Ladislaw Diwa

Background

Ladislaw Diwa was born on June 27, 1863, in Cavite, Philippines. He was the third among ten children of Mariano Diwa and Cecilia Nocon.

Education

Ladislaw Diwa, after learning his first letters from home, studied under Padre Perfecto Manalac under whom Victoriano Luciano was also schooling in Cavite. This priest was responsible for his admission in the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree. It was probably upon the advice of Padre Manalac that he took up theology, but this study he abandoned for his father was opposed to an ecclesiastical career. Diwa thereupon took up law in the University of Santo Tomas where he became acquainted with Andres Bonifacio who was clandestinely distributing propaganda literature.

Career

Andres Bonifacio found in Ladislaw Diwa a warm and faithful friend and the latter boarded with the former on Sagunto (now Santo Cristo) Street, thus becoming acquainted with many other laborers and propagandists of the period. A few years before the Revolution he was holding the position a clerk in a district court of Quiapo, Manila. And it was also about the same period that Teodoro Plata and Valentin Diaz were holding clerical positions in other districts. He joined the Liga Filipina, and after the organization of branches, became the secretary of the popular council of Trozo under the presidency of Bonifacio.

On the evening of July 6, 1892, upon having learned of the decision of Despujol to banish Rizal, Bonifacio founded the Katipunan with Diwa and Plata forming the first triangle organization. Diwa adopted the symbolic name "Balita." Each of the three founders initiated two others to form other triangles, and Diwa took Teodoro Gonzales and Roman Basa in whom he reposed greater confidence than any of his friends. When the council of government was formed in October following, called the Kataastaasang Sanggunian (Most Supreme Council) under the presidency of Deodato Arellano, Diwa held the position of fiscal, and in the election of officers in February 1893, he was chosen a counselor. Then he was transferred to the court of Pampanga where he stayed until the outbreak of the Revolution.

In Pampanga, he did propaganda work for the Katipunan. Because of his position in the court this activity was enhanced. But he did not confine his activities in that province alone. He also catechized and initiated members in the neighboring provinces of Bulakan, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac. He went as far as Mindoro to confer, most probably, with Plata who was a clerk of the court there, performing the hazardous task of a Katipunan propagandist. Diwa was also a mason, becoming initiated in 1893. Upon the discovery of the Katipunan, his life was for several times imperiled. Soon he was arrested in Bacolor, Pampanga, taken to Manila and imprisoned in Bilibid where he occupied the same cell with Severino de las Alas tortured and released by a decree of Governor-General Primo de Rivera in June 1897.

In the second stage of the Revolution, he at one time had to wade underwater with his nostrils only above water to escape Spanish terroristic persecutions, crossing Dalahikan from San Roque to Noveleta in this manner and passing through the Spanish trenches in a fisherman's garments. In the Dictatorial and Revolutionary governments under Emilio Aguinaldo, he was named civil governor of Cavite. Then he became secretary-general to Mariano Trias, then general in chief of operations of Southern Luzon until March 1901, when Trias surrendered with him to the American authorities. Upon taking the oath in the same year of his surrender he accepted the position of clerk of the court of Cavite which he filled until his death.

Achievements

• Ladislaw Diwa was a true Filipino patriot who is particularly known as one of the founders of Katipunan. In his honor, Caridad Elementary School in Cavite City was renamed Ladislao Diwa Elementary School in November 1964.

Connections

Ladislaw Diwa was married to Felisa Dandan by whom he had three children. The marriage with his second wife, Honorata Crescini, produced five children.

Father:

Mariano Diwa

Mother:

Cecilia Nocon

ex-wife:

Felisa Dandan

Wife:

Honorata Crescini

colleague:

Deodato Arellano

Deodato Arellano was a Filipino propagandist. He is particularly known as the first president of the Katipunan, a Philippine revolutionary society.

colleague:

Roman Basa

Roman Basa was a Filipino revolutionary and propagandist, especially known as the second president of Katipunan.

References

• Dictionary of Philippine Biography
  1970