Reading Between the Lines of Apolinario Mabini’s “The True Ten Commandments”
- Dr. Paul Dumol
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
By Dr. Paul Arvisu Dumol
“El verdadero decálogo” is a list of ten precepts written by Apolinario Mabini in the manner of the Ten Commandments. The adjective verdadero or true (in the sense of tunay) implicitly compares Mabini’s Ten Commandments with the Ten Commandments of Christianity. The implications could be disturbing to Christians, but Mabini intends considerably less than his words apparently imply. I will return to this question at a later stage of this talk. “El verdadero decálogo” was written in April 1898, probably before the Americans declared war on Spain and certainly before Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong in order to resume the revolution.
What I want to do in this paper is: first, to go over Mabini’s Decalogue and see what he wants to say in each and every commandment; second, to read two footnotes to Mabini’s Decalogue written by the author himself for the light that they may throw on Mabini’s ten commandments; third, to go over Mabini’s two introductions to his Decalogue; fourth, to review the historical context of the “Verdadero decálogo”; and fifth, to consider the relevance of Mabini’s work to the Filipino today.
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