Chương 17: Dawn of The Republic
After the signing of the treaty, the government of the new republic begun its work. It's first priorities are honoring those who fought for the republic's freedom, rebuilding the nation's economy and infrastructure, beefing up the country's military in case of future aggressors, and establishing official relations and trade with friendly nations.
On matters regarding domestic issues and priorities.
The first part of the government's work began with the amendment of the constitution to allow the restructuring the executive department by adding, replacing, or splitting up departments under the President. As Mabini envisioned, this will speed up the recovery process due to multiple departments working on a single specific role.
The Department of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce is split up into two different departments, The Department of Agriculture, The Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce.
The Department of War, and Public Works is abolished and replaced with The Department of Defense, and The Department of Public Works.
And lastly, one new department is established, The Department of Public Welfare
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The Department of Agriculture is tasked with mapping out lands fit for agriculture whose ownership is limited only to Filipinos. Aside from that they are also tasked with identifying which produce will be suggested to be prioritized based on domestic demands.
The Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce oversees all entities both that are currently, or planning to establish business within the country's borders.
The Department of Defense took over the functions of the Department of War, being the coordinator and supervisor of all units of the Philippine Revolutionary Army. The department is also solely responsible with making agreements with other nations regarding everything related to the military including the purchase of tools of war.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is tasked with negotiating various agreements with other nations including deals related to trade.
The Departments of the Interior, Public Works, and Public Welfare are currently working in tandem to make sure that the nation and its people recover from the destruction and deaths brought on by the war, and make plans in order to put the nation on the path to prosperity.
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One of the major projects that first got approval by the government are the port projects headed by the United States government. These are the largest infrastructure projects in the country as the Americans wanted to profit from the ports at the soonest time possible.
As the projects progressed, the Europeans started to approach the Americans for partnerships, and access to the ports. They saw this as an opportunity to easily trade with the Americans in the Far East, and at the same time slowly gain easier access to the resources found in the Philippines.
But first, in order to get the access they want they need people who are connected to the government. This access came in the form of a one of the events that shaped the Philippines and its economy.
First is the exodus of Europeans who feared being targeted as the government enacted a new law that completely banned businesses that aren't at least partly owned by a Filipino citizen, and allowed foreigners to pledge allegiance to the flag if they want to avoid having their businesses seized by the government.
Many of those who complied with this new law are the many families of Chinese descent living in the country like the Cojuangco, and Tuason clans.
The important ones for the west are the Europeans who risked being under a government potentially hostile to western people like the Zobel de Ayala clan, and the Yrastorza-Aboitiz-Moraza family, commonly known as the Aboitiz family.
The western powers frequently approached these families for deals and investments in exchange for a larger stake in various ventures including those related to mining and agriculture. Although this greatly benefitted the west, this also benefitted a lot of Filipino businessmen who have connections with the government both in the local and federal levels.
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Compared to the situation with the Europeans, the Japanese companies had an easier time establishing new businesses in the country.
The Aguinaldo government made assurances that the Philippine government will support their ventures in exchange for industrial knowledge and technology transfers.
One of the main motivations for promising sweet deals is defense. Although the Aguinaldo government could ask the Japanese for protection, they wouldn't be enough to push back against the more powerful western nations and thus the need to quickly build up a military industry for the Philippine Army and in order to do that is to have an established industrial capability.
Artemio Ricarte proposed the idea of producing their own rifle apparently being inspired by the Murata rifles invented and produced by Japan. As these rifles helped the army defend against the Americans, he floated the idea during a meeting with Aguinaldo and his cabinet members merging the designs of the Murata rifle, and the M93 used by the Spanish.
Being convinced, the cabinet proposed adding the clause allowing foreigners to become Filipino citizens to the law banning foreign owned businesses arguing that this will benefit the Filipinos in the long-term. Aside from that, the law allowed these businessmen to form partnerships with other foreigners as long as the venture benefits the country and its people.
The additional clauses allowed the Philippines to start walking the path to becoming an industrialized nation.
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