Aguinaldo’s Government in San Miguel, Bulacan (Biak na Bato)

When Aguinaldo’s forces were nearly suppressed by the Spaniards headed by Governor General De Rivera from Cavite, he moved his seat of government in Biak na Bato in San MIguel, Bulacan. His government was known as the Biak na Bato Philippines Republic, Aguinaldo used as Constitution for this government, they translated the Cuban Constitution into a Filipino language.

The Biak na Bato Republic was established in May 31,1897 and ratified their constitution November 1, 1897. It was established December 15, 1897.

In the Biak-na-Bato hideout, President Emilio Aguinaldo made a Proclamation and demands of his government entitled “the Brave Sons of the Philippines”. He addressed the following issues:

1. The expulsion of the Friars and the return to the Filipinos of the lands which they had appropriated for themselves:

2. Representation in the Spanish Cortes;

3. Freedom of the press and tolerance if all religious sects;

4. Equal treatment and pay for Peninsular and Insular civil servants.

5. Abolition of the power of the government to exile civil citizens,

6. Legal equality of all persons.

Governor General Primo de Rivera that time issued a statement during a meeting in the Cortes Generals. He mentioned the impossibility of ending the war by just crushing Aguinaldos main forces in Biak-na-Bato. De Rivera believed that only peace can stop the Rebellion. So, he designed a plan and sent Pedro Paterno a famed lawyer from Manila as his emissary to talk and negotiate to Aguinaldo and his group about ending the war by a peaceful settlement.

The Dictatorial Government lasted for only a month, from May 24 to June 23, 1898. At the instance of Mabini, Aguinaldo delivered on June 23 a message, penned by Mabini, giving his reasons for changing the form of government to a revolutionary one. On the same day, Aguinaldo issued a decree setting up the Revolutionary Government. It change the title of the chief of state from Dictator to President and defined the object of the government as the "the struggle for the independence of the Philippines until all nations, including the Spanish, shall expressly recognize it, and to prepare the country so that the true republic may be established."

• To help the President in his duties, four departments were created, namely:

  • the Department of Foreign Affairs, Navy and Commerce

  • the Department of War and Public Works

  • the Department of Police and Public Order, Justice, Education and Hygiene

  • the Department of Finance, Agriculture and Manufacturing Industry

• The department secretaries were not responsible for the decrees of the President, but they were to sign them "with the President to give them authority." The President appointed the department secretaries and personnel of each department.

  The decree also provided for the creation of Congress. As has been seen, the decree of June 18 provided for the election of delegates from each province to represent it in Congress. The decree of June 23 provided that in those provinces which had not yet been pacified, that is to say, provinces which had not yet been taken from the Spaniards, the delegates for said provinces were to be appointed by the President.

Philippine Revolution, (1896–98), Filipino independence struggle that, after more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, exposed the weakness of Spanish administration but failed to evict Spaniards from the islands. The Spanish-American War brought Spain’s rule in the Philippines to a close in 1898 but precipitated the Philippine-American War, a bloody war between Filipino revolutionaries and the U.S. Army.

Numerous quasi-religious uprisings had punctuated the long era of Spanish sovereignty over the Philippines, but none possessed sufficient coordination to oust the Europeans. During the 19th century, however, an educated Filipino middle class emerged and with it a desire for Philippine independence. Opposition before 1872 was primarily confined to the Filipino clergy, who resented the Spanish monopoly of power within the Roman Catholic Church in the islands. In that year the abortive Cavite Mutiny, a brief uprising against the Spanish, served as an excuse for renewed Spanish repression. The martyrdom of three Filipino priests—José Burgos, Mariano Gómez, and Jacinto Zamora—for allegedly conspiring with the rebels at Cavite sparked a wave of anti-Spanish sentiment.