The Story of the Philippines Part 5

Article XIII. On the following day the above named representatives will meet again and the two commissions will read their respective reports concerning the legality of the said doc.u.ments, deciding by an absolute majority of votes on the character of those which appear doubtful.

This business completed, it will proceed to designate, also by absolute majority, a President, a Vice President, and two secretaries, who shall be chosen from among the representatives, whereupon the congress shall be considered organized, and shall notify the government of the result of the election.

Article XIV. The place where congress deliberates is sacred and inviolable, and no armed force shall enter therein unless the President thereof shall ask therefor in order to establish internal order disturbed by those who can neither honor themselves nor its august functions.

Article XV. The powers of congress are: To watch over the general interest of the Philippine people, and the carrying out of the revolutionary laws; to discuss and vote upon said laws; to discuss and approve prior to their ratification treaties and loans; to examine and approve the accounts presented annually by the secretary of finance, as well as extraordinary and other taxes which may hereafter be imposed.

Article XVI. Congress shall also be consulted in all grave and important questions, the determination of which admits of delay or adjournment; but the President of the government shall have power to decide questions of urgent character, but in that case he shall give account by message to said body of the decision which he has adopted.

Article XVII. Every representative shall have power to present to congress any project of a law, and every secretary on the order of the President of the government shall have similar power.

Article XVIII. The sessions of congress shall be public, and only in cases which require reserve shall it have power to hold a secret session.

Article XIX. In the order of its deliberations, as well as in the internal government of the body the instructions which shall be formulated by the congress itself shall be observed. The President shall direct the deliberations and shall not vote except in case of a tie, when he shall have the casting vote.

Article XX. The President of the government shall not have power to interrupt in any manner the meeting of congress, nor embarra.s.s its sessions.

Article XXI. The congress shall designate a permanent commission of justice which shall be presided over by the auxilliary vice president or each of the secretaries, and shall be composed of those persons and seven members elected by plurality of votes from among the representatives.

This commission shall judge on appeal the criminal cases tried by the Provincial courts; and shall take cognizance of and have original jurisdiction in all cases against the secretaries of the government, the chiefs of Provinces and towns, and the Provincial judges.

Article XXII. In the office of the secretary of congress shall be kept a book of honor, wherein shall be recorded special services rendered to the country, and considered as such by said body. Every Filipino, whether in the military or civil service, may pet.i.tion congress for notation in said book, presenting duly accredited doc.u.ments describing the service rendered by him on behalf of the country, since the beginning of the present revolution. For extraordinary services, which may be rendered hereafter, the government will propose said notation accompanying the proposal with the necessary doc.u.ments justifying it.

Article XXIII. The congress will also grant, on the proposal of the government rewards in money, which can be given only once to the families of those who were victims of their duty and patriotism, as a result of extraordinary acts of heroism.

Article XXIV. The acts of congress shall not take effect until the President of the government orders their fulfillment and execution. Whenever the said President shall be of the opinion that any act is unsuitable or against public policy, or pernicious, he shall explain to congress the reasons against its execution, and if the latter shall insist on its pa.s.sage the President shall have power to oppose his veto under his most rigid responsibility.

_Chapter III._

_Of Military Courts and Justice._

Article XXV. When the chiefs of military detachments have notice that any soldier has committed or has perpetrated any act of those commonly considered as military crimes, he shall bring it to the knowledge of the commandant of the Zone, who shall appoint a judge and a secretary, who shall begin suit in the form prescribed in the instructions dated the 20th of the present month. If the accused shall be of the grade of lieutenant or higher, the said commandant shall himself be the judge, and if the latter shall be the accused, the senior commandant of the Province shall name as judge an officer who holds a higher grade, unless the same senior commandant shall himself have brought the suit. The judge shall always belong to the cla.s.s of chiefs.

Article XXVI. On the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, the senior commandant shall designate three officers of equal or higher rank to the judge and the military court shall consist of the said officers, the judge, the councilor and the President. The latter shall be the commandant of the Zone, if the accused be of the grade of sergeant or less, and the senior commandant if he be of the grade of lieutenant or higher. This court shall conduct the trial in the form customary in the Provincial courts, but the judgment shall be appealable to the higher courts of war.

Article XXVII. The superior court shall be composed of six members, who shall hold rank not less than brigadier generals, and the judge advocate. If the number of generals present in the capitol of the revolutionary government shall not be sufficient the deficiency shall be supplied by representatives designated and commissioned by congress. The president of the court shall be the general having the highest rank of all, and should there be more than one having equal rank, the president shall be elected from among them by absolute majority of votes.

Article XXVIII. The superior court shall have jurisdiction in all cases affecting the higher commandants, the commandants of Zones and all officers of the rank of major or higher.

Article XXIX. Commit Military Crimes: 1st. Those who fail to grant the necessary protection to foreigners, both in their persons and property, and those who similarly fail to afford protection to hospitals and ambulances, including persons and effects which may be found in possession of one or the other, and those engaged in the service of the same, provided always they commit no hostile act. 2d. Those who fail in the respect due to the lives, money and jewels of enemies who lay down their arms, and of prisoners of war. 3d. Filipinos who place themselves in the service of the enemy acting as spies or disclosing to them secrets of war and the plans of revolutionary positions and fortifications, and those who present themselves under a flag of truce without justifying properly their office and their personality; and 4th, those who fail to recognize a flag of truce duly accredited in the forms, prescribed by international law.

Will Commit also Military Crimes: 1st. Those who conspire against the unity of the revolutionists, provoking rivalry between chiefs and forming divisions and armed bands. 2d. Those who solicit contributions without authority of the government and misappropriate the public funds. 3d. Those who desert to the enemy, or are guilty of cowardice in the presence of the enemy, being armed; and, 4th, those who seize the property of any person who has done no wrong to the revolution, violate women and a.s.sa.s.sinate or inflict serious wounds on unarmed persons and commit robberies or arson.

Article x.x.x. Those who commit the crimes enumerated will be considered as declared enemies of the revolution, and will incur the penalties prescribed in the Spanish penal code, and in the highest grade.

If the crime shall not be found in the said code, the offender shall be imprisoned until the revolution triumphs unless the result of this shall be an irreparable damage, which in the judgment of the tribunal shall be a sufficient cause for imposing the penalty of death.

_Additional Clauses._

The government will establish abroad a revolutionary committee, composed of a number not yet determined of persons most competent in the Philippine Archipelago. This committee will be divided into three delegations; one of diplomacy, another of the navy and another of the army.

The delegation of diplomacy will manage and conduct negotiations with foreign cabinets with a view to the recognition of the belligerency and independence of the Philippines.

The delegation of the navy will be charged with studying and organizing the Philippine navy and preparing the expenditures which the necessities of the revolution may require.

The delegation of the army will study military tactics and the best form of organization for the general staff, artillery and engineers and whatever else may be necessary in order to fit out the Philippine Army under the conditions required by modern progress.

Article x.x.xII. The government will issue the necessary instructions for the proper execution of the present decree.

Article x.x.xIII. All decrees of the dictatorial government in conflict with the foregoing are hereby annulled.

Given at Cavite, the 23d of June, 1898.

_Emilio Aguinaldo._

_Instructions._

Desiring to bring about a proper execution of the decree dated the 23d of the present month, and to provide that the administrative measures shall not result hereafter in the paralysis of public business, but that, on the contrary, it shall const.i.tute the best guarantee of the regularity, prompt.i.tude and fitness in the transaction of public business, I give the following instructions and decree:

(Then follow ten rules concerning the details of installing the government.)

Cavite, the 27th of June, 1898.

_Emilio Aguinaldo._

_Message of the President of the Philippine Revolution._

If it is true, as it is true, that political revolutions properly understood, are the violent means which people employ to recover the sovereignty which naturally belongs to them, usurped and trampled upon by a tyrannical and arbitrary government, no revolution can be more righteous than that of the Philippines, because the people have had recourse to it after having exhausted all the pacific means which reason and experience could suggest.

The ancient Kings of Castile felt obliged to consider the Philippines as a brother people, united to the Spanish in a perfect partic.i.p.ation of aims and interests, so much so that when the Const.i.tution of 1812 was promulgated, at Cadiz, on account of the War of Spanish Independence, these islands were represented in the Spanish Cortez; but the interests of the Monastic corporations which have always found unconditional support in the Spanish Government, overcame this sacred duty and the Philippines remained excluded from the Spanish Const.i.tution, and the people at the mercy of the discretionary or arbitrary powers of the Governor-General.

In this condition the people claimed justice, begged of the metropolis the recognition and rest.i.tution of their secular rights by means of reforms which should a.s.similate in a gradual and progressive manner, the Philippines to the Spaniards; but their voice was quickly throttled and their sons received as the reward of their self-denial, deportation, martyrdom and death. The religious corporations with whose interests, always opposed to those of the Philippine people, the Spanish Government has been identified, scoffed at these pretensions and answered with the knowledge of that Government that Spanish liberties have cost blood.

What other recourse then remained to the people for insisting as in duty bound on regaining its former rights? No alternative remained except force and, convinced of that, it has had recourse to revolution.

And now it is not limited to asking a.s.similation to the Spanish Political Const.i.tution, but it asks a definite separation from it; it struggles for its independence in the firm belief that the time has arrived in which it can and ought to govern itself.

There has been established a Revolutionary Government, under wise and just laws, suited to the abnormal circ.u.mstances through which it is pa.s.sing, and which, in proper time, will prepare it for a true Republic. Thus taking as a sole model for its acts, reason, for its sole end, justice, and, for its sole means, honorable labor, it calls all Filipinos its sons without distinction of cla.s.s, and invites them to unite firmly with the object of forming a n.o.ble society, not based upon blood nor pompous t.i.tles, but upon the work and personal merit of each one; a free society, where exist neither egotism nor personal politics which annihilate and crush, neither envy nor favoritism which debase, neither fanfaronade nor charlatanism which are ridiculous.

And it could not be otherwise. A people which has given proofs of suffering and valor in tribulation and in danger, and of hard work and study in peace, is not destined to slavery; this people is called to be great, to be one of the strongest arms of Providence in ruling the destinies of mankind; this people has resources and energy sufficient to liberate itself from the ruin and extinction into which the Spanish Government has plunged it, and to claim a modest but worthy place in the concert of free nations.

Given at Cavite the 23d of June, 1898.

_Emilio Aguinaldo._

_To Foreign Governments._

The Revolutionary Government of the Philippines, on its establishment, explained, through the message dated the 23d of June last, the true causes of the Philippine Revolution, showing, according to the evidence, that this popular movement is the result of the laws which regulate the life of a people which aspires to progress and to perfection by the sole road of liberty.