La Liga Filipina (lit.'The Philippine League') was a secret society. It was founded by José Rizal in the house of Doroteo Ongjunco at Ilaya Street, Tondo, Manila on July 3, 1892.[1][2]
The organization derived from La Solidaridad and the Propaganda movement.[3] The purpose of La Liga Filipina was to build a new group that sought to involve the people directly in the reform movement.[4]
The league was to be a sort of mutual aid and self-help society dispensing scholarship funds and legal aid, loaning capital and setting up cooperatives, the league became a threat to Spanish authorities that they arrested Rizal on July 6, 1892, then he was sent to Dapitan.[5]
During the exile of Rizal, the organization became inactive,[6] though through the efforts of Domingo Franco and Andrés Bonifacio,[7] it was reorganized. The organization decided to declare its support for La Solidaridad and the reforms it advocated, raise funds for the paper, and defray the expenses of deputies advocating reforms for the country before the Spanish Cortes. Eventually after some disarray in the leadership of the group, the Supreme Council of the League dissolved the society.[8]
Liga membership split into two groups when it was about to be revealed: the conservatives formed the Cuerpo de Compromisarios which pledged to continue supporting the La Solidaridad while the radicals led by Bonifacio devoted themselves to a new and secret society, the Katipunan.