By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
NO riderless horse galloping toward the horizon. Not for him a glorious death in bloody battle. Denied him are the stuff of myth and legend that adorn the short lives of martyrs for the motherland. Instead Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo lived to be almost a hundred, to shuffle in the spangled shadows that history casts, sometimes kindly, sometimes harshly, on the valiant who survive long after a revolution has ended and freedom has been won.
His was a role that played itself out inexorably to the finish. He was there. He presided at the birthing of our nationhood. He was a soldier, revolutionary, leader, provisionary dictator, politician. A hero, for he cannot be denied his own brand of heroism.
But it also cannot be denied that Aguinaldo would always have to bear the burden of history's judgment on his role in the outcome of the revolution that was sparked by even braver men before him, specifically Andres Bonifacio, the great hero whose life he could have spared.
But that is now all history and, as historians often say, a revolution has a way of devouring some of its best sons and daughters.
A new era had dawned and overwhelmed the land. His time had passed. He tried to get back to politics during the Commonwealth era and ran for president against Manuel L. Quezon and lost. But he remained a soldier at heart to the end, organizing veterans of the war against Spain and the US, keeping the fire in them alive, to warm them in the sunset of their years.
Another war would break out, but it was now the younger generation's turn to fight and prove their worth.
With the occupying Japanese routed, the US declared independence for the Philippines on July 4, 1946. For the next 15 years the date eclipsed June 12, 1898, the day Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain, until President Diosdado Macapagal saw the truth and magic in dates.
In 1962, June 12 was re-declared Independence Day and 1898 the country's birthday as a nation. Aguinaldo couldn't have been happier. He was present at the celebration.
Two years later, at the age of 95, Aguinaldo died at the Veterans Memorial Hospital. To honor him, the home of the country's military establishment was named after him. Kampo Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo in 1986 was where and when the culmination of years of struggle against the Marcos dictatorship took place, where the brave and unarmed throng gathered to declare freedom.
There now stands a monument to people power, complimenting the name of the man who, despite his faults as a revolutionary, gave us the first taste, the first glimpse of what it is to be free.
That is why Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo is a man who cannot be ignored. He was the President of the short-lived first Philippine Republic. Our first President.
Emilio Aguinaldo was born on March 22, 1869 in Kawit, Cavite, the seventh child of Carlos Aguinaldo and Trinidad Famy. He attended the Colegio de San Juan de Letran but he stopped schooling after finishing third year high school. He belonged to an influential landed family, his father being gobernadorcillo of Kawit. So even though Aguinaldo was legally underage, he became barangay head of Binakayan. At 25 he became capitan municipal of Kawit. He was a young man in a hurry.
It was while he was capitan of Kawit that he joined the Masonry, then a ``subversive'' organization that had among its members, Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Juan Luna, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena, men who would figure prominently in the revolution against Spain.
Aguinaldo later joined the Katipunan, the revolutionary movement founded by Bonifacio in 1892. The supremo himself initiated Aguinaldo into the secret society. Aguinaldo lost no time in recruiting members for the Katipunan and soon he had his own following within the movement. His faction was called Magdalo, while Bonifacio's was Magdiwang.
It was after the revolution broke out on Aug. 23, 1896 that the rivalry between Aguinaldo and Bonifacio became more intense. Bonifacio's Cry of Pugad Lawin was followed by Aguinaldo's own in Kawit. At that time Aguinaldo's forces were being baited into laying down their arms. The Spanish forces concentrated on his bailiwick in Cavite, the resistance being more intense there.
From rivalry to enmity
It was at the Tejeros convention in March 1897 that the Aguinaldo-Bonifacio rivalry deteriorated into enmity. The Magdalo, Magdiwang as well as other factions were supposed to come together to set up a revolutionary government, but the opposite happened.
Aguinaldo was chosen as head and Bonifacio the secretary of the interior. Aguinaldo was now in power. Bonifacio must have sensed that there was a program for his elimination. When his capability was questioned and he was humiliated, Bonifacio walked out along with his followers. Aguinaldo proceeded to take his oath as head of the revolutionary government, sidelining the Katipunan. Meanwhile, Bonifacio called for his own convention in Naic and was himself elected head.
Having learned of Bonifacio's move and listened to false accusations, Aguinaldo promptly had Bonifacio and his brother Procopio arrested and tried for rebellion and treason. The military tribunal found the Bonifacio brothers guilty and meted out a death sentence. It was a cruel sentence that Aguinaldo would never be able to live down. Mount Buntis in Maragondon, Cavite where Bonifacio and his brother were executed, would always be known as the hill of Bonifacio's crucifixion.
Enticements
Toward the end of 1897, the Spanish government enticed Aguinaldo to lay down his arms in exchange for remuneration, indemnification, amnesty and reforms. The Pact of Biak-na-Bato was supposed to make all that possible.
It is said that Aguinaldo was himself not very sure about the chances at victory of the revolution he was waging. How long could the fighting go on? Was it for himself or for the interest of the many that he would make his decision?
It was not a surprise when Aguinaldo opted for peaceful means and exile to Hong Kong. There in the British Crown Colony some of the promised money was supposed to have been delivered and became the cause of discontent and suspicion in the ranks. It was while Aguinaldo and company were in Hong Kong that Commodore George Dewey's US naval forces sank the Spanish armada in that infamous May 1, 1898 Battle of Manila Bay.
On May 19, 1898, Aguinaldo was back in the Philippines, not as an avenging hero, as resistance had been going on even in his absence. But he did assert his presence and lost no time in consolidating his following and claiming as his own victories that had been won. He also disbanded the Katipunan.
On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo declared independence from his home in Kawit, Cavite. For the first time, the Philippine flag with its red-white-and-blue fields, three stars and sun with many rays, which he brought from Hong Kong was unfurled. For the first time the Philippine National Anthem was played publicly. The task of nationhood had begun, or so, it seemed. Aguinaldo was now head of the revolutionary government. He was not quite 30 yet.
That day could be said as the final repudiation of Spain. It also presaged the Philippines' becoming a protectorate, a colony of the United States of America.
Two months later, Manila fell to American hands and the Spanish forces were out. Aguinaldo did not know he had been duped, that Manila could have been his. It was a foreshadowing of things to come.
On Sept. 14, 1898, at the Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan, the so-called Malolos Congress was held for the purpose of drafting the Constitution. On Jan. 21, 1899 the finished product was signed and two days later the first Philippine republic was inaugurated. All that work came to naught when the US government refused to recognize Aguinaldo's government and instead earlier forged the Dec. 10, 1898 Treaty of Paris with Spain that signed away the Philippines to the US for a measly $20 million.
Filipino gallantry
Less than a month after the inauguration of the republic headed by Aguinaldo, the war broke out between Filipinos and Americans. The Filipinos' gallantry in battle was once again put to the test against the new conqueror. The archipelago was again a battlefield, its hills and vales soaked with the blood of its bravest, among them Aguinaldo's youngest general, Gregorio del Pilar.
Aguinaldo stayed at the helm. The US government offered incentives and enticements toward peace, among them the setting up of a civil government and the freeing of political prisoners as well as plain money in exchange for laying down of arms.
Slowly the US campaign of pacification undermined Aguinaldo. On March 23, 1901, the president of the short-lived republic was captured in his mountain hideout in Palanan, Isabela.
On April 1, 1903, Aguinaldo pledged allegiance to the US government and then went home to retire in his beloved Kawit, the place that saw him rise to power and fame. The place where, for him, it all began.
NO riderless horse galloping toward the horizon. Not for him a glorious death in bloody battle. Denied him are the stuff of myth and legend that adorn the short lives of martyrs for the motherland. Instead Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo lived to be almost a hundred, to shuffle in the spangled shadows that history casts, sometimes kindly, sometimes harshly, on the valiant who survive long after a revolution has ended and freedom has been won.
His was a role that played itself out inexorably to the finish. He was there. He presided at the birthing of our nationhood. He was a soldier, revolutionary, leader, provisionary dictator, politician. A hero, for he cannot be denied his own brand of heroism.
But it also cannot be denied that Aguinaldo would always have to bear the burden of history's judgment on his role in the outcome of the revolution that was sparked by even braver men before him, specifically Andres Bonifacio, the great hero whose life he could have spared.
But that is now all history and, as historians often say, a revolution has a way of devouring some of its best sons and daughters.
A new era had dawned and overwhelmed the land. His time had passed. He tried to get back to politics during the Commonwealth era and ran for president against Manuel L. Quezon and lost. But he remained a soldier at heart to the end, organizing veterans of the war against Spain and the US, keeping the fire in them alive, to warm them in the sunset of their years.
Another war would break out, but it was now the younger generation's turn to fight and prove their worth.
With the occupying Japanese routed, the US declared independence for the Philippines on July 4, 1946. For the next 15 years the date eclipsed June 12, 1898, the day Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain, until President Diosdado Macapagal saw the truth and magic in dates.
In 1962, June 12 was re-declared Independence Day and 1898 the country's birthday as a nation. Aguinaldo couldn't have been happier. He was present at the celebration.
Two years later, at the age of 95, Aguinaldo died at the Veterans Memorial Hospital. To honor him, the home of the country's military establishment was named after him. Kampo Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo in 1986 was where and when the culmination of years of struggle against the Marcos dictatorship took place, where the brave and unarmed throng gathered to declare freedom.
There now stands a monument to people power, complimenting the name of the man who, despite his faults as a revolutionary, gave us the first taste, the first glimpse of what it is to be free.
That is why Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo is a man who cannot be ignored. He was the President of the short-lived first Philippine Republic. Our first President.
Emilio Aguinaldo was born on March 22, 1869 in Kawit, Cavite, the seventh child of Carlos Aguinaldo and Trinidad Famy. He attended the Colegio de San Juan de Letran but he stopped schooling after finishing third year high school. He belonged to an influential landed family, his father being gobernadorcillo of Kawit. So even though Aguinaldo was legally underage, he became barangay head of Binakayan. At 25 he became capitan municipal of Kawit. He was a young man in a hurry.
It was while he was capitan of Kawit that he joined the Masonry, then a ``subversive'' organization that had among its members, Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Juan Luna, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena, men who would figure prominently in the revolution against Spain.
Aguinaldo later joined the Katipunan, the revolutionary movement founded by Bonifacio in 1892. The supremo himself initiated Aguinaldo into the secret society. Aguinaldo lost no time in recruiting members for the Katipunan and soon he had his own following within the movement. His faction was called Magdalo, while Bonifacio's was Magdiwang.
It was after the revolution broke out on Aug. 23, 1896 that the rivalry between Aguinaldo and Bonifacio became more intense. Bonifacio's Cry of Pugad Lawin was followed by Aguinaldo's own in Kawit. At that time Aguinaldo's forces were being baited into laying down their arms. The Spanish forces concentrated on his bailiwick in Cavite, the resistance being more intense there.
From rivalry to enmity
It was at the Tejeros convention in March 1897 that the Aguinaldo-Bonifacio rivalry deteriorated into enmity. The Magdalo, Magdiwang as well as other factions were supposed to come together to set up a revolutionary government, but the opposite happened.
Aguinaldo was chosen as head and Bonifacio the secretary of the interior. Aguinaldo was now in power. Bonifacio must have sensed that there was a program for his elimination. When his capability was questioned and he was humiliated, Bonifacio walked out along with his followers. Aguinaldo proceeded to take his oath as head of the revolutionary government, sidelining the Katipunan. Meanwhile, Bonifacio called for his own convention in Naic and was himself elected head.
Having learned of Bonifacio's move and listened to false accusations, Aguinaldo promptly had Bonifacio and his brother Procopio arrested and tried for rebellion and treason. The military tribunal found the Bonifacio brothers guilty and meted out a death sentence. It was a cruel sentence that Aguinaldo would never be able to live down. Mount Buntis in Maragondon, Cavite where Bonifacio and his brother were executed, would always be known as the hill of Bonifacio's crucifixion.
Enticements
Toward the end of 1897, the Spanish government enticed Aguinaldo to lay down his arms in exchange for remuneration, indemnification, amnesty and reforms. The Pact of Biak-na-Bato was supposed to make all that possible.
It is said that Aguinaldo was himself not very sure about the chances at victory of the revolution he was waging. How long could the fighting go on? Was it for himself or for the interest of the many that he would make his decision?
It was not a surprise when Aguinaldo opted for peaceful means and exile to Hong Kong. There in the British Crown Colony some of the promised money was supposed to have been delivered and became the cause of discontent and suspicion in the ranks. It was while Aguinaldo and company were in Hong Kong that Commodore George Dewey's US naval forces sank the Spanish armada in that infamous May 1, 1898 Battle of Manila Bay.
On May 19, 1898, Aguinaldo was back in the Philippines, not as an avenging hero, as resistance had been going on even in his absence. But he did assert his presence and lost no time in consolidating his following and claiming as his own victories that had been won. He also disbanded the Katipunan.
On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo declared independence from his home in Kawit, Cavite. For the first time, the Philippine flag with its red-white-and-blue fields, three stars and sun with many rays, which he brought from Hong Kong was unfurled. For the first time the Philippine National Anthem was played publicly. The task of nationhood had begun, or so, it seemed. Aguinaldo was now head of the revolutionary government. He was not quite 30 yet.
That day could be said as the final repudiation of Spain. It also presaged the Philippines' becoming a protectorate, a colony of the United States of America.
Two months later, Manila fell to American hands and the Spanish forces were out. Aguinaldo did not know he had been duped, that Manila could have been his. It was a foreshadowing of things to come.
On Sept. 14, 1898, at the Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan, the so-called Malolos Congress was held for the purpose of drafting the Constitution. On Jan. 21, 1899 the finished product was signed and two days later the first Philippine republic was inaugurated. All that work came to naught when the US government refused to recognize Aguinaldo's government and instead earlier forged the Dec. 10, 1898 Treaty of Paris with Spain that signed away the Philippines to the US for a measly $20 million.
Filipino gallantry
Less than a month after the inauguration of the republic headed by Aguinaldo, the war broke out between Filipinos and Americans. The Filipinos' gallantry in battle was once again put to the test against the new conqueror. The archipelago was again a battlefield, its hills and vales soaked with the blood of its bravest, among them Aguinaldo's youngest general, Gregorio del Pilar.
Aguinaldo stayed at the helm. The US government offered incentives and enticements toward peace, among them the setting up of a civil government and the freeing of political prisoners as well as plain money in exchange for laying down of arms.
Slowly the US campaign of pacification undermined Aguinaldo. On March 23, 1901, the president of the short-lived republic was captured in his mountain hideout in Palanan, Isabela.
On April 1, 1903, Aguinaldo pledged allegiance to the US government and then went home to retire in his beloved Kawit, the place that saw him rise to power and fame. The place where, for him, it all began.
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