NAME: Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy - Nicknamed “Miong”

BIRTHDAY: March 23, 1869, Cavite, Philippines

DEATH: He died February 6, 1964, in Quezon City.

EDUCATION: He attended San Juan de Letrán College in Manila

WORKS: Filipino leader and politician who fought first against Spain and later
against the United States for the independence of the Philippines.

In 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo achieved independence of the Philippines from Spain

and was elected the first president of the new republic under the Malolos
Congress. He also led the Philippine-American War against U.S. resistance to
Philippine independence.

DETAILED

Emilio Aguinaldo, was born on March 22/23, 1869, near Cavite, Philippines. A
Filipino leader and politician who fought first against Spain and later against
the United States for the independence of the Philippines.

As a boy, he attended elementary and secondary education at the Colegio de San

Juan de Letran, but had to drop out before earning his high school diploma after
his father passed away in 1883. Emilio stayed at home to assist his mother with the
family's agricultural properties.

When he returned home to Cavite, he developed a growing awareness of Filipino

frustration with Spanish colonial rule. In 1895 Eager to fight for Philippine
independence, Aguinaldo joined the Katipunan, a revolutionary movement led by
fellow lodge member Andres Bonifacio that battled furiously and successfully
against the Spanish. In August 1896, he was elected mayor of Cavite Viejo
(present-day Kawit; adjacent to Cavite city). When a rival faction executed
Bonifacio in 1897, Aguinaldo assumed total leadership of the rebellion against
Spain.
By December 1897, Aguinaldo had managed to reach the Truce of Biak-na-Bato
with Spain.
*Slide (He signed the Agreement of Biac-na-Bató with the Spanish governor
general in December 1897. )

He and his rebels agreed to a surrendering of arms and accepted exile to Hong
Kong in exchange for amnesty, indemnity and liberal reform. However, neither
side kept up their end of the bargain. The Spanish government did not deliver the
arms in full all that was promised, and Aguinaldo did not truly surrender arms. In
fact, Aguinaldo's revolutionaries used some of Spain's financial compensation to
purchase additional arms for the resistance.

From Hong Kong, Aguinaldo also made arrangements to assist Americans fighting
against Spain in the Spanish-American War. As neither peace nor independence
had been achieved, in 1898 Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines to resume his
rebellion against Spanish rule.
*Slide (While in Hong Kong, he made plans with representatives of the American
embassies and Captain George Dewey to return to the Philippines and aid the US
in its war against Spain.)

Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines in 1898 to restart his rebellion against

Spanish rule because neither peace nor independence had been achieved.

Back in Cavite, Aguinaldo imposed a provisional dictatorship on the people. After

meeting with the Malolos Congress and writing a constitution for a new republic,
Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence on June 12, 1898.

Aguinaldo's proclamation, delivered from his hometown of Kawit, effectively

ended four centuries of Spanish colonial oppression in the Philippines. Aguinaldo
was sworn in as the first president of the new, self-governed Philippine republic in
January of the following year, wearing in a white suit at Barasoain Church in
Malolos City.

Just two weeks after Aguinaldo's inauguration, an American assasinated a

Philippine soldier stationed at the San Juan Bridge, as a protest against the
country's newfound independence.

On the night of February 4,1899 The Philippine-American war occured. The

Filipinos, who had battled bravely, had been defeated at every turn by the
morning of February 5. While the battle was still going on, Aguinaldo declared
war on the United States, resulting in one of America's bloodiest battles, which
quickly ordered reinforcements to the Philippines.
But little direct success for Aguinaldo and his mission. In response to the apparent
failure of his military efforts, Aguinaldo stated, "I saw my own soldiers die without
affecting future events." The Philippine government fled to the north. The
Filipinos turned to guerrilla warfare in November 1899.

Two years after the execution of Rizal in Bagumbayan, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo
issued on Dec. 20, 1898 a decree designating Dec. 30 as the anniversary of Jose
Rizal’s death and also as “a national day of mourning” for Rizal and other victims
of the Spanish government throughout its three centuries of oppressive rule. He
made a directive that all national flags shall be hoisted at half-mast from 12 noon
on Dec. 29 and all offices of the government shall be closed the whole day on
December 30 as a sign of mourning. On December 30, 1898, Filipinos celebrated
Rizal Day for the first time and chose Club Filipino in Manila to be the venue.

After three years at war, Aguinaldo was captured by American General Frederick
Funston on March 23, 1901. After swearing an oath of allegiance to the United
States, on April 19, 1901, Aguinaldo officially declared peace with the United
States. By this time, the United States was ready to support limited Philippine
independence. It wasn't until 1946 that the Philippines would have absolute
control of its own sovereignty.

Aguinaldo retreated to a private life as a farmer but never forgot the men who
fought alongside him. In their honor, he would later establish the Veterans of the
Revolution, an organization that arranged their pensions, as well as affordable
payment plans for land purchases.

Aguinaldo took another stab at politics when he ran for presidency in 1935 against
Manuel Quezon but lost. In 1950 he became a presidential advisor on the Council
of State.

Death
Aguinaldo died of a heart attack at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Quezon City,
Philippines, on February 6, 1964, at the age of 94. His private land and mansion,
which he had donated the prior year, continue to serve as a shrine to both the
revolution for Philippine independence and the revolutionary himself.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emilio-Aguinaldo
https://www.biography.com/political-figure/emilio-aguinaldo