EMILLIO AGUINALDO Y FAMY

Early life

Emilio Aguinaldo was born on March 22, 1869, in Cavite Viejo that is now known as
Kawit, Cavite, Philippines. Emilio’s parents were Chinese and Tagalog decent, and he was the
youngest among his siblings. His father, Carlos Aguinaldo, died when Emilio was just nine years
old. His widowed mother sent him to school in Manila. Emilio studied in Colegio de San Juan de
Letran, but unfortunately he needs to stop schooling because of the cholera outbreak, he went
back in Cavite to help his mother to run out their family farm. When Aguinaldo went home he
saw the situation and he developed a growing awareness of Filipinos against the Spanish colonial
rule, and for that, he joined Katipunan and from there he met Bofacio. Emilio’s life had last long,
because he witnessed when our country had been colonized by Spaniards, Americans and
Japanese. Emilio Aguinaldo died in February 6, 1964, because of the heart failure.1

Political Career

Emilio Aguinaldo became a Mayor in Kawit, Cavite. In September 5, 1896 he won

against General Aguirre, and from that moment Aguinaldo was called as General Miong as a
hero of Caviteños. Aguinaldo became the first Capitan Municipal of Kawit Cavite at the age of
twenty-four. He is also a Local leader of Katipunan, a revolutionary society that fought against
the Spaniards. Aguinaldo was also a head of Magdalo group of Katipunan in Cavite. In addition
to this, Aguinaldo also joined Freemasonry together with Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Juan
Luna, Macelo del Pilar, And Graciano Lopez Jaena. This association aims to improve the
economic condition of the country. 2

Towards Presidency

The presidency of Emilio Aguinaldo was full of controversies. It was surrounded with the
issue in Tejeros Convention, when Aguinaldo from magdalo group won the presidency against
Andres Bonifacio from magdiwang group of katipunan. In March 22, 1897 the first election had

1
Far Canacan, “Presidents of The Republic of the Philippines,” (Linked In Learning, May 9,2012), accessed on
November 05,2018, slideshare.net/Farlog/presidents-of-the-philippines.
2
Constantino, The Philippines: A Past Revisited, 173-175.
happened. It was said that the name of Aguinaldo was already written in the paper, but to defend
this accusation, the party of Aguinaldo had said that they did not manipulate the said election.
First, because Aguinaldo was not actually the one chosen by the Magdalo to run in the election,
he is just a substitute to Edilberto Evangelista, an engineer who studied in Belgium. Also, during
the election, Aguinaldo was not around, because he is in the midst of war.3

According to the interview of Lourd de Veyra, an anchor of news five in his historical
show entitled “Chismis noon, Kasaysayan ngayon”, to Jonathan Balsamo, a Secretary General of
Philippine Historical Association. Balsamo had explained that Aguinaldo’s group did not make
a dirty move to won the presidency; it’s just a matter of strategy. The cousin of Emilio
Aguinaldo and a strategist of Magdalo group, Bernardo Aguinaldo had a good tactic to won.
What he did was, in the day of election they nominated two from Magdiwang group, Andres
Bonifacio and Mariano Trias against the Magdalo bearer, Emilio Aguinaldo. With the vote of
120 Aguinaldo won the presidency, against Bonifacio who only gets 80 votes. Aguinaldo
became a president at the age of twenty-nine. 4

Issues and problems during Aguinaldo’s administration

During the presidency of Emilio Aguinaldo, one of the issues is the killing of Bonifacio
and his brother, because they became a treat on Aguinaldo’s administration. Another problem of
Aguinaldo was the treaty of Paris during 1898; Aguinaldo didn’t know that Spain is selling the
Philippines to America. The other one was about the controversy that Aguinaldo had sold the
Biak na Bato Revolution to the Spaniards with the price of 400,000 pesos. The negotiator of this
agreement of Biak na bato was Pedro Paterno, which he said to Aguinaldo to stop the war against
the Spain and set an agreement to them. In the exchange of 400,000 that became 800,000 pesos
the revolutionary group must stop the war and be thrown to Hong Kong. 5

3
News5Everywhere, “Bayani o Gangster,” Chismis noon, Kasaysayan ngayon, News5, March 24,2017, accessed
November 21,2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnlR7NQvI3E
4
News5Everywhere, “Bayani o Gangster,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnlR7NQvI3E
5
News5Everywhere, “Bayani o Gangster,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnlR7NQvI3E