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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-28/apolinario-mabini.webp" alt="Formal black-and-white portrait of Apolinario Mabini, Filipino revolutionary leader and Prime Minister of the First Philippine Republic, facing slightly right with intense gaze, wearing a dark suit and tie.
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Apolinario Mabini, author of the February 16, 1899 letter to Galicano Apacible announcing the Philippine-American War's outbreak.
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<h2>The letter to Galicano Apacible</h2>

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Apacible, a cousin of José Rizal and co‑founder of <b>La Solidaridad</b>, headed the Hong Kong Junta (also called the Central Filipino Committee), which served as the Republic's diplomatic and propaganda arm abroad. Mabini's letter was meant to brief this exile leadership on the sudden turn of events and to guide its lobbying and information campaign overseas. In a now‑famous passage, Mabini wrote:
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"What we wanted to avoid at all cost, came after all. On the evening of the 4th, when we were feeling so carefree because the commissioners of General Otis had just formally assured ours in signed agreements… that the aggression will not start with them, the Americans unexpectedly attacked all our lines in the neighborhood of Manila. Otis is making it known that the aggression came from us, but even the foreigners themselves do not believe it. All the details point out that the attack had been premeditated and prepared on the part of the Americans ... At eight o'clock that night, the Americans started the attack and said ship bombarded Sta. Ana… Our soldiers, caught by surprise and without a commander to lead them, fought like brave men… We are determined not to accept armistice if the Americans do not acknowledge beforehand the independence and integrity of all the Philippine Islands in the form and conditions that shall be fixed during the period of the armistice."
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<p>
This letter forms part of a series of Mabini's political correspondence to Apacible in early 1899, preserved in the collection <em>The Letters of Apolinario Mabini</em> and frequently cited by historians as a key primary source for Filipino perceptions of the war's outbreak.
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<h2>Background: From uneasy peace to war</h2>

<p>The Malolos Republic had been formally inaugurated only weeks earlier, on January 23, 1899, with Aguinaldo as President and Mabini heading the first cabinet. Even before his formal appointment as Secretary of Foreign Relations on January 2, 1899, Mabini had warned Apacible that a clash with the United States was "imminent and inevitable," given the growing American military presence and Washington's refusal to recognize Philippine independence.</p> 

<p>The spark came on the night of <a href="/kauswagan/articles/913/today-in-philippine-history-february-4-1899-marked-the-start-of-the-filipino-american-war" class="news_link">February 4, 1899</a>, when an American sentry fired on a Filipino soldier near the lines around Manila, an incident widely regarded as the beginning of the Philippine–American War (also called the Filipino–American War). In the days that followed, American forces launched coordinated attacks along Filipino positions and bombarded nearby districts such as Santa Ana, pushing Filipino troops back in fierce fighting around the capital. Mabini's February 16 letter is one of the earliest detailed Filipino accounts of these events, written less than two weeks after the first shots.
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Mabini Alerts Apacible to Philippine-American War Outbreak

On February 16, 1899, Apolinario Mabini informed Galicano Apacible of the Philippine-American War's outbreak and asserted the republic’s independence.

February 16, 1899: Apolinario Mabini wrote Galicano Apacible informing him of the war outbreak