The secretary of the interior on the same day sent an order to the heads of all provinces directing the organization of territorial militia to resist the American invasion, and ordering the heads of the towns to hold meetings of the people to protest against the aggression of the United States.  They were held in accordance with these orders, and records of the proceedings were sent to Malolos and published in the official organ of the government as evidence of the feeling of the people.  It was, however, not considered necessary in publishing them to mention the fact that they had been held in compliance with orders.

On January 14, 1899, Mabini wrote to Aguinaldo [390] recommending changes in the proposed constitution, which he still liked as little as ever.  He was afraid that Negros and Panay would refuse to accept the form of government it prescribed.  The worst thing about it was that the Americans would be less disposed to recognize Aguinaldo’s government; for when they saw the constitution they would know, as it made no mention of them, that the Filipinos wanted independence.  Mabini thought that it was possible that the wording of the constitution might have been deliberately planned by members of the congress in favour of annexation to the United States, so that that country would be warned, would become more mistrustful, and would refuse to recognize Aguinaldo’s government.  Whatever the president of the council may have thought about the theoretical advisability of a congress to represent the people, he found one much in the way when he had obtained it.

Buencamino advised that the constitution should be approved and promulgated; one argument was that the congress had been consulted in the matter of a national loan, and if it was dissolved, there could be no loan.  This was apparently the only matter upon which it had been consulted. [391]

The constitution of the Philippine Republic was ratified at a session of the congress on January 20, 1899.

On January 21, 1899, Aguinaldo sanctioned it and ordered that it should be “kept, complied with and executed in all its parts because it is the sovereign will of the Philippine people.” [392] The constitution provided for a government of three cooerdinate powers, executive, legislative and judicial.  Whether it provided for a form of government which would have succeeded in the Philippines was not determined by actual experience.  It was never really put in force for war with the United States began in two weeks and the constitution must stand as the expression of the ideas of a certain group of educated natives rather than as the working formula for the actual conduct of the political life of a nation.  One proof of this is the fact that not until June 8, 1899, were Aguinaldo’s decrees upon the registration of marriages and upon civil marriage, dated June 20,1898, revoked, and the provisions of the constitution concerning marriage put in effect. [393]