<figure class="image-550">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-28/gen-emilio-aguinaldo.webp" alt="Color painting portrait of General Emilio Aguinaldo in his gray military uniform with a red sash and holding a sword hilt." />
<figcaption>A historic portrait painting of General Emilio Aguinaldo, wearing his revolutionary military uniform with a red sash and the insignia of the Magdalo faction of the Katipunan visible in the upper left corner.</figcaption>
</figure>

While early American accounts and naval reports - such as Dewey's own 1898 dispatches - characterized this event as the restart of an "insurrection" under the strategic umbrella of American arms, for the Filipino people, it was the resurgence of a sophisticated, single-minded campaign for absolute national sovereignty. Within weeks, Aguinaldo's revitalized forces would completely dismantle Spanish colonial authority across Luzon, setting the stage for Asia's first independent republic.

<h2>
Pretext to Return: The Collapse of Biak-na-Bato and the Hong Kong Exile
</h2>

To understand Aguinaldo's return in May 1898, one must look back to December 1897 and the <a href="/articles/3299/pact-of-biak-na-bato-1897-philippine-revolution-history" class="news_link">Pact of Biak-na-Bato</a>. Signed between Aguinaldo's revolutionary government and Spanish Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera, the pact temporarily halted hostilities. Under its terms:

<ul class="k-list">
<li>
Aguinaldo and his top officers agreed to voluntary exile in British Hong Kong.
</li>
<li>
Spain promised 800,000 Mexican pesos in reparations to be paid in installments, alongside sweeping administrative and religious reforms for the Philippines.
</li>
</ul>

The peace was short-lived. Neither side acted in good faith. Spain failed to implement the promised reforms and held back the subsequent installments of the money. Meanwhile, Aguinaldo and the newly formed Hong Kong Junta kept the initial 400,000 pesos untouched in a bank account, reserving it strictly to buy advanced weaponry for a future uprising.


By early 1898, internal legal disputes regarding the money broke out among the exiles. To avoid an injunction filed by disgruntled rebel leader Isabelo Artacho, Aguinaldo secretly slipped out of Hong Kong in April 1898, traveling incognito to Singapore under an assumed name, accompanied by his trusted aides Colonel <a href="/kauswagan/articles/749/today-in-philippine-history-november-14-1875-gregorio-del-pilar-was-born-in-bulakan-bulacan" class="news_link">Gregorio del Pilar</a> and Lieutenant J. Leyba.

Emilio Aguinaldo returned to restart his insurrection

Discover how Emilio Aguinaldo's return on May 20, 1898, sparked the second phase of the Philippine Revolution and altered the course of history.

May 20, 1898: Aguinaldo returned to restart his insurrection