Background of the Author

Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista

Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista y Altamira (December 7, 1830 – December 4, 1903), also
known as Don Bosyong, was a Filipino lawyer and author of the Declaration of Philippine
Independence. A distant relative to the Rizal family and the Bonifacio family, Bautista often
gave advice to José Rizal, a Filipino nationalist, while studying in Manila.
Bautista was born in Biñan, Laguna, to Gregorio Enriquez Bautista and Silvestra Altamira.
He attended preparatory school in Biñan and studied law at University of Santo Tomas,
obtaining a degree in 1865. He practiced law in Manila and offered free legal services to
poor clients. Whilst practicing law, Bautista, on his way to Malolos, Bulacan, was captured
by a group of bandits, who subsequently learned that he saved many of their friends as a
defender of the poor in court cases against rich Filipinos and Spaniards. The bandits
apologized to Bautista and set him free.

Philippine Declaration of Independence

The Philippine Declaration of Independence (Filipino: Pagpapahayag ng Kasarinlan ng

Pilipinas; Spanish: Declaración de Independencia de Filipinas) was proclaimed by Filipino
revolutionary forces general Emilio Aguinaldo on June 12, 1898, in Cavite el Viejo (present-
day Kawit, Cavite), Philippines. It asserted the sovereignty and independence of the
Philippine Islands from the 300 years of colonial rule from Spain.
In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began. In December 1897, the Spanish government and
the revolutionaries signed a truce, the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, requiring that the Spanish pay
the revolutionaries $MXN800,000 and that Aguinaldo and other leaders go into exile
in Hong Kong. In April 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War,
Commodore George Dewey aboard the USS Olympia sailed into Manila Bay leading
the Asiatic Squadron of the U.S. Navy. On May 1, 1898, the United States defeated the
Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay. Emilio Aguinaldo decided to return to the Philippines to
help American forces defeat the Spaniards. The U.S. Navy agreed to transport him back
aboard the USS McCulloch, and on May 19, he arrived in Cavite.

The Proclamation on June 12

Independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898, between four and five in the afternoon in
Cavite at the ancestral home of General Emilio Aguinaldo some 30 kilometres (19 mi) south
of Manila. The event saw the unfurling of the flag of the Philippines, made in Hong Kong by
Marcela Agoncillo, Lorenza Agoncillo, and Delfina Herboza, and the performance of
the Marcha Filipina Magdalo, as the national anthem, now known as Lupang Hinirang,
which was composed by Julián Felipe and played by the San Francisco de
Malabon marching band.
The Act of the Declaration of Independence was prepared, written, and read by Ambrosio
Rianzares Bautista in Spanish. The Declaration was signed by 98 people, among them
a United States Army officer who witnessed the proclamation. The final paragraph states that
there was a "stranger" (stranger in English translation—extranjero in the original Spanish,
meaning foreigner) who attended the proceedings, Mr. L. M. Johnson, described as "a citizen
of the U.S.A., a Colonel of Artillery". Despite his prior military experience, Johnson had no
official role in the Philippines.
Ratification
The proclamation of Philippine independence was, however, promulgated on August 1,
when many towns had already been organized under the rules laid down by the Dictatorial
Government of General Aguinaldo, 190 municipal presidents of different towns from 16
provinces;Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan, Bataan, Infanta, Morong, Tayabas, Pa
mpanga, Pangasinan, Mindoro, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, La Union, and Zambales ratified the
Proclamation of Independence in Bacoor, Cavite.
Later at Malolos, Bulacan, the Malolos Congress modified the declaration upon the
insistence of Apolinario Mabini who objected to that the original proclamation essentially
placed the Philippines under the protection of the United States.
Struggle for Independence
The declaration was never recognized by either the United States or Spain. Later in 1898,
Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the
Spanish–American War.
The Philippine Revolutionary Government did not recognize the treaty or American
sovereignty, and subsequently fought and lost a conflict with the United States originally
referred to by the Americans as the "Philippine Insurrection" but now generally and
officially called the Philippine–American War, which ended when Emilio Aguinaldo was
captured by U.S. forces and issued a statement acknowledging and accepting the sovereignty
of the United States over the Philippines. This was then followed on July 2, 1902, by U.S.
Secretary of War Elihu Root telegraphing that the Filipino insurrection had come to an end
and that provincial civil governments had been established everywhere except those areas
inhabited by Moro tribes. Pockets of resistance continued for several years.
Following the end of World War II, the United States granted independence to the
Philippines on July 4, 1946, via the Treaty of Manila, July 4 was observed in the Philippines
as Independence Day until August 4, 1964, when, upon the advice of historians and the
urging of nationalists, President Diosdado Macapagal signed into law Republic Act No. 4166
designating June 12 as the country's Independence Day June 12 had previously been
observed as Flag Day and many government buildings are urged to display the Philippine
Flag in their offices.

References:

 National Historical Institute. Historical Markers: Regions I-IV and CAR. Manila:

National Historical Institute. 1993
 National Library of the Philippines; Data Retrieved June 10, 2023 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Declaration_of_Independence