A RELATIVE of the late hero Andres Bonifacio on Wednesday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to give the founder of the Katipunan a state funeral and recognize him as the first president of the “Tagalog Republic.”
Susan Distrito, the grandniece of Espiridiona Bonifacio Distrito, better known as “Lola Nonay,” the younger sister of the father of the Philippine Revolution, said her great-granduncle should be accorded a state funeral.
She made her statement to reporters during the 153rd birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio at the Bonifacio Monument Circle in Caloocan City.
Also on Wednesday, the youth group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan slammed Rodrigo Duterte for his alleged failure to deliver real change.
Spark Spokeswoman Joanne Lim cited the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar, the continuing practice of contractualization and the enduring joint military exercises with the United States.
She also slammed the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs.
“No one wants to know, but the war on drugs is a war on the very people that the state has failed to protect,” Lim said.
Distrito said Lola Nonay should also be buried at the Heroes’ Cemetery beside her brother Andres saying she too contributed to the revolution.
She said Lola Nonay was tasked to secretly bring bullets to the revolutionaries during the revolution, which she hid in a cooking pot filled with rice.
She also hid guns under her skirt and cooked food for the wounded Katipuneros.
She said Espiridiona died at the age 76 and was buried at the Manila South Cemetery.
Distrito said Duterte had the prerogative to grant a state funeral to those considered worthy of it–like Andres Bonifacio.
She said during President Benigno Aquino’s administration, they also asked for a state funeral for their great-grandfather, but their request fell on deaf ears.
“I cannot blame them because they are close to the relatives of Emilio Aguinaldo,” Distrito said.
Bonifacio was ordered killed by Emilio Aguinaldo along with his brother Ciriaco in the mountains of Maragondon, Cavite, on May 10, 1897.
