The KKK (Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (Society of the Most Noble Sons of the Country) was the radical branch of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s La Liga Filipina. All the founders and first members of the KKK were officers and members, too, of the La Liga Filipina. The exile to Dapitan of Dr. Rizal led to the dissolution of the La Liga and the establishment, in its place, of the KKK in 1892.

Thirty men led by Deodato Arellano, Ladislao Diwa, Andres Bonifacio, Teodoro Plata, Ildefonso Laurel, and Valentin Diaz founded the KKK. To cast off foreign rule in the Philippines and recover the lost liberty of the Filipino people was the KKK’s ultimate goal. The founders declared Dr. Rizal the KKK’s honorary president and the martyred Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora the society’s guiding lights.

The KKK symbolized the collective efforts and will of the lowly masses to alleviate their sufferings. Andres Bonifacio’s energetic leadership transformed the KKK into a mighty "weapon of the weak." The KKK showed that the lowly masses – workers, peasants, laborers, illiterates – were also "thinking" people, equally mindful and responsive to the oppressive conditions surrounding them and determined to end these oppressions.

The KKK unified our forefathers 114 years ago and enabled them to attain their lofty goal – the freedom of their Motherland. Poverty is our people’s Number One enemy today. We can lick this enemy. The KKK ideals exist in each one of us. Let us rekindle these ideals and forge not only as our weapon against the poverty but also as the means to fuel our country’s growth and progress.