Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy was a Filipino revolutionary, statesman, and military leader who was the first president of the Philippines from 1899 to 1901, and the first president of an Asian constitutional republic. He led the Philippine forces first against Spain in the Philippine Revolution (1896–1898), then in the Spanish–American War (1898), and finally against the United States during the Philippine–American War (1899–1901). He is regarded in the Philippines as having been the country's first president during the period of the First Philippine Republic, though he was not recognized as such outside of the revolutionary Philippines.
Aguinaldo is known as a national hero in the Philippines. However, he was also involved in the deaths of the revolutionary leader Andrés Bonifacio and general Antonio Luna. In World War II, he collaborated as a puppet leader with the Empire of Japan during its occupation of the Philippines.