BALAMBAN: THE DAWN OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Establishment and Christianization of Balambang

Based on the records of Centro de Estadistica, the town (pueblo) Balambang (now known as Balamban) was created in 1745 (Relacion de las provincias y distrito con sus correspondiente pueblos qe forman las islas Filipinas con expression de los anos de su creacion, page 513). Balambang at that time was composed of the present Balamban, Asturias, Tuburan and Toledo.

 

It is noted that towns, during Spanish times, were created after important events in Spain. One of the significant events in Spain in 1745 was the completion of the Pontifical Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel. The feast day of St. Michael the Archangel is celebrated every 29th day of September. But the Roman Catholic Church celebrated his apparition on the 8th day of May. During the time of Felipe Pilapil as Municipal President of Balamban, according to his late daughter Lucena "Luz" Pilapil, the foundation day of the old town was celebrated in Barangay Nangka and sitio Combado of Barangay Cantuod every Santacruzan where Fausta de Asis, Lucena's mother, had played as Reyna Elena. With this information, it would be probable that the old town (located in Daanglungsod, Bangbang in barrio Nangka) was created on May 8, 1745.

When Spain succeeded in acquiring political control of Balamban, the first thing the colonial leaders did was to establish the semblance of a civil government. They identified and organized the propertied residents of the community, and set them up as village heads called cabezas de barangay, or heads of the village, whose main task was to collect the taxes from their constituents and remit these to the Spanish town officials. In an area where the villages were proximate to one another, were grouped together, and as many villages as there were located close together, they were also grouped to form a pueblo. A capitan del pueblo was then designated to be the overall leader of the barangays that were put together to form the town or pueblo. 

The first appointed capitan del pueblo in 1745 was a certain Spaniard named Ciriaco Gutierrez. It was not known, however, for how long he stayed. But when he was replaced, it was by another Spaniard, one Emilio Lopez. But again, there were no specifics about his tenure of office. The first Filipino to occupy the position of capitan del pueblo was Macario Montejo, and he was reportedly followed by a series of Filipino capitan del pueblo, which gives strength to the presumption that with Montejo, the Spanish government foresaw the end of their colonial rule. They started to entrust the leadership of the pueblos to Filipinos, making the latter manage the local government. What occurred was the emergence of a series of native Balambanganons who were appointed to serve the Spanish government in the pueblo. Their family names indicated that they were the recognized elite leaders of the community, most likely with considerable properties and possibly holding a measure of trust and confidence in the eyes of the local Spanish authorities. Their designation as capitanes del pueblo was a test of the loyalty and goodwill the Spaniards believed they held for the colonial authorities. But such a situation may be something that came quite late. After Montejo, according to Romulus Cabahug’s unofficial history of the town, Fermin Ricafort took over the helm of local governance. The Ricaforts are still known in Barangay Aliwanay, although they have lost the social and economic stature their forebears may have held across the years. Indeed, family names like Ricafort should merit a study to determine how their respective stories turned out across the decades, from the 1900’s to the 2000’s.

Similarly, Sixto Milan followed, with Juan Gonzalez taking over after him as the fourth Capitan. He was followed by Roberto Legaspino, Esteban Sanchez, Casimiro Rondez, Agustin Dalugdog, Ulpiano Bacaron, Francisco Dalugdog, Francisco Nunez, Domingo Jaranilla, Primo Ybanez Gonzalez, Simeon Pilapil, and Pascual Narvios.

Although the capitanes del pueblo or gobernadorcillos were better known, it was actually the cabezas de barangay (heads of villages) who formed the backbone of the Spanish government in the towns Cabahug notes:

            “The administration of the town during the Spanish regime was very strict, most especially in the collection of tributes and papelitas (cedulas). The cabeza de barangay, the leader of each cabeceria (equivalent to a barangay today), directly responsible to the capitan del pueblo or gobernadorcillo, was forced to sell his lands in order to meet the quota allotted to him. Many Cebuano cabezas became poorer. Some even committed suicide.”

Aware of the fact that there were few Spaniards in the Philippines, whether civil administrators or soldiers, the colonizers merely co-opted the chieftain or datu class in the various barangays of the country. These datus were made into cabezas de barangay or gobernadorcillos in the towns, who were directly responsible to the high Spanish officials. Their positions, together with their vast landholdings, entitled them to be numbered among the principalia of the towns.⁴

 

It was not clear when was Hinulawan (Toledo) created into a pueblo (town) and separated from Balamban. But some people suggested that it became a pueblo during the time Dr. Jose Rizal visited the place before his exile in Dapitan.

 

As found in Ereccion de Pueblos: Cebu 1831-1894, pages 48-52, it was stated that a decree by superior government dated September 23, 1850, directing change in name of new town Tuburan, once of Malabuyoc, to Alegria to avert confusion since two barrios, also named Tuburan, existed in Balamban and Bogo towns. It is very clear that the present town Tuburan was only a barrio of Balamban until 1850. Tuburan was created into a town in 1851.

 

In already colonized towns, a concern of maintenance of peace and order was an important development for modernization. In 1855, the Cuerpos de Cuadrilleros, a kind of town constabulary, was organized. The Cuadrilleros were led by a captain or lieutenant, and his assistant, a sergeant, both of whom were chosen by the town electoral council. The rest of the cuadrilleros were also selected by the capitan municipal, the cuadrillero captain, and six prominent town citizens. They served for three years, with the parish priest approving their appointments.²

Superior decree of July 5, 1859 which ordered that Guinuluan (Hinulawan which was later named Toledo when it was established into a separate town) parish be a dependent of Balamban town (the old town located at Daanglungsod, Bangbang, Nangka) despite the fact the latter was annexed to Guinuluan (Toledo). (Ereccion de Pueblos: Cebu 1831-1894, pages 486-487)

 

In 1872, the Tercios de Guardia Civil was organized to strengthen the armed forces. Unlike the Cuadrilleros, the Guardias Civiles were directly responsible only to the governor-general and had their own ordenanza or statutes. Though the town chiefs could request for their services, they could not interfere with the financial administration, discipline or movement. Furthermore, while the officers were Spaniards, the common members of the force were Filipinos.

The unique character of the Tercios de Guardia Civil, especially the fact that it was responsible only to the governor-general, contributed greatly to many of the abuses committed during the later years of the Spanish regime. In Balamban, one of the victims was a popular Capitan, Primo Gonzalez, whose fate is still the subject of much conjecture in the town.⁴

 

The old parish was located in a place known today as Daanglungsod in Bangbang, Nangka. The said parish was administered by Spanish priests but later on by Filipino clergy. The first Filipino pariesh priest, according to Romulus Gerali Cabahug, was a cleric known only by his first name of Padre Luis. He was followed by Fr. Toribio Padilla, who was called Father Bio by the parishioners. Fr. Padilla was the son of Gregorio Padilla, one of the original Katipunan leaders and Maria Cleofe Lopez of the town of San Nicolas (now a part of Cebu City). His uncle was Candido Padilla, another leader of the Cebu Katipunan during the Revolutionary War, who was tortured and executed by the Spaniards after his capture. Fr. Padilla himself was heavily involved with the revolutionaries through his uncle Candido and other relatives, such as his spinster sister Paulina (Olinday), whose house was a customary meeting place of the Katipunan leaders as well as the place where soldiers’ amulets were made.  

 

According to tradition, the old parish was a-blazed by fire in 1875. At that time Juan Redulla, a native of Maribojoc, Bohol, came to Cebu to evade Spaniards who were looking for him and adopted the alias Juan Señoron, the name by which he came to be known in Balamban. He married a Cebuana, Casimera Lopez, and acquired vast tracts of land through the kaingin system.³ He donated a lot, to the assigned diocesan priest, as a site for a new parish to be built. A new parish church in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi was built on the said lot which was previously the site of a small chapel that used to stand at the location of the altar of the present edifice.

 

According to Simeon Pilapil Paulin, the first parish priest of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish was Father Benito Ramiro who died and was buried near the altar in 1910. He was a native of Camotes who became the cura parroco proprietario of Balamban parish. It is either because the parish was flourishing at that time or it was a religious hacienda, the so-called "friar estate", owned by the religious order or by the parish priest himself through the donation of Juan Redulla (Juan Señoron). Father Ramiro was said to live a saintly life that during the exaltation of the eucharist, supposedly, he would levitate amidst the view of the parishioners.

 

The following year, in 1876, according to oral tradition, the old town of Balambang submerged in the sea due to a storm surge created by a super-typhoon that terribly hit Cebu and other parts of the Visayas on November 25-27, 1876 which brought destruction of public buildings, houses, bridges, and livestock and which killed 150 people (Faye Henderson, Tropical Cyclone Disasters in the Philippines: A Listing of Major Typhoons by Month Through 1979, p. 21). All ancient records were lost under the sea. Perhaps a new light of history could only be seen after a future archaeological endeavor of the National Historical Commission in collaboration with the local government over the identified site of the ancient Balambang would be realized. Most probably the new town of Balamban was established in its present location at Barangay Baliwagan in December 1876.

A decree was issued on February 8, 1877 about the creation of barrios Nagjalin (Naghaling) and Bagacaua (Bagakawa) into a town named Asturias, independent from Balamban and Tuburan respectively. Asturias was created into a town on July 24, 1878. (Ereccion de Pueblos: Cebu 1796-1897, pages 317-318b)

In the same breath, Asturias intensified its effort to alter the earlier established boundary limits with Balamban as fixed in an earlier decree. Asturias petitioned to move the boundary down to the so-called Balamban river which is known today as the Combado River. However, the petition did not prosper.

Actually, the area to which Asturias would have wanted its original boundary with Balamban moved down, was at a developing community along Balamban river called Combado. It is almost a kilometer upstream from the river’s mouth where Sitio Bangbang is located, the original site from which the town got its name. This other village is now known as Combado, a sitio of Barangay Cantuod. It is the place where people traveling to and from adjoining communities across the river toward Asturias on the north side, or to the town center on the south side, and on  toward Sugbu, the provincial capital, usually make their crossing. In a sense, the place has remained through the years as the trading post for farm products on the town’s northern side, as well as a way station for people on the other side going elsewhere, outside the town, or outside the province. Farm products were brought there on carabao back, or on bull carts called kangga, or even on a goat sled (balsa), depending upon the weight and quantity of the load.⁹ 

The deed fixing the boundary limits which the said town constituted was “approved by decree of the Superior Government of the Philippines on February 8, 1879.” The civil government, it should be noted, had also been established simultaneously with the parish.¹⁰

Moreover, according to official records entitled, “A La Erección En Parroquia Del Pueblo De Asturias”, conserved in the Philippine Archives Division, Bureau of Records Management, the name Balamban has already been mentioned as “Pueblo de Balamban” in 1881 as well as the adjacent “Pueblo de Tuburan” as the mother towns of “Pueblo de Asturias”.⁸

Expediente on creation of parishes in Asturias and visita Santa Lucia, separated from Balamban and Tuburan, respectively, as approved by royal order dated January 30, 1885 and superior decree of March 27, 1884, respectively. (Ereccion de Pueblos: Cebu 1831-1894, pages 353-390b)

 

The Alcaldes

From capitanes del pueblo the heads of the municipal government were changed into alcaldes.  There were three who became alcaldes of Balamban, namely:

1)  Simeon Pilapil who, based on calculation and correction of the dates, was appointed in 1872. He served for 17 years as an alcalde (1872-1889). It was during his term that the old town of Balamban was transferred to the present site. It was also the year when the three Filipino priests-martyrs known collectively as the Gom-Bur-Za were hanged by the Spaniards for their secularization movement.

2)   Filomeno Narvios, appointed and only served in 1889.

3)  Dominador Sanchez, appointed from 1889 to 1895. By the passing of the Maura Law of 1893, municipal elections were held, and running in the said election he won and served again from 1895 to 1899. His last term of office was faced with problems of insurgency and Katipunan Revolution.⁷

Education during the Spanish era

In terms of education during the Spanish era, very little is known. It has been noted, however, that primary education “of a very rudimentary kind” was provided to the children of the towns, usually by the parish priests, or a teacher whose salary was shouldered by the parish.

It was only in December of 1863, when Queen Isabel II of Spain signed the Royal Decree which ordered the establishment of a public elementary school system financed and administered by the government,⁵ that a semblance of a more organized educational effort was visible in the country. This important 1863 law made possible the establishment of a normal school in Manila and the implementation of a more systematic program of teacher training, a broader curriculum, and (at least on paper) compulsory attendance on the part of the pupils. It also prescribed the establishment of two public elementary schools in each municipality: one for boys and the other for girls. And it required the use of Spanish as the medium of instruction as early as in the elementary grades, except with the beginners.⁶ In Cebu, both Spanish and Visayan were used. This must have been the arrangement in Balamban as well. Unfortunately, the lack of roads and faster means of transportation precluded the desired attendance of a great number of schoolchildren in the town schools.

In Cebu, the typical curriculum in the Spanish-era elementary schools consisted of: the three R’s — reading, writing and arithmetic; Christian doctrine, which was heavily emphasized, as two of the most important textbooks were the Caton (a book of prayers) and the Doctrina Cristiana; a little geography and history. Eventually agriculture, social deportment, and vocal music were added towards the close of the 19th century.

Most pupils stayed in school for about three years, following the aforementioned curriculum, with the girls given special instruction in sewing and needlework. The pupils used for writing the traditional pluma or quill and a very thick kind of paper known as Catalan paper.

The textbooks used in the public schools established by the Spanish government were the Cartilla (for reading and writing), the aforementioned Caton, Doctrina Cristiana, and Oprecimiento, Monitor de los Niños for arithmetic, and Gramatica for the Spanish language.

The teaching methods used by the teachers frequently relied on oral instruction due to the lack of textbooks. Memory learning, especially the rote learning of prayers, was heavily emphasized.

Classes were usually scheduled from eight to ten o’clock in the morning and from two to four o’clock in the afternoon. There were five school days per week with Thursday and Sunday as free days in most schools. A few adopted Saturday as a free day next to Sunday.

Ordinarily, the academic year consisted of ten months, with the planting and harvest seasons designated as vacation months yearly.

The teachers in these elementary schools were mostly those educated at the Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos, the Escuela Normal de Maestros in Manila, and the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion in Cebu City, which was then located on Martires Street (the present M.J. Cuenco Avenue), just across the Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos. Unfortunately, rare was the Balamban native who could afford to undertake secondary schooling in these schools in the city, owing to the distance, the poor roads, and the paucity of transportation facilities. Thus, except for the scions of elite families, the greater bulk of the town population had to be content with a very rudimentary type of elementary education, while those in the far-flung and remote barangays remained illiterate throughout their lives.

The Economic Situation during the Spanish Era

For centuries, Balamban was typical of many towns in the archipelago. Its quiet life was interrupted in the period from the 1860’s to the 1880’s, when a worldwide sugar boom occurred. With this sugar boom, haciendas also appeared, ranging in size from 50 to 600 hectares.

Taking advantage of the sugar boom, many haciendas were opened in the west coast towns of Toledo, Balamban, Asturias and Tuburan. These haciendas, in addition to the smaller farms, engaged in sugar production, resulting in the inclusion of Asturias, Balamban and Toledo among the top ten sugar-producing towns of the period.¹¹

Tobacco was the traditional crop of Balamban, aside from sugar cane. The tobacco growers of the town relied mainly on the sub-branch of the Compañia General de Tabacos or Tabacalera which was located in it. In tobacco production, Balamban was number five, after Barili, Dumanjug, Argao and Toledo, in that order.

Aside from these two major crops, Balamban was also a major producer of camote or sweet potato, together with Badian, Tuburan, Pinamungajan and Borbon.¹²

At the time when the Saint Francis of Assisi Parish was built, Combado had grown into a progressive trading station for agriculture products that were brought down through the river from the upland villages and farms, thus becoming another trading station of Balambang, complementing the Tabacalera on the southern side of the town, also located along a waterway that flows down from the Cambuhawe spring. The Tabacalera was a connecting link of a chain of buying stations of the Spanish trading system in the country.  Prime products from Balambang like tobacco, cotton, and copra were shipped to Manila, and thence to Mexico, Spain, and Europe. And so, between Combado and the Tabacalera, the parish developed into a new site for the new town where a church was eventually built in an area that was once a riceland, only a few hundred meters from the seashore. The area where the Church was built became the common “center” of the three barangays that composed the poblacion, surrounding the church plaza. They are actually three of the nine barangays that hugged the provincial road from the boundary of Toledo in the south, to the boundary of Asturias in the north, all located along the coastline.

  

In time, the people who lived in the vicinity of the Spanish trading post started to call it the Tabacalera, because it was officially the Spanish buying station of tobacco leaf produced by the inland farmers, although the agricultural products purchased included other exportable farm products of the pueblo such as cotton, copra, and abaca. So, the Tabacalera actually became a warehouse for all farm product purchases of the station. But the dominant product that was bought and placed in the warehouse was tobacco.

The warehouse was periodically emptied of its contents as these were shipped to the other ports along with all the other products of other towns.

Eventually, the Spanish traders’ residence was referred to by the people as the house of the Cachila, native Cebuano term for the Spaniards. That was how the Spanish colonizers’ residence became known as “balay sa katsila”, or “the Spaniard’s house”, while the warehouse that housed the business offices and the stocks remained the Tabacalera. The community that developed in its vicinity grew, and expanded northward, along the swampy shoreline. It is presently called Barangay Aliwanay.

When the Spaniards decided to establish their buying stations by the mouth of the waterway from an inland village called Cambuhawe, there already existed a small village about a quarter of a kilometer northward from the place. The community had expanded farther northward to the place where the Tabacalera was put up at the mouth of the waterway. And here, a forking of the trail began to form for the convenience of the residents: on one side the trail was along the shoreline moving northward, and on the east side, the trail wound along the edge of the mangrove swamp, also going northward to Barangay Sta. Cruz-Sto. Niño, where the central sector of Balamban eventually developed, with Barangay Baliwagan forming its northside district. When a provincial road was later built that originated from the municipality of Toledo going northward, it followed the east side trail that passed right through the front of the Tabacalera, and became the provincial road. Settlers and migrants to Balamban built their homes on either side of the dirt road. The fresh water from the Cambuhawe Spring that flowed down to its mouth was met by the sea water during high tide. It was where people from the small village called Aliwanay went for their fresh water, and often followed the waterway to its source where there was a cave and a small lake that offered them an enjoyable bath and a swim. The brackish water spilled out to give rise to the mangrove patch that reached even down to what eventually became the Barangay Sta. Cruz-Sto. Niño, and which was sliced through by the provincial road. The mangrove swamp became the backside of the houses that were built along the provincial road that had naturally led toward the site of the town’s central sector. It is the easy accessibility of the fresh “sweet” water from the spring which is hardly two kilometers away that has made Balamban attractive, not only to the original natives from the Kangma, but also to settlers from the island’s other towns on the western side, such as Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela towns. They hiked across the narrow but rugged mountain range that divides the oblong-shaped island of Cebu right through the center, seemingly like ribs emanating from a strong vertebra.  

On the northern side of what has now become known as the poblacion, or the town center of Balamban, is the barangay called Baliwagan, the third one that formed the triumvirate that nestled in its midst the central district where the parish church, the town market, and  the municipal building are located. Earlier, it was just a part of the poblacion until it was formally made a barangay along with Aliwanay and Santo Nino-Santa Cruz.

The poblacion or the central sector of Balamban that represents a melting pot of its population had actually once been a place that was just a strip of mangrove on its southern portion, turning into rice fields northward, with the sea giving way to cultivable agricultural mud paddies. This was exactly the condition of the town at the turn of the century, as the place slowly developed into an inhabited community the way it is today.¹³

The Maura Law of 1893

This arrangement was altered in 1893, when the Spanish government reorganized the municipal governments in Luzon and the Visayas. The Maura Law was passed to reorganize town governments with the aim of making them more effective and autonomous, changing the designation of town head from gobernadorcillo to capitan municipal effective 1895. Municipal elections were held for municipal posts throughout the Philippine Archipelago on January 1, 1895. Famous lawyers and doctors including the rich and the wealthy, political families were elected. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected as capitan municipal in his town of Kawit, Cavite.¹⁴

In this reorganized government structure, every town which contributed more than a thousand cedulas except those with ayuntamientos was granted a tribunal or town government with a capitan municipal and four tenientes, who were elected for a term of four years by a 12-member Electoral Council. The members of the council were in turn elected by the principalia or leading members of the community, the outgoing gobernadorcillo and the parish priest.

This was a novelty in the Spanish administration of the islands. The cabezas de barangay, for instance, who traditionally came from the datu class, could now be replaced by ordinary citizens who displayed unusual qualities of leadership, as well as the financial wherewithal which enabled them to pay the legal taxes required of their constituents if the latter defaulted on their payments. Furthermore, the new cabezas were given a fixed salary of five per cent of the total tax collections.¹⁵

The Revolution in Balamban

In the record of Asturias the uncle of Dr. Jose Rizal, Antonio Alonso, had sailed to Asturias in 1888 probably reinforcing the ideologies of the Katipunan in northern Cebu.¹⁶ This event could have heightened tensions among the Spaniards in Balamban.

The year 1897 was a period of tense waiting for many Cebuanos, especially the well-educated ones, and those residing in the urban centers and the poblaciones of the bigger municipalities. Word had already filtered to the Visayan provinces of the uprising in Manila, the fierce battles in the northern provinces, and the unusual strength displayed by the Filipinos.

The year was also utilized by the revolutionaries in Cebu, particularly those from the town of San Nicolas, to recruit more members for the Katipunan as well as strengthen their network of combatants, couriers, arms suppliers, and spies.

Though Balamban appeared to be a quiet town, the presence of a Caviteño, Emilio Verdeflor y Manalo, who had married a local resident, made certain that it would soon be drawn into the conflict.

With the resignation of Governor Tejeiro on February 3, 1897, Commandant Arturo Pereiro of the Cazadores continued his work. Some of these volunteers, numbering 400, were actually sent to Luzon for six months.

Brig. Gen. Adolfo Montero, who took over Governor Tejeiro’s post, then organized the Voluntarios leales, sometimes called voluntarios locales.

When the revolution broke out, Balamban organized a local volunteer group loyal to the Spanish government represented by General Adolfo Montero, who named the volunteers Voluntarior Leales or Loyal Volunteers. These volunteers took their oath of loyalty to Spain on December 8, 1897 together with voluntarios from other towns.

The Voluntarios were first organized by Cebu Governor Celestino Fernandez Tejeiro when he was ordered to recruit volunteers to help fight against the rebels in Luzon. They were known as voluntarios movilizados.

On April 3, 1898, Palm Sunday, people thronged the churches to hear mass, on this first day of Semana Santa or Holy Week. But the Katipuneros were agog because three of their leaders, Florencio Gonzales, Teofisto Cavan, and Prisco Abreu had been arrested by the Spaniards and imprisoned at Fort San Pedro.

The decision was then made to start the revolt on that very day, Palm Sunday, April 3, 1898.

The Katipuneros, armed mostly with bolos (pinuti), knives and spears, started massing in the area near the present Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital (formerly the Southern Islands Hospital). They then crossed the Guadalupe River, following the old Guadalupe Road (now known as V. Rama Avenue).

Meanwhile, when Gen. Montero received reports about armed Indios (what the Spaniards called the natives) gathering near the Guadalupe River across the Calamba Cemetery, he ordered Capt. Joaquin Monfort and Capt. Ciriaco Gutierrez to lead a force to intercept the rebels. They were assisted by Sergeant Francisco Cueto, Sgt. Pedro Royo and Corporal Fidel Moas.

At the intersection of V. Rama Avenue and what was then known as General Weyler Street (now Tres de Abril Street) the Commander of the Katipuneros, Pantaleon Villegas, better known as Leon Kilat, deployed his men and waited for the arrival of the Spanish force.

The clash between the two forces left several dead and wounded on both sides. The Spaniards and their loyalists, in spite of their vaunted firepower, had to retreat in the face of the determined assault of the bolo-wielding Katipuneros. This was the start of the revolution in Cebu, an event which is now known as the Battle of Tres de Abril.

General Montero then issued an order to all Spanish civilians and foreigners to seek refuge at the fort. They did just that, with the Spanish soldiers and Filipino loyalists standing guard, while the Katipuneros laid siege to the bastion.

The beleaguered Spanish general sent two steamers, the Bais and the Venus, to Iligan and Iloilo to ask for reinforcements.

On Holy Monday, April 4, the gunboat Paragua started to bombard Pasil in San Nicolas, but caused little damage except for destroying a few nipa houses.

Twice the revolutionaries tried to assault the besieged loyalist forces to capture the fort, but they did not succeed. Meanwhile, the food supply of the defenders was running low.

On Holy Thursday, April 7, the Spanish reinforcements arrived led by Gen. Tejeiro, former Politico-Military Governor of Cebu, aboard the cruiser Don Juan de Austria.

The cruiser then started bombarding the city; at the same time, the newly-arrived Spanish soldiers attacked the Katipuneros.

The battle was short, but fierce and sanguinary. The Katipuneros were scattered, with Leon Kilat himself forced to retreat to Carcar, where he was assassinated by his fellow Filipinos led by one of his own men, Apolinario Alcuitas.

Leon Kilat’s death did not end the revolution. Many of his men rallied the Katipuneros in the towns, while others regrouped in the mountain barangays of Cebu City to carry on the fight from their new headquarters in Sudlon.¹⁷

The Battle of Balamban

                      

One of the bloodiest battles of the revolution occurred in Balamban, led by the young firebrand from Mambajao, Misamis Oriental: Bonifacio Aranas y Salcedo.

After the debacle of Good Friday, April 8, 1898, when the Spaniards recaptured Cebu City and San Nicolas, Aranas fled to the mountain barrios of Toledo and Tuburan and started to recruit new members.

On April 12, Aranas received a letter from the Guardia Civil detachment in Balamban, offering to surrender. Sy states, [Aranas]…realized that Balamban, at that time a more important town than Toledo, was capable of offering stiff resistance to the revolutionaries. Besides the Guardia Civil, many pro-Spanish residents and former “fence sitters” had, after the arrival of government reinforcements from Manila, become emboldened to fight against those espousing the ideals of independence.

Such a situation made Aranas suspicious of the members of the Balamban Guardia Civil. He shared his apprehensions with another revolutionary leader in the Toledo-Balamban area, Claudio Bakus or “Claudio Bukidnon”, and together they planned their attack carefully.

The following day, April 13, Aranas led his men to Balamban, while Bakus approached the town from another direction.

Their suspicions were realized when they were fired upon by the Spanish loyalists hiding in the bell tower and the trenches near the church. The Katipunan forces were later augmented by Bakus’ men, who surrounded the Spanish loyalists.

The loyalists then fled to the forest. Their Spanish leader, Sergeant Claudio Gomez, was killed by Bakus with a bolo, while the Capitan Municipal, Pedro Gonzales, and the Filipino parish priest, Fr. Benito Ramiro, escaped to Cebu city in a boat.¹⁸

Primo Gonzalez, Balamban’s Martyr

There is some confusion here. While Sy mentions a Capitan Pedro Gonzales, his name does not appear in the roster of Capitanes Municipal of Balamban. What is actually mentioned is the name of Capitan Primo Gonzalez who was executed by the Spaniards for alleged complicity in the revolution. Here is his story:

Capitan Primo Gonzalez was born to the politically prominent Gonzalez family of Barangay Aliwanay, the first-born son of the Grand Old Man of Balamban, Capitan Juan Carmona Gonzalez, also a former Capitan del pueblo of the town.

Capitan Primo, of Spanish descent, was educated at the Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos in Cebu City. At the time of his election, he was the youngest Capitan del Pueblo of Balamban. He was married to Clara Ricafort, the daughter of another capitan del pueblo.

As Capitan, Primo Gonzalez was responsible for the initial efforts at town planning of the Spanish government in Balamban. A visible reminder of his administration is the stone bridge linking Barangays Aliwanay and Sta. Cruz.

Though of Spanish descent, it appears that Capitan Gonzalez really empathized with the people of the town. This was confirmed when he saw one of the residents being tortured by the Balamban garrison commander, a Lieutenant Gutierrez, for not having taken off his hat while greeting him “Good morning.”

The cruelty of the Guardias Civiles might also have been exacerbated by the discovery of the secret society, the Katipunan, in 1896 and the subsequent battles that erupted in Luzon.

Passing by the garrison, Capitan Gonzalez saw the civilian with his hands tied to the wall while being whipped cruelly. In spite of his awareness that the Guardias Civiles were not under his authority, he daringly entered the restricted military area to save the man, which resulted in his having an altercation with Lieutenant Gutierrez. The two were pacified, but it seems that Gutierrez was just biding his time.

Gutierrez was later re-assigned to Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, possibly as a result of the Tres de Abril uprising. His transfer was warmly welcomed by the people of Balamban.

However, some days after Easter Sunday, a Spanish warship appeared off the coast of Balamban, frightening the townspeople who scampered to the mountainous areas to hide.

It was learned later that Capitan Gonzalez was invited by the warship captain for an official conference and dinner. That was the last time that the family saw him.

It appears that Capitan Gonzalez was suspected by the Spanish authorities of having collaborated with the local revolutionaries. Thus he was subsequently arrested and brought to Cebu City where he was imprisoned at Fort San Pedro together with other suspected revolutionaries.

He was later executed in the Carreta Cemetery as one of similarly suspected local Filipino leaders for having betrayed the Spanish cause. That is why a street was named Los Martires in their honor, which Cebuanos across the years had shortened to just Martires Street, without any inkling that it was named after the martyred Cebuanos at the turn of the 19th century, who were executed for their loyalty to the Cebuano revolutionaries. These suspected revolutionaries were reportedly incarcerated at Fort San Perdo, which Cebuanos then knew simply as the “Kuta”. Some sources aver that they were then made to march the entire length of the street under the blazing midday sun, until they reached the old Carreta cemetery. They were then lined up against the wall and shot. Afterwards, the bodies were interred in a mass grave inside the cemetery. Among these martyred Cebuanos buried there was Primo Ybañez Gonzalez of Balamban.¹⁹

The Revolutionary Hero of Balamban

One of the bravest and most competent of the revolutionary heroes of Cebu was General Emilio Verdeflor, a native of Kawit, Cavite, who had married Teodora Tabao of Combado, a sitio of Barangay Cantuod. Their children were Magencio, Arcadio, Conchita, Trinidad, and Marcela.²⁰

Verdeflor used to be a corporal in the Spanish native regiment in his home town. When the revolution started, he heeded his countrymen’s call and joined the local chapter of the Katipunan. Luis Flores, president of the Cebu Katipunan, commissioned him as a lieutenant and ordered him to start the revolt on the western coast of Cebu.

           

He participated in several revolutionary battles, notably the attack on Balamban led by Aranas and Bakus, with recruits from Balamban; the Battle of Tuburan; and some other minor battles together with Gen. Arcadio Maxilom.²¹

Verdeflor organized the town juntas of Toledo, Balamban, Asturias and Tuburan from December 18 to 23, 1898, as the Spaniards were preparing to leave Cebu on the eve of Christmas day.²² This was done in preparation for the Filipino takeover of the governments of the towns under the Philippine Revolutionary Army on December 24 of that year.

The Philippine Republic in Cebu, however, was short-lived. The Spaniards sold the country to the U.S. in the same year (1898) under conditions set in the treaty of Paris.

When the U.S. gunboat Petrel entered the Cebu harbor on Tuesday, the twenty-first of February, 1899, it marked the beginning of the end of the short-lived Filipino administration of Cebu. The leaders argued mightily whether to surrender the city or not, with most of the ilustrados opting for a peaceful capitulation, while the army, led by General Maxilom and General Juan Climaco, wanted to resume the struggle. Verdeflor, a military man, chose to continue the fight alongside the other revolutionaries.

When General Arcadio Maxilom, the Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine Revolutionary Army in Cebu, reorganized the military forces, Gen. Verdeflor was appointed leader of the 6th Fraccion as well as head of the third column made up of the fifth and sixth fracciones.²³

Returning to the west coast, Verdeflor and his men, aided by Barili policemen, occupied Dumanjug.²⁴ It must have been after this battle that he sent a captured Spanish cannon to Balamban, where it still stands.²⁵

Verdeflor fought in several battles of the Filipino-American War from 1899 to 1900. His last battle took place on December 7, 1900 at Gapur Mountain near Balamban, against soldiers of the 44th U.S. V. Infantry under Major H.B. McCoy. He was killed in action in this last encounter, a terrible setback to Maxilom.²⁶

Thus Balamban, like the rest of the country, passed from one colonizer to another.

¹http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/disaster.html

²Dionisio A. Sy. A Short History of Cebu 1500-1890’s and the Anti-Spanish Revolution in Cebu. Cebu City: Bûthalad, Inc., 1996, p.21.

Guadalupe García, Beyond The Walled City: Urban Expansion In And Around Havana, 1828-1909, p. 64.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10770/10770-h/10770-h.htm

http://www.archive.org/stream/philippineislan113bourgoog/philippineislan113bourgoog_djvu.txt
³Romulus Gerali Cabahug, Balamban: Over A Century of Growth, copyright 1992, p. 1.

Dionisio A. Sy, p. 21.

⁴Ibid, pp.8-13.

⁵Delgado Criado 1994, p. 508

⁶Meade & Wiesner-Hanks 2004, p. 437

⁷Romulus Gerali Cabahug, p. 7. However, a correction of dates, in lieu with Cabahug’s discrepancies and omissions, is done.

⁸Ibid, pp. 6-7.

⁹Simeon Paulin, respondent.

¹⁰Godofredo Roperos, respondent.

¹¹Dionisio A. Sy, p. 24.

¹²Ibid., p. 64.

¹³

¹⁴

¹⁵Dionisio A. Sy. A Short History of Cebu 1500-1890’s and the Anti-Spanish Revolution in Cebu. Cebu City: Bûthalad, Inc., 1996, p. 70.

¹⁶Segundo Baliguat, respondent. He further added that Antonio Alonso was an excellent horse-rider and always using a whip. It was also said that most of the early town officials of Asturias were descendants of the cross-marriages between the kindred of Antonio Alonso and a certain Mr. Delfin who was a migrant from Negros.

¹⁷http://harveharve.multiply.com/journal/item/6/Pantaleon_Villegas

http://caffiend.blogdrive.com/comments?id=261

http://www.oocities.org/lkilat/kilat6.html

¹⁸Sy, pp. 111-112.

http://www.oocities.org/lkilat/kilat11.html

http://www.camppo.pnppro10.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=29

http://www.istorya.net/forums/general-discussions/472823-history-of-cebu-interesting-story.html

¹⁹ Cabahug, p. 9.

²⁰Ibid., p. 45.

²¹ Sy, p. 83.

²²Ibid., p. 139.

²³Resil B. Mojares, The War against the Americans, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999, p. 57.

²⁴Ibid., p. 47.

²⁵ Cabahug, p. 44.

²⁶Mojares, p.146