Apolinario Mabini y Maranan (Tagalog pronunciation: 

[apolɪˈnaɾ.jo maˈbinɪ], July 23, 1864 – May

13, 1903) was a Filipino revolutionary leader, educator, lawyer, and statesman who served first
as a legal and constitutional adviser to the Revolutionary Government, and then as the first Prime
Minister of the Philippines upon the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. He is
regarded as the "utak ng himagsikan" or "brain of the revolution" and is also to be considered to
be as the National Hero in the Philippines, he was able to persuade other heroes including José
Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Mabini's work and thoughts on the government
shaped the Philippines' fight for independence over the next century.[2]

Two of his works, El Verdadero Decalogo (The True Decalogue, June 24, 1898), and Programa
Constitucional dela Republica Filipina (The Constitutional Program of the Philippine Republic,
1898) became instrumental in the drafting of what would eventually be known as the Malolos
Constitution.[3]

Mabini performed all his revolutionary and governmental activities despite having lost the use of
both his legs to polio[4] shortly before the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

Mabini's role in Philippine history saw him confronting first Spanish colonial rule in the opening
days of the Philippine Revolution, and then American colonial rule in the days of the Philippine–
American War. The latter saw Mabini captured and exiled to Guam by American colonial
authorities, allowed to return only two months before his eventual death in May 1903.

Life
Early life and education

Apolinario Mabini was born on July 23, 1864[1] in Barangay Talaga in Tanauan, Batangas.[5] He
was the second of eight children of Dionisia Maranan y Magpantay, a vendor in the Tanauan
market, and Inocencio Leon Mabini y Lira, an illiterate peasant.[6]

In 1881 Mabini received a scholarship from Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. An
anecdote about his stay there says that a professor there decided to pick on him because his
shabby clothing clearly showed he was poor. Mabini amazed the professor by answering a series
of very difficult questions with ease. His studies at Letran were periodically interrupted by a
chronic lack of funds, and he earned money for his board and lodging by teaching children.[6]

Law Studies

Mabini's mother had wanted him to enter the priesthood, but his desire to defend the poor made
him decide to study law instead.[5] A year after receiving his Bachiller en Artes with highest
honors and the title Professor of Latin from Letran, he moved on to University of Santo Tomas,
where he received his law degree in 1894.[5][6]
Comparing Mabini's generation of Filipino intellectuals to the previous one of Jose Rizal and the
other members of the propagandists movement, Journalist and National Artist of the Philippines
for Literature Nick Joaquin describes Mabini's generation as the next iteration in the evolution of
Filipino intellectual development:[7]

Europe had been a necessary catalyst for the generation of Rizal. By the time of Mabini, the
Filipino intellectual had advanced beyond the need for enlightenment abroad[....] The very point
of Mabini’s accomplishment is that all his schooling, all his training, was done right here in his
own country. The argument of Rizal’s generation was that Filipinos were not yet ready for self-
government because they had too little education and could not aspire for more in their own
country. The evidence of Mabini’s generation was that it could handle the affairs of government
with only the education it had acquired locally. It no longer needed Europe; it had imbibed all it
needed of Europe.[7]

Mabini joined the Guild of Lawyers after graduation, but he did not choose to practice law in a
professional capacity. He did not set up his own law office, and instead continued to work in the
office of a notary public.[7]

Instead, Mabini put his knowledge of law to much use during the days of the Philippine
Revolution and the Filipino-American war. Joaquin notes that all his contributions to Philippine
history somehow involved the law:

"His was a legal mind. He was interested in law as an idea, as an ideal[...] whenever he appears
in our history he is arguing a question of legality." [7]

Masonry and La Liga Filipina

Mabini joined the fraternity of Freemasonry in September 1892, affiliating with lodge Balagtas,
and taking on the name "Katabay".[8][9][10]

The following year, Mabini became a member of La Liga Filipina, which was being resuscitated
after the arrest of its founder José Rizal in 1892. Mabini was made secretary of its new Supreme
Council.[11] This was Mabini's first time to join an explicitly patriotic organization.[6][8]

Mabini, whose advocacies favored the reformist movement, pushed for the organization to
continue its goals of supporting La Solidaridad and the reforms it advocated. When more
revolutionary members of the Liga indicated that they did not think the reform movement was
getting results and wanted to more openly support revolution, La Liga Filipina split into two
factions: the moderate Cuerpo de Compromisarios, which wanted simply to continue to support
the revolution, and the explicitly revolutionary Katipunan.[6][8]

Mabini joined the Cuerpo de Compromisarios.[8]

When José Rizal, part of the "La Liga Filipina", was executed in December that year, however,
he changed his mind and gave the revolution his wholehearted support.[6]
Polio and eventual paralysis

Mabini was struck by polio[4] in 1895, and the disease gradually incapacitated him until January
1896, when he finally lost the use of both his legs.[8]

1896 Revolution and Arrest

When the plans of the Katipunan were discovered by Spanish authorities, and the first active
phase of the 1896 Philippine Revolution began in earnest, Mabini, still ill, was arrested along
with numerous other members of La Liga Filipina.

Thirteen patriots arrested in Cavite were tried and eventually executed, earning them the title of
"Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite." Jose Rizal himself was accused of being party to the revolution,
and would eventually be executed in December that year.

When the Spanish authorities saw that Mabini was paralyzed, however, they decided to release
him.[12][13]

Adviser to the Revolutionary Government

Sent to the hospital after his arrest,[14] Mabini remained in ill health for a considerable time. He
was seeking the curative properties of the hot springs in Los Baños, Laguna in 1898 when Emilio
Aguinaldo sent for him, asking him to serve as advisor to the revolution.

During this convalescent period, Mabini wrote the pamphlets "El Verdadero Decálogo" and
"Ordenanzas de la Revolución." Aguinaldo was impressed by these works and by Mabini's role
as a leading figure in La Liga Filipina, and made arrangements for Mabini to be brought from
Los Baños to Kawit, Cavite. It took hundreds of men taking turns carrying his hammock to
portage Mabini to Kawit.

He continued to serve as the chief adviser for General Aguinaldo after the Philippine Declaration
of Independence on June 12. He drafted decrees and edited the constitution for the First
Philippine Republic, including the framework of the revolutionary government which was
implemented in Malolos in 1899.[15]:546

Prime Minister of the Philippines

Shortly after Aguinaldo's return to the Philippines from exile in Hong Kong in May 1898, he
tasked Mabini with helping him establish a government. Mabini authored the June 18, 1898,
decree which established the Dictatorial Government of the Philippines. After the Malolos
Constitution, the basic law of the First Philippine Republic, was promulgated on January 21,
1899, Mabini was appointed Prime Minister and also Foreign Minister. He then led the first
cabinet of the republic.[16]

Mabini found himself in the center of the most critical period in the new country's history,
grappling with problems until then unimagined. Most notable of these were his negotiations with
Americans, which began on March 6, 1899. The United States and the Philippine Republic were
embroiled in extremely contentious and eventually violent confrontations. During the
negotiations for peace, Americans proffered Mabini autonomy for Aguinaldo's new government,
but the talks failed because Mabini's conditions included a ceasefire, which was rejected. Mabini
negotiated once again, seeking for an armistice instead, but the talks failed yet again. Eventually,
feeling that the Americans were not negotiating 'bona fide,' he forswore the Americans and
supported war. He resigned from government on May 7, 1899