Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

LAST PLENARY SESSION
February 26, 1930
The last plenary session of the First Independence
Congress was held in the Manila Grand Opera House
at 2:30 P. M. on Wednesday, February 26, 1930,
with honorable, President Rafael Palma as chairman.
As in the first plenary session, the Manila Grand Opera
House was filled to its full capacity. After the invocation by Mons. Gregorio Aglipay, Bishop of the
Philippine Independent Church, the Honorable Emiliano Tria Tirona, formerly minority floor leader in
the Senate, arose and spoke as follows:
ADDRESS OF THE HONORABLE EMILIANO TRIA
TIRONA, FORMERLY MINORITY FLOOR
LEADER IN THE SENATE
For eight years the Filipino people fought for their independence; first, against Spain and afterwards against the powerful North-American nation, sacrificing the lives of their best sons.
For more than twenty years these same people have been
fighting in the fields of peace for the same ideal. The generous
concessions of America to our country were not sufficient to
make her desist from her eagerness of emancipation.
This demonstrates that it is a useless task to tempt the Filipino people with cajoling promises of a material and prosperous life in exchange with their renouncing a free and independent life. And it is because our country, more than the
wealth that its so much praised economic development can
carry, esteems greatly the precious blood of its heroes and the
lives of those who fell in defense of its sacred liberty.
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