THE FIRST REPUBLIC (MALOLOS REPUBLIC)

EMILIO AGUINALDO
(March 22, 1869 - February 6, 1964) Term of Presidency: 1898-1901 Vice President: Mariano Trias Party: Paksyong Magdalo ng Katipunan, National Socialist Party

Emilio Aguinaldo was born on March 22, 1869, in Kawit, Cavite Province, from a Chinese and Tagalog parentage, Carlos Aguinaldo and Trinidad Famy. He was the seventh child of the mayor of the province. At the age of 15, with the help of a Dominican priest, he studied Medicine at Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. He completed his education at the University of Santo Toms, Manila. He had two wives, namely, Hilaria del Rosario and Maria Agoncillo. At the age of 17, Emilio was elected as cabeza de barangay of Binakayan, the most progressive barrio of Kawit, Cavite. He served for his town-mates for eight years. He also engaged in inter-island shipping, travelling as far as Visayas and even Jolo, Philippines. On January 1, 1895, he was elected capitan municipal of Kawit the first to bear that title in accordance with the Mauro Law. At that time a capitan municipal received no salary except 3% of taxes he could collect. In August 1896 he was the local leader of the Katipunan, a revolutionary society that fought bitterly and successfully against Spanish. In December 1897 he Page 1 of 9

signed an agreement called the Pact of Biak-na-Bato with the Spanish governor-general. He agreed to leave the Philippines and to remain permanently in exile on condition of a substantial financial award from Spain coupled with the promise of liberal reforms. Aguinaldo went back to Luzon to help in leading in an uprising rebellion against the Spaniards in their region. Appointed to a municipal position in his home province, he was also the local leader of a revolutionary society fighting Spanish rule over the Philippines. By an agreement signed with rebel leaders in January 1898, Spain agreed to institute liberal reforms and to pay a large indemnity; the rebels then went into exile. When war broke out between Spain and the United States in April 1898, Aguinaldo made arrangements with the U.S. consuls in Hong Kong and Singapore and with Commodore George Dewey to return from exile to fight against Spain. On June 12 Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippine Islands from Spain, hoisted the national flag, introduced a national anthem, and ordered a public reading of the declaration of independence. When he realized that the United States would not accept immediate and complete independence for the Philippines, he organized a revolution against American rule that resulted in 3 years of bloody guerrilla warfare. He was captured on March 23, 1901, by Gen. Frederick Funston. Funston and several other officers, bound hand and foot, pretended to be prisoners and were taken to Aguinaldo's camp by Filipinos loyal to the United States. Released and given weapons, they easily captured Aguinaldo, who then took an oath of allegiance to the United States and issued a peace proclamation on April 19. The bitterness caused by the war was soon transformed into friendship as Americans and Filipinos joined to work toward Philippine independence. Aguinaldo retired to private life, and his son entered West Point in the same class as Gen. Funston's son. In 1935 Aguinaldo ran unsuccessfully for president of the Philippine Commonwealth against Manuel Quezon. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941, he cooperated with the new rulers, even making a radio appeal for the surrender of the American and Filipino forces on Bataan. He was arrested as a collaborationist after the Americans returned but was later freed in a general amnesty. He explained his action by saying, "I was just remembering the fight I led. We were outnumbered, too, in constant retreat. I saw my own soldiers die without affecting Page 2 of 9

future events. To me that seemed to be what was happening on Bataan, and it seemed like a good thing to stop." In 1950 he was named to the Council of State, an advisory body for the president, and in his later years he was chairman of a board which dispensed pensions to the remaining veterans of the revolution. He died in Manila on Feb. 6, 1964. Aguinaldo is best remembered for the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898, in Kawit, Cavite.

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PHILIPPINE COMMONWEALTH

MANUEL QUEZON
(August 19, 1878 - August 1, 1944) Term of Presidency: Nov 15, 1935 - Aug 1,1944 Vice President: Sergio Osmea Party: Nacionalista

Filipino statesman, leader of the independence movement, and first president of the Philippine Commonwealth established under United States tutelage in 1935. Born in the small town of Baler province of Tayabas on August 19, 1878. His parents are Lucio Quezon and Maria Dolores Molina, school teacher and small landholder of Tagalog descent on the part of southern Luzon. Manuel spent the early years of his childhood in his hometown among the common people. His first teacher was his mother. He enrolled at the San Juan de Letran college, one of the leading institutions of learning in the capital city. Quezon years at San Juan de Letran as a self-supporting student brought out of his latent potentialities. He finished Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of sixteen. He cut short his law studies at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in 1899 to participate in the struggle for independence against the United States, led by Emilio Aguinaldo. After Aguinaldo surrendered in 1901, however, Quezon returned to the University, obtained his degree (1903), landed fourth place in the 1903 Bar examinations, and practiced law for a year. Page 4 of 9

Convinced that the only way to independence was through cooperation with the United States, he ran for governor of Tayabas province in 1905. Once elected, he served for two years before being elected as representatives in 1907 to the newly established Philippine Assembly. In 1909, Quezon was appointed resident commissioner for the Philippines,, entitled to speak, but not vote in the U.S. House of Representative; during his years in Washington D.C., he fought vigorously for a speedy grant of independence by the Unites States. Quezon played a major role in obtaining Congress passage in 1916 of the Jones Act, which pledged independence for the Philippines without giving a specific date when it would take effect. The act gave the Philippines greater autonomy and provided for the creation of a bicameral national legislature modeled after the U.S. Congress. Quezon resigned as a commissioner and returned to Manila to be elected to the newly formed Philippines senate in 1916; he subsequently served as its president until 1935. In 1922 he gained control of the Nacionalista party, which had previously been led by his rival Sergio Osmea. Quezon fought for passage of the Tydings McDuffie Act (1934) which provided for full independence for the Philippines ten years after the creation of a constitution and the establishment of a commonwealth government that would be the forerunner of an independence republic. Quezon was elected president of the newly formulated commonwealth on November 15, 1935. As president he reorganized the island military defense (aided by General Douglas McArthur as his special adviser). Tackled the huge problem of landless peasants in the countryside who still worked as tenants on large estates, promote the settlement and development of the large southern island of Mindanao, and fought graft and corruption in the government. A new national capital, later known as Quezon City, was build in the suburb of Manila. Quezon was reelected president in 1941. After Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines in 1942, he went to the United States, where he formed a government in exile, served as a member of the Pacific war council, signed the declaration of the United Nations against the fascist nation, and wrote his autobiography, "The Good Fight" (1946). Quezon died of tuberculosis before full Philippine independence was established. He died quietly in Saranac Lake, USA on August 1, 1944 at the age of sixty six.

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He was married to Doa Aurora Aragon Quezon, now deceased. They had three children, two are alive, they are; Zenaida Quezon Avancea and Manuel Quezon Jr. Manuel L. Quezon best remembered as the "Father of Philippine Language" (Ama ng Wikang Filipino).

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THE SECOND REPUBLIC (PUPPET GOVERNMENT)

JOSE LAUREL
(March 9, 1891 - November 6, 1959) Term of Presidency: Oct 14, 1943-Aug 15,1945 Vice President: n/a Party: KALIBAPI

Jos Paciano Laurel was born on March 9, 1891 in the town of Tanauan, Batangas. His parents were Sotero Laurel, Sr. and Jacoba Garca. His father had been an official in the revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo and a signatory to the 1898 Malolos Constitution. After receiving law degrees from the University of the Philippines (1915) and from Yale University (1920), he was elected to the Philippines Senate in 1925 and appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1936. He became the President of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation of World War II. After the Pearl Harbor attack. Laurel remained in Manila after President Manuel Quezon escaped first to Bataan and then to the United States. He offered his services to the Japanese; and because of his criticism of U.S. rule of the Philippines, he held a series of high posts in 1942-43, Page 7 of 9

climaxing in his selection as President in 1943. Twice in that year he was shot by Philippine guerrillas but recovered, after the incident Laurel still held his post to served the Filipino people. It adds his eagerness and willingness to be of service to his countrymen. Laurel administration did not last long because when the Japanese occupation near to collapse, Yamashita, a Japanese leader ordered his troops to bring Laurel out from the Philippines, he was brought to Japan. In August 15, 1945, Japanese surrendered to Americans. General McArthur order Lt. Col. Turner to arrest Laurel and company for a case of "Collaboration". They finally arrested in the City of Nara, Japan and temporary jailed at Sugano Prison near Tokyo, Japan. In July 1946 he was charged with 132 counts of treason, but was never brought to trial; he shared in the general amnesty in April 1948. As the Nationalist Party's nominee for the presidency of the Philippines in 1949, he was narrowly defeated by the incumbent president, Elpidio Quirino, nominee of the Liberal Party. Elected to the Senate in 1951, Laurel helped to persuade Ramon Magsaysay, then secretary of defense, to desert the Liberals and join the Nationalist. When Magsaysay became president, Laurel headed an economic mission that in 1955 negotiated an agreement to improve economic relations with the United States. He retired from public life in 1957. Married to Mrs. Pacencia Hidalgo, of their nine children, most of them are alive and active in politics like, former vice president Salvador P. Laurel, former senator, Sotero Laurel and ex-speaker Jose Laurel Jr.

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THE SECOND REPUBLIC (PUPPET GOVERNMENT)

JOSE LAUREL
(March 9, 1891 - November 6, 1959) Term of Presidency: Oct 14, 1943-Aug 15,1945 Vice President: n/a Party: KALIBAPI

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