Church-State Relations in the 1899 Malolos Constitution: Filipinization and Visions of National Community

• Main Author: Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2015
• Subjects: separation of church and state; Catholic Church; Filipino nationalism; Spanish friars; Masonry; Mabini; Aglipay; Asian History; History
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/history-faculty-pubs/3; https://archium.ateneo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=history-faculty-pubs
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

The most contentious issue in the Revolutionary Congress that crafted the 1899 Malolos Constitution pertained to the separation of church and state, which won by a mere one vote. Until now this episode in Philippine history has not received a satisfactory explanation, which this article seeks to offer. The debate in Malolos, as argued here, was profoundly divisive because the two sides were driven by differing visions of national community. A crucial point was the Filipinization of the Catholic Church, which the proponents of church-state unity championed and which their opponents sidestepped. Even as the debate raged, however, Aguinaldo's revolutionary government acted on the church-state issue out of political expediency. In the end, the issue that Filipino elites could not resolve was settled by US colonialism, which imposed church-state separation without Filipinization.