Church-State Relations in the 1899 Malolos Constitution: Filipinization and Visions of National Community

Abstract

The Revolutionary Congress that convened on September 15, 1898-which Apolinario Mabini, who became Aguinaldo's chief adviser, originally conceived to be merely an advisory body-went on to write a constitution for fledgling Republic of Philippines whose independence was declared on June 12, 1898 (Agoncillo 1960, 294-295). In Congress's debate over new nation's charter, most divisive, controversial, and energetically (Majul 1967, 153) issue pertained to relations between church and state. Interestingly this assembly was meeting within premises of Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan, which was momentarily desacralized and converted to a legislative arena adorned with numerous Philippine flags.In 1960s Teodoro Agoncillo (1960) and Cesar Majul (1967) wrote about this aspect of Malolos Congress as part of their larger projects on Philippine revolution. Since then scholarship on this topic has stalled, with hardly any new work published in subsequent decades. This article builds on these early writings. However, as shown here, analyses by Agoncillo and Majul of question of church-state relations were inadequate, not necessarily in terms of historical sources-with Felipe G. Calderon's Mis Memorias Sobre la Revolucion Filipina (My Memoirs of Philippine Revolution, 1907) serving as main source,1)-but in interpretive frame with which they explained divisiveness of this issue. Agoncillo (1960), for instance, reduced Malolos Congress to, in his words, triumphant conservatism, offering no satisfactory explanation for victory of church-state separation by one vote, a feat that should not be undervalued in a meeting of supposed conservatives. Majul (1967) bequeathed an exhaustive and very informative narrative, but interpretatively his work was inconclusive, unable to rise above deep divide in Malolos. Because of this historiographic gap, present discussion links narrative to an analysis of imagined community that each side in debate propounded. An important aspect of this analytical frame is desired Filipinization of Catholic Church, which resulted in a number of contradictions, such as in way Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo's revolutionary government acted on issue of church-state relations. In other words, significance of church-state relations as debated in Malolos and events that transpired at that time and in its immediate aftermath had not been analyzed in Philippine historiography. With benefit of writing in an age of a more mature Philippine nationalism but with church-state relations remaining a sensitive social issue, I attempt in this article to examine this significant episode in Philippine history.To set debate in Malolos in context, it is worth recalling that at this time in Europe there was no separation of church and state, even after most of Northern Europe had turned over to different variants of Protestantism following Reformation. In case of France, despite ravages suffered by Catholic Church in late eighteenth century, a fleeting declaration of church-state separation in 1795, and Napoleon's Concordat with Vatican that brought church under authority of state, it would not be until 1905 that France would become first country in Europe to formally adopt and sustain principle of church-state separation through concept of laicite (laicism or secularity). As in case of nationalism that according to Benedict Anderson (1991) was essayed by creole pioneers, principle of church-state separation was formally invented in former colonies, particularly in United States where Bill of Rights, specifically 1791 First Amendment to US Constitution, established complete religious freedom. The exact metaphor of the wall of separation between church and state in reference to First Amendment was derived, as is well known, from a letter of Thomas Jefferson written in 1802. …