Malolos Republic

   In June5, Emilio Aguinaldo issued a decree setting aside June 12 as the day for the proclamation of Philippine Independence. Julian Felipe who prepared a composition which played during the Independence ceremonies. In June 11, Julian Felipe showed the draft to Aguinaldo entitled Marcha Filipina Magdalo. Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the Independence of the Philippine at Cavite El Viejo on June 12, 1898. The Philippine flag was made by Marcela Agoncillo, Lorenza Agoncillo & Delfina Herboza. He chose Apolinario Mabini as his adviser, but when he saw Mabini with his illness, infantile paralysis, he thought he made a mistake but when Mabini spoke, Aguinaldo's doubt was vanished. Apolinario Mabini  called him of his enemies as "Dark Chamber of the President" and " Brain of the Revolution" of his admirer. 

       The First Philippine Republic was formed after the Philippine Declaration of Independence and the events of the collapse of the Spanish rule over the Philippines. It adopted the Constitución Política de la República Filipina, drawn up by the Philippine Constitutional Convention in the Barasoain Church in Malolos in 1899 to replace the revolutionary government proclaimed by Aguinaldo on June 23, 1898. That revolutionary government had replaced the dictatorial government which Aguinaldo had proclaimed on May 24, and had formally established by decree on June 18.

The constitution was approved by delegates to the Assembly of Representativeson January 20, 1899, and sanctioned by Aguinaldo the next day. The convention had earlier elected Aguinaldo president on January 1, 1899, leading to his inauguration on January 23.

Considering that the Philippine-American War which was to soon follow the adoption of the constitution would prevent the legislature from meeting, and considering that the government was not to survive that war, three parts of the constitution which effectively gave president Aguinaldo unrestricted power to ruled by decree are of particular interest.

Compromise with Colonialism

    The successful suppression of the various revolutionary outbreaks or disturbances following the formal end of the Filipino- American War was enough reason for the Filipino elite to pursue the alternative of peaceful struggle. This prospect became quite clear when the American colonial authorities repeatedly offered opportunities for Filipino cooperation and participation in the colonial government. In fact, the encouragement from the colonial officials was irresistible to the Filipino elite, especially the ilustrados, whose role in the 19th century revolutionary movement throughout the archipelago, had been marked by readiness to all to extend cooperation, first, to Spanish rule, and, now, to the American colonial venture. The extent and nature of Filipino involvement in the pursuit of American colonialism can be categorized under several leadings.

The Continuing Resistance (1901-1913)

     After the capture of General Emilio Aguinaldo at Palanan, Isabela in 1901, the Filipino-American War ended as far as the United States and Filipino elites were concerned. But to the Filipino masses, who looked upon their war against the Americans as a continuing struggle for independence. In fact, despite the Aguinaldo capture, the remaining leaders of the Aguinaldo Army, particularly General Miguel Malvar in Batangas, General Vicente Lukban in Samar, and other army was obvious from the revolutionary activitites of Macario Sakay after thesurrender of Lukban and Malvar. Sakay, who attempted to put up his own Tagalog Republic with its own constitution, kept alive the struggle for independence even after he saw the lost cause of the Aguinaldo war against imperialism. Sakay was eventually persuaded by Dominador Gomez to yield but the masses who had looked up to him for continuing resistance did not follow suit.
    Even before the fall of Aguinaldo, sporadic clashes between Muslims and American troops started in Moroland. It was a part of American colonial policy not to provoke the Muslims to violent reaction while the American war against Aguinaldo's armed forces was going on. The signing of the Bates Treaty on August 20, 1899 was part of this colonial strategy to neutralize the Sulu Muslims who were spoiling for battle against the Americans. By 1902, the Americans had reduced the Filipino resistance to small guerilla-type attacks on Americans stations. This allowed American attention to be focused on the "Moro Problem".

       The resistance can be conveniently seen in three sectoral perspectives: Christians, Muslim and tribal.

The Religious Schism

     The only living and tangible result of the Revolution was the Filipino Church, popularly known as the Aglipayan or Philippine Independent Church. When at the start of the second phase of the Revolution the Spanish archbishop enlisted Father Gregorio Aglipay's help in bringing back the Filipinos to the Spanish side, Emilio

Aguinaldo persuaded Aglipay to divert his energies to the cause of the people.Aguinaldo played a game in which Aglipay was the pawn. They commissioned Aglipay to confer with revolutionary leaders, particularly with Mariano Trias, Artemio Ricarte and Emiliano Riego de Dios, in order to bring them back to the Spanish side. The bait to win them over to their side was the promise of autonomy. Apolinario Mabini, riding on the crest of the popular nationalistic movement, suggested the founding of a Filipino National Church. Though unsuccessful owing to war conditions, his idea laid the groundwork of the later Philippine to a great extent the story of the struggle of the Filipino clergy to Filipinize the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

The Filipino-American Hostilities

           The American insistence on the evacuation by Aguinaldo's army of the strategic points along the Manila Bay area, the refusal of the American military authorities to allow the Filipino soldiers to enter the city after its surrender, and the American limitation of the areas to be occupied by the Filipino troops after the mock battle of Manila, led progressively to the deterioration of Filipino-American relations. The misunderstandings that followed these incidents climaxed in the signing of the Treaty of Paris without consultation with the Filipinos. McKinley issued his co-called "Benevolent Assimilation"  Proclamation on December 21, 1898. Gen. Elwell Otis, who received the proclamation published it on January 4, 1899 with some amendments inserted in such a way as not to coney the meanings of the original "sovereignty," "protection," and "right of cession". But Gen. Miller published the original copy of the proclamation. A copy fell into the hands of the officials of the Revolutionary Government. The proclamation was immediately subjected to severe attacks. Attempts, however, were made by mixed commission of Filipinos: Florentino Torres, Ambrosio Flores, and Manuel Argueles and Americans: Gen. R. P. Hughes,Col. James F. Smith, and Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Crowder to relax the tension between the two peoples, but the Americans members of the commission tried to prolong the sessions without trying to improve the situation because they were waiting for the American reinforcements which were then on their way to Manila. Finally, on February 4, 1899, an American sentry shot a Filipino soldier, resulting in the outbreak of the Filipino-American hostilities. On February 4, Private Willie Grayson, with two other members of his patrol, advanced ahead of the village in San Juan to ascertain whether there were Filipino soldiers in t he vicinity. Suddenly four armed men appeared before Grayson. He said later, recounting the event:
        "I yelled "Halt!"...the man moved. L challenged with another "Halt!" Then he immediately shouted "Halto!" to me. Well I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him. He dropped. *** We retreated to where our six other fellows were I said, "Line up fellows; the Enemy are in here all through these yards." We then retreated to the pipe line and got behind the water work main and stayed there all night. It was some minutes after our second shots before Filipinos began firing.
         The Filipinos fought at a disadvantage, for they had no sufficient arms with which to fight the enemy. But it took the Americans almost three years to conquer the Filipinos.