THE very next day after the surrender of the Spanish forces in Bacolod on November 6, 1898, the Negrenses started consolidating their hold over the Island by creating a political organization relevant to their interests. They convened their first Assembly at the site of a former Recoletos School in Bacolod and gathered their delegates from the different towns including former presidents, other local officials and leaders. The first matter taken up was the election of a small Commission to sign the Acts of the Assembly and followed by the proposal submitted by Melecio Severino to elect the various positions of the new government which were approved unanimously as follows: President - Aniceto Lacson; Delegate of War - Juan Araneta; Delegate of Hacienda - Eusebio Luzuriaga; Delegate of Government-Simon Lizares; Delegate of Development- Nicolas Golez; Delegate of Justice – Antonio Jayme; Delegate of Agriculture and Commerce – Agustin Amenabar; Secretary – Melecio Severino; Sub-secretary - Fortunato Hugo; Military Commander – Rafael Ramos. The first act of President Lacson was to send a telegram to Katipunan President Emilio Aguinaldo; also another telegram to Roque Lopez of the Visayas Central Revolutionary Committee; and as friendly greetings, messages to the foreign consulates in Iloilo, especially to the Vice-Consuls of Germany, England, America, Switzerland and Portugal.
From the beginning, Juan Araneta was in-charge of the new reorganization program and on November 11, Araneta called for the organization of popular assemblies in its town according to the instructions of the Negros Revolutionary Government. This was headed by a President, Delegate of Justice and Civil Registry, Delegate of Police and Internal Order, Delegate of Taxes and Property and a Headman in every barrio.
Interestingly, Juan Araneta received a letter of appointment from President Aguinaldo to his Cabinet which Araneta politely declined explaining that he was already appointed to the Cabinet of the Negrense Revolutionary Government. The Provisional Government also sent out on its first session on November 27, a review of various directives of the Provisional Cantonal Government. An important message the Assembly sent was a decree to the Commandant of the American Squadron in Iloilo. This document showed the pragmatic act of the Negrenses of their desire to preserve their newly won independence and especially to clarify to the Americans that they were concerned of possible reprisals from the Spaniards in Luzon who had earlier proposed in the on-going Treaty of Paris that Spain wanted to continue to control the Visayas and Mindanao. Fortunately, the Americans did not agree to this proposal.
On the first week of December 1898, the Negros Cantonal Government was already preparing for the election of Deputies of the new Government. As suggested by Juan Araneta, the Negros Assembly was to deputies to elect one deputy from every town of Negros Occidental. The Assembly also drafted an electoral code including qualifications of voters from all municipalities. The new Provisional Government was formally inaugurated on Christmas Day with festive activities including visiting officials from other areas. About one month after the inauguration, the news was announced that as part of the Treaty of Paris, the Spaniards had agreed to cede the Philippines to America for 20 million dollars. This prompted the Negros Cantonal officials to send an official commission including Jose Luzuriaga and Jose Ereneta to explain to the Americans that Negros should not be included in the turnover because the Negrenses had already driven out the Spanish forces in Negros on November 6, 1898 and had already declared itself an autonomous Provisional Government.
Unfortunately, these developments did not help improve the relationships between the Negerenses and the Aguinlado Government or the American officials who were already taking over the Philippines. To briefly recall, the coming conflicts between the Aguinaldo government and the American occupying forces shortly led to the nationwide Philippine American war. Our coming columns will include developments on Negrense relationships with the Americans.