On May 17, 1897, Spanish Governor General Fernando Primo de Rivera issued an amnesty for Filipino revolutionaries, this after the Spanish offensive composed of four brigades have been successful in taking various Cavite towns, including Indang, Naic, Amadeo, Mendez Nuñez, Alfonso, and Maragondon.
While some have taken advantage of the pardon, as with the past amnesties issued such as that done by predecessor Camilo de Polavieja, those who did not surrender went with Emilio Aguinaldo in his transfer of operations to Talisay, Batangas. The fall of Cavite did not dampen the revolutionary spirit as the Spanish hoped it would, with Aguinaldo and his troops breaking through the Spanish military cordon and threatened to spread the Revolution further north.
Moving on through Muntinlupa, Pasig, and eventually settling in Montalban (now part of Rizal Province) by June, Aguinaldo reorganized his ranks and assigned flag ranks to a number of officers who still fight, including Generals Mamerto Natividad, Mariano Llanera, Licerio Geronimo, Hermogenes Bautista, Simon Tecson, Isidoro Torres, and Francisco Macabulos, among others.
When Aguinaldo reached Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan, and observing the pause in Primo de Rivera's offensive, he issued in July 1897 a proclamation outlining the demands of the "second inauguration" of the Revolution, which he carried on when negotiations with the Spanish began later through Pedro Paterno:
1. Expulsion of the friars and restitution to the townships of the lands which the friars have appropriated.
2. Parliamentary representation, freedom of the press, toleration of all religious sects, laws common with Spain, and administrative and economic autonomy.
3. Equality in treatment and pay between peninsular and insular civil servants.
4. Putting up to public auction in small lots the friar lands restituted of values within the reach of all and payable within four years, the same with present State lands.
5. Abolition of government power to banish citizens, as well as unjust measures against Filipinos, legal equality for all persons under the civil, as well as the Penal Code.
Apparently, these demands found their way to the provinces far from the center of conflict. For instance, Elias Ataviado in Albay wrote of how "the Pact [of Biak-na-Bato] was unwittingly Aguinaldo's strongest weapon of victory" for in their demands, they spoke for the rights of all Filipinos, regardless of ethnicity. Ataviado noted how the initial impression of the Philippine Revolution in Bicol was the "desire of the Tagalogs to rule the other regions." Aguinaldo's stand, however, showed that they sought racial equality for "the Filipino, the Asian, the American, and the European."
What can be learned from the peace process leading to the Pact of Biak-na-Bato?
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