From E. Aguinaldo’s Paunang salita sa Munti kong Talambuhay
Since the two of us even discussed it, Mabini also knew but did not report that I indeed forgave the Bonifacio brothers and commuted their life sentence to banishment that’s why the Presiding Judge Colonel Pedro Lipana was able to make his decision.34 But when General Mariano Noriel and General Pio del Pilar learned about my decision, they rushed to see me and said: “If you want to maintain peace and unity in our government and if you want to live longer to sustain the revolution, do not change the verdict meted by the Council of War for the Bonifacio brothers.” General Noriel added, “as you know, General Pio del Pilar and I were deceived by Supremo Andres Bonifacio into joining them by telling us that you would surrender all the troops to the Spaniards when they enter Naic. Those two brothers want nothing but to liquidate you by all means.”35 General Pio del Pilar further said, “It was a good thing that you came upon us during that secret meeting at the estate house where we agreed to topple our newly established government when Supremo Bonifacio read to us that anonymous letter received from Manila saying that you would surrender our troops to the Spaniards when they enter Naic. He told us that you feigned illness and would not leave the house because of this. I am telling you, had you not caught us in that meeting, you or I would not be here today.36 Our conversation made me realize that I was blessed enough to have lived longer. At once, I retracted my commutation of the sentence for Andres and Procopio Bonifacio. I asked General Noriel to carry out the verdict of the Council of War for the Bonifacio brothers and instructed them to bury the papers so that the enemy may not come to know about our weaknesses. However, I don’t know what became of those papers that they ended in the hands of Colonel Antonino Guevarra.