Background
Deodato Arellano was born on July 26, 1844, in Bulakan, Bulacan, Philippines. His parents were Juan de la Cruz and Mamerta de la Cruz. Later on, the parental family name was changed to Arellano following the decree of Claveria of 1849.
Deodato Arellano was born on July 26, 1844, in Bulakan, Bulacan, Philippines. His parents were Juan de la Cruz and Mamerta de la Cruz. Later on, the parental family name was changed to Arellano following the decree of Claveria of 1849.
Deodato Arellano was sent to Manila and there finished a course in bookkeeping from the Ateneo Municipal (now Ateneo de Manila University).
After studying in university, Deodato Arellano secured employment as assistant clerk of the second class in the arsenal of the artillery corps. Later on, when his wife's brother Marcelo H. del Pilar learned that he was going to be persecuted for his political and anti-clerical activities in Bulakan and Manila, before he sailed for Spain in October 1888, this leader and Mariano Ponce organized a political group which came to be known as La Propaganda and placed under the direction of Doroteo Cortes and counting as members Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, Pedro Serrano Laktaw, and D. Arellano among others. This unit was entrusted with the delicate task of continuing the propaganda work in the Islands and in collecting funds for the support of the workers in the Peninsula.
Later on, Arellano was heading this secret organization, or at least by 1891 or earlier, was administering its affair, being the person responsible for sending money and making reports to the Filipino leaders in Spain. He performed his assignment incredibly well. In the distribution of propaganda literature, he was an astute agent, training in this activity Gregorio H. del Pilar, who was then a young student living under his paternal roof on Ilaya Street in Tondo and turning him out to become one of his accomplished workers.
Upon the organization of La Liga Filipina on the evening of July 3, 1892, he was chosen secretary of the executive council under the presidency of Ambrosio Salvador. No sooner was the Liga formed when its founder, Jose Rizal, was ordered deported to Dapitan. Alarmed, Andres Bonifacio immediately founded the Katipunan in Arellano's apartment. In the same month, the statues of the society were drawn up by the court clerk Teodoro Plata at Bonifacio's behest with the assistance of two other court clerks, Ladislaw Diwa and Valentin Diaz. This was done with the concurrence of Arellano. As the society was growing, the Supreme Council was constituted, and Arellano was selected its first president, with Bonifacio as comptroller, Diwa as fiscal, Plata as secretary, and Diaz as treasurer.
The organization grew slowly at first due to the cautious procedure adopted in initiating and catechizing members. It appears that this pace did not please Bonifacio so that the Supreme Council was reorganized in January 1893, resulting in the displacement of Arellano by Roman Basa who was then clerking in the Navy General Command. Bonifacio must have eyed Basa for strategic purposes, and the substitution of Arellano in the high council of the Katipunan ascribed to other motives than the sloth or cowardice of Arellano who was by experience a mature man. From this time on his name does not appear in society's echelon. Arellano, however, did not abandon his work in the propaganda. Together with Juan de Zulueta, he continued spiritedly in reactivating the Liga Filipina whose members became disconcerted upon the untimely banishment of its founder. Popular and provincial councils were established in Manila, mainly due to the activity of Domingo Franco, the enthusiastic support of Bonifacio, and in Bulakan province at Arellano's initiative.
When the Liga was reorganized in April 1893, Arellano was chosen secretary-treasurer under the presidency of D. Franco. The activity of this renascent group, however, ceased in October 1893 when it was decided to dissolve the Liga altogether because some implicating documents had fallen into the hands of the authorities. There was an apparent lull but in the following year, the Cuerpo de Compromisarios was constituted in August 1894 by some fifty persons who were determined in supporting the work of the propagandists abroad, each member pledging to contribute a monthly fee of five pesos. Arellano was a member of the Cuerpo and was selected to become its secretary under the presidency of Numeriano Andriano.
Thus it can be said that Arellano was an inveterate and indefatigable propagandist from the beginning until the Revolution. Implicating declarations of arrested and tortured members of the Katipunan resulted in his apprehension on October 10, 1896.
Deodato Arellano was married to Paula Rivera. After her death, he married Hilaria H. del Pilar on April 22, 1877.
Numeriano Adriano was a Filipino notary public, propagandist, and martyr. He was one of those executed by the Spaniards for directly or indirectly participating in the first phase of the Revolution in 1896.
Roman Basa was a Filipino revolutionary and propagandist, especially known at the second president of Katipunan.
Ladislaw Diwa was a Filipino revolutionary. He was the co-founder of the Katipunan, a Philippine revolutionary society.
