Emilio Aguinaldo is considered by many to be the “George Washington” of the Philippines.  His family home is preserved – much like Washington’s at Mount Vernon – and a museum is dedicated to his life and times.  Additionally, to the Aguinaldo home, the leader himself is entombed on the grounds behind the house. The grounds became the official Aguinaldo Shrine in 1964 just after his death.

THE MAN

AN OVERVIEW

Others consider him a bit of a flake for belatedly taking command of the Filipino insurgency against Spain in 1897.  He then managed to have the actual original insurgency leader, Andreas Bonafacio, arrested and executed.  Following these events, he signed a peace deal with Spain receiving money in return for exile and disavowal of the insurgent movement. 

The American war with Spain the following year brought about his return from Hong Kong.  His return helped American interests in the short term by putting severe pressure on Spain helping to end their 400-year power in the islands.  The return also set up the next war – the Fil-Am War – lasting until just a few months after Aguinaldo’s capture in 1902.  Aguinaldo would return to Philippine politics as a much older man in 1935 with the announcement of the new Commonwealth government.  This government led to independence finally for the Philippines in 1946.

CAVITE BEGINNINGS

Aguinaldo and his family came from Cavite el Viejo – today Kawit – Cavite, a town perched on the shores of Manila Bay located a few miles to the south.  Today, Cavite is probably considered a far outreaching suburb of the urban complex Manila has grown into, but in 1897, the province was rural. Within the Cavite province, the Aguinaldo family became one of the more important landowners.  The family supplied local leadership – his father, for example, served under the Spanish colonial administration as the gobernadorcillo – municipal governor.  The home, Emilio knew his entire life having been born here 22 March 1869.  After his time involved with the Philippine Revolution and the Fil-Am War, he retired here for the rest of his life until his final year kept him confined in a hospital in Quezon City.

Land ownership became an important cause of the initial Philippine revolution against Spain.  The Catholic church owned large tracts of land in Cavite province.  A quarter of all the so-called “Friar Lands” were located in Cavite. 

INDEPENDENCE?

 A center for sugar growers, Cavite was the center for Spanish naval power in the islands.  Here, Admiral George Dewey smashed the outdated and overpowered Spanish Philippine fleet early in the Spanish-American War – 1 May 1898.  Dewey’s force was only naval in composition. He had to wait several months before troops could be sent out from the US to follow up on his victory with a military occupation of Manila.  It was during this interlude in which Aguinaldo returned to disavow his earlier disavowal of insurrection against the Spanish.

From his home here, 12 June 1898, Aguinaldo proclaimed independence.  Some believe he did so from the majestic balcony borne by the larger-than-life caribou. But, the balcony was a future addition to the house – 1919-1920.  Independence was declared here, however and the Philippine flag unfurled for the first time from an upper story window.

SPANISH ENDING; ENTER AMERICA

Aguinaldo had won a few victories with his irregulars against the Spanish in 1897. But he was far from a trained military leader.  Slowly, American forces began to arrive from the western US in the latter part of 1898, in anticipation of forcing Spanish capitulation with a storming of the Manila city walls.  With American and Filipino forces surrounding the capital city, Spanish authorities agreed to surrender to the Americans after a sham battle undertaken to sooth Spanish honor.  Aguinaldo and his irregulars found themselves out of the city by the design of both Spanish and Americans.

President William McKinley decided the Philippines presented a perfect opportunity to push the US into the colonization game infecting much of the world in the late 19^th century.  At the cost of $20 million, Spain sold their 400-year-old colony to the US.  Of course, this went completely against the desires of Aguinaldo and his supporters. They announced their own constitution in January 1899 – the Malolos Constitution was the first democratic constitution in Asia.  

On 4 February 1899, fighting broke out around Manila with American forces driving back the surrounding insurgents.  This started a war lasting until 2 July 1902 when the American government declared the insurrection subdued.  Aguinaldo’s forces tried fighting the Americans in set-piece affairs for which they simply were not trained for.  The American forces slowly drove the Filipinos back from around Manila capturing the Philippine capital at Malolos 31 March 1899.

ILLUSTRADO SIDESHOW

In the meantime, the ablest Filipino commander, Antonio Luna, gained control of the Insurrectos’ forces.  He hoped to switch operations over to a guerilla warfare campaign, but Aguinaldo thought such a fighting style to be beneath that of a civilized nation.  The Filipinos were simply not up to slugging it out with the American forces whose discipline made the difference.  There was always a problem with scarcity of arms and ammunition for Aguinaldo’s forces, as well.

Things became worse with Luna murdered on 5 June.  Ordered to report to Aguinaldo at the new capital of Cabanatuan, Luna found Aguinaldo gone.  Heated words exchanged between Luna and an officer he had previously disarmed for insubordination led to the officer and his men shooting and stabbing Luna.  Officers and men loyal to Luna were relieved by Aguinaldo shortly after.  Aguinaldo never admitted having anything to do with the assassination, but others around him disagreed.  Investigations into Luna’s death never led to any person’s conviction of the crime.  General Robert Hughes, one of the American commanders, noted “with the death of General Luna, the Filipino army lost the only General it had.”

TEMPORARY END TO THE REVOLUTION

The American army continued pushing northward defeating the Filipinos in each battle.  Aguinaldo finally accepted Luna’s previous advice shifting to a guerilla campaign and dispersing his army on 13 November 1899.  Aguinaldo spent much of the following year trying to stay ahead of pursuing American forces across the mountains of northern Luzon.  Finally, on 23 March 1901, he was captured in Palanan on the eastern coast by a force of Macabebe Scouts and US forces.  A few weeks later – 19 April – Aguinaldo took an oath of allegiance to the US recognizing American sovereignty over the islands. 

The war would continue officially for another year – unofficially, for several more years on a smaller scale mostly confined to southern areas of the Philippines – but the upper classes came aboard with the new powers quickly to restore order to the chaos left behind by the war.  Many of the Illustrados held political posts in the colonial government including many close to Aguinaldo.  American disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church – separation of church and state – also led to purchase and redistribution of over 400,000 acres of land.  This first attempt at land reform in the Philippines proved a popular move.

Aguinaldo disappeared from public life for the most part, retiring to the family home here in Cavite following his involvement in the war.  For Filipino veterans, he organized the Asociación de los Veteranos de la Revolución helping to secure pensions and land purchases from the government by installment for members.  He enlarged the Aguinaldo home in 1919-1920 making it a monument to the flag, revolution and the 1898 Declaration of Independence.

THE MAN RETURNS TO THE STAGE

As the Philippines became a Commonwealth in 1935, Aguinaldo became a candidate for the presidency running against a former aide-de-camp, Manuel Quezon.  Quezon crushed Aguinaldo in the voting with the then 66-year-old Aguinaldo only getting 17.5% of the votes.  The only province voting for Aguinaldo was his home province of Cavite.  Believing the election rigged, he refused to accept the results initially.  Supporters plotted to disrupt Quezon’s inauguration and possibly assassinate him, but these plans were not carried out.

Aguinaldo sided with the Japanese Empire before and after the islands suffered invasion in 1941-1942.  He met with the chief of staff, General Masami Maeda, of the Japanese 14^th Army in January 1942 at his home in Cavite to discuss creating a pro-Japanese provisional government.  Aguinaldo also delivered a radio address 1 February calling on all American and Filipino troops fighting in Bataan to surrender.

Appointed as a member of the provisional Council of State and the Preparatory Committee for Philippine Independence, he helped create a new constitution for the new puppet state.  He almost became president of the Second Philippine Republic in 1943 but was passed over by the Japanese in favor of former Supreme Court justice Jose Laurel.  Aguinaldo helped raise the new flag at Laurel’s 14 October inauguration becoming the head of the National Distribution Corporation which rationed prime commodities for the Japanese war effort.

THE LONG SUNSET

With the return of US force, Aguinaldo went into hiding but Philippine guerillas tracked him down, arresting Aguinaldo 8 February 1945.  Despite his claims of coercion into following the Japanese road, the People’s Court of the Philippines charged him with 11 counts of treason.  The islands gained full independence 4 July 1946. Aguinaldo’s charges became dropped after Philippine president Mauel Roxas granted amnesty to all Filipinos who had collaborated with Japan in 1948. Aguinaldo’s case was never tried.

Emilio Aguinaldo lived on until 1964 when he died at the age of 94.  In 1962, President Diosdado Macapagal changed Philippine Independence Day to June 12 to honor Aguinaldo and his 1898 revolution – 4 July renamed as Philippine Republic Day.

The family remains prominent in the Cavite area with grandsons serving as mayors and vice-mayors and a granddaughter serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.  They own large estates in Cavite and have been the target of attempts by populists to redistribute some of the lands under their ownership.  Kawit, the town where the house sits, still boasts an Aguinaldo as its mayor with another Aguinaldo on the Council.

THE HOUSE

OVERVIEW

The Aguinaldo home dates to the middle of the 19^th century.  Erected in 1845, built from wood and thatch, the house underwent reconstruction in 1849.  The house took on more major work in the 1919-1920 period when the central tower and the impressive balcony set at the front of the house took form.  The house stands, a true mansion, with over 14,000 feet divided into three sections.  There is the main house on the west side with a family wing on the east – there were always more than one family living here at a time.  The grand tower rises five stories high in the middle uniting the two wings.

A BOWLING ALLEY IN THE MUSEUM

On the ground floor, the original Aguinaldo home remained open to the outside.  The ground floor, enclosed today, under the east wing is where the museum sits.  Maintained by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, it is a treasure stop to begin to learn about the man so important to the early days of an independent Philippines.  The exhibits are bilingual in Tagalog and English.  Included in the museum is a two-lane bowling alley the family enjoyed.  Included also among the exhibits are plenty of memorabilia from his long life.

THE TOWER

Between the two wings of the house, a carriageway gives access to the rear area.  The tower extends above with five flights of stairs and one ladder to reach the top.  The stairs begin from a second-floor corridor connecting the main house to the east wing where the families of Aguinaldo’s daughters lived.  Atop the first flight was the room of Aguinaldo’s eldest son, Miguel, whose photo shows in pilot’s garb.  The room also used as a study by the husband of daughter Carmen, Jose Melencio, a long-serving Philippine politician within the Commonwealth, serving after the war first as Consul General in New York and as chief of the Philippine mission to Japan – prior to re-establishment of diplomatic relations in 1956, the was no Philippine ambassador – at the time of his death in 1952.

360-view from the terrace of the 4th floor of the tower. Click and drag for full around view.

The General’s main bedroom was on the second floor – this being the main floor of the house, but he used a second bedroom in the tower.  This room – earlier the room of Emilio Junior who became a banker after failing to graduate from West Point – reached after two flights of stairs was Aguinaldo’s main bedroom later in his life featuring a brass bed and a large roll-top writing desk.  The question always lies in how the desk ever got here in the first place with the stairway being very narrow and steep.

Narrower stairs, barely a foot wide, lead to the tower.  Here was said to be Aguinaldo’s favorite spot in the house.  A great view over the countryside gleams from beyond the capiz sliding panels.   Above the tower observatory, a ladder leads to a small attic from where guards used to station themselves keeping watch over the grounds below.

mAIN FLOOR

The main floor in the west wing served as the primary center of the Aguinaldo home with kitchen, dining room, a conference room opening out onto the balcony.  Next to the dining room was the “Salamin ng Katotohanan” or Mirror of Truth.

On the ceiling of the main room is a wooden carving describing the declaration of martial law in 1896 in response to the Katipunan revolution against Spain.  The “Inang Philipinas” features the eight-rayed sun found on the national flag representing the original eight provinces which joined in the revolution against Spain.  Above the conference room leading to the balcony is another wood carving showing “Mother Filipinas” holding a flag as the sun peeps over the mountains.  Above the main dining room, a raised relief map of the Philippines dominates with the province of Cavite outlined in red.

Overlooking the main room is a mezzanine library from which local musicians played to visitors below.

Cabinets hide away in the bedrooms and along the stairways.  Unseen passageways and doors abound throughout the house.  Philippine hardwoods abound throughout the interior of the house.  Next to the kitchen is an indoor swimming pool.

OUTSIDE

Out in the back behind the house is the large marble tomb of Aguinaldo.  Not far away is a chico tree which he planted.  Underneath its shade, he wrote his memoirs.

In front of the house, a larger-than-life statue of the General-President – Aguinaldo, like Jose Rizal, only stood four feet eleven inches tall – sits atop a marble monument dedicated to the Declaration of Independence of the Philippines.  Nearby, on more marble walls stand the original 98 signatures of Filipinos who signed the Declaration.