Emilio Aguinaldo Museum @Baguio City

It was Philippine Independence Day when we went to Baguio and that was a holiday. But it was funny that we didn't have anything included in our itinerary to commemorate the day. It so happen that the night of our arrival, when we were all ready to sleep, two of our comrades saw the news about the old Philippine Flag found in Emilio Aguinaldo Museum in Baguio. That was a very interesting info to know, so we decided to grab the opportunity to visit the museum - only to see the flag. But it took us long there. :D

Our driver had a hard time looking for the museum cause he hasn't been there himself . But after 10 minutes of seeking for the right way and place, we found the sign imprinted with the name Emilio Aguinaldo.

There was a front door but they directed us to the first floor for the entrance and start of the history tour. Old pictures are everywhere.

This is the area where we signed up for the entrance. And all those pictures hanged are Emilio Aguinaldo himself with his friends, wife and comrades. It was obviously old pictures considering the black and white prints.

Written in this newspaper is the declaration of the Philippine Independence Day in 1898.

Picture of Filipinos dressed in suits.

We actually didn't know that we're going to a sort of History Tour cause we just came for the flag. There were other people waiting as well, so we thought they might be letting people to come in to just solely see the flag. But it turned out to be a very proper tour for us, felt like we need to pay for it, and it was free because it was Holiday. In normal days, people need to pay 95 pesos up.

And a plus of that is, a special person even toured us around, I'll tell his name later. He is our tour guide that day, he was talking about the old picture of Filipinos gathered during the declaration of Philippine Independence Day. That picture was damn old,  those  dresses worn that time is now inexistent, or can be probably seen in Museums. They have clothes of Aguinaldo kept in this museum as well. He said something about this picture that Philippines where the first to build its own Republic than China and that even Sun Yat Yen (the father of the Republic of China, dunno if I spelled it right) took the idea of building a Republic from the Filipinos, the Chinese leader even read the works of Rizal and somewhat related to Aguinaldo's lineage because  of intermarried.

Picture above are the collection of Aguinaldo's family pictures, from his children, wife and son-in-laws. It was said that the museum was owned by Aguinaldo's daughter Christina.

Our tour guide told us that we are going to have some sort of 'time travel'. We went inside (which looks like a tunnel) and our first stop was Magellan discovering the Philippines. He gave a brief overview of Magellan's expedition and how he was defeated by Lapu-lapu. He even told us to call Lapu-lapu as Calipulapu. Well, it was pretty interesting to me since I've been fond of History before, it's like reminiscing everything that has been buried in my head for so long.

In a moment I felt like I was one of those elementary students at tour, I can't help but be in front listening. Hahaha

These mini figures portray Aguinaldo's oath as the first president of the Republic of the Philippines. But it was said that he wasn't even there during the election and was just forced to take the presidency by the people around him. This was also the day his brother died in the battle field.

A nice mural painting of the battle of Filipinos against Spain where they won. He said that we Filipinos were witty when it comes to battle.

Spanish swords given during their defeat.

This is the music piece of the Philippine National Anthem, they were only notes then no lyrics as it was composed to be a march music for soldiers before.

The weaving of the Philippine flag was done in Hongkong by Marcela Agoncillo, it was said that a niece of Rizal helped in weaving it.

We also passed through the declaration of Philippine Independence presented in miniatures, the mock battle at Manila Bay posed by Americans and Spanish, that also started American's benevolent assimilation.

So there were a series of battles and figures we passed through, including the picture above, which is the battle at Tirad Pass headed by Gen. Gregorio del Pilar. But obviously, he died, since they were outnumbered by Americans who has snipers. But the battle was considered remarkable since it served its purpose of delaying Americans from chasing Aguinaldo's troups.

Beside is the flag used by del Pilar.

This is the one of the most interesting thing we saw in the museum, the 'Battle Flag'. Blood stains and gun powders are still evident on the flag (which means they didn’t wash it?LOL). Seriously, that indicates  how authentic this flag is. It is even longer than what we saw since they folded it. there weren't printers that time so the sun moon and stars where just drawn. Trivia: this flag wasn't really in our possession until it was given to Aguinaldo on the Philippine Independence Day in 1957.

From the battle flag, we went to the real flag itself. Well picture above is just a random shot, but just facing-down that artificial sun is the first ever Philippine flag of the Philippines.

Well, this is the nicest close up look taken, not me, but one of my travel buddy. The tears are really not visible but they really just put this flag altogether for it to be viewed by many Filipinos. By looking closer at it in person, you'll see the sewing designs made by Marcela Agoncillo. Trivia: we're lucky that we still have our first Philippine flag, United States lost theirs when it was burned to ashes.

The tour took us an hour to finish. The one that we are looking for was even at the end of the tour. But it was all worth it revisiting the past. Thanks to them we are experiencing the freedom that is now a right of every Filipinos. 

But it wasn't just the flag that made the museum interesting for me, meeting the tour guide who is the grandson of Emilio Aguinaldo felt like meeting him in person. It was the greatest Philippine Independence Day I've ever had.