KKK at Kartilyang Katipunan

“KKK AT KARTILYANG
KATIPUNAN”
KKK (Kataastaasan
Kagalanggalangang
Katipunan anak ng
bayan)
KARTILYANG KATIPUNAN
Katipunan created a complex structure and a defined value system that would guide
the organization as a collective aspiring for a single goal. One of the most important
Katipunan documents was the Kartilya ng Katipunan. The original title of the document
was “Manga [sic] Aral Nang [sic] Katipunan ng mga A.N.B” or “Lessons of the
Organization of the Sons of Country.” The document was written by Emilio Jacinto in
the 1896. Jacinto was only 18 years old when he joined the movement. He was a law
student at the Universidad de Santo Tomas. Despite his youth, Bonifacio recognized
the value and intellect ot Jacinto that upon seeing that Jacinto’s Kartilya was much
better that the Decalogue he wrote, he willingly favored that the Kartilya be distributed
to their fellow Katipuneros. Jacinto became the secretary of the organization and took
charge of the short-lived printing press of the Katipunan. On 15 April 1897, Bonifacio
appointed Jacinto as a commander of the Katipunan in northern Luzon. Jacinto was
22 years ols. He died of Malaria at a young age of 24 on the town of Magdalena,
Laguna.
The Kartilya can be treated as the Katipunan’s code of conduct. It contains fourteen
rules that instruct that way a Katipunero should behave, and which specific values
should be uphold. Generally, the rules stated in the Kartilya can be classified into two.
The first group contains the rules that will make the member an upright individual and
the second group contains the rules that will guide the way he treats his fellow men.
Below is the translated version of the rules in Kartilya:
I. The life that is not consecrated to a lofty and reasonable purpose is a tree
without a shade, if not a poisonous weed.
II. To do good for personal gain and not for its own sake is not virtue.
III. It is rational to be charitable and love one’s fellow creature, and to adjust one's
conduct, acts and words to what is in itself reasonable.
IV. 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.
V. The honorable man prefers honor to personal gain; the scoundrel, gain to honor.
VI. To the honorable man, his word is sacred.
VII.Do not waste thy time: wealth can be recovered but not time lost.
I. Defend the oppressed and fight the oppressor before the law
or in the field.
II. The prudent man is sparing in words and faithful in keeping
secrets.
III.On the thorny path of life, man is the guide of woman and the
children, and if the guide leads to the precipice, those whom he
guides will also go there.
IV.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 (physical) weakness will increase thy interest in her and
will remind thee of the mother who bore thee and reared thee.
V. What thou dost not desire done unto thy wife, children,
brothers and sisters, and do not unto the wife, children,
brothers and sisters of thy neighbor.
XIII.Man is not worth more because he is a king, because his nose is aquiline,
and his color white, not 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, js 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.
XIV.When these rules of conduct shall be known to all, 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 sufferings will remain. If he who desires to enter has informed
himself of all this and believes he will be able to perform what will be his
duties, he may fill out the application for admission.
As the primary governing document which determines the rules of conduct

in the Katipunan, properly understanding the Kartilya will thus help in
understanding the values, ideas, aspirations, and even the ideology of the
organization.
Analysis of the “Kartilya
ng Katipunan”
Similar to what we have done to the accounts of Pigafetta, this
primary source also needs to be analyzed in terms of content and
context. As a document written for a fraternity whose main purpose
is to overthrow a colonial regime, we can explain the content and
provisions of the Kartilya a a reaction and response to certain value
systems that they found despicable in the present state of things
that they struggled against with. For example, the fourth and the
thirteenth rules in the Kartilya are in invocation of the inherent
equality between and among men regardless of race, occupation,
or status. In the context of the Spanish colonial era where the
indios were treated as the inferior of the white Europeans, the
Katipunan saw to it that the alternative order that they wished to
promulgate through their revolution necessarily destroyed this kind
ig unjust hierarchy.
Moreover, once can analyze the values upheld in the document value in
upheld in the document as consistent with the burgeoning rational and liberal
ideals in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Equality, tolerance, freedom,
and liberty were values that first emerged in the eighteenth century French
Revolution, which spread throughout europe and reached the educated class
of the colonies. Jacinto, an ilustrado himself, certainly got an understanding
of these values, Asidef rom the liberal values that can be dissected in the
document, we can also decipher certain Victorian and chivalrous values in
the text. For example, various provisions in the Kartilya repeatedly
emphasized the importance of honor in words and in action. The teaching of
the Katipunan on how women should be treated with honor and respect,
while positive in many respects and certainly a significant stride from the
practice of raping and physically abusing women, can still be telling of the
Katipunan’s secondary regard for women in relation to men. For example, in
the tenth rule, the document specifically stated that men should be the guide
of women and children, andt hat he should set a good example, otherwise
the women and the children would be guided in the path of evil.
Nevertheless, the same document stated that women should be treated as
companions by men and not as playthings that can be exploited for their
pleasure.
In the contemporary eyes, the Katipunan can be criticized because of
these provisions. However, one must not forget the context where the
organization was born. Not even in Europe or in the whole of the West at that
juncture recognized the problem of gender inequality. Indeed, it can be argued
that Katipunan’s recognition of women as important partners in the struggle, as
reflected not just in Kartilya but also in the organizational structure of the
fraternity where a women’s unit was established, is an endeavor advanced for
its time. Aside from Rizal's known Letter to the Women of Malolos, no same
effort by the supposed cosmopolitan Propaganda Movement was achieved until
the movement's eventual disintegration in the latter part of the 1890s.
Aside from this, the Kartilya was instructive not just of the
Katipunan’s conduct toward other people, but also for the members’
development as individuals in their own rights. Generally speaking,
the rules in the Kartilya can be classified as either directed to how
one should treat his neighbor or to how one should develop and
conduct one’s self. Both are essential to the success and fulfillment
of the Katipunan’s ideals. For example, the Kartilya’s teachings on
honoring one's word and not wasting time are teachings directed
toward self-development,, while the rule on treating the neighbor’s
wife, children, and brothers the way that you want yours to be
treated is an instruction on how Katipuneros should treat and
regard their neighbors.
All in all, proper reading of the Kartilya will reveal a more
thorough understanding of the Katipunan and the significant role
that it played in the revolution and in the unfolding of the Philippine
history, as we know it,

KKK at Kartilyang Katipunan

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“KKK AT KARTILYANG

As the primary governing document which determines the rules of conduct

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