Teodoro Sandiko y Santa Ana (March 31, 1860 – October 19, 1939) was a Filipino lawyer and former

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Sandiko played important roles in Philippine history when he held various posts in the Aguinaldo cabinet. After the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

, he went through different positions in local government of

Bulacan Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan (; ; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on ...

until he was elected to

Philippine Senate The Senate of the Philippines () is the upper house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the House of Representatives as the lower house. The Senate is composed of 24 senators who are elected at-large (the country f ...

in 1919.

Biography

Sandiko was born in Pandacan,

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

on March 31, 1860 to Miguel Sandiko and María Paz de Santa Ana and was educated and finished Bachelor of Arts at the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (UST; ), officially the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines or colloquially as ''Ustê'' (), is a Private university, private Catholic school, Catholic researc ...

. He also took two years of law but he didn't finish it, instead, he opened a Latin grammar school in Malolos. His radical nationalist ideas irritated the colonial Spanish officials so he sailed to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and then to mainland

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

where he continued his law school at the University of Madrid. He was not able to finish his course because he joined the Propaganda Movement in Spain. He managed '' La Solidaridad'' on February 15, 1889. When the truce of Biak-na-Bato failed, he joined the return to the Philippines with exiles in Hong Kong. In the Philippines, he held several positions in the

revolutionary republic A revolutionary republic is a form of government whose main tenets are popular sovereignty, rule of law, and representative democracy. It is based in part on the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers, and was favored by revolutionaries during the ...

's Aguinaldo cabinet: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Colonel of the General State, and a brigadier-general of the army. When the Americans obtained Philippines after the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

, Sandiko became an employee of the Office of the Provost Marshal General. While being employed to the Americans, he cabled secret and valuable information to Aguinaldo government. Sandiko was the alleged author of "Sandiko order", an infamous military instruction in 1899 by him as a general of the Aguinaldo, instructing Filipino soldiers inside American-occupied

to rise an insurrection against to United States rule and kill all whites in the city. The "Sandiko order" was actually an American propaganda to search for Filipino savagery against American sovereignty over the islands and as a ''

casus belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one bou ...

'' to declare war against insurrection. In 1900 US elections,

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

used this document to his vice presidential candidacy as further justification to

American occupation of the Philippines American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

. Before the

Philippine–American War The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Philippine Insurrection, Filipino–American War, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged following the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in December 1898 when the United States annexed th ...

erupted in June 1899, he resigned from office and became Aguinaldo's

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

. After the assimilation of Philippine islands, he entered politics and was elected as the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

in 1906. He remained in office until 1909. In 1914,

Nacionalista Party The Nacionalista Party (Filipino language, Filipino and Spanish language in the Philippines, Spanish: ''Partido Nacionalista''; , NP) is a political party in the Philippines which is the oldest existing party in the country and in Southeast Asi ...

's left wing under the leadership of Sandiko bolted out of the party and established ''Partido Democrata Nacional'' or the ''Democratas''. In 1920, he became spokesperson of ''Kapatiran Magsasaka''.Connolly, Michael J.
''Church Lands and Peasant Unrest in the Philippines: Agrarian Conflict in 20th-Century Luzon''
page 95. From 1919–1931, he served as a Senator to the 5th, 6th, 7th and

8th Philippine Legislature The 8th Philippine Legislature was the meeting of the legislature of the Philippine Islands under the sovereign control of the United States from 1928 to 1930. Sessions Leadership Senate * President: Manuel L. Quezon ( 5th District, Na ...

s representing the third senatorial district (present-day

Nueva Ecija Nueva Ecija, officially the Province of Nueva Ecija ( ; ; ; ), is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Palayan, while Cabanatuan, its former capital, is the largest Local gove ...

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ; ), is a province in Central Luzon in the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, ...

and

Tarlac Tarlac, officially the Province of Tarlac (; ; ; ; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. It had a population of 1,503,456 people according to ...

). In 1934, he was elected as the Second Vice President of the

House of Representatives of the Philippines The House of Representatives (; '','' thus commonly referred to as ''Kamara'') is the lower house of Congress of the Philippines, Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate of the Philippines as the upper house. The ...

and was a delegate to the 1934–1935 Constitutional Convention for the drafting of the 1935 Constitution. After retiring from public service, he became the manager of Katubusan and La Paz y Buen Viaje cigar factories. Sandiko died of a heart attack on October 19, 1939.

References

Governor Teodoro Sandiko (1906–1909)

Teodoro Sandiko: Constitution Framer

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandiko, Teodoro Nacionalista Party politicians 1860 births 1939 deaths University of Santo Tomas alumni Secretaries of the interior and local government of the Philippines Senators of the 8th Philippine Legislature Senators of the 7th Philippine Legislature Senators of the 6th Philippine Legislature Senators of the 5th Philippine Legislature Governors of Bulacan People from Pandacan People from Bulacan Aguinaldo administration cabinet members Complutense University of Madrid alumni Members of the Malolos Congress People from the Spanish East Indies Members of the Senate of the Philippines from the 3rd district Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Misamis (province) Democrata Party politicians