Apolinario Mabini

Apolinario Mabini (1864–1903) was a Filipino lawyer and political thinker known as the "brains of the revolution." Born to a poor family in Tanauan, Batangas, he studied at San Juan de Letran and the University of Santo Tomas despite poverty and, from 1896, paralysis of his legs. In 1898 he became chief adviser to Emilio Aguinaldo and the first prime minister and foreign secretary of the revolutionary government, drafting its constitutional plans. Captured by American forces, he was exiled to Guam, returned in 1903 and died soon after. His writings include The True Decalogue and La Revolución Filipina.