Philippine Republic and Bandoleros

The Brigandage Act of 1902 is a law that prohibits the Filipinos to establish or create nationalist movements or organizations. Any form of revolt against the Americans is considered thieves work or banditry. This law was implemented with the aid of the Commission of the Philippines during the conquest of America. It was originally meant to officially put an end to the Philippine-American War, along with the anti-sedition law, thus Filipinos who continued to resist American supremacy for whatever reason would be called insurrectos and bandoleros subject to arrest, death by hanging, and forever maligned in Philippine history books as common criminals. The bandoleros existed after the fall of the First Philippine Republic. After the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo by the Americans, the ruling governmental body collapsed, and the war between the Filipinos and the Americans came to a halt. The peace that existed was because of the forceful surrender of Emilio Aguinaldo to the Americans that also decimated the morale of the Filipinos and their fighting force, so Filipinos still did not attain the independence they have fought for. Sometime in 1901-1902, the Brigandage Law was implemented. In the shadows, Macario Leon Saka carried on the radicals of the fallen Republic through the establishment of the Tagalog Republic. Sakay and the members of the Tagalog Republic had been branded as bandits or “bandoleros” conspiring against Americans. His final objective in his intrigue was to achieve the independence from the USA’s colonial rule. This group of people, these “bandoleros” were a spark of hope for the Filipinos that we are to be liberated from the colonial grasp of the American rule.
I believe that the formulation of the First Philippine Republic was not prematurely established. After the declaration of Independence and the events of the collapse of the Spanish rule, the First Philippine Republic was formed. Looking at the sequence of events, the First Philippine Republic may have been one of the major stepping stones for the strife of Philippine independence, the revolution’s minds to become the ruling body over the Filipinos. Perhaps the fault that I consider premature by this new government would be their premature declaration of independence from the Americans. The government was still at its early stages and the mindset of the Filipinos was still complete liberation where their current state was still vulnerable. They barely had a strong army and they lacked the necessary funds to develop their projects and military strength. They dove into warfare against a force that which they underestimated, and they did so with incomplete preparations.