President of The Philippines - History

History

Depending on the definition chosen for these terms, a number of persons could alternatively be considered the inaugural holder of the office. Andres Bonifacio is considered by some historians to be the de facto first President of the Philippines. He was the third Supreme President (Spanish: Presidente Supremo; Tagalog: Kataastaasang Pangulo) of the Katipunan secret society. Its Supreme Council, led by the Supreme President, coordinated provincial and district councils. When the Katipunan went into open revolt in August 1896, Bonifacio had transformed it into a de facto revolutionary government with him as President. While the term Katipunan remained, Bonifacio's government was also known as the Tagalog Republic (Spanish: República Tagala). Although the word Tagalog refers to a specific ethnicity, Bonifacio used it to denote all indigenous people in the Philippines in place of Filipino which had colonial origins. In place of the Spanish Filipinas he coined a Tagalog name, Haring Bayang Katagalugan (Sovereign Tagalog Nation). Some historians contend that including Bonifacio as a past president would imply that Macario Sacay and Miguel Malvar should also be included.

In March 1897 Emilio Aguinaldo was elected President of a revolutionary government at the Tejeros Convention. The new government was meant to replace the Katipunan as a government, though the latter was not formally abolished until 1899. Aguinaldo was again elected President at Biak-na-Bato in November, leading the Biak-na-Bato Republic. Exiled in Hong Kong after the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, with the advent of the Spanish-American War he returned to the Philippines to renew revolutionary activities and formed a dictatorial government on May 24, 1898. Revolutionary forces under his command declared independence on June 12, 1898. On June 23, 1898, Aguinaldo transformed his dictatorial government into a revolutionary government. On January 23, 1899, he was then elected President of the Philippine Republic (Spanish: República Filipina), a government constituted by the Malolos Congress. Thus, this government is also called the Malolos Republic. Sovereignty over the Philippines passed from Spain to the United States with the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. Aguinaldo's government effectively ceased to exist on April 1, 1901, when he pledged allegiance to the United States after being captured by U.S. forces in March. The current Philippine government, formally called the Republic of the Philippines, considers Emilio Aguinaldo to be the first President of the Philippines and the Malolos Republic as the "First" Philippine Republic.

Miguel Malvar continued Aguinaldo's leadership of the Philippine Republic after the latter's capture until his own capture in 1902, while Macario Sakay founded a Tagalog Republic in 1902 as a continuation of Bonifacio's Katipunan. They are both considered by some scholars as "unofficial presidents". Along with Bonifacio, Malvar and Sakay are not recognized as Presidents by the Philippine government.