Another copy of the Declaration of Independence

YESTERDAY, Sept. 9, 2024, the original manuscript of the Act of Proclamation of the Independence of the Filipino People, along with other important original documents such as the original manuscripts of Rizal's "Noli me Tangere" and "El Filibusterismo," went on public display during the opening of the National Library of the Philippines' Permanent Gallery. The "Acta de la Proclamacion de Independencia del Pueblo Filipino" in the penmanship of Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista and signed by 98 people on June 12, 1898, at the house of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite, is a main highlight of the exhibit "And With Words a Nation Was Born: Treasures of the National Library of the Philippines," which I wrote and curated with the help of the NLP people, ably led by director Jet Adriano. It features NLP-owned materials that helped shape a nation based on democracy, human rights and "pakikipagkapwa."

Incidentally, a hitherto unknown handwritten copy of the proclamation, dubbed "The Birth Certificate of the Filipino Nation," will be auctioned at the Leon Gallery on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. In the catalog, Jorge Mojarro, historian and fellow Manila Times columnist, wrote that one of the military men who signed the declaration, Lt. Col. Jose Bañuelo, actually had the whole document copied by hand on the same day and signed it in the end. Without cellphone cameras and photocopiers, this is our ancestors' version of Xerox and scan!