JUST as we celebrated the 125th anniversary of Philippine Independence last Monday, June 12, we will also celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Philippine Navy, the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI), Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Education (DepEd), Health (DOH), and Agriculture (DA) on June 23, 2023.
This is significant because the attainment of a country’s independence is followed by the establishment of its government and the major agencies that comprise it. That was in 1898, 125 years ago.
Before 1898, the Philippine Army was established on March 22, 1897, at the Tejeros Congress, where Emilio Aguinaldo was also elected president.
On April 17 of the same year, the Departments of National Defense (DND), Interior and Local Government (DILG), Finance (DOF), and Justice (DOJ) were created at the Naic Assembly.
According to this historical account, the construction of the government began with the election of President Aguinaldo (March 22, 1897) and the creation of some Cabinet positions, and was followed shortly by the Proclamation of Independence (June 12, 1898). However, some claim that the first government of the country was the Kataastaasan Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK or Katipunan) and the first president was Supremo Andres Bonifacio.
Assuming that the Katipunan was the nascent de facto government of the Filipinos established on July 17, 1892, with the founding document Kasaysayan, Pinagkasunduan, Mga Dakilang Kautusan (http://www.kasaysayan-kkk.info/), which was written in January 1872 as the first declaration of independence of the Filipino people, the first Filipino President was Deodato Arellano, who was elected president of the Katipunan Supreme Council and ruled as such from July 1892 to February 1893.
He was followed by Roman Basa, who held office until January 1895. Andres Bonifacio was elected in January 1895. He was the third president, and Emilio Aguinaldo would become the fourth president after being elected at the Tejeros Convention on March 22, 1897. According to Katipunan records, the Office of the Attorney General (Ladislao Diwa), the Office of the Comptroller (Andres Bonifacio), the Office of the Treasurer (Valentin Diaz), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government/DILG (Teodoro Plata) were created in 1892, while the Departments of National Defense/DND (Teodoro Plata), Finance/DOF (Enrique Pacheco) and Justice/DOJ (Briccio Pantas) were established in 1896.
Nevertheless, some argue that Andres Bonifacio was the first president, even if he was the third president of the Katipunan Supreme Council since the Supreme Council only elected secretaries or cabinet posts during his time in 1896, and by then the Katipunan was already the de facto revolutionary government governing the entire country.
If Andres Bonifacio was the first president, then the formation of the government began in August 1896 with DND (Teodoro Plata), DILG (Emilio Jacinto, Aguedo del Rosario), DOJ (Briccio Pangtas) and DOF (Enrique Pacheco).
In this way of thinking, independence was proclaimed first (January or August 1872), followed by the formation of the government with the election of the first president, Deodato Arellano (July 17, 1892) or Andres Bonifacio (August 1896).
Today, the proclamation of independence, the formation of the government and the election of the first president are predominantly attributed to Aguinaldo, not Arellano or Bonifacio. Therefore, government agencies established under his presidency or by earlier recognized events or decrees should derive their historical lineage from these dates and not from the Spanish, American or Japanese occupation periods.
The Department of Education’s (DepEd) story is a particular example that needs correction. There is a gallery of education secretaries in the lobby of the Rizal Building in the DepEd Central Office, but it begins with Bernard Moses, an American who took office in March 1900.
He was followed by James Smith (1903-1908), William Morgan Shuster (1908-1909), Newton Gilbert (1909-1918), and Henderson Martin (1918-1919), all Americans.
DepEd will celebrate its 125th anniversary on June 23, 2023, after the Philippine Revolutionary Government was established by President Emilio Aguinaldo with a functioning government structure designed by Apolinario Mabini.
But it was not until September 26, 1898, that the post of Secretary was filled with the appointment of Felipe Buencamino as Secretary of Fomento (or Public Development) under the Direccion de Instruccion Publica (Director of Public Instruction or Education).
Secretary Buencamino issued a decree establishing the Unibersidad Literaria de Filipinas on October 19, 1898, another decree establishing the Instituto Burgos on October 24, 1898, and another decree reopening schools throughout the country on November 4, 1898. Hence begins the reckoning of the Department of Education with the Fomento Secretary.
The first Secretary of the Department of Education was Felipe Buencamino, who served from September 1898 to January 1899. He was followed by Graciano Gonzaga (January to May 1899). On May 6, 1899, President Aguinaldo appointed Aguedo Velarde as Secretary of the Secretaria de Primaria Instrucciones. He was the third secretary of DepEd. Velarde’s office probably ended when President Aguinaldo dissolved his Cabinet in November 1899 to make way for guerrilla warfare against the colonization of the American forces in the north.
This is just some of the information I got from the initial research of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), and I thank its chairman Dr. Rene Escalante for providing the paper “A Preliminary Study of the Origin of DepEd 1898-1899.”
Buencamino, Gonzaga and Velarde must now be recognized, honored and included in the gallery of DepEd Education Secretaries as predecessors of Moses, Smith, Shuster, Gilbert, Martin and all others who served under the American occupation.
An interesting find is the decree of the Secretary of Education of the Philippine Revolutionary Government, Buencamino, dated October 19, 1898, establishing the Unibersidad Literaria de Filipinas. Was this the origin of the University of the Philippines (UP)? Why did we choose June 18, 1908, instead as the founding date of the state university even though it was founded by the American colonial government?
