TODAY IN THE PAST

Today, November 1, 1897, the Biak-na-Bato Republic is established. Its officials are Emilio Aguinaldo, President; Mariano Trias, Vice-President; Isabelo Artacho, Secretary of the Interior; Antonio Montenegro, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Baldomero Aguinaldo, Secretary of Treasury, and Emiliano Riego de Dios, Secretary of War.

It was on this date that the leaders of the revolution, at the instance of Aguinaldo, met in Biak-na-Bato, and formed the Constituent Assembly to discuss the provisional Constitution of the Philippine Republic, written by Isabelo Artacho and Felix Ferrer.

After a brief preliminary discussion, the document was approved on November 1.

The Constitution established the Government of the Republic, whose powers are vested in a Supreme Council composed of a President, a Vice-President, and four Secretaries of State to direct such activities as appertain to foreign relations, war, interior, and finance, and empowered to adopt measures and collect taxes; to contract public debts here or abroad; to devote all funds to the needs of the State; to recruit and mobilize troops and provide for their maintenance; to bring before the Judicial Power the President or any of the members of the Council charged with violation of the law.

The executive power resides in the President of the Supreme Council and, in his absence, in the Vice-President.