Marching Filipino soldiers during the inauguration of the First Philippine Republic in Malolos on January 23, 1899.
The Philippine Revolutionary Army, later renamed Philippine Republican Army[4] (Spanish: Ejército Revolucionario Filipino; Tagalog: Panghimagsikang Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas), was the official armed forces of the First Philippine Republic from its formation in March 1897 to its dissolution in November of 1899 in favor of guerrilla operations in the Philippine–American War.
History
Regular soldiers of the Philippine Revolutionary Army stand at attention for an inspection.
The revolutionary army used the 1896 edition of the Spanish regular army's Ordenanza del Ejército to organize its forces and establish its character as a modern army.[5] Rules and regulations were laid down for the reorganization of the army, along with the regulation of ranks and the adoption of new fighting methods, new rank insignias, and a new standard uniform known as the rayadillo. Filipino artist Juan Luna is credited with this design.[6] Juan Luna also designed the collar insignia for the uniforms, distinguishing between the services: infantry, cavalry, artillery, sappers, and medics.[7][8][9] His brother, General Antonio Luna commissioned him with the task and personally paid for the new uniforms.[6] At least one researcher has postulated that Juan Luna may have patterned the tunic after the EnglishNorfolk jacket, since the Filipino version is not a copy of any Spanish-pattern uniform.[10]Infantry officers wore blue pants with a black stripe down the side, while Cavalry officers wore red trousers with black stripes.[11][12] Soldiers and junior officers wore straw hats while senior officers often wore peaked caps.
Orders and circulars were issued covering matters such as building trenches and fortifications, equipping every male aged 15 to 50 with bows and arrows (as well as bolo knives, though officers wielded European swords), enticing Filipino soldiers in the Spanish army to defect, collecting empty cartridges for refilling, prohibiting unplanned sorties, inventories of captured arms and ammunition, fundraising, purchasing of arms and supplies abroad, unification of military commands, and exhorting the rich to give aid to the soldiers.[5]
Aguinaldo, a month after he declared Philippine independence, created a pay scale for officers in the army: Following the board, a brigadier general would receive 600 pesos annually, and a sergeant 72 pesos.
When the Philippine–American War erupted on February 4, 1899, the Filipino army suffered heavy losses on every sector. Even Antonio Luna urged Apolinario Mabini, Aguinaldo's chief adviser, to convince the President that guerrilla warfare must be announced as early as April 1899. Aguinaldo adopted guerrilla tactics on November 13, 1899, dissolving what remained of the regular army and after many of his crack units were decimated in set-piece battles.[13]
Arsenal
The Filipinos were short on modern weapons. Most of its weapons were captured from the Spanish, were improvised or were traditional weapons. The service rifles of the nascent army were the Spanish M93 and the Spanish Remington Rolling Block rifle.[5] Moreover, while in Hong Kong, Emilio Aguinaldo purchased rifles from the Americans.[14] Two batches of 2,000 rifles each including ammunition were ordered and paid for. The first batch arrived while the second batch never did. In his letters to Galicano Apacible, Mariano Ponce also sought weapons from both domestic and international dealers in the Empire of Japan.[15] He was offered different breech-loading single-shot rifles since most nations were discarding them in favor of new smokeless bolt-action rifles. However, there was no mention of any purchase occurring. Another planned purchase was the Murata rifle from Japan but no record exists that it made its way into the hands of Filipino revolutionaries.
Crew-served weapons of the Philippine military included captured Spanish guns such as Krupp guns, Ordóñez guns, and Maxim-Nordenfelt multi-barreled guns. There were also improvised artillery weapons made of water pipes reinforced with bamboo or timber known as lantakas, which can only fire once or twice.[5]
Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo, the Supreme Commander of the Philippine Revolutionary ArmyGroup showing Brigadier General Manuel Tinio (seated, center), Brigadier General Benito Natividad (seated, 2nd from right), Lieutenant Colonel Jose Alejandrino (seated, 2nd from left), and their aides-de-camp.
The use of the Murata rifle was proposed by some revolutionaries. There was a planned purchase from Japan with the help of Japanese sympathizers.
Relics of Mauser 93 rifles used by Filipino infantry during the Philippine Revolution and Philippine–American War on display at Clark Museum.
Bolo knives were widely available in the islands and were used extensively by the revolutionaries.
Ranks
Antonio Luna, Captain General of the Philippine Revolutionary ArmyArtemio Ricarte, Captain General of the Philippine Revolutionary ArmyBrigadier General Gregorio del Pilar, and his troops around 1898Soldiers of the army stationed near Barasoain Church during a session of the congressUnit of Filipino soldiers surrendering, 1900
The evolution of Philippine revolutionary insignia can be divided into three basic periods; early Katipunan, late Katipunan and the Republican army.
Cavalry: Two crossed lances over two crossed sabers, surmounted by a sun.
Light Infantry/Rifle battalions: Two crossed rifles with fixed bayonets surmounted by a sun, superimposed on three concentric circles.
Intendancy-Quartermaster: A cockade within a wreath surmounted by a sun.
Signals: Six lightning bolts over a semicircular wreath surmounted by a sun.
Medical Service: A bowl of Hygieia within a wreath surmounted by a sun.
Recruitment and conscription
During the revolution against Spain, the Katipunan gave leaflets to the people to encourage them to join the revolution. Since the revolutionaries had become regular soldiers at the time of Emilio Aguinaldo, they started to recruit males and some females aged 15 and above as a form of national service. A few Spanish and Filipino enlisted personnel and officers of the Spanish Army and Spanish Navy defected to the Revolutionary Army, as well as a number of foreign individuals and American defectors who volunteered to join during the course of the revolution.
The Philippine Revolutionary Navy was established during the second phase of the Philippine Revolution when General Emilio Aguinaldo formed the Revolutionary Navy. On May 1, 1898, the first ship handed by Admiral George Dewey to the Revolutionary Navy is a small pinnace from the Reina Cristina of Admiral Patricio Montojo, which was named Magdalo.[17] The Navy was initially composed of a small fleet of eight Spanish steam launches captured from the Spaniards. The ships were refitted with 9-centimeter guns. The rich, namely Leon Apacible, Manuel Lopez and Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio, later donated five other vessels of greater tonnage, the Taaleño, the Balayan, the Bulusan, the Taal and the Purísima Concepción. The 900-ton inter-island tobacco steamer further reinforced the fleet, Compania de Filipinas (renamed as the navy flagship Filipinas), steam launches purchased from China and other watercraft donated by wealthy patriots.[17][18]
Naval stations were later established to serve as ships' home bases in the following:[18]
Ports of Aparri
Ports of Legaspi
Ports of Balayan
Ports of Calapan
Ports of San Roque, Cavite
On September 26, 1898, Aguinaldo appointed Captain Pascual Ledesma (a merchant ship captain) as Director of the Bureau of the Navy, assisted by Captain Angel Pabie (another merchant ship captain). After passing of the Malolos Constitution the Navy was transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Relations to the Department of War (thereafter known as the Department of War and the Navy) headed by Gen. Mariano Trías.[17][18]
As the tensions between Filipinos and Americans erupted in 1899 and a continued blockade on naval forces by the Americans, the Philippine naval forces started to be decimated.[17]
Brigadier General B. Natividad – Brigade Acting Commander in Vigan under General Tinio.[23]
Colonel Manuel Sityar – Half-Spanish Director of Academía Militar de Malolos. A former captain in the Spanish colonial army who defected to the Filipino side.[24]
Colonel Sebastian de Castro – Spanish director of the military hospital at Malasiqui, Pangasinan.[21]
Captain Estanislao de los Reyes – Spanish aide-de-camp to General Tinio.[23]
Captain Feliciano Ramoso – Spanish aide-de-camp to General Tinio.[23]
Captain Mariano Queri – Spanish officer who served under General Luna as an instructor in the Academía Militar de Malolos and later as the director-general of the staff of the war department.[21]
^ abc"THE PHILIPPINE NAVY"(PDF). dlsu.edu.ph. De La Salle University-Manila (ROTC). Archived(PDF) from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
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