#anyway so whenever mabini signs off a letter with 'mag-otos po kayo' literally wailing

[sforzesco]

Kakang Pule, Rody Herrera

The painting depicts a moment on the journey that brought Apolinario Mabini to Emilio Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo had read Mabini's writings and was so impressed by it that he had Mabini (who had suffered from polio which caused paralysis in his legs) brought to him from Batangas to Kawit, carried by hammock through a series of relays.

One of the copies of the scheme which I had drafted reached Mr Aguinaldo’s hands by chance, and he thereupon wrote, although he did not know me, asking me to help him. Although I was just as unacquainted with him, I wanted to help in the common endeavour as far as I was able, and I called on him at Cavite port on the 12th June 1898, the very day on which the independence of the Philippines was being proclaimed in the town of Kawit. I immediately asked him about the agreement he had concluded with the United States Government, and to my great surprise learned that there was none, and that the (American) consul in Singapore, Pratt, and Admiral Dewey had only given him verbal assurances that the United Sates Government did not want any part of the islands and that it designed only to help the natives destroy the Spanish tyranny so that all the Filipinos could enjoy the blessings of an independent government. I realized then that the American representatives had limited themselves to ambiguous verbal promises, which Mr Aguinaldo had accepted because he ardently desired to return to the islands, fearful that other influential Filipinos should (rob him of glory and) reach an understanding with the Americans in the name of the people.

-The Philippine Revolution, Apolinario Mabini (trans. Leon Ma. Guerrero)

When Emilio Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines on board a US ship and announced the continuation of the Philippine revolution against Spain, he sent for a Batangas lawyer famous for an “ulong ginto” (head of gold). Carried from Batangas to Laguna in a hammock, Mabini endured all discomforts patiently, even when he was abruptly dropped on the ground to be picked up by the next relay. He arrived in Kawit in time for the declaration of Philippine independence, the waving of the Philippine flag, and the premiere of the Magdalo March that became our national anthem.

-Mabini: Conscience of the Nation, Ambeth R. Ocampo