Apolinario Mabini

Who is Apolinario Mabini?

Apolinario Mabini was a Filipino revolutionary leader, lawyer, and political philosopher known as the Brains of the Revolution and the Sublime Paralytic. Born in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas, on July 23, 1864, to a poor family, he earned a law degree from the University of Santo Tomas through scholarships and tutoring. Stricken by polio in 1896, which paralyzed his legs, he nonetheless became the chief adviser to President Emilio Aguinaldo during the First Philippine Republic. Mabini served as its first Prime Minister and Secretary of Foreign Affairs, drafting key documents and shaping the government's structure. He authored El Verdadero Decálogo (The True Decalogue) and the Programa Constitucional de la República Filipina, outlining moral and political principles for the new nation. Captured by American forces and exiled to Guam for refusing to swear allegiance to the United States, he returned to the Philippines in 1903 and died shortly afterward of cholera.

Sources: Apolinario Mabini, El Verdadero Decálogo (1898) · Apolinario Mabini, La Revolución Filipina (1931, posthumous memoirs) · Cesar Adib Majul, Mabini and the Philippine Revolution (1960)