The development of Philippine politics

APPENDIX A
ACT OF THE PROCLAMATION OF INDEPENDENCE
OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE(')
(Original in SI anish. D. S. P. I. R., 674. 1.)
Cavite Viejo, June 12, 1898.
In the town of Cavite Viejo, in this province of Cavite, on the
twelfth day of June eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, before me,
Don Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, Auditor of War and Special Commissioners appointed to proclaim and solemnize this act by the
Dictatorial Government of these Philippine Islands, for the purposes
and by virtue of the circular addressed by the Eminent Dictator
of the same Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, the undersigned being
assembled, among whom figure commanders of his army and the representatives of other who have not been able to attend and notable
residents of various towns of the same, taking into consideration,
that their inhabitants being already weary of bearing the ominous
yoke of Spanish domination, on account of the arbitrary arrests and
harsh treatment practised by the Civil Guard to the extent of causing
death with the connivance and even with the express orders of
their commanders, who sometimes went to the extreme of ordering
the shooting of prisoners under the pretext that they were attempting
to escape, in violation of the provisions of the Regulations of their
Corps, which abuses were unpunished and on account of the unjust
deportations, especially those decreed by General Blanco, of eminent
personages and of high social position, at the instigation of the
Archbishop and friars interested in keeping them out of the way
for their own selfish and avaricious purpose, deportations which are
quickly brought about by a method of procedure more execrable
than that of the Inquisition and which every civilized nation rejects
on account of a decision being rendered without a hearing of the
persons accused, the people determined to start an insurrectionary
movement in August, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, for the purpose of recovering the independence and sovereignty of which Spain
deprived them through the Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi,
who continuing the course followed by his predecessor Hernando de
Magallanes, who arrived upon the shores of Cebu, and occupied that
Island by virtue of the treaty of friendship which he celebrated
with its King Tupas, although he was killed in the battle which
took place on said shores, to which he was provoked by King Kalipulako de Maktan, who was suspicious of his bad intentions; he
landed on the Island of Bohol, entering also into the celebrated blood
compact of friendship with its King Sikatuna, for the purpose, after
(1) From Teylor, Philippine Insurgent Records, Vol. III, Exhibit 28, 24 M. G.