Knowing the Supremo better

Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy 16/05/2014

Andres Bonifacio's only existing portrait believed to have been taken on his wedding day

The Supremo was not the penniless, unschooled guy many Filipinos believed.He was, in fact of a middle class family and worked as controller in a German warehouse in Tondo, Manila.

Mention “Andres Bonifacio” and most people, students even, will imagine a man in his early thirties wearing camisa de chino and red shorts. However, history reveals that Bonifacio’s only existing photograph is the one in which he wears a coat and tie.

According to historian Ambeth Ocampo, it is believed that Bonifacio only rented his middle-class attire for the studio portrait. Others suggest that the now faded photograph was taken on his wedding day.