Luzon Historical Tours: Biyaheng Bonifacio - Maragondon, Cavite (Jun 1, 2013): Trial House

Finally! Yup, after 2 weekends of frustrating delays, Gel and I finally decided to start the tour. But since the rainy season 'may' start anytime, we decided to start at the farthest location first - Maragondon, Cavite. By the way, going along with us is Gel's co-teacher, Kristina who's also an avid photographer.

Maragondon Cavite has two Bonifacio sites: the Trial House located at Col. Riel St, and the Execution Site located in remote Barangay Pinagsanhan.

Gel and I met Kristina around 6:30 AM at the Mcdonald's outlet near the corner of Quirino and Taft avenues in Manila. After a quick breakfast, we waited for the bus that will take us to Maragondon. By 7:00 AM, we were on our way and thanks to the new Cavitex coastal highway, total trip was about 2 hours.

Upon reaching the Maragondon junction, we asked Anthony from a group of tricycle drivers if he knew the sites that we want to visit. He did and so we tried to start haggling for the best price where we could rent his services. We agreed to pay him P500 so he could drive us to both sites.

The first site - the Trial House, is less than 10 minutes ride from the junction and is open daily between 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

There are no entrance fees but you do need to sign their visitors' log book.

The site is aptly named Trial House since this is where Andres Bonifacio and his brother Procopio were tried and sentenced to death for treason. This happened after Bonifacio's fall from grace during the Tejeros Convention (considered as the first Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections in Philippine history) where he was out-maneuvered for the Presidential post by Emilio Aguinaldo who led the rival Magdalo faction of Katipuneros. After Tejeros, Bonifacio planned to form another government which naturally didn't sit well with Aguinaldo's followers. And being the hot-head that he was, Bonifacio was said to even have issued threats against the people of Indang Cavite while his small group was resting on their way back to Montalban (now a town of Rizal). The people sought the help of Aguinaldo who then ordered the arrest of Bonifacio. On April 27, 1897, a skirmish between the forces of Bonifacio and Aguinaldo occurred in Indang. Both Bonifacio brothers were captured with Andres suffering from a stab wound to his neck. Both men were then taken to the Trial House. Gen. Mariano Noriel created a tribunal to handle the brothers' trial. After the guilty verdict was made, Aguinaldo requested the verdict be reduced and he recommended the brothers be exiled to an isolated island instead. But after being convinced by two of his generals that the future of the Philippine Revolutionary Government may once again be at stake should the verdict be reduced, Aguinaldo changed his mind and signed the death sentence of the Bonifacio brothers.

Volunteers at the site told us that we can take pictures so long as we don't use the camera's flash (so much for clear shots!) Note to self: need to save up for a DSLR!!!!