The Malolos Congress (also known as the Revolutionary Congress), formally known as the National Assembly, was the legislative body of the

Revolutionary Government of the Philippines A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

. Members were chosen in the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

held from June 23 to September 10, 1898. The assembly consisted of elected delegates chosen by balloting in provincial assemblies and appointed delegates chosen by the president to represent regions under unstable military and civilian conditions. The Revolutionary Congress was opened on September 15, 1898 at

Barasoain Church Barásoain Church (official title: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish) is a Roman Catholic church built in 1888 in Malolos, Bulacan. It is about 42 kilometers from Manila. Having earned the title as the "Cradle of Democracy in the East, the most impo ...

Malolos, Bulacan Malolos, officially the City of Malolos ( fil, Lungsod ng Malolos), is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 261,189 people. It is the capital city ...

. President Emilio Aguinaldo presided over the opening session of the assembly. After the promulgation of the

Malolos Constitution The Political Constitution of 1899 ( es, Constitución Política de 1899), informally known as the Malolos Constitution, was the constitution of the First Philippine Republic. It was written by Felipe Calderón y Roca and Felipe Buencamino as ...

on January 22, 1899, replaced the revolutionary government with the

Philippine Republic The term "Philippine Republic" or "Republic of the Philippines" refers to a succession of republics during and after the Philippine Revolution in the Philippines. The current government of the Philippines recognizes five "Philippine republics" in ...

, the Malolos Congress became the legislative branch of that government, designated in the constitution as the ''Assembly of Representatives''.The 1899 Malolos Constitution in Spanish with a side-by-side English translation
(Article 33)

Sessions

* Regular session: September 15, 1898 – November 13, 1899 * Special session: February 4, 1899

Leadership

*President of the Revolutionary Congress ::

Pedro Paterno Pedro Alejandro Paterno y de Vera IgnacioGarcía Castellón, Manuel. (February 27, 1857 – April 26, 1911, 993 pages) was a Filipino politician infamous for being a turncoat. He was also a poet and a novelist. His intervention on behalf of th ...

*Vice President/Deputy ::

Benito Legarda Benito Cosme Legarda y Tuason (September 27, 1853 – August 27, 1915) was a Filipino legislator who was a member of the Philippine Commission of the American colonial Insular Government, the government's legislature, and later a Resident Comm ...

*Secretary ::

Gregorio S. Araneta Don Gregorio Soriano Araneta (born Gregorio Araneta y Soriano; April 16, 1869 – May 9, 1930) was a Filipino lawyer, businessman, and nationalist, during the Spanish and American colonial periods. Early life and career In 1891, he graduated ...

and

Pablo Ocampo Pablo de Leon Ocampo (born Pablo Ocampo y de León; January 25, 1853 – February 5, 1925) was a Filipino lawyer, nationalist, a member of the Malolos Congress, inaugural holder of the office of Resident Commissioner from the Philippine Island ...

Members

In 2006, it was asserted by the president of the Bulacan Historical Society, engineer Marcial Aniag, that among the 85 delegates who convened in Malolos there were 43 lawyers, 17 doctors, five pharmacists, three educators, seven businessmen, four painters, three military men, a priest, and four farmers. Five of the 85 delegates did not have a college degree.

Ratification of the declaration of independence

One of the first acts of the Revolutionary Congress was the ratification on September 29, 1898 of the

Philippine Declaration of Independence The Philippine Declaration of Independence ( fil, Pagpapahayag ng Kasarinlan ng Pilipinas; es, Declaración de Independencia de Filipinas); es, Acta de la proclamación de independencia del pueblo Filipino, link=no) was proclaimed by Fili ...

against Spain which had been proclaimed on June 12, 1898.

Malolos Constitution

Mabini had planned for the Revolutionary Congress to act only as an advisory body to the president and submitted a draft of Constitutional Program of the Philippine Republic while Paterno submitted a constitutional draft based on the

Spanish Constitution of 1869 The Spanish Constitution of 1869 ( es, Constitucion Española), enacted on 1 June 1869, was the sixth constitution of the constitutions of Spain to emerge from the turbulent period in Spanish history of 1814-1873. The constitution was adopted by ...

. The Congress, however, began work to draft a constitution. The resulting document, the Malolos Constitution, was promulgated on January 21, 1899. Its proclamation resulted in the creation of the Philippine Republic, which replaced the Revolutionary Government.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Philippine legislative periods Malolos Congress