1. What were Apolinario
Mabini’s Opinions on the
Filipino-American War?
By: Mikko Burket

2. Who is A. Mabini?
 Apolinario Mabini was a Filipino political philosopher who served as the first
Philippine Prime Minister. In history books, he was commonly referred to as
“The Brains of the Revolution” for valiantly trying to stop the American army
from taking over the Philippines. These actions included rallying the Filipinos
and showed deep support to the media about the revolution. He was also the
chief advisor of Emilio Aguinaldo.

3. Basic Background…
 Mabini was born on July 23, 1864 in Barangay Talaga in Tanauan, Batangas. He
was the second of eight children of Dionisia Maranan, a vendor in the Tanauan
market, and Inocencio Mabini, a Beggar.
 In 1881 Mabini received a scholarship to go to the Colegio de San Juan de
Letran in Manila. 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.
 Mabini's mother had wanted him to take up the priesthood, but his desire to
defend the poor made him decide to take up Law instead.
 A year after receiving his Bachilles en Artes with highest honors and the title
Professor of Latin from Letran, he moved on to the University of Santo Tomas,
where he received his law degree in 1894.

4. His Opinions…
 At first, Mabini showed disapproval in the revolution, believing that the
Reform Movement would prevail.
 He became part of the La Liga Filipina where they would write instead of
revolt and chose that they would rather be a colony of Spain than having a big
revolution for their freedom. Jose Rizal was actually the one who created this
movement.

5. How he changed sides…
 When Jose Rizal was executed in December that year, for some reason he
changed his mind and gave the revolution his wholehearted support. He
fought the Americans thinking that the Filipinos had as much human rights as
they did.

6. What he did to fight…
 He wrote articles and pamphlets urging his followers to continue the struggle
for freedom and negating American military atrocities against the
Philippines.
 He also disputed U.S. propaganda which described the occupation as
intending to train the Filipinos in the art of self-government: he said that
while they were under the Americans’ control, they would never be able to
teach themselves this.

7. Conclusion
 A. Mabini was very fearless when it came to defending his rights, shown in his
childhood and how he debated against American colonization. He also
preferred using words instead of weapons to fight, as shown when pursuing
his writing instead of fighting in the Spanish war.
 A. Mabini’s childhood ma have been a big factor in deciding

8. Sources
 Documentary Sources of Philippine History
 http://www.bulatlat.com/news/3-14/3-14-mabini.html

9. Thank you for listening!