Republic of Negros


The Republic of Negros was a short-lived cantonal revolutionary republic in the eponymous Visayan island, and later, an administrative division, which existed while the Philippines was under Spanish and American sovereignty.

History

From November 3–6, 1898, the Negrenses rose in revolt against the Imperial Spanish authorities headed by the politico-military governor, colonel Isidro de Castro. The Spaniards decided to surrender upon seeing armed troops marching in a pincer movement towards Bacolod, the main city of the island. The revolutionaries, led by generals Juan Araneta, from Bago and Aniceto Lacson, from Talisay, were actually carrying fake arms consisting of rifles carved out of palm fronds and cannons of rolled bamboo mats painted black. On 5 November, Spanish officials surrendered themselves to native leaders. A provisional government was then established with Aniceto Lacson as President, and a notice of this was sent to Emilio Aguinaldo in Luzon. On November 27, 1898, the unicameral Chamber of Deputies met in Bacolod and declared the establishment of the Cantonal Republic of Negros'. The Chamber of Deputies acted as a Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution. Eventually, the proposed constitution of the Federal Republic of Negros was not implemented. On January 1, 1899, following the brief Negros Revolution in November 1898, the Federal Republic of Negros was proclaimed either as a sovereign state or a canton with two provinces. Notice of its establishment was sent to General Aguinaldo.
The Republic was surrendered to U.S. forces on March 4, 1899, following the outbreak of hostilities between the nascent First Philippine Republic and the U.S. military government which had been established during the Spanish-American War, and came under U.S. protection on April 30, 1899 as a separate state from the rest of the Philippine Islands. A constitution which proposed two governors, a U.S. military governor and a civil governor elected by the voters of Negros, was framed by a committee sitting in Bacolod and sent to General Otis in Manila and was proclaimed to take effect on October 2, 1899. The Republic operated smoothly under this constitution until the province of Occidental Negros was established on April 20, 1901, and annexed to the Philippine Islands by the United States as The Republic of Negros.

Republican leaders

The leaders of the short-lived republic were:

Commemoration

In Bago, the event was chronicled in a historic marker found in the Public Plaza, which bears the following inscription:
November 5 has been observed as a special non-working holiday in Negros Occidental through Republic Act No. 6709, signed by President Corazón Aquino on 10 February 1989.