Consisting of:
1) Le Petit Journal Supplement Illustre magazine, issue of April 14,
1901, featuring La Guerre aux Philippines : Capture d’Aguinaldo
(The War in the Philippines : The Capture of Aguinaldo).
(Provenance : Acquired at auction).
17 1/2” x 12” (44 cm x 30 cm)
2) Aguinaldo’s Proclamation of Loyalty dated April 19, 1901
“accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the
entire Archipelago”. (Provenance : Acquired from the Don Felipe
R. Hidalgo Estate).
9 1/2” x 8 1/2” (24 cm x 22 cm)
3) Sepia Photograph of Emilio Aguinaldo with an American visitor
named Miss Annie Mitchell and with his guards, at his quarters
on the grounds of Malacañang Palace after his capture in 1901.
(Provenance : Acquired at auction).
3” x 5” (8 cm x 13 cm)
4) The Detroit Free Press newspaper, illustrated supplement
of May 17, 1903, with reportage of the capture of General
Vicente Lukban in Samar a year earlier in February 1902
and the surrender of Colonel Claro Guevarra in April 1902.
(Provenance : Acquired from Mr. Edward de los Santos.)
21 1/2” x 17 1/2” (55 cm x 44 cm)
5) A Commonwealth Presidential Election handbill, “Blg.5” or No.
5, dated July 24, 1935, headlined Naalis kay Hen. Aguinaldo
ang Karangalang na Ipinagkaloob ng Kongreso sa Malolos —
Matapos Manumpa kay Gen. MacArthur. Aguinaldo would run
for president against the hugely popular Manuel L. Quezon. This
propaganda piece accuses Aguinaldo for losing the honor once
given to him by the historic Malolos Congress after he swore
allegiance to the Americans. The scholar Jim Richardson notes,
“The handbill was written by Jacinto G. Manahan, an erstwhile
communist from Bulacan, Bulacan who became a cheerleader
for MLQ after the courts had sentenced him to a lengthy stretch
in prison for sedition. Quezon remitted his sentence, and he was
in Bilibid for just ten weeks. His unrepentant ex-comrades were
not released.” (Provenance : From the collection of the eminent
historian Don Jose P. Santos.)
15” x 10” (38 cm x 25 cm)
ABOUT THE WORK
General Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) was elected in the controversial Tejeros Convention on his 28th birthday on March 22, 1897; and then assumed his powers as President of the Philippine Republic on April 24, 1897, in Naic. “This was ‘the Forgotten Republic’ or ‘the Philippine Republic before the First Philippine Republic’, noted Mr. Richardson. “It existed before biak-na-bato, but did not yet have a constitution. In a sense, Aguinaldo became president twice : In Cavite, March-April 1897 and in Malolos, January 1899.” The United States military believed his fall would put an end to the hostilities — but it did not. In a curious twist of fate, Aguinaldo would be captured by Major-General Frederick Funston through an elaborate plot, exactly 4 years and a day after the Tejeros Convention that removed Andres Bonifacio, founder of the secret society Katipunan, from the leadership of the Philippine Revolution with finality. News of Aguinaldo’s apprehension was on the cover of France’s most widely circulated newspaper, whose Sunday illustrated magazine sold 2 million copies each week. Aguinaldo would be spirited from Palanan, Isabela to Manila Bay — and from there to quarters in Malacañan, which he would finally inhabit not as the country’s leader but as a prisoner in one of the barracks on its grounds. A photo of his incarceration there with his guards and an American visitor is part of this lot. He would issue a proclamation of loyalty nearly a month later. That pledge would be the subject of this piece of election propaganda: When he ran against Manuel L. Quezon for the position of the first President of the Philippine Commonwealth Republic, Quezon lost no time in using it as campaign fodder. - Lisa Guerrero Nakpil