Philippine Revolutionary Army


The Philippine Revolutionary Army later renamed Philippine Republican Army..

History

The revolutionary army used the 1896 edition of the Spanish regular army's Ordenanza del Ejército to organize its forces and establish its character as a modern army. Rules and regulations were laid down for the reorganization of the army, along with the regulation of ranks and the adoption of new fighting methods, new rank insignias, and a new standard uniform known as the rayadillo. Filipino artist Juan Luna is credited with this design. Juan Luna also designed the collar insignia for the uniforms, distinguishing between the services: infantry, cavalry, artillery, sappers, and medics. His brother, General Antonio Luna commissioned him with the task and personally paid for the new uniforms. At least one researcher has postulated that Juan Luna may have patterned the tunic after the English Norfolk jacket, since the Filipino version is not a copy of any Spanish-pattern uniform. Infantry officers wore blue pants with a black stripe down the side, while Cavalry officers wore red trousers with black stripes. Soldiers and junior officers wore straw hats while senior officers often wore peaked caps.
Orders and circulars were issued covering matters such as building trenches and fortifications, equipping every male aged 15 to 50 with bows and arrows, enticing Filipino soldiers in the Spanish army to defect, collecting empty cartridges for refilling, prohibiting unplanned sorties, inventories of captured arms and ammunition, fundraising, purchasing of arms and supplies abroad, unification of military commands, and exhorting the rich to give aid to the soldiers.
Aguinaldo, a month after he declared Philippine independence, created a pay scale for officers in the army: Following the board, a brigadier general would receive 600 pesos annually, and a sergeant 72 pesos.
When the Philippine–American War erupted on February 4, 1899, the Filipino army suffered heavy losses on every sector. Even Antonio Luna urged Apolinario Mabini, Aguinaldo's chief adviser, to convince the President that guerrilla warfare must be announced as early as April 1899. Aguinaldo adopted guerilla tactics on November 13, 1899, dissolving what remained of the regular army and after many of his crack units were decimated in set-piece battles.

Arsenal

The Filipinos were short on modern weapons. Most of its weapons were captured from the Spanish, were improvised or were traditional weapons. The service rifles of the nascent army were the Spanish M93 and the Spanish Remington Rolling Block rifle. Moreover, while in Hong Kong, Emilio Aguinaldo purchased rifles from the Americans. Two batches of 2,000 rifles each including ammunition were ordered and paid for. The first batch arrived while the second batch never did. In his letters to Galicano Apacible, Mariano Ponce also sought weapons from both domestic and international dealers in the Empire of Japan. He was offered different breech-loading single-shot rifles since most nations were discarding them in favor of new smokeless bolt-action rifles. However, there was no mention of any purchase occurring. Another planned purchase was the Murata rifle from Japan but no record exists that it made its way into the hands of Filipino revolutionaries.
Crew-served weapons of the Philippine military included captured Spanish guns such as Krupp guns, Ordóñez guns, and Maxim-Nordenfelt multi-barreled guns. There were also improvised artillery weapons made of water pipes reinforced with bamboo or timber known as lantakas, which can only fire once or twice.
, the Supreme Commander of the Philippine Revolutionary Army.

Ranks

The evolution of Philippine revolutionary insignia can be divided into three basic periods; early Katipunan, late Katipunan and the Republican army.
Revolutionary Army ranksTagalog NameSpanish NameSleeve insigniaShoulder epaulette insignia
Minister MarshalMinistrong MariskalMinistro Mariscal
GeneralHeneralGeneral
Lieutenant GeneralTenyente HeneralTeniente General
Major GeneralHeneral ng DibisyonGeneral de División
Brigadier GeneralHeneral ng BrigadaGeneral de Brigada
ColonelKoronelCoronel
Lieutenant ColonelTenyente KoronelTeniente Coronel
MajorKomandanteComandante
CaptainKapitánCapitán
LieutenantTenyenteTeniente
Alférez
Second lieutenant
Alpéres
Ikalawang Tenyente		Alférez
Segundo Teniente

Revolutionary Army enlisted ranks

Revolutionary Army ranksTagalog NameSpanish NameSleeve insignia
SergeantSarhentoSargento
CorporalKaboCabo

Branch colors

In 1898, the Philippine government prescribed branch colors twice:
BranchJuly 30, 1898November 25, 1898
Infantryblackdeep red
Artilleryredgreen
Cavalrygreenblack
Engineer Corpsviolet
General Staffblue
Military Juridical Corpswhite
Commissary and Quartermaster Corpsyellow
Medical Corpsred cross

Recruitment and conscription

During the revolution against Spain, the Katipunan gave leaflets to the people to encourage them to join the revolution. Since the revolutionaries had become regular soldiers at the time of Emilio Aguinaldo, they started to recruit males and some females aged 15 and above as a form of national service. A few Spanish and Filipino enlisted personnel and officers of the Spanish Army and Spanish Navy defected to the Revolutionary Army, as well as a number of foreign individuals and American defectors who volunteered to join during the course of the revolution.
Conscription in the revolutionary army was in effect in the Philippines and military service was mandatory at that time by the order of Gen. Antonio Luna, the Chief Commander of the Army during the Philippine–American War.

Flags and early banners of the revolution

General officers

During the existence of the Revolutionary Army, over 100 individuals were appointed to General Officer grades. For details, see the List of Filipino generals in the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War article.

Other notable officers

;Army:
;Navy:
The Philippine revolutionary army has been mentioned in several books and films.

Books

Films