“As I firmly believed that the peace (Biak-na-bato) whose conditions I do not know, was really only a trap planned by you (Aguinaldo) in order to give an opportunity to re-establish your forces which had grown weak enough and then renew your efforts with greater energy and better equipment. I, on my part, did not suspend my labor of favorably disposing the people to that end and of accumulating the means and supplies for hurrying to the insurgent camp at the first opportunity upon the slightest indication from you or from anyone else empowered to speak with authority.” (Taylor[1], 432)
"Aguinaldo received the amount of 400,000 pesos which he deposited in his name in one of the banks, agreeing with his companions not to touch the money and to live during their exile on the private funds which they brought with them and the interests of the money deposited. He leased a big house where all his companions, together with the families of those who had any, were given the right to free board and lodging. Malvar, who came later with his family, stayed there. Those who preferred to live somewhere were given a monthly pension of twelve pesos each. Almost all were forced to live in the house which they called General Headquarters inasmuch as with twelve pesos monthly, it was completely impossible to pay for board, lodging and laundry, and still buy cigarettes. Only those who had private income could do so, and these were few. The monthly pension of twelve pesos was not extended to those of us who were already in Hongkong when they arrived, irrespective of the reason for their stay in the Colony. However, none of those already in the Colony when they arrived ever intimated their desire to be helped like those who recently arrived.
"...the revolutionists arrived in December, and inasmuch as they lacked clothes and the climate was cold in that island, each was furnished a woolen suit and a cap. The woolen suit, according to them, had the advantage of protecting them against cold and was more economical as it saved them laundry expenses. Aguinaldo at that time probably had not completed 30 years of age and the oldest of his comrades, true revolutionists, could not be more than 30 years old; the majority were mere youths ranging from 27 to 18 years of age who came from families that were not well-to-do. Some belonged to families with properties, but these properties consisted mostly of farms which, as a result of the rebellion, had remained uncultivated, so that it can be said they were in the same economic situation as those without properties, that is to say, they were equally indigent. Having undergone great hardship and suffered untold privations in the field, it was to be expected that as young men they would like to have some amusements.
"... because I consider that sacrifices suffered in compliance with a duty are the most natural things in the world, but I could not help but admire those young men as I constantly saw them attired in woolen suits, sleeping on the floor, eating miserably, devoid of all forms of recreation, but always contented, buoyant in spirit and resigned. Esteban de la Rama told me that the unswerving loyalty that he has always shown to Aguinaldo was due to the fact that when he passed through Hongkong during that period, he saw the miserable existence of those Filipino exiles which Aguinaldo shared with them, despite the fact that the latter had 400,000 pesos in the bank in his name which he could dispose of for his own personal comfort by a stroke of the pen and yet had abstained from doing it." (Alejandrino, 81-83)
Here is how Aguinaldo managed the funds:
"From January 4 to April 4, Aguinaldo withdrew from the banks 5,786.46 pesos in part interest on the money he had deposited. This was used to pay the expenses of himself and his companions in Hongkong. These expenses were kept at a minimum; the money was drawn and spent by him. If one of the men with him needed a new pair of shoes, Aguinaldo paid for them; if another wanted a new coat, Aguinaldo bought it. Minute accounts were kept, which are on file among his papers... Life was not easy under these conditions. Aguinaldo’s companions were entirely dependent upon him. The most trivial expenses had to be approved by him, and he held them down with a strong hand. They were men living in a strange land, among people whose language they did not speak, having nothing to do but quarrel among themselves...” (Taylor[1], 95)
The leaders left behind in the islands were not happy with the arrangement that all the money was held by Aguinaldo in Hong Kong. On December 29, 1898, or two days after Aguinaldo and his companions left, Isabelo Artacho caused the passing of a resolution proposing that the third installment, in the amount of P400,000, be distributed to the neediest revolutionaries. (Taylor[I], 451-452)
When Aguinaldo learned about this, he wrote Paterno saying that the money was reserved for the common good and not to be distributed to a few individuals and advised Baldomero Aguinaldo to send the third installment of P200,000 instead to Hong Kong. This was no longer done because the Spaniards reneged on the payment, although Baldomero was able to remit to Hong Kong the sum of P18,582.90, which was added to the bank account. (Taylor[I], 93)
But Artacho did not stop there. He
went to Hong Kong and "... sued for
a division of the money among the insurgents according to rank. Aguinaldo
claimed that the money was a trust fund, and was to remain on deposit until it
was seen whether the Spaniards would carry out their promised reforms, and if
they failed to do so, it was to be used to defray the expenses of a new
insurrection." (Philippine Information Society[1:1], 32)
On the advice of Felipe Agoncillo,
Aguinaldo quietly left for Singapore with Gregorio Del Pilar and Jose Leyba to
escape the Artacho suit. While in Singapore, the American consul, SpLencer
Pratt, approached him, offering to collaborate with Commodore Dewey. Aguinaldo
went back to Hong Kong to seek the advice of the Junta. The Junta wanted the
American offer of collaboration put in writing, but it only received verbal
assurance from the American officer in Hong Kong that independence would be
respected. After a spirited debate, the Junta agreed with misgivings to send
Aguinaldo home to begin the revolution's renewal.
Accordingly, the American officials
coordinated with Dewey the repatriation of Aguinaldo to the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the bank deposit was threatened with attachment due to the Artacho
suit, so the Junta finally agreed to a settlement for P5,000 to Artacho,
refusing his compromise offer of P40,000. (Taylor[I], 515)
Upon his return to the Philippines,
Artacho was arrested on orders of Aguinaldo and deported to the interior of
Cavite. (Kalaw-Teodoro[Memoirs], 469).
However, according to Aguinaldo, he and his brother and a certain
Agustin dela Rosa “got away from Cavite and went to Hongkong where they had
a conference with the American Consul.” (Taylor[IV], 143)
The procurement of armaments was the
primordial objective of the Hong Kong Junta.
Here is the first arrangement to purchase and deliver armaments, viz:
"An important aspect of Aguinaldo's preparations for returning to the Philippines was the securing of arms. For this, Aguinaldo depended upon the American consul of Hong Kong, Mr. Wildman, who zealously took charge of the project. The consul was initially given P50,000 for the shipment of arms to the Philippines; before departing, Aguinaldo handed him an additional P67,000 to buy and ship the second consignment. The first shipment of arms, consisting of 2,000 Mauser rifles and 200,000 cartridges, was delivered, but the second - according to Aguinaldo, at least - was never received. ‘Mr. Wildman did not comply with this last trust, keeping the said sum of money (P67,000), which he refuses to return, according to my advice.’"(Bell[Ronald], 68-69
On May 16, 1898, Aguinaldo boarded
the American vessel "McCullough"
for his homebound trip. Agoncillo took
over the Junta leadership and assigned the procurement of arms to Teodoro
Sandico and the handling of funds to
Vito Belarmino. Here is an
account of Sandico’s procurement of arms:
"The first arms transaction arranged by Sandico had ended in disaster. He had entrusted nearly P47,000 to an American in Hong Kong for the purchase of arms that were never bought. The money could not be recovered, for such transactions were illegal and the British regarded arms as contraband.“… Despite the Junta's views, Sandico arranged the second transaction through an intermediary to whom he paid P60,000 for 2,000 rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition. The arms were extremely expensive; included in their cost was the price of the transport vessel and a staggering P12,673 commission for the middleman. In June 1898, Sandico sailed with the arms to Cavite ... and ... succeeded in delivering the arms" (Bell[Ronald], 81-82)
Despite the setbacks, the Junta persisted, viz:
"… the Junta procured and shipped more arms to the Philippines. Belarmino reported on June 7, that two consignments consisting of 9,000 rifles and 3,000 cartridges were scheduled to reach the Philippines shortly, but two cannon were left behind in the haste to get the shipment underway.
"By the middle of June, the Junta's ability to ship arms was severely hampered, this time from an outside source. The Spanish consul, keeping a close watch, protested the action of the Junta to the Hong Kong authorities. This forced the British officials to take action; they subsequently uncovered a cache of arms and ammunition intended for the Philippines. This violation of British neutrality resulted in a prohibition of Filipino movement to and from the Crown Colony. Even the American consular launch was searched en route to visit vessels in the harbor. Nevertheless, the Hong Kong Junta struggled on.
"In view of the increased vigilance of the British authorities and the difficulty in procuring war materials in Hong Kong, the Junta began to explore other sources of arms. Agoncillo appointed two trusted men, Mariano Ponce and Faustino Lichauco, to go to Japan to ascertain the possibility of enlisting assistance. When the Japanese proved amenable to the idea of selling arms. Ponce and Lichauco made arrangements for the purchase and requested money from the Hong Kong Junta. The original order was for P30,000, which was quickly made available; but the cost of a schooner to transport weapons left only enough money to purchase 1,000 rifles. Since the cost of transportation was fixed, Ponce realized the economy of increasing the size of the shipment and accordingly requested additional funds. Through an oversight, the check that the Junta sent to Japan was not transferable, and could only be cashed in Hong Kong on the due date. The remittance had to be returned and exchanged for cash. In the meantime, the Japanese, who were ready to conclude the transaction, requested P200,000 to be deposited in the Yokohama Specie Bank. Since the Filipinos in Yokohama did not have this sum, they delayed, waiting for the cash to arrive from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, open hostilities had broken out between American and Filipino forces. Thereupon the Japanese, not wishing to be involved, suspended the transaction.
"Two more feckless attempts were made to purchase guns from the Japanese. In April 1899, the ship “Nunobiki Maru” with 10,000 rifles and 6,000,000 rounds of ammunition sunk due to a typhoon a hundred miles from Shanghai; A second shipment could not be landed in the Philippines due to the vigilance of American coastal patrols, now alert to Filipino attempts to import arms. It was diverted to Formosa and eventually transferred to the Chinese mainland, where it fell into the hands of supporters of the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-Sen. (Alip, 48; Ponce, 374-375)
“Despite its officially neutral policy, Japan did support the Filipino cause. Several Japanese veterans of the Sino-Japanese War volunteered to fight for the Filipinos; cloth, uniforms, and a few weapons were also obtained. Newspapers and officials were generally in favor of Philippine independence; a few even criticized alleged American imperialism.” (Bell[Ronald], 82-85; Alip, 47).
Upon arrival in Cavite on May 19,
1898, Aguinaldo immediately set to work to organize the revolutionary forces,
viz:
"I promptly gave orders for the distribution of the arms which had just arrived, sending some to various provinces and reserving the remainder for the revolutionaries of Kawit, the latter being smuggled into the district of Alapang during the night of 27th May.
“The next day (28th May 1898), just when we were distributing arms to the revolutionists of Kawit, in the above-mentioned district a column, composed of over 270 Spanish Naval Infantry, appeared in sight. They were sent out by the Spanish General, Sr. Pena, for the purpose of seizing the said consignment of arms.
“Then it was that the first engagement of the Revolution of 1898 (which may be rightly styled a continuation of the campaign of 1896-97) took place. The battle raged from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the Spaniards ran out of ammunition and surrendered, with all their arms, to the Filipino Revolutionists, who took their prisoners to Cavite.” (Aguinaldo[True Version], 24)
In conclusion, Jose Alejandrino, who
later joined Aguinaldo in Hong Kong had
this say:
“There had not been until now in our history another instance of a man who being in a foreign country and in possession of P400,000 (Mexican dollars) in a bank under his name, the equivalent of more than one million pesos now (P329 million in the year 2022 prices – Author) had the integrity and the unselfishness to return to his country to expose his life for an ideal which is the ideal of his people and his race.” (Alejandrino, 217)
Consistent with the foregoing observation of Alejandrino, Albert Sonrichsen, an American prisoner of war (POW) who was arrested on January 27, 1899, together with American soldiers who were dressed in civilian clothes for taking photographs inside Filipino lines, and who was later hired by the Filipinos to teach in a school in Vigan, and had written about the Biak-na-Bato peace agreement, expressed the same admiration for Aguinaldo in the following statement:
"The 400,000 pesetas already received remained in a Hong Kong bank and was afterward used to purchase arms and ammunition, but never have I heard any Filipino accuse Aguinaldo of misappropriating one cent of the money." (Philippine Information Society[1:1], 35)
Finally, the exiled Filipino revolutionaries in Hong Kong issued a declaration defending Aguinaldo against unfounded allegations that he misappropriated the funds of Biak-na-bato to enrich himself, viz:
“The undersigned, of their own free will, without any compulsion whatever, obeying only the voice of their conscience, protest with all the energy of which they are capable against the infamous calumny which ill-will has put forth against the immaculate name of Don Emilio Aguinaldo, and they declare that of the sums which this illustrious Chief has under his charge not the smallest amount has been misapplied, but that they remain in their entirety, having been reserved for the service of the country, with the exception of a small portion employed for the maintenance of the companions who reside in Hong-Kong, who with a patriotism worthy of all praise, have adapted themselves to the narrow limits of expense to which he has subjected them, to the end that expenses might be the smallest possible.“Mariano Llanera, Miguel Malvar, Rosendo Banaad, Eduardo Anastacio Vida, Andres Cauda, Vitaliano Familiar, Elias Mendoza, Luis Villanueva, Salvador Estrella, Teodoro Legaspi, Lino Viola, Tomas Mascardo, Pedro Aguinaldo, Carlos Ronquillo, E. Viola, M. Kabigting, M. Ponce, Leon Novenario, Doroteo Lopez, Vicente Caiton, Jose M. Basa, Natalio Legaspi, Wenceslao Viniegra, Vito Belarmino, Antonio Montenegro, Anastacio Francisco, Felipe Agoncillo, Manuel Tinio, Joaquin Natividad, Serviliano Aquino, J. L. Natividad, J. Alejandrino, Cayetano Rivera, Eugenio Plana, M. Natividad, Fidel Ratia, Raquel S. Buenaventura and J. R. Laurel.” (Taylor[1], 489)
“And in order to make this known and that those who have fallen into this error may be undeceived, they sign this declaration in the city of Hong-Kong, on the 23rd of April, 1898.
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