General Emilio Aguinaldo
(From a portrait presented by him to the Author.)
After many consultations and much deliberation it was decided at a Cabinet meeting to approve unreservedly of the negotiations, and to that effect a cablegram was sent to General Primo de Rivera fully empowering him to conclude a treaty of peace on the basis of the Protocol. Meanwhile, it soon became evident that there were three distinct interests at stake, namely, those of Spain and the Spanish people, those of the friars, and the claims of the rebels. Consequently the traditional feud between the Archbishop of Manila and the Captain-General was revived.
General Primo de Rivera in his despatch urged the Madrid Government to grant certain reforms, in any case, which could not fail to affect the hitherto independent position of the friars in governmental affairs. He also drew the attention of the Government to the defenceless condition of the capital in the event of a foreign attack (vide Senate speeches reported in the Diario de las Sesiones, Madrid, 1899 and 1900). The friars were exceedingly wroth, and combined to defeat the Generalʼs efforts to come to an understanding with the rebels. They secretly paid natives to simulate the Katipunan in the provinces, and the plot only came to light when these unfortunate dupes fell into the hands of the military authorities and confessed what had happened. Nevertheless, the General pursued the negotiations with Paterno as intermediary. Aguinaldoʼs original demand was for a total indemnity of ₱3,000,000, but, in the course of the negotiations alluded to, it was finally reduced to ₱1,700,000, inclusive of ₱800,000 to be paid to Aguinaldo on his retirement from the Colony.
H.E. Don Pedro a Paterno
(From a portrait presented by him to the Author.)
The terms of the Protocol of Peace having been mutually agreed upon, a treaty, known as the Pacto de Biac-na-bató,[13] is alleged to have been signed at Biac-na-bató on December 14, 1897, between Emilio Aguinaldo and others of the one part, and Pedro A. Paterno, as attorney for the Captain-General, acting in the name of the Spanish Government, of the other part. Under this treaty the rebels undertook to deliver up their arms and ammunition of all kinds to the Spaniards; to evacuate the places held by them; to conclude an armistice for three years for the application and development of the reforms to be introduced by the other part, and not to conspire against Spanish sovereignty in the Islands, nor aid or abet any movement calculated to counteract those reforms. Emilio Aguinaldo and 34 other leaders undertook to quit the Philippine Islands and not return thereto until so authorized by the Spanish Government, in consideration whereof the above-mentioned ₱800,000 was to be paid as follows:--₱400,000 in a draft on Hong-Kong to be delivered to Aguinaldo on his leaving Biac-na-bató [This draft was, in fact, delivered to him]; ₱200,000 payable to Aguinaldo as soon as he should send a telegram to the revolutionary general in command at Biac-na-bató, ordering him to hand over the rebelsʼ arms to the Captain-Generalʼs appointed commissioner [This telegram was sent], and the final ₱200,000 immediately after the singing of the Te Deum which would signify an official recognition of peace.
It was further alleged that on behalf of the Spanish Government many radical reforms and conditions were agreed to (outside the Treaty of Biac-na-bató), almost amounting to a total compliance with the demands of the rebels. But no evidence whatever has been adduced to confirm this allegation. Indeed it is a remarkable fact that neither in the Madrid parliamentary papers (to copies of which I have referred), nor in the numerous rebel proclamations and edicts, nor in the published correspondence of Pedro A. Paterno, is even the full text of the treaty given. It is singular that the rebels should have abstained from publishing to the world those precise terms which they say were accepted and not fulfilled by the Spanish Government, which denies their existence.