Sovereignty of the Philippines

The sovereignty of the Philippines today rests with the independent Republic of the Philippines, established in 1946 after centuries of colonial rule under the Spanish Empire, the United States and briefly the Empire of Japan, and the repression of earlier kingdoms and insurgencies.

In March 1897, Emilio Aguinaldo, a member of the Katipunan, had been elected as president of a revolutionary government established after the Tejeros Convention.^[1] That government was supposedly meant to replace the Katipunan, though the latter was not formally abolished until 1899. Aguinaldo was again elected as president at Biak-na-Bato in November 1897, leading the Biak-na-Bato Republic. Exiled in Hong Kong after the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, he returned to the Philippines during the Spanish–American War to renew revolutionary activities and, in May 1898, proclaimed a dictatorial government. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo's nascent government proclaimed independence from Spain. This proclamation, however, did not dissolve Spanish sovereignty over the Philippines, which continued despite this declaration. Sovereignty passed from Spain to the United States on April 11, 1899 with the exchange of treaty ratifications between those countries.

The Philippines continued as a U.S. territory until July 4, 1946, when the U.S. relinquished sovereignty and recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines. The current Philippine government considers Emilio Aguinaldo to have been the first President of the Philippines and considers the Malolos Republic as the "First" Philippine Republic.^[2]