Of the two known copies of the June 12, 1898 “Declaration of Philippine Independence” preserved in the National Library…

Of the two known copies of the June 12, 1898 “Declaration of Philippine Independence” preserved in the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), the one with the most signatories is better known. Publicly displayed, reproduced in facsimile, and available for study and downloading from the NLP website, this manuscript in Spanish was the “official” copy circulated for signatures that historic afternoon. Now, in the same display case at the NLP is the “Calendario del Año 1898,” a small, printed pamphlet that would have been missed by historians if not for a small handwritten note on the cover that identifies it as the “Memorandum of Aguinaldo.”

These two highlighted documents are from a massive collection of papers captured from the Malolos government by the enemy during the Philippine-American War. Over 100,000 documents that fill 636 rolls of microfilm provide the primary sources that inform our understanding of the Philippine Revolution. Previously known as the “Philippine Insurgent Records” and kept in the Bureau of Insular Affairs in Washington, the originals were returned to the Philippines in 1958, where they are classified as the “Philippine Revolutionary Records.” All these were organized by United States captain John R. M. Taylor, who read and classified every document, separating the personal from the official, the trivial from the relevant. Filed in numbered folders, the bulk in packages or bundles, and stored in numbered drawers, the search engine was not Google, but a typewritten index of “Names.”

Taylor prepared a five-volume compilation of selected documents for publication that was to be a reference to understand the workings of the Malolos or First Philippine Republic. In 1906, William Howard Taft, then US secretary of war, withheld Taylor’s work from publication. He said:

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“I am a good deal concerned in reference to the propriety of publishing at public expense a history that gives so many opinions as Taylor’s resume does, and I feel, therefore, that I must go over it with a great deal more care, in order to eliminate the expression of opinion…”

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Taft did not want the work published before the presidential elections. In 1909, the recommendation for publication was denied by Taft, then US president, on the basis of a critical review of the manuscript by James LeRoy, who had served under Taft in the Philippines as secretary of the Philippine Commission. By 1920, Taylor sought to publish the work commercially; this was also disapproved by the government as untimely in the light of Filipino Independence Missions to the US. With no funding, the work remained unpublished until 1971, when it was published in Manila by the Lopez Memorial Museum, under the direction of the nationalist historian Renato Constantino.

Not in Taylor’s “Selected Documents” is the “Memorandum of Aguinaldo.” The pamphlet has a lot of information, useless and obsolete to the casual reader, but relevant to historians because it provides details on the various fiestas and religious holidays. For example, Jan. 1, 1898, Saturday, was the feast of the Lord’s circumcision, and the memorials of San Magno (Martyr) and Santa Eufrosina (Virgin). There was a 40-hour jubilee in Quiapo and a plenary indulgence in the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Guia in the Manila Cathedral.

Preliminaries in the calendar provide the geographic position of Manila and Cavite in longitude and latitude. A calendar of solar and lunar eclipses for 1898 and a reckoning of time from 1898 to: the “incarnacion of the Son of God” (1,898 years), “the creation of the world” (7,097 years), “Discovery of the Philippines” (317 years), “the foundation of [Spanish] Manila” (327 years), “the pontificate of Leo XIII” (21 years), etc.

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In the blank pages for notes, we find Aguinaldo’s iconic scrawl. In April, he ordered the release of Pastor de Silva, who was imprisoned in Biñan. He noted that on May 8, 1898, revolutionaries under Col. Montenegro took possession of San Juan del Monte after it was abandoned by the Spanish. On May 28, Spanish troops, numbering 230 soldiers, were surrounded in Cavite Viejo (Kawit), Aguinaldo territory.

In June, he marked two victories on the calendar and provided details in the notes. “Took possession of Naik at 4 p.m. on June 6, and Kawit at 3.35 p.m. on June 7.” Also on June 7, he noted the fall of Taal, Lemery, San Luis, and later, Bauan and Cuenca in Batangas, were left behind by the Spanish troops. Forty rifles were seized in Bauan. On June 9, the steamship Bulusan arrived in Cavite under the command of Martin Cabrera and 29 compatriots. “The steamships Taaleño and Don Juan were not used by our troops there to enter the capital of Batangas that will take place on June 10.” In Tagalog, he references the flag and the declaration of independence made on June 12, 1898, at 4:20 p.m. On July 4, 1898, “umalis cam isa Cavite at inilipat ang gob[ierno] sa Bacoor.”

The last entries were a meeting of local leaders from the South: Ambos Camarines and Albay (Dec. 1), the next day, he set off the march for Kawit. Trivial details that add to our understanding of the past.

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