The Filipinos' relationship with the United States,…

The Filipinos' relationship with the United States, in their eyes, is that of two nations joined in a common struggle against Spain.

As allies, the Filipinos provide American forces with valuable intelligence (e.g. , that the Spanish had no mines or torpedoes with which to sink warships entering Manila Bay), and Aguinaldo's twelve thousand troops keep a slightly larger Spanish force bottled up inside Manila until American troop reinforcements can arrive from San Francisco in late June.

Aguinaldo is unhappy, however, that the United States will not commit to paper a statement of support for Philippine independence.