Emilio Aguinaldo

Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (Cavite, March 22, 1869 - Manila, February 6, 1964) was a Filipino general and politician, one of the leaders of the independence movement in his country. He presided over the first government of the Republic of the Philippines, which did not gain international recognition. He fought in the 1898 war of independence against Spain and the following year in the war against the United States.

Biography

Childhood

Aguinaldo was born in the province of Cavite, on the island of Luzon, in the then Spanish possession of the Philippines. He was the seventh of eight children born to Carlos Aguinaldo and the Trinidad Family, members of an enlightened and well-placed family.

As a young man, Aguinaldo received a basic education from his great-aunt and later attended the primary school in his town. In 1880 he began his secondary education at the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán; however, after his father died during his third year of studies, he interrupted them to return to his town and assist his mother in managing her agricultural holdings.

House of General Aguinaldo on the way to Cavite.

On his seventeenth birthday, Aguinaldo was elected head of a barangay, that is, head of the Binakayan neighborhood, the most progressive neighborhood in Cavite at the time; he would hold the position for eight years. Meanwhile, he took up shipping, traveling far and wide from his land. In 1893 the so-called Maura Law for the reorganization of municipal governments came into force, according to which the position of gobernadorcillo was converted into a municipal captaincy endowed with greater autonomy. On January 1, 1895, Aguinaldo was elected municipal captain, the first in Cavite.

Philippine Revolution

In 1895, under the leadership of Andrés Bonifacio, the secret patriotic organization Katipunan was founded, with the goal of driving out the Spanish colonial power and gaining independence for the Philippines. Aguinaldo entered the association with the rank of lieutenant, and in a few months he rose to the generalship thanks to his commanding skills. In 1896 the Katipunan succeeded in inciting the outbreak of the revolutionary war, during which Aguinaldo took part in various military encounters and succeeded in liberating his province from Spanish control; His success in them earned him such popularity among the revolutionaries that in the elections after the seizure of power he was elected president of the nascent Republic.

Upon Bonifacio learned of the events, he attempted to contest the election to ensure his own continuity in power. In the confrontation between Bonifacio's followers (the Magdiwang) against Aguinaldo's supporters (the Magdalo) Procopio, Bonifacio's brother, was wounded and Bonifacio himself was captured along with his supporters. After a military trial, both brothers were sentenced to death on May 10, 1897 for sedition, and that same day they were executed in a forest near Cavite.

At this point, Aguinaldo took command of the Philippine insurrection, eventually forming the Philippines' first sovereign government and drafting its first constitution. On December 14, after months of negotiations with the Spanish government, which had used its superior arms and numbers to recover from the initial defeats, the Pact of Biak-na-Bato was signed, guaranteeing peace on the condition of that Aguinaldo and 33 other insurgent leaders go into exile. The pact was ratified, and Aguinaldo went into exile in Hong Kong, where he used the 400,000 pesos paid as compensation by Spain to obtain weapons.

On May 19, 1898, he clandestinely returned to the Philippines and resumed hostilities. Counting this time with the support of the United States, which was then facing Spain in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine revolutionary army won victory without too much difficulty, and proclaimed the independence of the archipelago on June 12, 1898.

Meanwhile, the Spanish and Americans were at odds in the Caribbean for control of Cuba. On the American side, Admiral George Dewey was sent to the archipelago to confront the Spanish, who were under the command of Admiral Patricio Montojo, Marquis of Almenara, who lost the Philippines due to lack of forces and the age of the Spanish ships. In the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded its territories in the Philippines, Guaján, Puerto Rico and Cuba in favor of the United States, causing the surprise and distress of the Filipinos, who instead of the planned independence saw themselves subjected to a colonial power.

Later, Emilio Aguinaldo, when asked by journalist Guillermo Gómez Rivera about whether he regretted anything in his life, declared:

Yeah. I am sorry for having risen against Spain and, that is why, when the funerals were held in Manila of King Alfonso of Spain, I presented myself in the cathedral to surprise the Spaniards. And they asked me why I had come to the funerals of the King of Spain against which I rose up in rebellion... And, I told them that he is still my King because under Spain we were always subjects, or citizens, Spaniards but that now, under the United States, we are just a consumer market of their exports, when not going on, because they have never made us citizens of any state of the United States... And the Spaniards opened my way and treated me as their brother on that significant day...

December 16, 1958.

Philippine-American War

On January 23, 1899, the Constitution of the Philippine Republic was promulgated and Aguinaldo was named president.

Shortly later, on February 4, 1899, war broke out between the Aguinaldo government and the American occupiers, after the assassination of a Filipino soldier by an American guard while crossing the San Juan Bridge. Aguinaldo led Filipino troops against the superior forces of the occupiers. Despite successive defeats, he continued the fight in retreat, while he withdrew with his troops to the north of Luzon, the island where Baler was located, where a group of Spanish soldiers were still besieged, presumably unaware of the new situation.

He was accused of killing General Antonio Luna on June 5, 1899, who was a brilliant strategist and rival in the military hierarchy. However, these accusations were denied many years later, in a report given in 1958 to a Filipino journalist, in which Emilio Aguinaldo declined all responsibility for the murder of Luna and attributed it to masonic maneuvers by the North Americans, eager to liquidate any remains of Spain in the Philippines, such as the Catholic religion, the Spanish language or the social organization of Castilian roots.

On March 23, 1901, he was captured by American forces at Palanan, Isabela Province, thanks to a ploy devised by General Frederick Funston in which the Americans pretended to surrender.

Faced with the alternative of being summarily executed or renouncing military action and accepting US sovereignty, Aguinaldo relented and signed the surrender on April 1, 1901; Despite the perseverance of isolated pockets of resistance, with the surrender of Aguinaldo the revolutionary stage came to an end.

US occupation

Over the next few years, Aguinaldo withdrew from political life, but lent support to pro-independence groups and organized the Association of Veterans of the Revolution to finance pensions for ex-combatants. In 1919, when the ban against the Philippine flag was lifted, he transformed his former home of Cavite into a monument to the flag; the monument, known as the capilla de Aguinaldo, is still preserved today.

In the 1935 elections, he ran for the presidency of the Philippine Commonwealth under US auspices, in preparation for independence, but was defeated by Manuel Luis Quezón.

Japanese occupation in World War II

During the Japanese occupation, Aguinaldo collaborated with them to obtain popular support for the occupiers; he broadcast messages, speeches, and radio statements urging the people to collaborate with the collaborationist government of President José P. Laurel, and addressed a surrender request to General Douglas MacArthur "so as not to cause further harm to Filipino youth."

For these actions, Aguinaldo was accused of treason and collaboration with the enemy after the war, and was imprisoned in the Bilibid prison, along with other collaborators. His defense argued that he was acting under duress, and that the Japanese had threatened to kill him and his family if he did not cooperate. In 1945 he was released by means of a general pardon issued by the new Philippine government.

Postwar Republican Era

After the war, Manuel Roxas was elected president of the new Republic. When he died, affected by a stroke, in the third year of his term, his vice president, Elpidio Quirino, took office.

In the following elections, Quirino triumphed against José P. Laurel and named Aguinaldo a member of the Council of State; In that position, Aguinaldo achieved great benefits for the veterans of the struggle for independence. He retired again to private life at the end of the term, after the election of Ramón Magsaysay as president.

The next president, Diosdado Macapagal, declared June 12 as Filipino Independence Day, thus recognizing the efforts of Filipino patriots in their fight against the Spanish, first, and against the Americans after. In the first celebration of June 12, Aguinaldo paraded, despite his fragile health and advanced age, waving a Philippine flag.

Emilio Aguinaldo died in Manila on February 6, 1964 at the age of ninety-four, due to a coronary thrombosis, regretting having risen up against the Spanish government.

Decorations of Spain

The then regent of Spain, María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena, granted Aguinaldo the highest distinction of the Red Cross, as a sign of recognition for the correct treatment he had with the Spanish prisoners in the war for independence, and especially with the heroes of the Siege of Baler