Roman Basa was a Filipino patriot who was the second Supremo or leader of the Katipunan. He was referred to as “Liwanag” in the Katipunan. As a member of the Liga Filipina, he took the name “Baesa bata”.

He worked as a clerk at the Comandancia General de Marina. With the connivance of a crewman of a ship which made weekly trips between Manila and Hong Kong, he smuggled into the country copies of La Solidaridad and the novels of José Rizal which were banned by the Spanish colonial government.

He is mistaken in many on-line resources as Jose Ma. Basa, who was a friend of Rizal and was his partner in smuggling the books into the Philippines. How they are related has yet to be clarified.

Reference:

• "159th Birth Anniversary of KKK Supremo Roman Basa" MB.com.ph. http://bit.ly/Y8HbpC. Date published: 01 May 2007. Date accessed: 13 Feb 2013.
• "Roman Basa". Wikipedia.org. http://bit.ly/Y8GtbY. Date published: 24 July 2012. Date accessed: 13 Feb 2013.
• "Supreme Council (Kataastaasang Sangunian". Katipunan activists in Manila, 1892-96. http://bit.ly/Y8zCPI. Date accessed: 14 Feb 2013