02/08/2026
When Roman Catholicism almost ceased to exist in the Philippines? Gregorio Aglipay and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI)
On August 3, 1902, the Philippine Independent Church (Iglesia Filipina Independiente), also commonly known as the Aglipayan Church after the name of its first Supreme Bishop (Obispo Maximo), was formally established and declared at a meeting of the Union Obrera Democratica (UOD), then led by the socialist thinker and labor leader Isabelo de los Reyes.
The 2020 Philippine Census put Aglipayan membership at around 1.5 million, making it one of the largest Christian denominations in the Philippines (following Protestantism/Evangelicalism, and the Iglesia Ni Cristo). The church gave its own estimate of 7 million members and adherents as of 2024. The World Council of Churches, meanwhile, put their membership numbers at 6 million.
However, there was a time when the Aglipayan movement swept the entire country. Such was the fervor for the new church that unofficial estimates at the time placed membership to be at least 1.5 million, or around a fifth of the entire Filipino population (7.6 million), within a year since its foundation. Aglipay himself gave an estimate of 3 million members as of 1903, or around half of the Filipino population at the time. Within five years since, around half of the Roman Catholic Churches in the Philippines were said to be under Aglipayan leadership. A landmark decision by the Supreme Court in 1906, which ruled against Aglipayan ownership of former Roman Catholic parishes, was believed by Aglipayan sources to have arrested their momentum for the long-term.
The Aglipayan movement was more about the numbers. The new church opened the religious landscape in the Philippines with its emphasis on liberty and freedoms, as expressed in Aglipay's Sixth Fundamental Epistle: "We are born with the right to think freely and express our thoughts according to the light of reason which the Divinity has given us; we are born with the right to associate freely with those we choose for the purpose of our own perfection and needs; we are born with the right to govern our own persons, our families, home and birthplace; we are born in short, with the right to do freely whatever is our own pleasure so long as we do not violate the liberty and rights of others." This opening up benefited not only the growing Protestant movement, which was largely American-led at the time, but also the burgeoning Filipino-led churches such as Nicolas Zamora's IEMELIF and Felix Manalo's Iglesia Ni Kristo (INK, later Iglesia Ni Cristo). Manalo himself was alleged to be an Aglipayan once, according to official INC history, although academic research points to the Christian syncretic movement "Colorum" as Manalo's affiliation prior to joining the Protestants (similar with the IFI, the INC formally identified with Protestant Christianity until after the Second World War).
Prior to the Aglipayan movement, the Spanish-led Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines limited access to religious materials, in particular the Bible, and its translations in the vernacular. Secularization of the parishes were also arrested in its tracks, despite Spanish government policy, first enacted by King Charles III, to secularize. The advent of the Aglipay movement encouraged debates, contributed to the influx of Bibles for the study of the general populace, and opened church leadership to Filipinos.
Bishop Gregorio Aglipay, born in Ilocos Norte on May 5, 1860, became known for his 38-year service as Supreme Bishop (Obispo Maximo) of the Philippine Independent Church, but he was first ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in December 1889 after completing his studies in a Vigan seminary. Aglipay would eventually join the second phase of the Philippine Revolution, being appointed by President Emilio Aguinaldo as Military Vicar General of the emerging Republic in October 1898.
While simultaneously serving as representative of Ilocos Norte in the Malolos Congress, Aglipay saw it as an opportunity to Filipinize the clergy of the churches then already under Filipino control. This, however, was not received well by the Roman Catholic Church, leading to his excommunication in April 1899 for "usurpation" of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. A few months later, in October, Former Cabinet President Apolinario Mabini called for the creation of a "national church", with Aglipay being among the first to respond to the call. The constitution of the Philippine Independent Church began to take shape by this time, although it would only be ratified by 1902. It was only after the Filipino-American War that Aglipay would accept the position as Supreme Bishop of the new church.
The presence of religious revolutionaries among the ranks, including Aglipay himself, contributed to the generally humane treatment of Spanish prisoners, numbering some 9,000 as of 1898. With the notable exception of abusive incidents involving revolutionary leaders such as General Gregorio del Pilar and Major Francisco Braganza, the ample regard for human rights raised the profile of the Aguinaldo administration even among the Spanish friars who were among the captured. Aglipay himself interceded for the religious who he encountered, championing humanitarian causes for their well-being.
On June 19, 1935, after a world tour that had Aglipay meeting with leaders such as Adolf Hi**er, Alejandro Lerroux, and Edvard Benes, among others, he announced his bid for the presidency of the Philippine Commonwealth as standard bearer of the Republican Party, challenging the Nacionalista candidate Manuel Quezon and the National Socialist candidate Aguinaldo. He obtained the support of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930), which fielded vice presidential candidate Norberto Nabong of Manila as Aglipay's running mate.
Unfortunately, despite the IFI claiming a membership of 4.5 million as of 1935, Aglipay polled last with 14.5 percent of the vote, carrying only his home province of Ilocos Norte, as well as Nueva Vizcaya. Aglipay trailed Quezon by less than 5 points in Pangasinan, and made similarly strong showing in the rest of the Northern Luzon provinces. Outside Luzon, Aglipay earned more than 20 percent of the vote in Antique and Negros Occidental. He was reportedly watching in a cinema on election night, apparently not worried of the results. While Aguinaldo cried out electoral fraud and contested the results, Aglipay graciously accepted defeat and sent Quezon a congratulatory telegram. He died in 1940, and was succeeded by Former Senator Santiago Fonacier as Supreme Bishop. Nonetheless, his church lived on.
Years after Aglipay's death, the church ceased to officially identify as Protestant, but maintains its affiliation with Protestant churches through the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), and World Council of Churches (WCC).
Learn more about Aglipay's Republican Party: https://history-ph.blogspot.com/2014/11/alternative-parties-in-philippines_7.html
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