Apolinario Mabini (left) is depicted on the 10-peso bill

Apolinario Mabini (July 23, 1864—May 13, 1903) was a Filipino theoretician who wrote the constitution for the short-lived republic of 1898-99. He was born in Talaga , Batangas of poor parents, Inocencio Mabini and Dionisia Maranan.

In his young age, Mabini studied at a school in Tanawan , then conducted by a certain Simplicio Avelino. Much later, he transferred to a school conducted by the famous pedagogue, Father Valerio Malabanan. He continued his studies at the San Juan de Letran where he recieved his Bachelor of Arts and title Professor of Latin and the University of Santo Tomas where he received his law degree in 1894.

His dream to defend the poor led him to forsake priesthood, which his mother wanted him to take. Early in 1896, he contacted an illness, probably infantile paralysis, that led to the paralysis of his lower limbs. When the revolution broke up the same year, the Spanish authorities, suspecting that he was somehow involved in the disturbance, arrested him. The fact, however, that he could not move his lower limbs showed the Spaniards that they had made a mistake. He was released and sent to the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

Mabini, it must be noted, was not entirely free from nationalistic association, for he was a member of Rizal's La Liga Filipina and worked secretly for the introduction of reforms in the administration of government. In 1898, while vacationing in Los Baños, Emilio Aguinaldo sent for him. It took hundreds of men taking turns at carrying the hammock he was in to bring Mabini to Kawit. Aguinaldo, upon seeing Mabini's physical condition, thought that he must have made a mistake in calling for him to help him in this work.

Mabini was most active in the revolution in 1898, when he became the chief adviser of General Aguinaldo. He drafted decrees and proposed a constitution for the Philippines. He also made plans for the revolutionary government.

In 1899, he was captured by the Americans but was later set free. In 1901, he was exiled to Guam but returned to the Philippines in 1903 after agreeing to take an oath of allegiance to the United States. He took an oath on February 26, 1903 before the Collector of Customs.

On May 13, 1903 Mabini died of cholera in Manila.

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