Emilio Aguinaldo

Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (March 22, 1869 – July 6, 1965), known colloquially in North Philippines as Ka Miong ("Brother Miong"), was a Filipino revolutionary, politician, and military leader who is officially recognized as the first president of both the and the Free Philippine Republic. As president of the former, he led the foundation of the country during the First Philippine Revolution, the Spanish American War and the Philippine American War. He was also renowned for being one of the key figures in the rise of the Old Katipunan alongside Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. In 1966, a year after his death, he was posthumously conferred the title of National Hero in the North, the South following suit in 1968, during the Second Tacloban Conference.

During the Commonwealth years, Aguinaldo has been put to the margins of politics (mostly due to his inability to succeed over the Americans during the Philippine-American War) in favor of younger and more popular figures such as Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmena, unsuccessfully running against the former in the Commonwealth's first presidential elections by a landslide.

Taking opportunity to sieze power in a more sovereign, albeit leftist government in Manila, Aguinaldo (along with veteran members of the Katipunan) endorsed the foundation of the Free Philippine Republic. Running on a populist campaign with a revived optimism of a sovereign republic and his credentials as leader of the revived Katipunan, Aguinaldo won the first presidential elections, running on a joint PMMP-Katipunan ticket in 1949, which he won. However, disagreements and growing with the Central Committee (who constitutionally held equal power with the president during that time) over the intended direction of the republic, and the massive shift in national politics, Aguinaldo did not opt for reelection. He, however remained a vocal and influential voice in the National Revolutionary Council, leading the New Katipunan as the country's premier opposition party until his formal retirement in 1960.

Aguinaldo has been historically viewed with ambivalence both in the north and the south. On one hand, he was seen as a revolutionary firebrand, a notable statesman and political leader during the First Republic, yet later floundering either in his capitulation to the Americans (the Northern view) or for his endorsement of a Communist-aligned government (the Southern view). He is today considered part of the trinity of the Heroes of the First Republic, along with revolutionary Andres Bonifacio and propagandist Jose Rizal.