ESTADO FEDERAL DE BISAYAS MEETING, JANUARY 17, 1899

Exhibit 1218.

[Original in Spanish. From "La Revolucion" newspaper. P.I.R.. 912.2 1

JAN. 17th, 1899.

MASS MEETING

At a special session held the 17th instant, Sr. Roque Lopez, President of the Council of the Federal State of Visayas, presented his resignation and thereupon the other councillors also resigned.

At a general meeting the election for the new President was held, Seņor Raymundo Melliza being elected President by acclamation, unanimously and enthusiastically; and in view of the fact that the present Constitution of the Government is provisional only, as at the present time popular elections for the genuine representatives of the provinces cannot be held, on account of the abnormal condition of the country, the Sovereign People also requested by acclamation and unanimously that all the Councillors should remain in their places with the same Commissions which they then held.

Elections were held for the offices of Vice President, Secretary and Vice Secretary, the following gentlemen being elected by a majority of votes:

Vice President: Sr. Nicolas Jalandoni.

Secretary of the Council: Sr. Francisco Soriano.

Vice Secretary: Sr. Florencio Tarrosa.

On the 18th instant the newly elected gentlemen took the formal oath, with the exception of Seņor Jalandoni who was absent, and entered upon their respective duties.

We take pleasure in publishing below in full the speech of the outgoing President to the people.

"Beloved people and dear army:

"I believe that I have already done my duty as a citizen who loves his country, by having contributed all that God has given me and all that has depended on my will to secure the liberty of this beloved country.

"The gentlemen composing the former Commission of the Visayas, some of whom are now Councillors of this Government, and others Generals in the Army, bear witness to the desires which prompted me to enter the Committee, where I was entrusted with the office of Secretary of War, to which Committee these regions owe at this time the enjoyment of these sweet surroundings of Liberty and Independence to which we aspire. The Army itself, of which I am an unworthy part and with which I have shared the hardships of the field, will tell you that I have wanted the sword only for the purpose of parting the fetters which held down this beloved country.

"Notwithstanding my resistance and the fact of my being nothing but the last soldier in the country, the people and the army placed me in the high and difficult position of President of the Regional Revolutionary Government of Visayas, at a mass meeting held on November 17, 1898, and at another meeting held the 20th of the same month, they honored me with the rank and honors of a Lieutenant General of the Regional Army.

"On November 21, of the same year, the Government of which I was the President established itself in Jaro, and, as ever, I worked to the extent of my capacity, with the assistance of my councillors to satisfy the necessities of the People and conduct them to the height attained at the present time by our brothers of Luzon.

"At this point there arrives the expedition commanded by General Pablo Araneta, and at a mass meeting held the 12th of December, 1898, requested by Sr. Francisco Villanueva, this gentleman desired and was successful in having the then Regional Revolutionary Government of the Visayas changed into the Government of the Federal State, under verbal instructions of the President of the Philippine Republic, Sr. Emilio Aguinaldo, which Sr. Villanueva said he had, in addition to some documents which he had in his possession.

"At this meeting my Government and myself submitted our resignations, but they were not accepted, by reason of Sr. Felipe Gonzalez, in the name of the people and the army, having maintained the necessity of the personnel of said Government continuing in power under the exigencies of the conditions.

"We have now reached a state of affairs when the Government of which I am the unworthy president, has already fulfilled its duty to the people; therefore, I now, with my Council, place the power in the hands of the People themselves, who honored us with their confidence, requesting that they forget our errors due, not to bad will, but to our incapacity and to the difficult circumstances through which we have passed, but our intentions which were good, as they are now and will always be, were always animated with the best wishes to attain the ideal which we pursue."