EMILIO AGUINALDO: THE BIG
DIFFERENCE
Of the more than one hundred generals produced by the
Philippine Revolution, Emilio Aguinaldo of Kawit, Cavite, was easily the most
pre-eminent. He led the revolution from beginning to en, and after the death of
Andres Bonifacio his leadership remained unchallenged.
Putting the revolution in its proper perspective,
there is no doubt that Aguinaldo made the big difference. Of the more than one
hundred armed uprising during the 317 years of Spanish rule, or an average of
one revolt every three years – a world record – the revolution started by
Aguinaldo in Cavite alone succeeded. Why?
1. Aguinaldo was the ablest military commander of his
time having defeated in fair military combats the best of the Spanish generals;
namely, (a) General Ernesto de Aguire, chief of the general staff of the
Spanish colonial army in the Philippines, in the Battle of Imus, September 3,
1896; (b) Governor and Captain General Ramon Blanco (1893-1896), assisted by
his general staff, in the Battle of Binakayan, Kawit, on November 9-11, 1898,
and (c) General Antonio Zabala, who was killed in the Battle of Anabu II, Imus,
in March 1897.
2. His spectacular victories in the Battles of Imus
and Binakayan Catapulted Aguinaldo to the front rank of world military
commanders as a consequence of which became a “living legend” in Cavite and
nearby provinces.
3. After the capture of the tribunal (municipal
building) of Kawit on August 31, 1896, Aguinaldo issued a proclamation to all
fellow capitanes municipal of neighboring towns inside and outside
Cavite province enjoining them to rise in arms and help overthrow the
oppressive Spanish regime in the Philippines.
4. Shortly thereafter Aguinaldo organized the Magdalo
Council or Government in Imus, Cavite. Headed by his first cousin, General
Baldomero Aguinaldo, this Magdalo government subsequently became the nucleus of
the “Little Republic of Cavite,” as distinguished from the Magdiwang Council or
Government with headquarters in San Francisco de Malabon (now General Trias).
5. On October 31,1896, Aguinaldo issued a manifesto
in flawless Spanish calling for the creation of a revolutionary government
“patterned after that of the United States of America.” A president and central
committee would run the government; each municipality would be autonomous,
governed by a municipal committee; and this committee, in turns, would appoint
one delegate to the congress, which with the president and the central
committee, would “deliberate upon sending contingents of troops, food and
contribution of war.” An army of 30,000 men would be raised and equipped,
composed of three corps of 10,000 men each under a brigadier-general. The
entire army would be placed under a commander-in-chief who was also member of
the central committee. The objective of the government, according to the
manifesto, was complete independence guide by the principles of the French
revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. The manifesto is presumed to
have been written by General Edilberto Evangelista, engineering graduates from
the University of Ghent, Belgium the first ilustrado to join the revolution.
6. Aguinaldo was elected president of the Revolutionary
Government in the Tejeros Convention of March 22, 1897, without lifting finger.
In fact, he was not present in the convention, having been pinned down in the
seesaw battle of Pasong Santol, in Salitran, Dasmariñas, since the first week
of March. That he was elected in absentia, defeating Andres Bonifacio
and Mariano Trias, despite the fact that only eight Magdalo officials were
present in the convention, proved that even Magdiwang delegates voted for him,
recognized his superior ability as a military commander. Bonifacio, the
Katipunan supremo, was pitted against young Aguinaldo, the “living
legend,” and he lost.
7. As a member of the principalia (the
economic elite), not to be confused with the ilustrados (the educated
class), Aguinaldo’s assumption of leadership in Kawit was part of his family
tradition. His father, Carlos Aguinaldo, had been elected so many times as
gobernadorcillo that each time his election was announced people would say,
“Our Lord has risen against.” From his father the mantle of leadership was
transferred to his eider brother, Crispulo, the Catolico cerrado (Devout
Catholic), from whom young Emilio inherited it, and even (Cavite el Viejo) on
to the world stage as the only Indio (Brown man) to defeat the haughty
Castilian conquistadors in military combat, finally ending as president of the
First Philippine Republic.
8. Leadership came naturally to Aguinaldo. He never
aspired for it. First he was elected cabaza de barangay of Binakayan at
age 17, eight years short of the age requirement for the position. Later he was
elected Capitan municipal of his municipality without his knowledge and
consent; he was just informed of his election after arriving from a trading
mission to the Visayan Island. Then he was elected, in absentia, president of
the Revolutionary government in the Tejeros Convention of March 22,1897. When
informed of his election, he refused to leave the frontline to be sworn into
office. To him, as a military commander, the matter of holding the enemy of bay
in the Battle of Pasong Santol was far more important than taking his oath of
office for a job he never wanted. He candidate for president of the
Revolutionary Government was Edilberto Evangelista, the Manileño ilustrado,
but the latter had been killed in the Battle of Zapote, on February 17, five
weeks before the Tejeros Convention.
9. Upon his return from Hong Kong at the beginning of
the Spain-American War over Cuba, Aguinaldo, a born democrat found himself
heading dictatorial government, which his adviser felt was necessary at the
stage of the struggle against Spain. This dictatorial government was set up on
May 24, 1898, but hardly a month later, on June 23; he issued a decree changing
it into a revolutionary government with his title change from dictator to president.
Aguinaldo was probably the first man on record to voluntarily step down from
dictator to president.
10. Aguinaldo was elected president of the First
Philippine Republic by an absolute majority of the Malolos Congress. Probably
to express his extreme disgust over the bickering in Congress between the
Constitutionalists headed by Pedro Paterno and the Absolutists led by Aguinaldo
tendered his resignation as president on Christmas day, December 25, 1898. It
was like a bolt out of the blue. But Mabini, his strongest defender, had the
printed copies of Aguinaldo’s resignation secretly confiscated and burned,
fearing that it would break the entire Revolutionary Government into pieces.
Aguinaldo was the chief of rallying point in the Malolos government. Felipe
Buencamino, Sr. one of the leader of the Congress said Aguinaldo’s resignation
would mean the death of revolution.
11. Aguinaldo alone, of the Filipino revolutionary
leaders at the turn of the century, could command such unquestioned and
unflinching loyalty among his men, a kind of loyalty without equal in the
annals of the world. Take the case of young Gregorio del Pilar, 24, the “boy
general,” who defended the strategic Tirad Pass to the death give his
commander-in-chief, Aguinaldo, hotly pursued by American troops, sufficient
time to get away and lose himself in the almost impenetrable mountain fastness
of Northern Luzon. Minutes before hi heroic death del Pilar wrote in his diary
entry for December 2, 1899: “I have a terrible premonition that the enemy will
vanquish me and my valiant men; but I die happy fighting for my beloved
country.”
12. Aguinaldo was incorruptible. General Jose
Alejandro tells the story of a wealthy Chinese merchant who promised Aguinaldo
untold riches from the opium trade. But Aguinaldo peremptory turned him down.
“He’s angel. I speak to him of the business wherein we can make much money. I
provide the brains, the labor, and the money. He alone put up salvia, but he
does not like. That man, him no person, that angel.”
13. Aguinaldo received P400, 000 (Mexican currency)
representing the first installment of Spanish Indemnity in accordance with the
terms of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato. The check was under his name, and be alone
could dispose of it. Aguinaldo deposited it in two Hong Kong banks. For his
subsistence and that of the 26 other revolutionaries who joined him in exile he
remarked that annual interest amounting to P12, 000. He imposed the strictest
economy as regards their expenditures. He himself made an accounting of all their
expenses. When rumor spread around in Hong Kong about the alleged
misappropriation by Aguinaldo of the Spanish indemnity, some 42 Filipino
revolutionary leaders signed an affidavit attesting that “not the smallest
amount has been misapplied, but that they remain in their entirety, having been
reserved for the service of the country.” The affidavit was signed on April 23,
1898, in the absence of Aguinaldo who was then in Singapore. The Spanish
indemnity, in according with a secret agreement among the revolutionists, was
spent for the purchase of arms and ammunition for the resumption of he
unfinished revolution in the Philippines.
Says General Alejandro, a close friend of Rizal and
General Antonio Luna: “ In reading and hearing the criticism directed against
the man who was the moving spirit of the movement of 1898 – General Aguinaldo –
regarding his actuation in the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and the administration and
use of the P400, 000 indemnity, I am filed with indignation and all generous
sentiments revolt, as I can affirm that there has not been until now in our
history another instance of a man who, being in a foreign country and in
possession of P400,000 in a bank under his name, the equivalent of more than
one million pesos now (1933), had the integrity and unselfishness to return to
his country to expose again his life for an ideal which is the ideal of his
people and his race.”
14. Another proof of Aguinaldo’s integrity was
revealed by Manuel L. Quezon, his arch political rival and critic. Resident Commissioner
Quezon, speaking before the U.S. Congress on October 2, 1914, said:
“…Mr. Chairman, I wish to say a few words in behalf
of Gen. Aguinaldo…for several months I was on the staff of Gen. Aguinaldo, then
president of the Philippine Republic and commanding general of its army. I had
occasion, therefore, to know Gen. Aguinaldo well and intimately, and from
personal observation I can assert without fear of successful contradiction that
he is man of high character and patriotism…
“When Spain failed to comply with her part of the
bargain [in the Pact of Biak-na-Bato-ABS], when she refused to introduce in the
Philippines those reforms that were asked, Aguinaldo did use that money to buy
guns, and with those guns he helped the United States wage war with Spain…
“…Aguinaldo at one time wielded great power in the
Philippines. During the revolution he was the supreme military chief, wielding
the power of dictator…He had the physical power to do with the treasury of the
then independent Philippine Government as ha pleased. When he was captured by
Gen Funston (in Palanan, Isabela March 23, 1901), after having exercised this
undisputed authority for more than two years, Aguinaldo was as poor as he was
when the war started.”