Gregorio Aglipay Gregorio Labayan Aglipay (Batac, May 5, 1860 - September 1, 1940) was the founder of the Philippine Independent Church (known as the Aglipayan Church) and revolutionary during the Philippine Revolution and a guerrilla leader during the Philippine American War. biography
Aglipay was born on May 5, 1860 in Batac, in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte. He grew up in the tobacco fields during the last decades of Spanish rule over the country. During this period he made his deep rooted hatred against the Spaniards.
At the age of fourteen, Aglipay was arrested because he had not reached his quota for tobacco. Later he moved to Manila, where he studied law at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and the University of Santo Tomas. After graduating in 1883, he attended a convent in Ilocos Sur where he was dedicated to Roman Catholic priest seven years later. Over the years he was assistant priest in various churches in Luzon.
When the Philippine Revolution broke out in 1896, Aglipay was appointed as military priest in 1888 by Emilio Aguinaldo. As a result, he was officially banned by the Vatican and Roman Catholic authorities. He called on the Philippine clergy to unite with Spain and in 1899 he was charged with rebellion by the church. He then cut the ties with the Vatican finally by setting up the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, the Philippine Independent Church. He was appointed bishop in this new church.
In 1898, the first congress of this new Philippine church was held in Malolos City in the province of Bulacan. Aglipay was the representative of Ilocos Norte during this first congress. After the empowerment by the Americans, the Philippine American War began and Aglipay became a guerrilla leader in the Ilocos Region. He passed away in Laoag in 1901 when the Americans officially declared the war as an end.
The Philippine Independent Church was officially founded in 1902 and in the next thirty years, Aglipay committed to achieving Philippine independence through political means. In 1935, he declared himself eligible as a presidential candidate, but he lost Manuel Quezon's election. He married in 1939 and passed away on September 1, 1940.
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