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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-12/malolos-congress-sm.webp" alt="Malolos Congress" />
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(Opening of the Malolos Congress, September 15, 1898)
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A mason, he was initiated into the brotherhood in February 1892 and joined the <i>Compromisarios</i>, a group headed by Numeriano Adriano, which 

sought political reforms from the colonial government just before the outbreak of the 1896 Revolution.  He joined the revolutionary cause in 1897 and 

was one of the Filipino exiles who composed the Hong Kong Committee that later served as a government-in-exile after the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.  The 

committee also served as a listening post and propaganda agency for the revolutionary government aside from functioning as its procurement office for 

the acquisition of arms and other supplies for the Filipino forces already fighting the Americans. It also conducted diplomatic negotiations with 

foreign governments and vigorously opposed the signing and ratification of the Treaty of Paris by the US Senate.
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As a delegate to the Malolos Congress, Del Rosario was active during the deliberations on the proposed constitution. He advocated woman's suffrage 

and other political rights and vigorously opposed the provision allowing the union of the church and state, as advocated by Felipe Calderon who argued 

that all countries had state religions; that the separation of the Church and state was utopian in concept and was impractical;  that the Filipino 

clergy need not be feared because they had demonstrated their unwavering patriotism, that the Catholic Church was the only bond between the Tagalogs 

and other linguistic groups, and that the separation of church and state was suicidal. In response, Del Rosario said that it was not the clergy that 

he was wary about but the papacy, which had influenced temporal matters such as state policies not just in the Philippines but in many other countries 

in the course of history. 

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The bitter debate over the church-state union took much of the time of the Malolos Congress, with the issue remaining unresolved for more than a 

month. Battle lines were drawn, with the radicals, led by Antonio Luna, favoring the separation of church and state, and the
conservatives, led by Calderon, seeking the union of the two entities. A stalemate ensued during the initial vote. It was resolved, however, when 

Pedro Paterno changed his original position and later voted for separation. The Congress adopted Del Rosario’s amendment under Title III of the
constitution, which states: 
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“The State shall recognize freedom and equality of all cults as well as the separation of Church and State.”
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This provision has since been adopted by subsequent Philippine constitutions, including that of 1987 charter.

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November 13, 1846: Arcadio del Rosario y Narciso was born in Pandacan