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Early life

Malvar was born on September 27, 1865 in Santo Tomas, Batangas to Maximo Malvar and Tiburcia Carpio. His father was a wealthy sugarcane and rice farmer whose success enabled him and his siblings to acquire an education. With this education, he prospered in orange cultivation on land he had worked hard for. He also married and started a family.

Philippine Revolution

By the mid-1890s, the Philippine Revolution had broken out, and Malvar found himself leading an army he personally put together, with the leader of the revolution, Emilio Aguinaldo. But faced with superior fire power, the Katipunan revolutionaries found themselves losing most of the battles, and were forced into Biak-na-Bato. Here they signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, where the Filipino leaders agreed to cease revolutionary actions, in exchange for 20 million pesos, and exile to Hong Kong in 1897.

After the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, and Admiral George Dewey requested the aid of Aguinaldo and his revolutionaries to help in the Philippine Campaign, and soon the revolution had started all over again.

With his Batangas Brigade, Malvar successfully liberated Tayabas from the Spaniards on June 15, 1898 after a two-month battle, and soon the Spaniards were defeated and cornered in Manila.

Philippine American War

Success against the Spaniards was brief, as the Philippine–American War broke out on February 4, 1899. Malvar was soon fighting a new enemy.

Fighting the Americans, Malvar and his troops had very few instances of success, and were soon dissolved (like the rest of the Philippine Army) into guerrilla units. This change in tactics was not as successful as it had been against the Spaniards, and Aguinaldo was captured in 1901, which led to all the revolutionary forces coming under Malvar's control. With this new authority, Malvar launched an all-out offensive against American-held towns, that stood to testify that the war was far from over.

But this success was also short-lived. American general J. Franklin Bell took command of operations in Batangas and practiced scorched earth tactics that took a heavy toll on both guerrilla fighters and civilians alike. Malvar saw that continuing the war would just harm his people more, and, on April 16, 1902, he and his entire command surrendered to the Americans, ending the battle for Batangas. Malvar was one of the last Philippine generals to surrender to American forces and was respected by his captors.

Afterwards, he lived a quiet and comfortable life. He died in Manila on October 13, 1911.

Malvar as the second Philippine President

On September 18, 2007, Rep. Rodolfo Valencia of Oriental Mindoro filed House Bill 2594, to declare Malvar as the second Philippine President, alleging that history is incorrect in making Manuel L. Quezon as the Second President of the Philippine Republic serving after Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo: “General Malvar took over the revolutionary government after General Emilio Aguinaldo, first President of the Republic, was captured on March 23, 1901, and [was] exiled in Hong Kong by the American colonial government—since he was next in command.”^[update]The bill was initially read on September 25, 2007 and referred to the House Committee on on Basic Education and Culture, where it remains as of November 2009.