THE PHILIPPINE CENTENNIAL (1998)

T

he biggest media event in the Philippines for 1998 is the celebration of the first 100 years since the declaration of the First Philippine Republic by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo during solemn rites in Biak-na-Bato, Bulakan.

To commemorate this historical milestone in the life of the nation, President Ramos created in 1996 the National Centennial Commission and appointed as its Chairman former Vice-President Salvador H. Laurel to oversee preparations for the centennial. Towards the end of 1997, the Philippine Congress upgraded the status of the commission and appropriated additional funds for its operations and activities.

THE FIRST PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC

Following is a backgrounder on the establishment of the country's first Republican Government, excerpted from/based on the article "The Biak-na-Bato Constitution: Upholding the People's Will" by Nidia A. Liu, printed in Kalayaan, a publication of the National Centennial Commission:

Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, supreme leader of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, constituted 52 revolutionary leaders into an Assembly of Representatives that met November 1 to 2, 1997 in Biak-na-Bato, Bulacan. The delegates signed the "Constitucion Provisional de la Republica de Filipinas," which was patterned almost word-for-word from the Cuban Constitution of Jimaguayu.

The Biak-na-Bato Constitution declared the objective of the Revolution as "the separation of the Philippines from the Spanish monarchy and its formation into an independent state with its own government called the Philippine Republic." This was the first constitutional republican government established in the Philippines.

The Biak-na-Bato Constitution created a Supreme Council composed of the following officers: President - Emilio Aguinaldo, Vice-President - Mariano Trias, Secretary of War - Emiliano Riego de Dios, Secretary of Foreign Relations - Antonio Montenegro, Secretary of Interior - Isabelo Artacho, and Secretary of the Treasury - Baldomero Aguinaldo.

Among the salient provisions of the Constitution were:

• The President was invested with the power "to approve and promulgate the acts" of the Supreme Council.
  
• The effectivity of the Constitution was limited to two years, after which the Assembly was to reconvene to draft a new Constitution and elect a new "Council of Government and Representatives of the people."
  
• Four articles guaranteeing freedom of speech, religion, and association, the excercise of one's occupation, the right against loss of property, and the right against imprisonment except on a valid order of a competent court.