MALACAÑANG

MANILA

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

PROCLAMATION NO. 2105

DECLARING EMILIO AGUINALDO Y FAMY AS ONE OF THE GREATEST HEROES

OF THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION

WHEREAS, once the Revolution started by Andres Bonifacio, the Great Plebeian, got under way, in the province of Cavite, the petite bourgeois under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo took over, with trenches, fortifications, guns, funds, generals — and so the leadership passed from Bonifacio, the mass organizer of the secret revolutionary society, to Aguinaldo, the leader of the armies of the Philippine Republic;

WHEREAS, Aguinaldo at the Malolos Convention had the entire nation behind him, after 300 years towards this point — as one nation, one people under one flag, united against the Spaniards in the first successful War of Liberation in Asia;

WHEREAS, Aguinaldo issued our Philippine Declaration of Independence; challenged Spain and the United States of America, beating Spain in his second attempt, the first in Asia to break the shackles of western colonialism; whereas, Aguinaldo executed the first nationalist revolution in Asia, welded us into a nation, and in 1898, set up the first democratic republic in Asia, antedating Sun Yat Sen in China 13 years later in 1911;

WHEREAS, Emilio Aguinaldo is the Father of our country, as much as George Washington was of the United States of America, having given us our flag, our anthem, our Nationalist Revolution, our Constitution and our Republic;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA M. ARROYO, President of the Republic of the Philippines, do hereby issue this Proclamation, declaring Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy as one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines Revolution, and order the Department of Education, the National Museum of the Philippines, the Historical Commission of the Philippines, and all other pertinent government entities, to rectify history herewith in their respective institutional capacities.

DONE in Manila, this 25th day of June, in the year 2010.

(Sgd.) GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO

By the President:

(Sgd.) LEANDRO R. MENDOZA
Executive Secretary

Source: CDAsia