MARCELO H. DEL PILAR FOUNDER OF THE KATIPUNAN

The "Liga Filipina", open as a rule only to well-to-do persons, was organized by Jose Rizal and his associates. But Marcelo H. del Pilar, early in 1892, had advised the formation of an association similar in its ulterior aims, but open to artisans, servants, laborers, and the poorer classes generally. He had drawn up minute instructions concerning this organization and forwarded them from Madrid to Rizal in Manila, but the latter, possibly wishing to start his own society first, had not put them into immediate execution. Eventually Deodato Arellano, Andres Bonifacio, Ladislao Diua, and Teodoro Plata, who had been commissioned by Pilar to carry out the details of his scheme, proceeded to organize the "'Katipunan." Immediately after the banishment of Rizal, which occurred July 12th, 1892, Andres Bonifacio called a meeting of certain members of the ''Liga Filipina", to discuss the affairs of that society and, on the evening of July 14th of the same year, they assembled at his house in the district of an Sta. Cruz. The names of the six members of the "Liga" who attended this meeting were Andres Bonifacio, a native of Manila and warehouseman of the German firm of Fresel and Company; Teodoro Plata, also a native of Manila and by profession an "Official de Mesa", i. e., assistant to the Judge of the Court of First Instance of Binondo; Deodato Arellano, native of Manila and a clerk in the office of Public Works, Valentin Diaz, an Ilocano and an "Oficial de mesa" in the Court of First Instance of Quiapo; Pantaleon Torres, a native of Manila and second clerk of the First Class in the "Intendencia de Hacienda" (Exchequer), who in reward for services had been given the medal of Civil Merit by the Spanish Government; and Ladislao Diua, a native of Cavite and a law student in Manila. The meeting was called to order at nine o'clock and the subject of dissolving the "Liga Filipina" was broached. Bonifacio opposed its dissolution, but it was pointed out to him that, owing to the elements of which its membership was composed-Spaniards, Creoles, Mestizos, and full-blooded Indians-and because the three former classes could not be depended on to carry out the program of the "Liga" to its logical conclusion, the society, as it stood, was not only in danger of going to pieces, but was also a source of peril to its members. Pantaleon Torres then addressed the meeting and suggested remodeling the "Liga Filipina" and forming from it a purely Tagalog society. In that event its members could be depended upon. It was to be called "Ang Kataas-taasan Kagalang-galang Katipunan nang mga Anak nang Bayan", or the "Supreme Worshipful Society of the Sons of the Country". His proposition was warmly supported and the "Katipunan" (Secret Society) started from that date. It was further agreed to extingtish the "Liga" and to push the "Katipunan", with a program calling for the complete independence of the Philippines. This organization was much akin to Rizal's league. Although three of the members of the committee that founded it were those that had been originally designated by Pilar for that purpose, the remainder were ordinary members of the Liga." -Captain John Young Mason Blunt, An Army Officer's Philippine Studies University Press, Manila. 1912