Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964)

 Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964)

                                 Aguinaldo, Emilio (1869-1964), Filipino leader and independence fighter, born near Cavite, Luzon, and educated at the College of San Juan de Letran, Manila. Aguinaldo led a Filipino insurrection against Spanish rule in 1896, and two years later, during the Spanish-American War, he aided the American attack on the Philippine Islands. He was nominated president of the new republic after the Filipino declaration of independence in 1898. As head of the Filipino provisional government in 1899, he resisted American occupation; he continued to lead the struggle against the United States forces until March 1901, when he was captured. In April 1901 he took an oath of allegiance to the United States and retired to private life. He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the new interim Filipino commonwealth government in 1935. Aguinaldo was taken into custody in 1945, during World War II, by invading American troops and held on suspicion of collaboration with the enemy during the Japanese occupation. He was subsequently exonerated and appointed to the Council of State in 1950. 

EMILIO AGUINALDO and CLOSE FAMILY in the PHILIPPINES

Philippine leader Emilio Aguinaldo led a rebellion against Spanish rule in 1896 and assisted the United States during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He subsequently resisted American occupation of the newly independent republic.

. In August 1896 he was mayor of Cavite Viejo and was the local leader of the Katipunan, a revolutionary society that fought bitterly and successfully against the Spanish. In December 1897 he signed an agreement called the Pact of Biac-na-Bató with the Spanish governor general. He agreed to leave the Philippines and to remain permanently in exile on condition of a substantial financial reward from Spain coupled with the promise of liberal reforms. While in Hong Kong and Singapore he made arrangements with representatives of the American consulates and of Commo. George Dewey to return to the Philippines to assist the United States in the war against Spain. 

 n 1935 when the commonwealth government of the Philippines was established in preparation for independence, Aguinaldo ran for president but was decisively beaten. He returned to private life until the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1941. The Japanese used Aguinaldo as an anti-American tool. They caused him to make speeches, to sign articles, and to address a radio appeal to Gen. Douglas MacArthur on Corregidor to surrender in order to spare the flower of Filipino youth.

 When the Americans returned, Aguinaldo was arrested and, together with others accused of collaboration with the Japanese, was held for some months in Bilibid Prison until released by presidential amnesty. As a token vindication of his honour, he was appointed by President Elpidio Quirino as a member of the Council of State in 1950. In the later years of his life, he devoted his major attention to veterans' affairs, the promotion of nationalism and democracy in the Philippines, and the improvement of relations between the Philippines and the United States.

Aguinaldo became the Philippines first President.. He was also the youngest (at age 29) to have become the country's president, the longest-lived president (having survived to age 94) and the president to have outlived the most number of successors.

 Sources:

http://www.angelfire.com/on/philpres/aguinaldo.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Aguinaldo