Ladislao Diwa | |
---|---|
Born |
Ladislao Diwa y Nocon June 27, 1863 San Roque de Cavite, Captaincy General of the Philippines |
Died | March 12, 1930 Manila, Philippine Islands |
(aged 66)
Alma mater |
Colegio de San Juan de Letran University of Santo Tomas |
Ladislao Diwa y Nocon (June 27, 1863 − March 12, 1930) was a Filipino patriot who was among the founders of the Katipunan that initiated the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896.
He was born in San Roque, Cavite to Mariano Diwa and Cecilia Nocon and was educated at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and later studied for the priesthood at the University of Santo Tomas. But he had to abandon his ecclesiastical studies just before his ordination in order to pursue law. He believed that due to the political unrest in the country, he would be able to serve in a much greater capacity as a lawyer than as a priest.
He studied law instead and it was while he was studying law that Diwa met Andrés Bonifacio who often distributed propaganda material, authored by José Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar during the Propaganda Movement in Spain, inside the university campus. The two became close friends and Diwa later boarded with Teodoro Plata at Bonifacio's house in Tondo, Manila.
After finishing his law studies, Diwa was named a clerk in a district court of Quiapo, Manila. While an employee of the court, Diwa joined La Liga Filipina and became secretary of La Liga's council in Trozo in Tondo, under the presidency of Bonifacio. However, Rizal was arrested a few days after establishing La Liga and he was deported to Dapitan island.
Although they were members of La Liga which espoused the peaceful reform of the Spanish colonial government, Diwa, Bonifacio and Plata were apparently convinced that an armed uprising was the only way to attain independence from Spain. After hearing of Rizal's deportation, they founded a secret society and called it Katipunan in Tondo on July 7, 1892. The meeting was also attended by Deodato Arellano, Valentin Díaz and José Dizon.