Diego de los Ríos
| Diego de los Ríos y Nicolau | |
|---|---|
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| 116th Governor-General of the Philippines | |
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In office September 1898 – December 10, 1898 |
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| Preceded by | Francisco Rizzo |
| Succeeded by |
Post abolished Emilio Aguinaldo as Philippine President and Wesley Merritt as Military Governor of the Philippines |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 9, 1850 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | November 4, 1911 (aged 61) Extremadura, Spain |
Diego de los Ríos y Nicolau (9 April 1850 - 4 November 1911) was the last Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines.
He became the governor during the Spanish American War with the capital at Iloilo on August 13, 1898.
Desiring to save the Visayas and Mindanao from the fate that had befallen Luzon, de los Rios asked Spain to grant some reforms demanded by representative citizens of Iloilo. He issued in Iloilo a proclamation to the people of the Visayas calling on them to establish a "Council of Reforms" to be made up of 24 leading citizens, 12 of whom would be selected by popular vote and another 12 to be appointed by the governor-general himself.
The granted reforms, however, satisfied only a few ilustrado leaders. The revolution in Iloilo is heated up. As agreed upon by the Ilonggo leaders, the general uprising against the Spanish authorities in Panay, particularly in Iloilo, took place on October 28, 1898. On that day onward, the interior towns of the province were liberated from Spanish control. By the first week of November, only Jaro, Molo and Iloilo remained in the hands of the Spaniards. On November 21, Jaro was delivered by the Spanish government to the Ilonggos.
His term as governor-general effectively ended on December 10, 1898 when the Treaty of Paris was signed.
With the Spanish army being besieged by the revolutionary troops in the positions which they held in Iloilo and Molo, and being threatened by a decisive attack, the Spanish government under De los Rios eventually opened up negotiations with the Ilonggos. The outcome of the negotiations was the evacuation of Molo and Iloilo City by the Spanish troops and their subsequent surrender to the native forces under the command of Gen. Martin Delgado at Plaza Alfonso XII (now Plaza Libertad) on December 23, 1898.
He left Iloilo to transfer his capital to Real Fuerza de Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar de Zaragoza in Zamboanga bringing with him the remnants of his colonial forces in the Visayas on the eve of the surrender of the Spanish forces in Visayas to the Ilonggo revolutionaries in December 24, 1898.
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