Andres Bonifacio y de Castro was born on November 30, 1863 and died on May 10, 1897. Andres Bonifacio was a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary. He was a founder and leader of the Katipunan movement which sought the independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine Revolution. He is considered a de facto national hero of the Philippines. Bonifacio is also considered by some Filipino historians to be the first president of the Philippines, but he is not officially recognized as such.
Some historians such as Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel Encarnacion, and Ramon Villegas have pushed for the recognition of Bonifacio as the first president of the Philippines instead of Aguinaldo, the officially recognized one. This view is based on his position of president/Supremo of the Katipunan revolutionary government from 1896-97. This view also emphasizes that Bonifacio established a government through the Katipunan before a government headed by Aguinaldo was formed at the Tejeros Convention. Guerrero writes that Bonifacio had a concept of the Philippine nation called Haring Bayang Katagalugan ("Sovereign Tagalog Nation") which was displaced by Aguinaldo's concept of Filipinas. In documents predating Tejeros and the First Philippine Republic, Bonifacio is called the president of the "Tagalog Republic".