Chapter 15

Results of the

Philippine – American

war

“Let us cease that the people

may rest; that it may work to

recover from its recent

proprietary losses. Let us conform

to the opinion of the majority

although we may recognize that

by this method we do not obtain

our desires.”

-- Mabini

Filipino Casualties and Losses

Most of the accounts of war, estimate that some 250,000 Filipino died.

General Franklin Bell admitted that over 600,000 people in Luzon had been killed and died as the result of the war and if the people affected on Visayas and Mindanao the figure could rise to a million.

On the economic side some 90% of carabaos died, rice production went down to one fourth of its normal production

Haciendas or fields of crops had been turned into jungles, devastated and uncultivated.

The Disposition of the Friar Lands

From the 1st phase of the Revolution to the 2nd phase, owning a piece of land, in addition to independence, was a major goal of the struggle.

The revolutionary government in Malolos confiscated the friar lands, but these went to those who could present security in cash or kind. As a result, these lands were awarded to the ilustrados and families with means.

Peasants who tilled small plots before losing these to various religious orders, did not get their share.

When Treaty of Paris was signed, huge tracts of church lands amounting to 422,000 acres became property of the U.S. colonial government. The friars protested and demanded for repossession of their land.

Governor Taft negotiated with the Vatican for the forced sale of the estates to the U.S. with the possibility of reselling the friars land to American corporation.

1905,the U.S. completed the purchase of these lands from the Vatican, the Filipino elite would be able to buy these states as the reward of their cooperation and support to the newly established U.S. colonial regime.

The peasants who fought and died remained poor and landless.

Signing of Treaty of Paris by U.S. secretary 1899

Filipinization of the Church

Story of the birth of the Aglipayan church (Iglesia Filipina Independiente) is to a great extent the story of the struggle of the Filipino clergy to Filipinize the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

Spanish friars opposed the appointment of Filipino clergy to the powerful positions of heads of parishes.

Great majority of the priests were Spaniards, they are sided with the government during Katipunan Revolution

Apolinario Mabini accused the Spanish friars of helping the colonial government to oppress the Filipinos. He pointed out that the friars were arming themselves and fighting the Filipinos, which was foreign to their spiritual calling.

Revolution began when Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, the governor-general and the archbishop tried to win over the people of the side of Spain.

They sent Father Gregorio Aglipay persuade the revolutionary leaders, especially General Artemio Ricarte, Mariano Trias, and Emiliano Riego de Dios, to side with the Spaniards against the Americans.

Aglipay failed to persuade the Filipino leaders, while Aguinaldo sent an emissary to Aglipay to persuade him to join the Filipino cause

Manila was besieged by Aguinaldo’s forces, and Aglipay, realizing the significance of the siege of the city went to Cavite and joined the revolutionary forces.

Aglipay becomes Military Vicar

General

Revolutionary Government in late 1898 recognized the validity of the civil marriage. The revolution had separated the Church and the State,it was logical to recognize civil marriage as valid.

During the Spanish rule, civil marriage was not recognized either by church or by state. The revolutionary government refused to recognize the authority of the archbishop. It prohibited filipino priests from accepting any position from the catholic church without first securing the approval from the revolutionary government.

Mabini’s intention was to persuade the filipino prieststo join revolutionary cause.

October 20, 1898, Aguinaldo appointed Aglipay Military Vicar General, he was the religious leader of the revolutionary government.

Nozaleda Excommunicates

Aglipay

Aglipay’s position in the Catholic Church and in the Revolutionary Government was anomalous. As a Catholic priests, he owed allegiance to the Church. But as Filipino he owed allegiance to the Revolutionary Government.

Aglipay chose to be a Filipino first, and the day after his appointment as Military Vicar General, he sent a circular to the Filipino priests urging them to unite in the interest of the country. Aglipay also suggested the creation of a council which would ask the Pope to appoint Filipinos to all Church position.

Aglipay urged the Filipino priests to organize themselves so as to occupy all vacant parishes. He urged them to rally to the revolutionary cause which was favorable to the cause of the Filipino clergy

April 1899 Nozaleda accused Aglipay of usurping power and suggested to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal that the Filipino priests to be punished

Nozaleda issued a decree excommunicating Aglipay effective May 1899. The decree declared Aglipay to be usurper and a schismatic. And Aglipay accused Nozaleda of starving the Filipino masses and of collaborating with the Americans.

Mabini and the National Church

Being the patriot and a nationalist, Mabini, who no longer held a government position was vacationing in Rosales Pangasinan, where he issued a manifesto on October 22, 1899 urging the Filipino priests to establish a National Church. It was to be Catholic but under the control and supervision of Filipino priests.

Mabini was against the destruction of the Catholic church in the Philippines. According to him, must be based on the appointment of Filipino priests to all positions. The National church would still be catholic, recognizing the Pope at Rome, but a Filipino catholic church. It should in the opinion of Mabini, cooperate with the revolutionary government and not in spanish colonial government.

The National Church

Mabini’s suggestion that the Filipino National Church be established was hailed by the Filipino clergy. The Filipino priests now believed, especially because the Filipino government was favorable to their aspirations, that the time had come for them to assert their right not only to occupy high positions in the church and thus, mange it.

October 23,1899 Aglipay called a meeting of Filipino priests at Paniqui Tarlac.said that the catholic church in the philippines should be Filipinized, that is, administered by Filipino priests.

Provisional constitution of the proposed Filipino Church was prepared. One of the canons of the constitution forbade the recognition of foreign bishops by the Filipino clergy except under extreme circumstances.

Provisional constitution of the Filipino church was a declaration of independence of the Filipino clergy from Spanish control and supervision

The Philippine American War and its impending effects in the country prevented the actual establishment of the Filipino National Church.

Opposition to Filipinization

The campaign to Filipinize the Catholic Church in the Philippines simultaneously suffered a setback with the series of Filipino defeats on the battle fields.

January 1900, Monsignor Placido Chapelle announced that those who opposed the Spanish friars were the enemies of religion and public order

He threatened the Filipino priests by saying that he would dominate them by force because he was the Pope’s delegate to the Philippines

He said that the heads of revolutionary leaders should be chopped off, he added insult to the injury by saying that the Filipino priests were incompetent.

The Separation from Rome

In Rome, two Filipino priests , Jose Chanco and Salustiano Araullo, appeared before the Pope and told his Holiness about the problem of the Filipino clergy.

Meanwhile, in Spain, a Filipino writer and scholar, Isabelo de los Reyes, angrily demanded the establishment of a Filipino Church independent of Rome.

1901 Isabelo delos Reyes returned to Manila and founded the first labor union in the Philippines. The Union Obrera Democratica (Democratic Labor Union)

August 3 de los Reyes called a meeting of his labor union and delivered a bitter anti-friar speech that suggests the establishment of a Filipino Church independent of Rome, with Aglipay as the supreme bishop.

The suggestion was loudly proclaimed by those present and the new Church was called Iglesia Filipina Independiente (philippine Independent Church). With the founding of this church, the separation from Rome was complete.

Isabelo de los Reyes

Converts to the new Church

Isabelo de los Reyes made a list of what he considered to be sympathizers of the new church. He included in his list such “big” names as Fernando Ma. Guerero, Martin Ocampo, Trinidad H. Prado de Tavera, Manuel Artigas, and priests such as Adriano Garces, Jorge Barlin, Manuel Roxas, Toribio Dominguez, and others. These mens were not hostile to the new church, but they were not prepared to join either.

Aglipay was not interested in the establishment of a new church without his knowledge. He believed that all means should be exhausted in fostering an understanding with Rome before taking any radical step.

Attempt to win back Aglipay

Aglipay was irritated upon learning that he was proclaimed Supreme Bishop of the new church. He was at the time conferring with a Spanish Jesuit in the Jesuit House at Santa Ana Manila.

The Jesuit invited Aglipay to a conference through Leon Ma. Guerero and Joaquin Luna

Jesuits chose Father Francisco Foradada, S.J. to persuade Aglipay to return to the catholic church.

Aglipay actually had not yet left the catholic church, but he was working for the Filipinization of the church, which meant that filipino’s not the Spaniards would administered the catholic church in the country.

On the fifth day of the conference between Aglipay and Foradada, the latter asked Aglipay to sign a document which was a confession of the catholic faith.

Aglipay studied the document and refuse to sign it. Foradada’s promise to make him bishop or archbishop if he would sign the document made Aglipay angry. He siezed the priest by the back of the neck and shook him violently and left in anger.

Gregorio Aglipay

Consecration of Aglipay as Bishop

Aglipay’s disillusionment with Fr. Foradada gave him the excuse to accept the position of Supreme Bishop of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and signified his intension to accept the position.

October 1, 1902 Aglipay presided the meeting of the council which was summoned to frame a constitution for the new church .

October 26 celebrated the first mass as Supreme Bishop.

January 18, 1903 he was consecrated Supreme Bishop by the bishops of Cagayan, Pangasinan, Isabela, Abra, Nueva Ecija, Cavite and Manila

Another attempt to win back Aglipay to the catholic fold was made around 1910. That time Aglipay was the Supreme Bishop of the new church, he was invited by the Jesuits to the house of F. Theo Rogers, publisher of the Philippine Free Press.

Father Joaquin Villalonga had a talk with Aglipay, in spite of the kindness of Villalonga Alipay refused to return to the Roman catholic fold.

Aglipay left, the attempts to win him back to the Roman catholic religion failed.

Importance of the New Church

The Iglesia Filipina Independiente , popularly known as the Aglipayan Church, was a child of the Revolution. It was in line with the nationalistic spirit that dominated the Filipno patriots who fought not only for political, but also for religious independence.

Just as the revolution was a violent reaction to Spanish injustices, the Aglipayan movement was a reaction to the Spanish refusal to recognize the right of the Filipino priests to administer the Catholic church in the Philippines.

Many of the Filipino priests dared to join the movement to be independent from Rome was proof that they, too, were patriotic, liketheir countrymenin arms against Spain and later aginst the United States.

More than 300 years, the Spanish priests in the Philippines ignored the Filipino clergy and considered them incapable of holding high positions in the church.

This discrimination was quashed by the Filipino priests inspired by GomBurZa and headed by Aglipay, showed their capacity to administer parishes and mange the church.

By founding the Philippine Independent Church Aglipay and companions actualized a centuries-old goal of vibrant and dynamic Filipinism.

Thank you

Cathlene Joy AmanteReynamie Bonillo

BSE-BIO IA