defending balintawak

The Filipino Katipuneros announced their rebellion against the Spanish colonial government in what is popularly known as “Cry of Balintawak,” a spot northeast of Manila, in August 1896. Katipunan leader Andres Bonifacio led the tearing of the cedula or tax receipts before all members cheered boisterously. Emilio Aguinaldo’s commissioned “Hymn of Balintawak” immortalized such a defining moment of Katipunan as well as of the historic place.
While a monument of the heroes of 1896 was erected in the intersection of EDSA and Andres Bonifacio Drive-North Diversion Road, Apolonio Samson’s house in Kaingin Road between Balintawak and San Francisco del Monte Avenue in Barrio Kangkong is the reputed site of the “Cry.”
Bonifacio gathered the leaders and hundreds of comrades-in-arms in the hills of Balintawak north of Manila and, in a ceremony bursting with emotions, the fighters shredded their residence certificates to symbolize the end of their loyalty to Spain while shouting the battle cry: "Long live Philippine independence!"
Eyewitness accounts point to Balintawak as the renowned reference of the “Cry,” which historians picked up for the books. For instance, Dr. Pio Valenzuela stated before the Olive Court that the Katipunan meetings occurred from Sunday to Tuesday (August 23-25, 1896) at Apolonio Samson’s house in Balintawak.
Specifically, the Cry took place in Balintawak on August 23 in that particular spot. Pugad Lawin as a name only existed after the turn of the century so it is more historically accurate to sustain the original “Cry of Balintawak” rather than resort to the more romantic “Pugad Lawin.”
The events of Katipunan meetings and attacks on August 17-26 1896 occurred closer to Balintawak than to Kalookan, the general area where Pugad Lawin may be found. By tradition, Filipinos referred to the “Cry of Balintawak” since that barrio was a better known reference point than Banlat, where Pugad Lawin (a hawk’s nest on top of a tall sampaloc tree at Gulod, the highest elevated place close to Balintawak) specifically is.