social standing of the elected?" He insisted that Tirona give satisfaction
to the assembly for his defamatory words. But Tirona ignored Bonifacio and tried to lose
himself in the crowd. In the flush of his anger, Bonifacio whipped out his pistol to fire at
Tirona but Ricarte grabbed his hand and thus prevented what might have been a tragic affair.
The people then. began to leave the hall, and Bonifacio, frustrated and deeply wounded in
feeling, cried aloud: "I, as chairman of this assembly, and as President of the Supreme Council
of the Katipunan, as all of you do not deny, declare this assembly dissolved, and I annul all
that has been approved and resolved." With this parting state- ment, he left the hall,
followed by his men.

THE SEED OF DISCONTENT, resulting from his failure to get the presidency, and which was
watered by the unfortunate attitude of Daniel Tirona, who, by another sad coin- cidence,
belonged to the opposite faction, found fertile ground in Bonifacio's heart and mind. Aside
from the fact that as founder of the Katipunan and the initiator of the Revolution he believed
he should have been given the presidency, he contented that irregularities were com- mitted
by the Magdalo men and that he would have been elected had it not been for the
premeditated frauds of the rival faction. Writing to his uncle-in-law, Mariano Alvarez, he said:
MY DEAR GENERAL MAINAM:
Our recently ended election at Mapagtiis [San Francisco de Malabon] has left a large
poisonous thorn in my heart. I reiterate to you my nullification of all that had been agreed
upon there. Ay, General, I never expected that my complacency and faithfulness would be
rewarded with avarice and insult upon my person by your fellow- townsmen who are false
patriots. I shall make them realize when I set foot on Morong soil that it was not I whom they
insulted but the whole country. Send me food at once and faithful soldiers of the Mother
Country here at Limbon as a fulfillment of your promised help when I left in disquietude. Your
supremo, And. Bonifacio, Maypagasa Giving vent to his resentment over the procedure and
results of the elections, Bonifacio, in a letter to his friend, Emilio Jacinto, then in Laguna
explained his side and gave the background of the event:23

The majority of those in the convention determined to organize a government; but I gave
them to understand that this could not be done on account of the absence of the
representatives of other districts, aside from an agree- ment having already been made at the
convention at Imus; that all this annulled the majority, because in view of the present critical
situation of these pueblos there was no time to wait for the representatives from
otherplaces, and the Imus Convention lacked validity on ac- count of the alleged absence of
the minutes. Neverthe- less, I assured those present there that in case the mani- fest will of
the people governed in the election of officers, I would respect it.

Moreover, before the election began, I discovered the underhand work of some of the Imus
crowd who had quietly spread the statement that it was not advisable that they be governed
by men from other pueblos, and that they" should for this reason strive to elect Captain
Emilio as President. As soon as I heard of this, I said that this meeting was dirty work, because
this was what they were after and they were deceiving the people, adding that if they wished
me to point out, one by one, those who were conducting themselves in this matter, I would
do so. The majority said that this was no longer necessary. I also said that if the manifest will
of the people was not complied with, I would not recognize the chiefs elected, and if I did not
recognize them they would not be recognized by our people there, either. Don Artemio
Ricarte, the General- elect, also said at the meeting that this election was due to bad
practices.