page_title: President of the Philippines
section_title: Aguinaldo's government and the First Republic
hierarchical_section_title: President of the Philippines / History / Early republics / Aguinaldo's government and the First Republic
caption_attribution_description: English: General Emilio Aguinaldo Description: General Aguinaldo (seated, center) and ten of the delegates to the Assembly of Representatives that passes the Constitución Política de la República Filipina on Jan. 21st 1899
context_page_description: The president of the Philippines is the head of state and the head of government of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The president is directly elected by the people, and is one of only two nationally elected executive officials, the other being the vice president of the Philippines. However, four vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having been elected to the office, by virtue of a president's intra-term death or resignation.
  Filipinos refer to their president as Pangulo or Presidente. The president serves a single, fixed, six-year term without possibility of re-election. On June 30, 2016, Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the 16th and current president.
context_section_description: In March 1897, during the Philippine Revolution against Spain, Emilio Aguinaldo was elected president of the revolutionary government at the Tejeros Convention. The new government was meant to replace the Katipunan, though the latter was not formally abolished until 1899. Aguinaldo was again elected President at Biak-na-Bato in November, leading the Republic of Biak-na-Bato. Aguinaldo therefore signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and went into exile in Hong Kong at the end of 1897.
  In April 1898, the Spanish–American War broke out, and the Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy sailed for the Philippines. At the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898 the American Navy decisively defeated the Spanish Navy effectively ending Spanish rule in the Philippines. Aquinaldo subsequently returned to the Philippines aboard a U.S. Navy vessel and renewed the revolution.  He formed a dictatorial government on May 24, 1898 and issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898. On June 23, 1898, Aguinaldo transformed his dictatorial government into a revolutionary government. On January 23, 1899, he was then elected President of the First Philippine Republic, a government constituted by the Malolos Congress under the Malolos Constitution. Consequently, this government is also called the Malolos Republic.
  The First Philippine Republic was short-lived and never internationally recognized. The Philippines was transferred from Spanish to American control by the Treaty of Paris of 1898, signed in December of that year. The Philippine–American War broke out between the United States and Aguinaldo's government. His government effectively ceased to exist on April 1, 1901, after he pledged allegiance to the United States following his capture by U.S. forces in March.
  The current government of the Republic of the Philippines considers Emilio Aguinaldo to be the first president of the Philippines.
caption: Emilio Aguinaldo and ten of the Malolos Congress delegates that passed the Constitución Política de la República Filipina in 1899
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