Emilio Aguinaldo

Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy

Emilio Aguinaldo
1st President of the Philippines
In office March 22, 1897 – April 1, 1901
Prime Minister	Apolinario Mabini (Jan 21 - May 7, 1899) Pedro Paterno(May 7 - Nov 13, 1899)
Vice President	Mariano Trías (1897)
Succeeded by	Manuel Quezon
Born	March 23, 1869 Cavite El Viejo, Philippines(now Kawit)
Died	February 6, 1964 (aged 94) Quezon City, Philippines
Political party	Katipunan
Spouse(s)	Hilaria del Rosario (1896–1921) María Agoncillo(1882–1963)
Profession	Soldier, Manager, Teacher Revolutionary
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Affiliate	KKK

(March 22, 1869 – February 6, 1964)

was a Filipino general, politician, and 

 independence leader. He played an instrumental role during the Philippines' revolution against Spain, and the subsequent Philippine-American War that resisted American occupation.

Aguinaldo became the Philippines' first President. He was also the youngest (at age 29) to have become the country's president, and the longest-lived (having survived to age 94).
The seventh of eight children of Carlos Aguinaldo y Jamir and Trinidad Famy y Valero (1820–1916), Emilio Aguinaldo was born on March 23, 1869 in Cavite El Viejo (now Kawit), Cavite province.His father was gobernadorcillo (town head), and, as members of the Chinese-Tagalog mestizo minority, they enjoyed relative wealth and power. As a young boy he received education from his great-aunt and later attended the town's elementary school. In 1880, he took up his secondary course education at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, which he quit on his third year to return home instead to help his widowed mother manage their farm. At the age of 28, Miong, as he was popularly called, was elected cabeza de barangay of Binakayan, the most progressive barrio of Cavite El Viejo. He held this position serving for his town-mates for eight years. He also engaged in inter-island shipping, travelling as far south as the Sulu Archipelago. In 1893, the Maura Law was passed to reorganize town governments with the aim of making them more effective and autonomous, changing the designation of town head from gobernadorcillo to capitan municipal effective 1895. On January 1, 1895, Aguinaldo was elected town head, becoming the first person to hold the title of capitan municipal of Cavite El Viejo.

In 1894, Aguinaldo joined the Katipunan or the K.K.K., a secret organization led by Andrés Bonifacio, dedicated to the expulsion of the Spanish and independence of the Philippines through armed force.Aguinaldo used the nom de guerre Magdalo, in honor of Mary Magdalene.His local chapter of the Katipunan, headed by his cousin Baldomero Aguinaldo, was also called Magdalo.The Katipunan revolt against the Spanish began in the last week of August 1896, in San Juan del Monte (now part of Metro Manila).However, Aguinaldo and other Cavite rebels initially refused to join in the offensive due to lack of arms. Their absence contributed to Bonifacio's defeat. While Bonifacio and other rebels were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare, Aguinaldo and the Cavite rebels won major victories in set-piece battles, temporarily driving the Spanish out of their area.

Conflict between the Magdalo and another Cavite Katipunan faction, the Magdiwang, led to Bonifacio's intervention in the province.The Cavite rebels then made overtures about establishing a revolutionary government in place of the Katipunan.Though Bonifacio already considered the Katipunan to be a government, he acquiesced and presided over elections held during the Tejeros Convention in Tejeros, Cavite on March 22, 1897. Away from his power base, Bonifacio lost the leadership to Aguinaldo, and was elected instead to the office of Secretary of the Interior.Even this was questioned by an Aguinaldo supporter, claiming Bonifacio had not the necessary schooling for the job. Insulted, Bonifacio declared the Convention null and void, and sought to return to his power base in Morong (present-day Rizal).

Bonifacio refused to recognize the revolutionary government headed by Aguinaldo and attempted to reassert his authority, accusing the Aguinaldo faction of treason and by issuing orders contravening orders issued by the Aguinaldo faction.At Aguinaldo's orders, Bonifacio and his brothers were arrested and, in a mock trial which lasted one day, convicted of treason, and sentenced to death. After some vacillation, Aguinaldo commuted the death sentence, but cancelled his commutation order after being convinced by Generial Manuel Noriel, President of the Council of War the death sentence, and others prominent in his government that the sentence must stand. Andres and Procopio Bonifacio were executed by firing squad on May 10, 1897 at Mount Hulog, about four kilometers west of Maragondon, Cavite.