Is Emilio Aguinaldo a Hero or a Traitor?
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Is Emilio Aguinaldo a Hero or a Traitor?
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Answer:
A traitor
Even before the Tejeros Convention, Aguinaldo was already suspected of treason by Andres Bonifacio and his close advisers. Bonifacio’s intel reported that Aguinaldo had been negotiating with Catholic friars without the knowledge or permission of the Katipunan leadership. Perhaps Bonifacio needed more incriminating evidence, or thought it risky to apprehend a popular general of the revolution… he did not act on this piece of information.
So, in these ways, Aguinaldo was a traitor to the Katipunan.
As regards the Philippine-American War, with Aguinaldo as leader and President of the revolutionary Filipinas government: Aguinaldo was captured by the Americans in 1901, and, unlike Mabini and other revolutionaries, he took an oath of allegiance to the United States. He was able to stay in the Philippines and live a comfortable life as a politician, while Mabini et al suffered in exile in Guam for refusing to take that oath. In this respect, Aguinaldo was a traitor to his government, his colleagues, to revolutionary principles, and his country.
If Mabini’s memoirs are to be believed, Aguinaldo did not punish Filipino soldiers who raped Filipino women and looted various barrios; he also did not discipline officers who used their weapons to steal land and other valuable possessions from private individuals in the regions they entered. This is a betrayal of the oath to serve the people.
I’ve counted about nine acts of treason that Aguinaldo committed against the Katipunan government and the Philippine revolutionary government.
So as I said, Yes, he was a traitor.
But, to properly answer the question — different people have different opinions, depending on the information they have.