Apolinario Mabini y Maranan (July 23, 1864 – May 13, 1903) was a Filipino lawyer, political philosopher, revolutionary leader, and statesman who played a central role in the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. Known as the “Brains of the Revolution” for his intellectual and political influence and as the “Sublime Paralytic” because he continued his public work after losing the use of his legs, Mabini became one of the principal architects of the revolutionary government during the closing years of Spanish rule and the beginning of American occupation of the Philippines. He was born in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas, to a farming family of modest means.
Mabini studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila and later at the University of Santo Tomas, where he studied law. He earned his law degree in 1894 and worked as a legal clerk and lawyer. During the movement for political reform under Spanish colonial rule, he became associated with Filipino reformists and joined organizations advocating peaceful political change. In 1896 he suffered an illness, traditionally identified as poliomyelitis, that left his lower body paralyzed. His disability did not prevent him from becoming increasingly involved in the revolutionary movement.
Following Emilio Aguinaldo’s return to the Philippines in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, Mabini became one of Aguinaldo’s most important advisers. He helped formulate decrees and governmental policies as the revolutionary leadership sought to transform the independence movement into an organized state. Mabini advocated a strong, representative government based on law and popular sovereignty and warned against arrangements that he believed might compromise Philippine independence. In January 1899 he became president of the Council of Government, a position generally regarded as equivalent to prime minister, while also serving as secretary of foreign affairs of the First Philippine Republic. He resigned from the government in May 1899 after disagreements over policy and negotiations during the Philippine-American War.
American forces captured Mabini in December 1899. Although later released, he continued to oppose American sovereignty and refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States. In January 1901 the American colonial authorities deported him, together with other Filipino political prisoners, to Guam. He spent approximately two years in exile there. In 1903, suffering from poor health and wishing to return home, Mabini agreed to take the required oath of allegiance and was permitted to return to the Philippines. He arrived in Manila in February 1903.
Mabini died of cholera in Manila on May 13, 1903, at the age of 38, only a few months after returning from Guam. His political writings, including El Verdadero Decálogo (“The True Decalogue”) and La Revolución Filipina (“The Philippine Revolution”), articulated his ideas about citizenship, morality, government, national independence, and the responsibilities of political leaders. He is regarded as one of the leading intellectual figures of the Philippine Revolution and as an important theorist of the early Philippine republic, remembered particularly for his insistence that political independence should be accompanied by constitutional government, civic responsibility, and public integrity.