ESTADO FEDERAL DE BISAYAS
MALOLOS TO ILOILO LETTER, JANUARY 4, 1899

Exhibit 1211.

[Contemporary copy in Spanish. P.I.R., Books C.l.]

MALOLOS, January 4, 1899.

General----, Iloilo.

My RESPECTED GENERAL: By order of the President, Sr. Emilio Aguinaldo, and with the concurrence of his government I have the pleasure of cordially greeting in your person all the Filipinos who live in the beautiful region of Visayas and with congratulating them with every effusion of the soul for the fortitude they have just displayed in keeping the ambitious foreigners at bay.

The Government views with great interest the incidents developing there, because it concerns an integral and principal portion of the Phi1ippine nation; for this it entreats those who respresent the sacred interests of our country that they give it notice by any means whatsoever, as promptly as possible of the outbreak of hostilities in order to effectively further the movements being executed here.

I have the pleasure of transmitting to you herewith copies of the decree constituting a new cabinet and the statement read by the latter before the congress of representatives. I beg you to read them to the council which you may have formed there and send a copy of them to the islands of Negros, Cebu, etc.

I also pray you to inform the council charged with watching the interests of that region that the government will provisionally approve the form of government which may be there constituted upon a republican basis, as it well understands that difficulty of communication weakens and almost renders useless its action over those provinces. Only it begs them to take care to send to this congress legal representatives of those provinces in order that when once the independence is consolidated it may agree upon a fundamental law for all. Nevertheless, I send you a few pamphlets as it may appear better to organize those people in a form analogous to that of their brothers in Luzon. I must observe that this organization is provisional and that a constitutional law is being discussed in this Congress which will be of a provisional character until it shall be ratified by the representatives of those provinces.

It is unnecssary to say to them that the government is animated by the unalterable confidence that the Filipinos of Visayas or Mindanao, as those of Luzon, will know how to defend the integrity of their country without which neither individual nor national honor is possible. To the brothers of that beloved region I earnestly recommend that they guard with watchfulness and solicitude the maintenance of national unity, in which lies our only salvation. And above all let them not lose sight of the fact that in a democratic government any authority whatever is a mere agent of the people, whose unavoidable duty it is to guard individual liberty and interests, public safety and an exact compliance with the law.

Finally I urge them that in so far as possible they do not refuse their assistance and succor to the rest of the adjacent islands, including Mindanao and the Jolo Archipelago. Say to the Moros when you have an opportunity that the government is disposed to concert with them national unity on the basis of a true federation and to absolutely respect their faith and traditions.

The Council of Government will view with the greatest of pleasure the admission to its body of the best patriots from there. I beg of you to send the people of Negros and othesr Islands copies of this letter, tiresome in its incoherency, owing to the pressure of affairs.

I enclose a few copies of the draft of the proclamation of independence subscribed by the popular chiefs of Luzon, so that those over there may be in harmony with us if they wish.

(No signature.)