Provenance: Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (1857 - 1911) and Doña Luisa Piñeyro de Lugo y Merino (Sra. de Paterno, d. 1897)

Literature: An English translation of this manifesto in Taylor, The Philippine Insurrection, vol. I, pp.492-500; and Agoncillo includes extracts in Malolos, Ch.3. (Mr. Jim Richardson.)

ABOUT THE WORK

This eight-page manifesto issued in April 1898 by the Junta Patriotica (composed of Filipino revolutionaries staying in Hong Kong as political exiles) must be appreciated in the context of the period of transition from the first phase to the second phase of the Philippine Revolution. The Biak-na-Bato Republic ceased to exist by virtue of the peace pact between the Spaniards and Filipino revolutionaries signed on December 14, 1897. On December 27, Aguinaldo and some revolutionary leaders sail for Hong Kong in compliance with the pact. Governor-General Primo de Rivera immediately declared “the end of the Revolution” after the signing of the pact and the departure into exile of the prominent revolutionaries. To encourage other revolutionaries to surrender, the governor general also issues an amnesty proclamation. Despite the peace pact and the declaration of the end of the revolution, revolutionary activities continued in different provinces. While in Hong Kong, the revolutionaries formed a committee that manages their political affairs while in exile. As this committee monitors political activities in the Philippines, they realized that “faced with this series of acts of bad faith, contempt, insults, crimes, and above all forgetting their [Spaniards] commitments, as recently as solemnly contracted, the same ones who signed the Treaty of Biyak na Bato, have considered themselves free from obligation to remain abroad, and to keep for a longer time, the faith of the promised armistice. (Ante esta serie de actos de mala fe, de desprecio, de insulto, de crimenes, y sobre todo de olvido de sus compromisos, tan reciente como solemnemente contraidos, los mismos que firmaron el Tratado de Biyak na Bato, se han considerado libres de la obligacion de permanecer en el extrangero, y de guardar por mas tiempo, de la fe del armisticio prometido). Thus, this manifesto is issued asserting that Filipino revolutionaries are no longer duty-bound to comply with the terms and provisions of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato. This manifesto is rather controversial since it ends with the following statement: “We also have the honorable duty to defend ourselves against the whipping and vilification of the Spanish, accepting the protection and direction of the humanitarian North American people. (Tenemos tambien, el deber honroso de defendernos contra el latigo y el vilipendio de los Españoles, aceptando la proteccion y direccion del humanitario pueblo Norte Americano). The caveat on the American protection (la protecion de la Gran Republica Americana) is based on the agreement between Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and American Consul in Singapore, E. Spencer Pratt. Pratt encourages Aguinaldo to continue the Revolution against Spain and promises that the United States will help them.