Emilio Aguinaldo

Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964), Philippine leader, born near Cavite, Luzon, and educated at the College of San Juan de Letran, Manila. Aguinaldo led one faction of the Katipunan revolutionary group in a Filipino insurrection against Spanish rule in 1896, and two years later, during the Spanish-American War, he aided the American attack on the Philippine Islands. As head of the Philippine provisional government in 1899, he resisted American occupation; he continued to lead the struggle against the United States forces until March 1901, when he was captured. In April 1901 he took an oath of allegiance to the United States and retired to private life. Aguinaldo was taken into custody in 1945, during World War II, by invading American troops and held on suspicion of collaboration with the enemy during the Japanese occupation. He was subsequently exonerated.