Cry of Balintawak

The Cry of Pugad Lawin (Filipino: Sigaw ng Pugad Lawin), alternately and originally referred to as the Cry of Balintawak (Filipino: Sigaw ng Balintawak, Spanish: Grito de Balintawak) was the beginning of the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule.^[1]Because of differing accounts and the ambiguity of place names in these accounts, the exact date and place of the Cry is disputed.

At the close of August 1896, members of the Katipunan secret society (Katipuneros) led by Andrés Bonifacio rose up in revolt somewhere in an area referred to as Kalookan, wider than the jurisdiction of present-day Caloocan City and overlapping into present-day Quezon City.

Originally the term "Cry" referred to the first skirmish between the Katipuneros and the Civil Guards (Guardia Civil). Other definitions of the term have been made over the years, but today it is popularly understood to refer to the tearing of community tax certificates (cédulas personales) by the rebels to mark their separation from Spain. This was literally accompanied by patriotic shouts.

From 1908 until 1963, the official stance was that the Cry occurred on August 26 in Balintawak. In 1963 the Philippine government declared a shift to August 23 in Pugad Lawin, Quezon City.

Various accounts by participants and historians give differing dates and places for the Cry. An officer of the Spanish guardia civil, Lt. Olegario Diaz, stated that the Cry took place in Balintawak on August 25, 1896. 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. Santiago Alvarez, the son of Mariano Alvarez, the leader of the Magdiwang faction in Cavite, stated in 1927 that the Cry took place in Bahay Toro, now in Quezon City on August 24, 1896. Pio Valenzuela, a close associate of Andrés Bonifacio declared in 1948 that it happened in Pugad Lawin on August 23, 1896. Gregorio Zaide stated in his books in 1954 that the "Cry" happened in Balintawak on August 26, 1896. Fellow historian Teodoro Agoncillo wrote in 1956 that it took place in Pugad Lawin on August 23, 1896, based on Pio Valenzuela's statement. Accounts by Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel Encarnacion and Ramon Villegas claim the event to have taken place in Tandang Sora's barn in Gulod, Barangay Banlat, Quezon City.

Some of the apparent confusion is in part due to the double meanings of the terms "Balintawak" and "Kalookan" at the turn of the century. Balintawak referred both to a specific place in modern Caloocan and a wider area which included parts of modern Quezon City. Similarly, Kalookan referred to modern Caloocan and also a wider area which included modern Quezon City and part of modern Pasig. Pugad Lawin, Pasong Tamo, Kangkong and other specific places were all in "greater Balintawak", which was in turn part of "greater Caloocan".

The name "Pugad Lawin" does not appear on maps before World War II, and in Philippine historiography until some Katipuneros like Valenzuela protested the traditional identification with Balintawak starting in the late 1920s and early 1930s. These assertions were contested by other Katipuneros such as Guillermo Masangkay.