Maceren, Armond Royce R. Olivia Anne M. Habana, Ph.

D
HI 165 – F
El Presidente del camino hacia la independencia
El Presidente, or The President, embodies the journey of former President Emilio Aguinaldo
in achieving independencia in the Philippines. His image exemplifies a leader who accepts the opinion
of the majority and thinks critically before doing an action for things which can lead to Philippine
independence. Compared to Bonifacio, Aguinaldo overpowered his emotions and ruled with his
critical thinking skills. Aguinaldo focused himself on how to drive away the Spaniards from the
Philippines, with the help from what he studied when he was student. As Aguinaldo said in the film
that “Iisa lamang ang makakapagtungo sa atin sa kalayaan – ang independencia,” it may imply that he
was one-hundred percent loyal to the Philippines. On the other hand, due to lack of knowledge and
education, Bonifacio had problems on controlling his own temper, especially when he aimed the gun
to someone who is against on his elected position for the total rebellion for the Spanish governance.
Jeorge “ER” Ejercito Estregan plays the role of Emilio Aguinaldo in the film. He was able to play
his role well, because his job as a governor perhaps helped him to portray the role of a leader like
Aguinaldo. Cesar Montano’s role as Bonifacio gave me an impression that Andres Bonifacio was really
overacting and desperate in taking the risk of building his own government with the lack of his
education. As a student, who is not an expert in history, may think that the historiography of things
learned in the past is accurate. Since I could not have witnessed on what actually transpired, perhaps
the actors and actresses were able to show the virtual emotions of the role they are playing; however,
their make-up and other factors disturbed the essence of understanding the movie. The characters in
the film were played by mostly old actors, yet in reality, the real people were only in their 20’s up to
their 40’s. Moreover, the Inang Bayan’s makeup was funny and horrible. Perhaps it would be better if
Nora Aunor, who portrayed the role of Aguinaldo’s second wife, and Alicia Mayer, who portrayed the
role of Inang Bayan, exchanged roles. Overall, the cast of characters did a great job not only in
performing their roles, but also letting the audience to feel how was it going during the time when the
Philippine independence was not yet achieved.
The film obviously shows the perspective of the people’s positive views about Aguinaldo;
however, it also shows bias about Aguinaldo that he’s far better than Bonifacio. Most Filipinos often
neglect Aguinaldo as a hero and consider him underrated. They even think that Bonifacio deserves
more admiration than him. Moreover, a lot of people concludes and sees Aguinaldo as the suspect
who killed Bonifacio. A scene in the film opposed the common belief of pro-Magdiwang, where the
Bonifacio brothers are about to be exiled because of planning to murder Aguinaldo. Bonifacio was
shown to be desperate in achieving to lead his own government and let his emotions rule over him. If
he didn’t let his emotions overpower him, Aguinaldo can’t help himself but to arrest Bonifacio
mandatorily because of majority’s decision.
As shown in the film, Aguinaldo represents an ideal leader who is straightforward in planning
decisions; thus, making tasks of each one of his people organized and flow smoothly. Ergo, the Treaty
of Biak-na-Bato, where the Spanish government and Aguinaldo agreed, was planned very well. They
agreed that the revolutionaries will surrender their weapons and Aguinaldo will leave the Philippines
in exchange with the certain amount of money. Alas, Aguinaldo used the money for buying new and
advanced arms from the Americans. Furthermore, he has a high conscientiousness when it comes in
dealing with the feelings of others. Perhaps, his thoughtfulness made the Filipinos become more
united in achieving the main goal of the Philippines – the independencia and freedom from the
Spaniards.
Indeed, the film El Presidente was able; not only to entertain the people, but also to inform
and let the people view concretely on how Aguinaldo contributed a lot compared with Bonifacio. It
helped to raise Aguinaldo’s name from being underrated and let people inform the El Presidente del
camino hacia la independencia.