[1] In late August 1896, members of the Katipunan[a] led by Andrés Bonifacio revolted somewhere around Caloocan, which included parts of the present-day Quezon City.

Among those who attended, I remember, were Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, Aguedo del Rosario, Tomas Remigio, Briccio Pantas, Teodoro Plata, Pio Valenzuela, Enrique Pacheco, and Francisco Carreon.

[citation needed] At about nine o'clock in the morning of August 26, the meeting was opened with Andres Bonifacio presiding and Emilio Jacinto acting as secretary.

Teodoro Plata, Briccio Pantas, and Pio Valenzuela were all opposed to starting the revolution too early...Andres Bonifacio, sensing that he would lose the discussion then, left the session hall and talked to the people, who were waiting outside for the result of the meeting of the leaders.

He told the people that the leaders were arguing against starting the revolution early, and appealed to them in a fiery speech in which he said:"You remember the fate of our countrymen who were shot in Bagumbayan.

An article from The Sunday Tribune Magazine on August 21, 1932 featured the statements of the eyewitness account by Katipunan General Guillermo Masangkay, "A Katipunero Speaks".

In August 1896, after the Katipunan was discovered, Masangkay joined Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, and others in a clandestine meeting held on the 26th of that month at Apolonio Samson’s house in Caloocan.

Initially, the leaders of the movement quarreled over strategy and tactics, and many of its members questioned the wisdom of an open rebellion due to the lack of arms and logistical support.

[4] In 1936, Pio Valenzuela, along with Briccio Pantas and Enrique Pacheco said (in English translation) "The first Cry of the revolution did not happen in Balintawak where the monument is, but in a place called Pugad Lawin."

In 1940, a research team of a forerunner of the National Historical Institute (NHI) which included Valenzuela, identified the location as part of sitio Gulod, Banlat, Kalookan City.

It was at Pugad Lawin, the house, store-house, and yard of Juan Ramos, son of Melchora Aquino, where over 1,000 members of the Katipunan met and carried out considerable debate and discussion on August 23, 1896.

The discussion was on whether or not the revolution against the Spanish government should be started on August 29, 1896... After the tumultuous meeting, many of those present tore their cedula certificates and shouted "Long live the Philippines!

Altogether, they carried assorted weapons, bolos, spears, daggers, a dozen small revolvers and a rifle used by its owner, one Lieutenant Manuel, for hunting birds.

Flanking him on both sides at the head of the table were Dr. Pio Valenzuela, Emilio Jacinto, Briccio Pantas, Enrique Pacheco, Ramon Bernardo, Pantelaon Torres, Francisco Carreon, Vicente Fernandez, Teodoro Plata, and others.

Historian Teodoro Kalaw in his 1925 book The Filipino Revolution wrote that the event took place during the last week of August 1896 at Kangkong, Balintawak.

Accounts by historians Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel Encarnacion and Ramon Villegas claim the event to have taken place in Tandang Sora's barn in Gulod, Barrio Banlat, Caloocan (now part of Quezon City).

The 1872 Cavite Mutiny was precipitated by the removal of long-standing personal benefits to the workers such as tax (tribute) and forced labor exemptions on order from the Governor General Rafael de Izquierdo.

[16][17][18] For more than three centuries  the Spanish colonizers became too abusive of their power, force labor, unjustifiable collection of taxes, and deprivation of education brought about centralised idea of independence to the majority of Filipinos.

Political and social  reforms then were sought through writings themed on liberalism, honoring rights of the Filipinos, defense against violence and injustices, and sovereignty for the aspirations of the people.

Noli Me Tángere and  El filibusterismo are some of the literary works written by Jose Rizal, who is one of the many ilustrados, together with the other prominent reformist Graciano López Jaena, Mariano Ponce and Marcelo H. del Pilar who aimed on  uniting the whole country,  and eventually to achieve independence.

Four days after the civic organization's foundation, Jose Rizal was arrested by the Spanish authorities on four grounds: First, he published an anti-Catholic and anti-friar books and articles.

Third for dedicating his novel, El Filibusterismo to the three “traitors” (Gomez, Burgos and Zamora) and for giving an highlights to the novel's title page that “the only salvation for the Philippines was separation from the Spain".

The friar immediately hurried to the printing shop, Diario de Manila and searched the premises for the hidden proofs of the existence of the Katipunan with the accompaniment of the owner of the periodical.

[20] The introduction to the original Tagalog text of the Biak-na-Bato Constitution states: Ang paghiwalay ng Filipinas sa kahariang España sa patatag ng isang bayang may sariling pamamahala’t kapangyarihan na pangangalang “Republika ng Filipinas” ay siyang layong inadhika niyaring Paghihimagsik na kasalukuyan, simula pa ng ika- 24 ng Agosto ng taong 1896… (English: The separation of the Philippines from the Spanish empire by the establishment of a self-governing nation called the "Republic of the Philippines" has been the aim of the current Revolution, starting on August 24, 1896.The Spanish text also states: la separación de Filipinas de la Monarquia Española, constituyéndose en Estado Independiente y soberano con Gobierno propio, con el nombre de República de Filipinas, es en su Guerra actual, iniciada en 24 de Agosto de 1896… (English: The separation of the Philippines from the Spanish Monarchy, constituting an independent state and with a proper sovereign government, named the Republic of the Philippines, was the end pursued by the revolution through the present hostilities, initiated on 24 August 1896…)These lines indicate that in so far as the leaders of the revolution are concerned, revolution began on 24 August 1896.

[citation needed] The document was written only one and a half years after the event and signed by over 50 Katipunan members, among them Emilio Aguinaldo, Artemio Ricarte and Valentin Diaz.

Lt. Olegario Diaz of the Spanish Civil Guards wrote in 1896 that the event happened in Balintawak,[22] which corroborates the accounts of the historian Gregorio Zaide and Teodoro Kalaw.

[citation needed] On the other hand, Teodoro Agoncillo based his account from that of Pio Valenzuela that emphasized Pugad Lawin as the place where the ‘cry’ happened.

Lastly, (3) The term ‘Pugad Lawin’ was only made up because of the hawk’s nest at the top of a tall tree at the backyard of Tandang Sora in Banlat, Gulod, Kaloocan where it is said to be one of the hiding places of the revolutionary group led by Andres Bonifacio.

They wrote "long live Philippine independence" on the cave walls, which some Filipino historians consider the "first cry" (el primer grito).

A privately funded Monument to the Heroes of 1896 (a lone Katipunero popularly identified with Bonifacio) that had been inaugurated at Balintawak on September 3, 1911 was dismantled in 1968 to make way for a cloverleaf interchange.