23 JANUARY

Aguinaldo's Triumphal Arch

1899 - The First Philippine Republic is inaugurated in Barasoain Church,  Malolos, Bulacan with Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo as President two days after  the ratification of the Constitution but less two weeks before the outbreak of the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914);  pressured to seek international recognition of his Declaration of Independence from Spain by the imperialist designs of the emerging new enemy, the United States, Aguinaldo convened the Malolos Congress in September 1898 for the purpose of framing a constitution and, upon advice by the pro-charter group (opposed to the ideas of the Prime Minister Apolinario M. Mabini) led by Pedro Paterno y Ignacio and Felipe G. Calderon, supposedly to strengthen the assertion of freedom by the country that was as yet not recognized by other nations, and which provided for a republican government marked by three separate branches: unicameral Legislature, Judiciary, and the Executive branch; the inauguration ceremonies for Aguinaldo's republic, dubbed Asia's first republic, (also called the Malolos Republic), along with the revolutionary Malolos Congress, were marked by the reading of the Constitution, proclamation of the Republic, Aguinaldo's proclamation as elected President and speeches by Aguinaldo and Congress president Paterno; ironically, the pro-charter group stalwarts Paterno and Calderon would be one of the early pro-American collaborators that would soon abandon Aguinaldo's republican government and openly campaign for the Philippine annexation to the imperialist Bald Eagle nation; the First Philippine Republic is said to be the culmination of the reformist struggle of the Propaganda movement and the next level of Filipino struggle, the Philippine Revolution of 1896 led by  Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) Supremo Andres C. Bonifacio whom Aguinaldo later deposed via the Tejeros Convention and ordered executed in 1897.

1930 - Pio C. del Pilar, Filipino general during the Philippine Revolution,  writes about the genuine patriotism of Gen. Macario Sakay whom the  imperialist Americans dubbed a "bandit", treacherously captured, and  executed in 1907; Pio del Pilar, infamous for having betrayed Katipunan  Supremo Andres C. Bonifacio and even influenced Emilio F. Aguinaldo's decision to execute the Supremo, lauds Sakay was a "true patriot who spread the seeds of the Katipunan to win the independence of the Philippines. He was one of those who went from town to town, winning the people over to the cause of the Katipunan, and thus, kept  alive the spirit of resistance to the enemies... Sakay may be called a tulisan or bandit by the Americans... But before God, Country, and Truth, he was a true son of the Country whom his fellow countrymen must revere for all the times"; Pio del Pilar's testimony of sorts is contained in a letter he sent to historian and biographer Jose P. Santos. 


Photo credit:

http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/First_Philippine_Republic