Gretle C.

Mago Reaction Paper: Aguinaldo’s Government

2019-20832
Kas 1 WFW6

Sila-Sila, Tayo-Tayo

History serves as guide and precaution for the present and future of its generation. A

reminder of exemplary stories for the community to follow, and narratives of suffering and loss

that poses as a warning for all not to follow. Yet, despite all the long examples laid out by history,

it’s still the same faces, same institutions and same mentality that dominates and give rise to

oppression. In fact, history not only repeats itself, it also continues and worsens up to this day.

A body with its organs that fight off one another and chooses not to function properly will

kill itself. What led to the failure of Aguinaldo’s Government is the government itself that

Aguinaldo established. Parallel with how the revolution failed, Aguinaldo’s republic government

failed internally. Like a cathedral with weak and substandard foundations, the republic government

Aguinaldo led in Malolos crumbled on its feet due to his desperation in establishing a new form

of government that equals the image of a prestigious government; in which was really patterned

after its colonizers. This desperation, along with his only prioritization with maintaining military

forces, wiped out the essence of forming a republican government; in serving for public matters

and governing an organized community that envelopes all classes of society.

A class-conscious government, the republican government only catered the local elites,

members of the principalia class, as well the educated and land-owning Filipinos. This illustrado

mindset, where people from the upper class are the only ones allowed to take part in the

government, further divided the Filipino community and created a huge gap between the rich and

the poor. These biases could be seen on decrees and reforms Aguinaldo set up in which the only
beneficiaries are his cronies and officers. Practiced as early as 1898, cronyism and nepotism are

being practiced tirelessly up to this year of 2019 with President Duterte appointing and supporting

people under his wing with positions in the government which they, with fields of requirement to

meet, do not qualify. With their connections and fear of creating an enemy out of someone who

can only aid them, Aguinaldo and present President Duterte chose to appease and further tolerated

abuses made by their government officials and military.

Aguinaldo was too dismissive with the complaints and appeal for reforms from the

Filipinos of the lower class that the already ineffective system became abusive and could equal or

was even more insufferable than Spanish abuses. These abuses that Filipino civilians carry on their

shoulders are their fellow brothers who sit and step on them in intentions of rising to power. While

the labelled elites lay in comfort on their spacious beds and luxurious life, Filipinos from the

proletariat sector, who were the ones who fought and still are fighting for the country, are being

gunned down or starved to death by its government.

Blinded by power they hold; the government and its officials underestimated the Filipino

peasants as submissive and object for labor under their mercy. With the continuous molestation in

property, rights, and life of the Filipinos, it left them with no other choice to fight back and join

the revolutionary movement. With the rise of Katipunan organization and progressive movement

of the Guardia de Honor, the sanctity of the republican government and the people inclusive in it

is starting rattle in both fear and aggravation. Fear of the ivory tower they have built will soon

crash and burn, and aggravation that they cannot stop these “rebels” from diminishing the

government’s image. Not learning from the revolution that they jumped on bandwagon, these

elites forgot that Filipino have been subjected to oppression before and will not hold back to revolt
against dominant power with their resilience to obtain freedom and independence from its

colonizer, may it be from other country or its own countrymen.

If only Aguinaldo was as obsessed with forming the supposed substance of a government

as he was with maintaining the country’s military army, corruption and maladministration would

have been avoided; and lives of his citizens would not have been subjected to another form of

brutality from its governing power. These abuses may not be directly pointed at Aguinaldo, but it

was under his governance and tolerance – or even ignorance – that the republic government failed.

The first republican government of the country failed because of the people residing and

holding its power. It is still the same case at present. Aguinaldo’s failed republican government

gave birth to another government that is also doomed to fail. A government with a nurturer who

will not serve justice to its people, fight for its people, and maintain its country’s order will surely

meet its demise under the hands of its people who will revolt against them.