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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-13/filipino-agoncillo-sm.webp" loadiing="lazy" alt="Felipe Agoncillo" />
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(Felipe Agoncillo was the first Filipino diplomat appointed by the Revolutionary Government to campaign for recognition of Philippine independence by foreign countries.)
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This has already terminated its sessions, and the resolutions passed cannot be accepted as obligatory by my Government, since the Commission has neither heard, nor in any wise admitted to its deliberations, the Philippine nation, who held an unquestionable right to intervene in them, in relations to what might affect their future. 


I fulfill, therefore, my duty, when I protest, as I do in the most solemn manner, in the name of the President and the National Government of the Philippines, against any resolutions agreed upon at the Peace Conference in Paris, as long as the juridical, political, independent personality of the Filipino people is entirely unrecognized, and attempts are made in any form to impose on these inhabitants, resolutions which have not been sanctioned by their public powers, the only ones who can legally decide as to their future in history. 


Spain is absolutely devoid of a status and power to decide, in any shape or form, the aforementioned matter. The Union of Spain and the Philippines, was founded solely on two historical facts, in which the exclusive right of the Filipinos to decide their own destiny was implicitly recognized. 


First: - The Blood Compact" (Pacto de Sangre) of the 12th of March, 1565, entered into between the General Don Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and the Filipino sovereign, Sikatuna, a compact which was ratified and confirmed on the one side, by the King of Spain, Philip II, and, on the other side, by the Monarchs of Mindanao, Bisayas and Luzon and by the Supreme Chief of that Confederation, the Sultan Lacandola; proclaiming as a consequence, the autonomous nationality of the Kingdom of "New Castile", formed by the Philippine Islands, under the sceptre of the King of Spain.

Second: - The so-called "Constitution of Cadiz", in the discussion, vote, promulgation and execution of which the Deputies and Filipino people took an active part; and by which Constitution the nationality of "The Spains" was made effective. 


But from the very first moment in which the Peninsular Public Powers attempted to impose their absolute sovereignty on the Islands, the Filipinos protested energetically by force of arms, and from the first attempt in 1814, the struggle in defense of their political personality was implanted. 
When, in 1837, the violent deprivation of their rights was consummated, the Filipinos again protested Spain sustaining against them a fratricidal and inhuman struggle, which has lasted from that time onwards up to the present day. 


Falsehood, which always characterized the actions of the Peninsular authorities, constantly hid from the world the fact of the real situation of force, which has lasted almost a hundred years. 


At length, at the end of the present century, the Spanish forces have been completely routed by those of the natives, and Spain cannot now even allege the possession by her of the Islands; because the permanency of a handful of Peninsular soldiers, (approximately 400) who are holding out, besieged in one or two fortresses in the south of the Archipelago, cannot constitute such a right. The Spanish Government has ceased to hold any dominion by deed and by right; and the only authority which exists there and preserves order, is that constituted by the Filipinos, with the solemn sanction of their votes, the only legal fount of positive modern power.


 Under such conditions, the Spanish Commissioners in Paris have not been able, within the principles of the law of nations, to give up or transfer what, if they ever had, they have totally lost before the signing of the Protocol of Washington and the arranging of the terms of the Peace Treaty in Paris. 


The Filipino people who consented to the "Blood Compact" and the "Constitution of 1812," annulled those conventions, by reason of Spain not complying with her undertakings, and renewed their sovereignty by the solemn proclamation of the Philippine Republic on the 1st of August, 1898, and by the establishment of a Government and a regular and wellordered administration, created by the decisive votes of the natives. 


If any juridical effect can be attributed to the Spanish action in the Peace Treaty, within the principles of International Law, it is the explicit renunciation of all future pretention over the land, the dominion and possession of which she has lost, and therefore is only of use to make the recognition of the corporate body of the Filipino nation, and that of their rights to rule effectively in respect of their future. 


The United States of America, on their part, cannot allege a better right to constitute themselves as arbitrators as to the future of the Philippines.


 On the contrary, the demands of honour and good faith impose on them the explicit recognition of the political status of the people, who, loyal to their conventions, were a devoted ally of their forces in the moments of danger and strife. The noble General Emilio Aguinaldo and the other Filipino Chiefs were solicited to place themselves at the head of the suffering and heroic sons of that country, to fight against Spain and to second the action of the brave and skillful Admiral Dewey.

Official protest of the Philippine Republic against the Paris Peace Treaty, December 12, 1898 (English text)