The Sublime Paralytic

Apolinario 'Poly' Mabini y Maranan (July 23, 1864 - May 13, 1903)

Apolinario 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, an unlettered peasant. Mabini began informal studies under his maternal grandfather, who was the village teacher. Because he demonstrated uncommon intelligence, he was transferred to a regular school owned by Simplicio Avelino, where he worked as a houseboy, and also took odd jobs from a local tailor - all in exchange for free board and lodging. He later transferred to a school conducted by the Fray Valerio Malabanan, whose fame as an educator merited a mention in José Rizal's novel El Filibusterismo.

In 1881 Mabini received a scholarship to go to the 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 was periodically interrupted by a chronic lack of funds, and he earned money for his board and lodging by teaching children.

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.

He joined the Fraternity in September 1892 at Logia Balagtas 149 under the Grand Oriente Espanol. An effective organizer and an orator of the Regional Grand Lodge that was established by Grand Master Ambrocio Flores in 1893, he helped unify Philippine Masonry. He was blessed with a very intelligent mind and tutored by his mother at an early age, he later became a lawyer and an idealistic philosopher.

He helped organize La Liga Filipina and was arrested in 1896 for alleged complicity in the Katipunan.

Later paralyzed on both legs, he was handpicked by Aguinaldo to help the latter form a revolutionary government and was transported from Bay, Laguna to Kawit, Cavite on a hammock, in time for Aguinaldo’s proclamation on June 12, 1898.

He was designated Prime Minister  and Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Aguinaldo’s newly-formed government, and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Malolos Congress. He laid the foundation of the government of the First Philippine Republic

On December 10, 1899, he was captured by Americans at Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, but was later set free. In 1901, he was exiled to Guam, along with scores of revolutionists Americans referred to as 'insurrectos' and who refused to swear fealty to imperialist America. When Brig. Gen. Arthur C. MacArthur, Jr. was asked to explain by the US Senate why Mabini had to be explained, the following was cabled:

"Mabini deported: a most active agitator; persistently and defiantly refusing amnesty, and maintaining correspondence with insurgents in the field while living in Manila, Luzon...."

Mabini returned home to the Philippines in 1903 after agreeing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States on February 26, 1903 before the Collector of Customs. On the day he sailed, he issued this statement to the press:

After two long years I am returning, so to speak, completely disoriented and, what is worse, almost overcome by disease and sufferings. Nevertheless, I hope, after some time of rest and study, still to be of some use, unless I have returned to the Islands for the sole purpose of dying.

To the chagrin of the American colonial officials, however, Mabini resumed his patriotic work of agitating for independence for the Philippines soon after he was back home from exile. On May 13, 1903 Mabini died of cholera in Manila, at the age of 38.