Mabini, Apolinario (1864-1903), was a Filipino lawyer, writer, and revolutionary political leader who played an important role in the Philippines’ struggle for independence in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Although struck by paralysis in 1896 after a long illness, Mabini continued his fight for Philippine freedom and human rights throughout his life. Mabini was popularly known as “the Sublime Paralytic.”
Mabini’s greatest early influence was as a writer. Three of his most important works were The True Decalogue (1898), Constitutional Programme for the Republic of the Philippines (1898), and Ordinances of the Revolution (1898). Mabini believed that a successful revolution required the Philippine people to liberate themselves from the colonial government and to eliminate internal social problems.
On June 12, 1898, the Filipinos declared their independence and proclaimed a provisional republic with the revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo as president. Mabini, who had become Aguinaldo’s most trusted adviser, was named the secretary of foreign affairs and head of the first Philippine cabinet on Jan. 2, 1899. Mabini wrote the laws for the new Philippine government and laid the groundwork for the Constitution, which was approved on Jan. 21, 1899.
Within two weeks of Aguinaldo’s proclamation of the Constitution, hostilities broke out between Philippine and United States forces, who had assisted in the defeat of Spain the previous year. On March 31, 1899, the Americans seized the city of Malolos. Mabini fled to the province of Nueva Ecija, where the Americans captured him in the town of Cuyapo. He was imprisoned in Intramuros prison, Manila, where he resumed his writings against U.S. control of the Philippines, arguing for Philippine independence and self-rule.
Mabini was released from prison in 1900, but was soon arrested again for his revolutionary writings. In 1901, he was exiled to Guam, where he wrote his longest work, The Philippine Revolution.
Apolinario Mabini y Maranan was born on July 23, 1864, in the village of Talaga in the province of Batangas. He attended the College of San Juan de Letran and the University of Santo Tomas, where he received a degree in law. He was admitted to the bar in 1894. He died of cholera on May 13, 1903, three months after his return from exile in Guam.
