Tag Archives: Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manila

Apolinario Mabini: the sublime paralytic

Apolinario Mabini was a Batangueno. He was poor, too. He had to support himself all throughout his school years to be able to study at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manila and at the University of Santo Tomas. Later, he established a private school in Manila and did legal work despite of his infantile paralysis.

He was regarded the “brains of the revolution.” As the President of the Council of Secretaries as well as the Secretary of the Exterior, he was the one who advised then-president Emilio Aguinaldo on the latter’s decrees and proclamations. He was the one who drafted the rules that government municipalities and provinces should observed in his time.

He just resigned in March 1899 and was arrested by the American forces. After he was freed, though, Mabini resumed writing about his criticisms of the government. Eventually, he was captured again and exiled in Guam. He died of cholera after 15 days of liberty.

“To tell a man to be quiet when a necessity not fulfilled is shaking all the fibers of his being is tantamount to asking a hungry man to be filled before taking the food which he needs.” ~Apolinario Mabini

Video taken from the YouTube Channel of the Audiopedia