six o'clock sharp
The initiate , after a series of blood-curdling ordeals to try out his courage and resolution , swore on a human skull a terrific oath to devote his life and energies to the extermination of the white race , regardless of age or sex , and later affixed to it his signature or mark , usually the latter , with his own blood taken from an incision in the left arm or left breast . This was one form of the famous `` blood compact , '' which , if history reads aright , played so important a part in the assumption of sovereignty over the Philippines by Legazpi in the name of Philip II . Rizal was made the honorary president of the association , his portrait hung in all the meeting-halls , and the magic of his name used to attract the easily deluded masses , who were in a state of agitated ignorance and growing unrest , ripe for any movement that looked anti-governmental , and especially anti-Spanish . Soon after the organization had been perfected , collections began to be taken up -- those collections were never overlooked -- for the purpose of chartering a steamer to rescue him from Dapitan and transport him to Singapore , whence he might direct the general uprising , the day and the hour for which were fixed by Bonifacio for August twenty-sixth , 1896 , at six o'clock sharp in the evening , since lack of precision in his magnificent programs was never a fault of that bold patriot , his logic being as severe as that of the Filipino policeman who put the flag at half-mast on Good Friday . Of all this Rizal himself was , of course , entirely ignorant , until in May , 1896 , a Filipino doctor named Pio Valenzuela , a creature of Bonifacio 's , was despatched to Dapitan , taking along a blind man as a pretext for the visit to the famous oculist , to lay the plans before him for his consent and approval . Rizal expostulated with Valenzuela for a time over such a mad and hopeless venture , which would only bring ruin and misery upon the masses , and then is said to have very humanly lost his patience , ending the interview `` in so bad a humor and with words so offensive that the deponent , who had gone with the intention of remaining there a month , took the steamer on the following day , for return to Manila . '' -LSB- 12 -RSB- He reported secretly to Bonifacio , who bestowed several choice Tagalog epithets on Rizal , and charged his envoy to say nothing about the failure of his mission , but rather to give the impression that he had been successful .