Table of Contents
Introduction: The 1958 Interview
We now reproduce the interview that Guillermo Gómez Rivera held with the first president of the Republic of the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo, along with his wife, Doña María Agoncillo, in Cavite, on December 16, 1958.
Mrs. María Agoncillo de Aguinaldo had allowed Gómez Rivera entry into her mansion after being informed that he came with the purpose of interviewing her and getting her opinion on the national costume of the Philippines. In the middle of the interview, Emilio Aguinaldo intervened and, unexpectedly, he was the one who ended up being interviewed.
Gómez Rivera had not published this interview previously because his family asked him not to do so at the time, since in that era when independence had only recently been achieved, its content could have been considered highly compromising. But now that there is a different air of freedom, the 75-year-old veteran journalist affirms that the time has come to publish it, so that the many historical errors about President Aguinaldo and the Philippine nation itself may be exposed.
In his book «True Version of the Philippine Revolution» (True Account of the Philippine Revolution), Emilio Aguinaldo details many of the events that are discussed during this interview. This book can be read and downloaded for free from the Project Gutenberg portal at the following address: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14307
On the National Costume
GGR: Madam, in view of the controversy in the newspapers about the Filipino costume as it is now being fashioned by the “couturiers,” “fashion designers,” or “dressmakers,” what is your opinion?
MRS. DE AGUINALDO: That the national costume without its kerchief, or almapay, over the shoulders, ceases to be Filipino.
GGR: Madam, are you opposed to its modernization?
MRS. DE AGUINALDO: The Filipino national costume must be respected. It must not be distorted. Outfits can be made with its influence, but the national costume of the Filipino woman, as it is, should not be changed.
Aguinaldo Intervenes: History in English
NOTE: Mr. Aguinaldo (Don Emilio) was in the main hall of his mansion and upon hearing us speak in Spanish, he approached where his wife was and sat in a chair next to her. He spoke to us.
MR. AGUINALDO: It is good that this young man still speaks Spanish. What is this about the national costume?
GGR: Mr. President, Your Excellency, this humble servant of yours represents some folkloric groups, and your wife has just said that the Filipino costume must be respected.
MR. AGUINALDO: That is how it should be! Now, nothing is respected here anymore. It is not my habit to criticize, but since you can understand me in Spanish, I tell you that I, Mr. Aguinaldo, am very grieved by what is now happening in this country for which we, the veterans of the Republic begun in 1896, have made so many sacrifices.
GGR: Yes, Your Excellency. This humble servant venerates you as one of our heroes and fathers of the Homeland.
MR. AGUINALDO: Some history professors from the Yankees' University of the Philippines come here to interview me. And one of them is a certain Agoncillo who claims to be a relative of my wife... He comes here and speaks to me in English, and I have to signal to him to speak to me in Tagalog because I know he understands very little Spanish. Have you read the history of the Philippines that he wrote? Have you read the biography of Andrés Bonifacio that he wrote?
GGR: No, Your Excellency. I have not read those books, but I am going to read them to find out what they say...
MR. AGUINALDO: I do not read in English, but some acquaintances have told me that they are not books in favor of the Philippines or the Filipinos. And I believe they are not, because they tell lies even about the humble person of this faithful servant.
GGR: What bad things could they say about Your Excellency?
MR. AGUINALDO: Well, what Yankee politics wants... That I ordered Don Andrés Bonifacio to be assassinated. And that is not true. I had my differences with Andrés Bonifacio, but this new current of things wants to leave me in a bad light while at the same time unjustly covering up the abuses and cruelties of the Yankee here to justify their invasion and bloody annexation of the Philippines.
GGR: I am pained to hear these words from Your Excellency, but this humble servant is at Your Excellency's disposal to defend you and to make known the true history of our Homeland.
The “True History” of the Revolution
MR. AGUINALDO: That's it! The true history of our Homeland, particularly the true history of our revolution against Spain and our war of resistance against the Yankee invaders who, even to this day, are watching me in my own country...
GGR: Your Excellency has a faithful follower, another soldier, in this humble servant... Can Your Excellency summarize for me the history of the revolution against Spain?
MR. AGUINALDO: In short, under Spain, we were not economically controlled as we are now. That is why, when we learned from the Spanish liberals what liberty, equality, and fraternity are, we embraced Freemasonry and we all joined the Grand Orient of Spain. I speak to you of Freemasonry because I knew the Gómez brothers from Iloilo, Felipe and Guillermo, who are members of our Freemasonry...
GGR: Yes. Your Excellency. This humble servant is the grandson of Don Felipe and the grand-nephew of Don Guillermo.
MR. AGUINALDO: I have known them and I have read them in the magazine SEMANA and in La Voz de Manila and other Manila newspapers. That is why I speak to you with great frankness, because I am already fed up with what they have done to this poor country of mine, our country, our Homeland... And what annoys me the most is that they falsify the history of the revolution and the history of the war of resistance against the Yankees; against the United States... Those historians who write our history in American English come here to interview me and even make me sign things, but they publish nothing of what I say when what I declare does not agree with the agenda of the Yankee invaders... They are shameless!
GGR: What, then, is the truth, Your Excellency?
MR. AGUINALDO: The beginning of the Philippine revolution is the work of Freemasonry; but that revolution ended with the Pact of Biac-na-Bato. The Filipino volunteers helped the Spanish Government here to almost defeat me. That is why I chose to sign the peace through the Pact of Biac-na-Bato and chose to go into self-exile in Hong Kong.
The Yankee Betrayal and the War
GGR: And, why did the war with the Yankees happen?
MR. AGUINALDO: Simply because the Yankees deceived me. They approached me as Masonic brothers, urging me in the name of international Freemasonry to return to the Philippines to reorganize the revolution against Spain, giving me their word as Masonic brothers that after the Spanish Government in our islands was liquidated, they would grant me the independence we were fighting for.
GGR: Is it that the Yankees did not keep their word as Masonic brothers to give you and our people their freedom?
MR. AGUINALDO: Not at all! Read the Local Defense Juntas of Señor Apolinario Mabini that we signed… I have asked Deputy Don Miguel Cuenco of Cebu to publish in the Spanish-language teaching texts that decree, that proclamation, which we issued: the Local Defense Juntas. That is why upon arriving in the Philippines, I immediately had the independence of the Philippines from Spain declared, hoping that the Yankees would support us. But they betrayed me. They betrayed us! Instead of supporting us as allies, they deliberately provoked the war with us because their intention was to steal the gold and silver reserve that we accumulated in Malolos under the custody of Gen. Antonio Luna and Captain Servillano Sevilla. That reserve is worth more than a billion dollars, and they stole it from us when Malolos fell into the hands of Arthur MacArthur. And they chased me all theway to Palanan, Isabela, to capture me. They did not dare to execute me because it was not convenient for them to do so. They want me alive to blame me for the assassination of Andrés Bonifacio and that of Antonio Luna.
On the Assassinations of Bonifacio and Luna
GGR: How did the Yankees manage to intervene in these assassinations, Your Excellency?
MR. AGUINALDO: They are very cunning. Through Freemasonry and money, they paid some of our men... Yes. They paid, intimidated, threatened so that they, although supposedly under my command and control, would assassinate Andres and Procopio Bonifacio after a sham trial that lasted only one day, which sentenced them to death. I did not want to confirm that sentence, but they forced me with threats, even against my family. And here I am now suffering because the finger is pointed at me as the one who killed Bonifacio.
GGR: And what about General Antonio Luna?
MR. AGUINALDO: The same! They manipulated it and set it all up for me in Cabanatuan to then blame me. They killed Gen. Antonio Luna just like the Supremo Andrés Bonifacio, in the Masonic way. With bladed weapons! That is why I, in my heart, have already renounced Freemasonry, because today's Freemasonry is the property of the exploiting Yankee empire.
’I Regret Rising Up Against Spain’
GGR: My General. Your Excellency. This truth must be published.
MR. AGUINALDO: It is precisely for that reason that I am telling you this now, because you will be the one to publish it for me in the future, so that our people may know their true history.
GGR: Do you regret what you have done in your life, Your Excellency?
MR. AGUINALDO: Yes. I regret, in large part, having risen up against Spain and, that is why, when the funeral for King Alfonso of Spain was held in Manila, I appeared at the cathedral, to the surprise of the Spanish. And they asked me why I had come to the funeral of the King of Spain against whom I rose in rebellion... And, I told them that he is still my King because under Spain we were always Spanish subjects or citizens, but that now, under the United States, we are just a consumer market for their exports, if not pariahs, because they have never made us citizens of any state of the United States... And the Spanish made way for me and treated me as their brother on that very significant day...
The Future: De-Filipinization and Language
GGR: Your Excellency, what can you tell us about the future of our Homeland?
MR. AGUINALDO: At this point and at my age, I suspect that the Philippines will continue to be a colony of the United States because the campaign to force the English language on our children is relentless and leads to the de-Filipinization of our future generations. And even more so when they lose the necessary knowledge of the Spanish language, the official one, along with Tagalog, of our First Republic.
Final Thoughts: A Conscience at Peace
GGR: Are you at peace with yourself, Your Excellency?
MR. AGUINALDO: Yes. I have returned to my religion, the one we inherited as Spanish subjects. And as the old soldier that I am, I will soon be going to a better life with a clear conscience and with nothing more than the satisfaction of having honestly served my Homeland within my abilities and despite my limitations.
GGR: Thank you, Your Excellency.