Do you know what happened to the treasury of the Malolos Republic? Here’s the story:

“The Philippine Republic of 1898 had a functioning fiscal system that supported the raising and equipping of the army and navy and provided for expenditures of the various government functions like foreign affairs, interior, public instructions, communications and public works and agriculture, industry and commerce.

According to Leandro H. Fernandez (Fernandez, 165), the 1899 budget of the republic was Mexican dollars $6.3 million, of which $4.0 million were receipts from war tax levied on all persons eighteen years old and above, and the rest came from receipts from direct taxes and custom duties, $1.0 million, indirect taxes, $0.5, and special taxes, $0.8 million. A special fund was also raised from a national loan denominated in Series A and B bonds, which yielded $0.3 million.

It is not known how much money was left in the treasury at the time American troops overran the penultimate Filipino capital of Tarlac in November, 1899. What is known are accounts of Aguinaldo’s effort to hide the money which eventually fell into the hands of American troops.

read more: “How the treasury of the 1898 Republic vanished”