| Macario Sakay | |
|---|---|
| Macario Sakay (third from left, front row) with his Cabinet. | |
| President of the Philippines (Unofficial) Tagalog Republic |
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| In office May 6, 1902 – July 14, 1906 |
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| Vice President | Francisco Carreón |
| Preceded by | Miguel Malvar |
| Succeeded by | Abolished title next held by Manuel Quezon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 1, 1870 Tondo, Manila, Philippines |
| Died | January 9, 1907 (aged 37) Manila, Philippines |
| Political party | Katipunan Republika ng Katagalugan |
| Profession | Revolutionary |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Macario Sakay y de León was a Filipino general in the Philippine Revolution against Spain and in the Philippine-American War. According to some historians, He may have been a president of the Philippines but is currently not recognized as such by the Philippine government.
He continued resistance against the United States following the official American declaration of the war's end in 1902 and in the following year became president of the Tagalog Republic,[1]
Sakay was conned by the Americans into coming down from the mountains on promise of amnesty for him and his officials, on top of the formation of Philippine Assembly composed of Filipinos to serve as the 'gate of freedom. His surrender was made to be a prerequisite for a state of peace that would supposedly ensure the election of Filipino delegates to the Philippine Assembly. Sakay believed that the struggle has shifted to constitutional means, with the Assembly as means to winning Philippine Independence.
Dominador Gomez, a Filipino labor leader , was authorized in 1905 by Governor General Henry Clay Ide to negotiate for the surrender of Sakay and his men. Gomez met with Sakay at his camp and argued that the establishment of a national assembly was being held up by Sakay's intransigence, and that its establishment would be the first step toward Filipino independence. Sakay agreed to end his resistance on conditions that a general amnesty be granted his men, that they be permitted to carry firearms, and that he and his officers would be permitted to leave the country. Gomez assured Sakay that these conditions the would be acceptable to the Americans, and Sakay's emissary, General Leon Villafuerte, obtained agreement to them from the American Governor General. Sakay and Villafuerte traveled to Manila, where they were welcomed and invited to receptions and banquets. One invitation came from the Constabulary Chief, Col. Harry H. Bandholtz. That invitation was a colonial trap and Sakay and his principal lieutenants were disarmed and arrested while the party was in progress.[2][3]
He was accused of "bandolerismo under the Brigandage Act of Nov. 12, 1902, which interpreted all acts of armed resistance to American rule as banditry." The colonial Supreme Court of the Philippines upheld the decision.[4] On September 13, 1907, the leader of the Republic of Katagalugan, the de facto fourth President of the Philippines, was hanged. Before his death, he made the following statement:
Death comes to all of us sooner or later, so I will face the Lord Almighty calmly. But I want to tell you that we are not bandits and robbers, as the Americans have accused us, but members of the revolutionary force that defended our mother country, the Philippines! Farewell! Long live the Republic and may our independence be born in the future! Long live the Philippines!"[5][6]
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Sakay was born on January 3, 1870, he was a native of Tondo, Manila where he worked as a barber. An original member of the Katipunan movement, he fought alongside Andrés Bonifacio throughout the Philippine Revolution of 1896. In 1899 he continued the struggle for Philippine independence against the United States. Near the end of the Philippine-American War Sakay was captured and jailed by the Philippine Constabulary.
After the surrender of the last Filipino commanding general Miguel Malvar in April 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt officially ended the Philippine-American War on July 4, 1902. At the end of the war, Sakay was granted amnesty and released from prison.
Sakay was one of the founders of the Nacionalista Party, which strove for Philippine independence though legal means. The party appealed to the Philippine Commission. However, the Commission passed the Sedition Law, which banned the party. (An unrelated Nacionalista Party which survives to the present day was founded in 1907.) Sakay thus took up arms again.
On November 12, 1902, the Philippine Commission passed the Bandolerism Act which proclaimed all captured resistance fighters or insurgents to be tried in court as bandits, ladrones, and robbers. In April 1904, Sakay issued his own manifesto proclaiming himself President and established his own government called the Repúblika ng Katagalugan (Tagalog Republic) in opposition to U.S. colonial rule. The U.S. Government did not recognize Sakay's government and, through the Bandolerism Act, labeled him an outlaw.
The Governor General, the U.S. Government, and the U.S. military left the pursuit of Sakay in the hands of the Philippine Constabulary and Philippine Scouts. In 1905 concentration camps, often referred to as Zonas, were re-established in parts of Cavite, Batangas, and Laguna. This had little effect on Sakay and his fighters. Extensive fighting continued in Southern-Luzon for months.
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