Miguel Malvar - Philippine-American War

Philippine-American War

On May 19, 1898, Aguinaldo, aboard the American revenue cutter McCulloch, returned to the Philippines with 13 of his military staff. After four days, the first delivery of arms from Hong Kong arrived. It amounted to 2,000 rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition. With Aguinaldo's return, the Filipinos, numbering around 12,000, who enlisted under the Spanish flag in the war against America defected to Aguinaldo's banner. By June, Philippine independence was declared in Kawit, Cavite and Manila found herself surrounded by Aguinaldo's troops. But on August 13, 1898, it was the Americans who captured Manila.

On February 4, 1899, hostilities began between Americans and Filipinos. On February 7, Malvar was appointed second-in-command of Trias, who was the overall commander of the Filipino forces in southern Luzon. On February 23, General Antonio Luna needed Malvar and his unit to take part in a Filipino counterattack that was planned to regain ground lost earlier by Filipinos and capture Manila. However, the Filipino offensive collapsed mainly due to the insubordination of the Kawit Battalion. During the following months, Malvar harassed American troops south of Manila as he and his 3,000-man brigade conducted offensives in Muntinlupa. By July 1899, the Americans under General Robert Hall captured Calamba, Laguna. With ten companies (around 2,000 men) of American troops in the town, Malvar unsuccessfully besieged Calamba from August to December 1899.

On November 13, 1899, Aguinaldo disbanded the Filipino regular army, forming them into guerrilla units at Bayambang, Pangasinan and afterwards conducted his escape journey to Palanan, Isabela, which he reached by September 6, 1900. This change in tactics was not as successful as it had been against the Spaniards, and Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901, by General Frederick Funston with help from some Macabebe scouts. Trias, Aguinaldo's chosen successor as President and Commander-In-Chief of the Filipino forces, surrendered earlier, on March 15, 1901. Therefore, as designated in Aguinaldo's decreed line of succession, Malvar became President of the Philippine Republic. The Hong Kong Junta affirmed Malvar's authority in succeeding Aguinaldo. As he took over the affairs of the Republic, Malvar reorganized Filipino forces in southern Luzon and renamed the combined armed forces as "Army of Liberation", which possessed around 10,000 rifles at the time. He also reorganized the regional departments of the Republic, which included the Marianas as a separate province.

Beginning January of 1902, American General J. Franklin Bell took command of operations in Batangas and practiced scorched earth tactics that took a heavy toll on both guerrilla fighters and civilians alike. Malvar escaped American patrols by putting on disguise. So, as early as August of 1901, the Americans released an exact description of Malvar's physical features. According to the description given, Malvar was of dark complexion and stood around 5 feet 3 inches. He weighed about 145 pounds and wore a 5 or 6 size of shoes. He surrendered to Bell on April 13, 1902, mainly due to desertion of his top officers and to put an end to the sufferings of his countrymen.

After the war, he refused any position offered to him in the American colonial government. He died in Manila on October 13, 1911, due to liver failure. He was buried in his hometown, Santo Tomas, Batangas, on October 15.