[10] However, he is also known to be somewhat controversial in the country due to his alleged involvement in the deaths of the revolutionary leader Andrés Bonifacio and general Antonio Luna, and for his collaboration with the Japanese Empire during their occupation of the Philippines in World War II.

[20] On March 7, 1895, Santiago Alvarez, whose father was a Capitan Municipal (Mayor) of Noveleta, encouraged Aguinaldo to join the "Katipunan", a secret organization led by Andrés Bonifacio that was dedicated to the expulsion of the Spanish and the independence of the Philippines through armed force.

[22][23] The Katipunan-led Philippine Revolution against the Spanish began in the last week of August 1896 in San Juan del Monte (now part of Metro Manila).

Upon his men's arrival at the town center, the guards, armed with Remingtons and unaware of the preceding events, were caught completely by surprise and surrendered immediately.

Aguinaldo marched from Kawit with 600 men and launched a series of skirmishes at Imus that eventually ended in open hostilities against Spanish troops stationed there.

[26][failed verification] Alarmed by previous siege, led by General Aguinaldo in Imus, in September 1896, Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas ordered the 4th Battalion of Cazadores from Spain to aid him in quelling the rebellion in Cavite.

Spanish naval operations were determined to crush the fortifications in these areas, mainly because the lake around Dalahican was strategic by connecting to the interior of Cavite.

[citation needed] Newly appointed Governor-General Camilo de Polavieja, was now fully aware that the main weight of the revolution was in Cavite and so decided to launch a two-pronged assault to defeat the revolutionaries, led by Aguinaldo.

He ordered General José de Lachambre with a much bigger force to march against Silang to take on the Katipuneros from the rear, and he would engage the Filipinos head on.

On February 15, 1897, the Spaniards launched the powerful Cavite offensive to drive and crush Filipino revolutionaries under Aguinaldo and his Magdalo forces that held numerous victories against the Spanish in the early stages of the revolution.

Starting the offensive at Pamplona, Cavite, and Bayungyungan, Batangas, Lachambre's men later marched deep into the heart of Aguinaldo's home province.

Aguinaldo decided to deploy his forces at Pasong Santol, a bottleneck of Perez Dasmariñas on the way to Imus, which rendered the Spanish immobile and served the revolutionaries by its natural defensive positions.

[29] Conflict within the ranks of the Katipunan factions, specifically between the Magdalo and Magdiwang, led to the Imus assembly in Cavite Province, presided over by Bonifacio.

[31] Though Bonifacio already considered the Katipunan to be a government, he acquiesced and presided over a convention held on March 22, 1897, in Tejeros, San Francisco de Malabon, Cavite.

"[32] Regardless of the nullification, Aguinaldo traveled surreptitiously to San Francisco de Malabon where, on the evening of March 23, he took an oath assuming the office to which he had been elected as Generalissimo of the Philippine Islands.

[34] In March 1897, Fernando Primo de Rivera, 1st Marquis of Estella, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, had been encouraging prominent Filipinos to contact Aguinaldo for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The war mostly focused on Cuba, but the US Navy's Asiatic Squadron was in Hong Kong and, commanded by Commodore George Dewey, it sailed for the Philippines.

[43] Dean Worcester wrote, "although the title of 'president' was assumed by Aguinaldo, as more likely to be favourably considered in the United States than 'dictator', the tendency of his followers who had not been educated in Europe was to speak of and to regard him not as a president, but as an overlord holding all power in his hands.

Aguinaldo wrote in Tarlac during the First Republic the Tagalog manuscript of his autobiographical work, which would later be translated by Felipe Buencamino into Spanish and released as Reseña Veridica de la Revolucion Filipina (in English, True Account of the Philippine Revolution).

Superior American military technology drove Filipino troops away from the city, and Aguinaldo's government had to move from one place to another as defeats mounted.

[60] On March 23, 1901, with the aid of Macabebe Scouts forces led by General Frederick Funston, Aguinaldo was captured in his headquarters in Palanan, Isabela.

[65] On April 25, 1897, several complaints were sent to Aguinaldo, notably by Severino de las Alas, a known supporter and loyalist of Bonifacio, along with Jose Coronel, and many others, that Bonifacio and his men ransacked, pillaged and burned the town of Indang, stealing the carabaos and other work animals by force and killed them for food and terrorized the townspeople for being unable to give enough supplies and other provisions due to poor harvest.

[70] According to Aguinaldo, in his two books "Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan" and "A Second Look at America", he stated that his withdrawal of the commutation order/exile did not mean immediate implementation of the death verdict, that Noriel had misconstrued this and acted hastily.

[80] During the American period, Aguinaldo largely retired from public life, though continued to support groups that advocated for immediate independence and helped veterans of the struggle.

However, Aguinaldo's capture by the Americans in 1901 as well as his allegations in the deaths of Bonifacio and Luna had since made him an unpopular figure among the Filipino people, and he lost to Quezon in a landslide, gaining only 17.5% of the popular vote.

Aguinaldo, a longtime admirer of the Japanese Empire, sided with them, as he had previously supported groups that demanded the immediate independence of the Philippines, and entrusted that Japan would free the islands from American occupation.

[11] On February 1, Aguinaldo delivered a radio address calling upon General Douglas MacArthur and all American and Filipino troops fighting in the Battle of Bataan to surrender to the Japanese army.

Aguinaldo also played a key role in the Kempeitai's campaign to suppress anti-Japanese resistance, urging guerrilla fighters to lay down their arms and surrender to Japan.

On January 28, 1948, Philippine president Manuel Roxas granted amnesty to all Filipinos who had collaborated with the Empire of Japan and as a result, Aguinaldo's charges were dropped and his trial was never held.

Aguinaldo was rushed to Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City on October 5, 1962, under the care of Dr. Juana Blanco Fernandez, where he stayed for 469 days.