On March 22, 1897, the Magdiwang and Magdalo councils met once more, this time at the friar estate house in Tejeros, a barrio of San Francisco de Malabon. This convention proved even stormier than the Imus meeting and, as in Imus, the declared objective of the meeting was not even discussed.
According to Jacinto Lumbreras, a Magdiwang and first presiding officer of the Tejeros convention, the meeting had been called to adopt measure for the defense of Cavite. Again this subject was not discussed, and instead, the assembled leaders, including the Magdiwangs, decided to elect the officers of the revolutionary government, thus unceremoniously discarding the Supreme Council of the Katipunan under whose standard the people had been fighting and would continue to fight.
Bonifacio presided, though reluctantly, over the election. Beforehand, he secured the unanimous pledge of the assembly to abide by the majority decision. The results were:
| President | Emilio Aguinaldo |
| Vice-President | Mariano Trias |
| Captain-General | Artemio Ricarte |
| Director of War | Emiliano Riego de Dios |
| Director of the Interior | Andres Bonifacio |
Emilio Aguinaldo had been awarded the highest prize of the Revolution on his own birth anniversary, although he was not present, being busy at a military front in Pasong Santol, a barrio of Imus. As for Bonifacio, the death-blow to the Katipunan and his election as a mere Director of the Interior showed clearly that he had been maneuvered out of power. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow, especially since even the Magdiwangs who were supposed to be his supporters did not vote for him either for President or Vice-President.
But another insult was yet to follow. Evidently, the Caviteño elite could not accept an "uneducated" man, and a non-Caviteño at that, even for the minor post of Director of the Interior. Daniel Tirona protested Bonifacio's election saying that the post should not be occupied by a person without a lawyer's diploma. He suggested a Caviteño lawyer, Jose del Rosario for the position.
This was clearly an intended insult. It naturally infuriated Bonifacio who thereupon hotly declared: "I, as chairman of this assembly and as President of the Supreme Council of the Katipunan, as all of you do not deny, declare this assembly dissolved, and I annul all that has been approved and resolved."
3 comments:
I think that Bonifacio has the right to be elected in that position even though he isn't a Caviteño because he is also a Filipino. However, I agree that a leader should be an educated man to lead his people in a more effective way.
Why was it void?
Actually, it became void because Tirona didn't agree with the elections.
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